The PenFed Platinum is our best gas rewards credit card—new cardholders can now score a 15,000-point welcome bonus
PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature® Card Learn More On PenFed's secure site Rewards 5X points on gas purchases at the pump and electrical vehicle charging stations, 3X points on supermarket purchases, 1X point on all other purchases

Welcome bonus 15,000 points when you spend $1,500 in the first 3 months from account opening

Annual fee $0

Intro APR 0% introductory APR for 12 months on balance transfers made in the first 90 days after account opening.*

Regular APR 17.99% variable on purchases; 17.99% non-variable on balance transfers

Balance transfer fee 3%

Foreign transaction fee None

Credit needed Good/Excellent Terms apply. 0% introductory APR for 12 months on balance transfers made in the first 90 days after account opening. After that, the APR for the unpaid balance and any new balance transfers will be a non-variable rate of 17.99%. 3% balance transfer fee per transaction. Subject to credit approval. If you take advantage of this balance transfer, you will immediately be charged interest on all purchases made with your credit card unless you pay the entire account balance, including balance transfers, in full each month by the payment due date.

PenFed's rental car coverage

The PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature Card comes with Visa Signature perks, including a secondary auto collision damage waiver (CDW) that reimburses cardholders for the covered theft or damage as well as valid administrative and loss-of-use charges imposed by the auto rental company and reasonable towing charges that occur while you are responsible for the rental vehicle. Coverage lasts up to 15 consecutive days within your country of residence or 31 consecutive days outside the U.S.

How to join PenFed

PenFed is a credit union that offers a whole range of credit cards, as well as checking and savings accounts, mortgages, auto, personal and student loans. PenFed is based in McLean, Virginia, but has 48 branch locations across 15 states. Military affiliation is no longer required to have a PenFed membership, but you do have to be a member to get the PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature Card or any other PenFed credit card. You can become a member by opening a PenFed savings/share account with a $5 deposit and maintaining a $5 account balance in order to keep your PenFed membership active.

Our methodology

To determine which cards offer the best value for filling up your tank, Select analyzed 29 of the most popular credit cards offered by the biggest banks, financial companies and credit unions that allow anyone to join and offer bonus rewards at gas stations. Bonus rewards mean a cardholder earns 2% or 2 points per dollar in a given category. In this case, gas stations. We compared each card on a range of features, including cash-back rewards, welcome bonus, introductory and standard APR, balance transfer fee and foreign transaction fees, as well as factors such as required credit score and customer reviews when available. We also considered additional perks, the application process and how easy it is for the consumer to redeem points. Select teamed up with location intelligence firm Esri. The company's data development team provided the most up-to-date and comprehensive consumer spending data based on the 2019 Consumer Expenditure Surveys from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. You can read more about their methodology here. Esri's data team created a sample annual budget of approximately $22,126 in retail spending. The budget includes six main categories: groceries ($5,174), gas ($2,218), dining out ($3,675), travel ($2,244), utilities ($4,862) and general purchases ($3,953). General purchases include items such as housekeeping supplies, clothing, personal care products, prescription drugs and vitamins, and other vehicle expenses. Select used this budget to estimate how much the average consumer would save over the course of a year, two years and five years, assuming they would attempt to maximize their rewards potential by earning all welcome bonuses offered and using the card for all applicable purchases. All rewards total estimations are net the annual fee. It's important to note the value of a point or mile varies from card to card and based on how you redeem them. When we calculated the estimated returns, we assumed that cardholders are redeeming points/miles for a typical maximum value of 1 cent per point or mile. (Extreme optimizers might be able to achieve more value.) Our final picks are weighted heavily toward the highest five-year returns, since it's generally wise to hold onto a credit card for years. This method also avoids giving an unfair advantage to cards with large welcome bonuses. While the five-year estimates we've included are derived from a budget similar to the average American's spending, you may earn a higher or lower return depending on your spending habits.

Editorial Note: Opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Select editorial staff’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any third party.