Best Credit Cards for Gas In 2026, You Need One of These....

So gas prices in 2026 are still sky high. Depending on where you live, obviously, in upstate New York, I'm seeing about $4.35 up to $4.55 per gallon, depending on the gas station. And if you're driving a truck, SUV, or doing a lot of commuting, you could easily be spending several hundred dollars a month just on fuel. And that means one thing, if you're still paying for gas with a basic 1% cashback credit card, you're probably leaving hundreds of dollars per year on the table. So in this video, I want to break down the best credit cards for gas purchases in 2026. From the best no annual fee credit cards, to the best travel point credit cards, crypto rewards cards, to one hotel card that honestly has a completely insane return on gas purchases. Hey, credit warriors, welcome to the show. My name is Ben Hedges, aka The Credit Shifu, and on this channel, I cover US credit cards, personal finance, and luxury travel. If you like the sound of that, please subscribe. But let's get into it. And this video is brought to you by Max Rewards, but more on that later. So I want to start with what I think is still probably the king of gas cards in 2026 for most people, and that is the Citi Custom Cash. Now, this card has actually been around for a while, but it's held up incredibly well because of how simple it is. It gives you 5% cashback on your top eligible spending category each billing cycle on $500 in spending. And for a lot of people, gas naturally becomes their top category. So you don't even really need to think about it. Just use the card for gas and boom, you're getting 5% back. Now, the downside of this card is that $500 monthly spend cap. But honestly, for many people, that is going to be enough. If you're spending more than $500 a month on gas, you're either driving a massive truck, commuting like three hours a day, or you're secretly running a logistics company out of your garage. And in that case, it's a business expense built into your business model. And there are other business cards that you could use for that. Back to the Citi Custom Cash. This card also has no annual fee, which is why so many people in the credit card community still recommend it. On Reddit, you can constantly see people saying the Citi Custom Cash is basically the default gas card recommendation in 2026. Now, personally, I think the simplicity is what makes this card so strong. There's no activation, no rotating categories, no nonsense, but let's move on. The Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi. This is where things get a little interesting. So if you buy your gas at Costco, the Costco Anywhere Visa gives you 5% back. But the cool thing is, it also gives you 4% back on all non-Costco gas purchases up to a combined limit of $7,000 per year. And honestly, if you're already deep into the Costco ecosystem, this is probably the easiest option. Costco people are kind of obsessive about it, to be honest, almost like they joined a cult. I don't really understand it. I'm more of a Sam's Club guy myself. And that's our next card. The Sam's Club Mastercard. This offers 5% back in Sam's Cash on gas and EV charging on your first $6,000 per year. So if you max out the Sam's Club card, that's going to be $300 a year in Sam's Cash. And let's now compare that to the Costco one, since they are both wholesale club credit cards. If you only buy gas at Costco with their $7,000 limit, that works out at $350 in cash rewards. And if you only buy gas elsewhere, that's $280 in rewards. In reality, you're probably going to do a bit of both if you have this card. So I think the Costco one would just come out on top. But it depends whether you live near a Costco or not. For me, the nearest Sam's Club is 20 minutes away and the nearest Costco is over an hour away. So it's an obvious choice. Just be aware that both of these don't earn true cashback. It's their own store's currency. Now, you can still cash it out, but you have to actually go into a store to do that. Here's what you get on the Costco one. Cashback will be provided as an annual credit card reward certificate once your February billing statement closes. Redeemable for cash or merchandise at Costco warehouses, including Puerto Rico. So you can get cash if you go into a physical store, but you only get a payout of the rewards once a year. And then on a Sam's Club one, it's Sam's Cash. Here's what that can be used for. Sam's Cash can be used for purchases on samsclub.com, in club or through the Sam's Club app, including curbside pickup and scan and go checkout and for your membership renewal. It can also be cashed out at member services. So again, you have to go into a store to cash it out. But there is another card that people are increasingly talking about in 2026. The AAA travel advantage card. This thing gives 5% cash back on gas and people on Reddit keep bringing it up as one of the best alternatives to Citi Custom Cash. There is a maximum of $350 in cash back in a calendar year on the 5% category. That means it's a $7,000 per year spending limit. Compare that to the Citi Custom Cash, which is $500 per month. That would be $6,000 per year. So the AAA card is slightly higher. Now there is a catch though. The issuer of this card is Comenity Bank and some people absolutely hate dealing with Comenity. In fact, on that Reddit thread that we looked at, people literally said the reason they picked Citi over AAA was just to avoid Comenity's customer service. So this kind of comes down to what you value more, slightly higher annual cap on rewards or dealing with a more established bank ecosystem. Personally, I would still lean to Citi for simplicity and also the fact that you can convert the cash back into Citi thank you points, especially if you have other Citi cards. But AAA is definitely worth a look for pure cash back people. Now, before we continue, if you are getting value from this video, please do hit the like button because it really helps the channel out with the algorithm. In a moment, we will move on to my favorite gas card. But first, if you have Amex cards or any credit cards for that matter, I really recommend using the app Max Rewards to keep track of your spending and rewards across all of your cards. You do a read-only link to your banks so that all of your info on all your cards is displayed in one place, even if they are from different issuers. You can see your transactions, your balances, points and rewards balances, and even things like credit utilization and the value you are getting out of your cards versus your annual fee for every card all in one place. If you have Amex cards, the pro version of Max Rewards, Max Rewards gold is especially useful since it activates all of your Amex offers for you so you never miss a deal. And you may even use an Amex offer and save money without even realizing it. You can also search for Amex and other banks offers across all your cards, something those banks websites don't typically allow you to do. You normally have to search on one card and then switch to a different card. But Max Rewards lets you search across all the cards in your wallet. So it's way easier to find offers that could save you money or earn you extra points. And actually, with the recent updates, they have added Chase and even Capital One offers to this too. So I can seamlessly search offers across multiple issuers. You see, I'm finding offers in both Amex and Chase here. I don't have Capital One anymore, so I can't show you that. There's also a most popular tab where you can find offers that many Max Rewards users are taking advantage of, which normally means they offer greater value or are with especially popular merchants. So check out Max Rewards in the description box down below. You can get a seven day free trial of Max Rewards Gold and then a three month discount after the trial ends if you choose to continue. There's also a free version of the app that you can check out as well. All right. So what is my current favorite gas credit card? Well, that would be the Gemini credit card. That's actually the name. It's not the Gemini Premier Platinum Reserve World Elite stupendous credit card. No, just simple. It's by Gemini and it's a credit card. So it's called the Gemini credit card. So this card is from the Gemini crypto exchange and it earns four percent back on gas purchases up to three hundred dollars in spending per month in the cryptocurrency of your choice. I have this card and I choose Bitcoin as my cryptocurrency to earn rewards in. And I really like it since I can just spend on the card and forget all about investing in crypto. You know, I'm still getting small amounts of crypto in my account every day or so. Now, sure, you could say I'll earn five percent cash back on the city custom cash and then I'll buy crypto with that. But come on, you won't do it. You know, you won't. But this forces you to buy crypto by doing it for you. And besides, you would have a transaction fee if you first earn cash back and then use that cash back to buy crypto. So this gets around that issue, I'll put my link for this card down below if you want to sign up. You can also sign up for the crypto exchange Gemini, which you have to do first anyway before getting the card. You can actually get fifty dollars in free crypto after you trade one hundred dollars worth of any crypto using my link below to sign up. So let's now move on to our last one. Probably the craziest gas credit card in 2026 is actually the Wyndham Rewards earn a business card. This thing earns eight Wyndham points per dollar on gas purchases. Now, obviously, Wyndham points are not as flexible as Chase or Amex points, but actually the points guy until recently valued these points at one point one cents per point, which gives you an almost nine percent return on spend. For some reason, he's massively lowered his valuation recently to zero point six five cents per point using a new system. I think, though, he went too far. Probably the value is close to one cent, you know, even if it's a little bit lower, like zero point eight or zero point nine. But even if we do take the zero point six five cents as that absolute minimum value, that would still be five point two percent return, which beats every other card out there. If you're talking in terms of cashback cards, but you can still find great value with Wyndham points like look at this redemption in New York City days in Chinatown, four hundred and seventy four dollars per night. But you can book it for thirty thousand Wyndham points that works out at one point five eight cents per point. This one here is three hundred and thirty seven dollars per night or thirty thousand points. So that works out at one point one cents per point. So I don't know what the points guy's doing. Maybe he's massively skewing it towards little motels in seedier parts of town. Looking for a good time, sailor. I certainly am. No, you're not. And yeah, maybe that's why Wyndham is kind of underestimated because people think of roadside motels and budget hotels. But Wyndham also has Vegas vacation rentals and pretty decent resorts and decent sweet spots internationally. If you are someone who qualifies for a business card, this thing is absolutely worth it. And yes, I do have it myself. It does actually require an LLC, though, and it took quite an effort for me to get approved for this one. There is also the regular Wyndham earn a plus personal card that gives six X on gas purchases. And that is still a very strong option. Now, one thing I will say, though, is that hotel points cards are only worth it if you actually use the hotel programs. So you do need to go on trips to like high end resorts by Wyndham or international locations, because otherwise, if you're just planning on using them, you know, on weekends away in the US, you're going to end up sitting on four hundred thousand Wyndham points wondering why you built your entire points and miles strategy around free nights at roadside hotels in rural Ohio. All right, let's talk about one final category, and that is the best simple everyday cash cards. So if you don't want category management, transfer partners or weird ecosystems, there are three cards that I think really stand out. First, we have the Wells Fargo autograph card, which gives you three points per dollar on gas, along with dining, travel and transit. This is one of those great all rounder cards. You're not maximizing every possible category, but it is simple and it covers a ton of everyday spending. Then we have the Amex blue cash every day, which has become kind of the default recommendation for people who just want a decent no annual fee gas and grocery card. It gives three percent back at U.S. gas stations and also on groceries and online retail purchases with a six thousand dollar annual spending limit in each category. But there's no annual fee. Then lastly, the city strata premiere offers a similar deal with three points per dollar on a host of everyday categories, including gas with no spending limit. But there is a ninety five dollar annual fee. Again, these ones are great for a one card set up that gives a bonus on gas. So let's wrap this up. Here's basically how I'd break it down. If you want the maximum cash back that's convertible to points with no annual fee, the city custom cash is probably still the winner. If you're a wholesale club member, look at your club's card, either Costco or Sam's Club. And if you are a heavy driver with a business and plan on redeeming for higher end hotels where you get the most value, the Wyndham earner business card is honestly kind of ridiculous. All right, guys, that's the video for today. Let me down down in the comments what card you are using for gas purchases in 2026, because I'm always interested to hear what setups people are running. Personally, I'm using the Gemini credit card and the Wyndham earner rewards business card. Don't forget to get a seven day free trial and a three month discount on Max Rewards with my link down below. It's a great app. I use it myself. I also put the link to the Gemini credit card and the Gemini brokerage where you can get a $50 bonus if you sign up down below as well. Please subscribe if you're new. We'll see you next time. Bye.