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If you live in a place where grocery stores offer discounts on fill-ups at their gas station based on your purchases at the store, you probably feel like you're inundated with advertising about it.

They promote it as the best way to save money off your gas purchases and try to entice you to spend as much as you can in their store because, after all, you'll be saving money at the gas pump.

But the question is - is it really worth it?

Well, yes and no. It certainly can be when you are already making purchases at that store and are comfortable with the amount you are spending. The problem is if you see that you need to spend $15 more to get an additional ten cents off your fuel purchase, so you spend $15 on whatever you see simply to get the fuel discount. That's pretty unnecessary if you could have paid less for your purchase at a different store. Remember, an extra ten cents off per gallon is only a $1.50 to $2.00 discount - absolutely not worth wasting money you didn't have to spend!

Another big promotion these types of stores generally run is connected to gift cards. Sometimes if you purchase a gift card at their store (usually offered for a variety of merchants), they will give you twice the fuel discount.

Let's think that through. Say you are going to earn 20 cents off per gallon for every $50 gift card purchase you make. Assuming your gas tank holds 16 gallons, that's a $3.20 discount. If you already want a gift card (perhaps for a gift), that would seem like a good deal - you make $3.20 for really doing nothing.

In case you don't have a cash back credit card (such as Discover More), you could maximize this promotion by purchasing gift cards for all of the stores you shop at. You will get fuel rewards essentially for shopping at the stores you already shop at.

Even so, if you do have a cash back credit card, it can get a little more complicated. When you use a gift card you won't be obtaining cash back rewards, so you will need to take that into consideration. If your cash back card gives 5% cash back at grocery stores, purchasing a grocery store gift card is pointless. If you buy a $50 card, you will receive a $3.20 fuel reward and a $2.50 cash back reward on your gift card purchase (assuming you employ your cash back card to buy the gift card), but you will miss out on the $2.50 reward you'd get for using your cash back card on the subsequent $50 purchase.

However, when the gift card is in a category you only receive, say, 1% cash back on, then your gift card purchase can be worthwhile. You will get the gas reward plus a $2.50 cash back reward because you are getting the gift card at the grocery store. If you utilized your cash back card in the store only generating 1% cash back, you'd only obtain a reward of 50 cents. In this particular case, you basically make $2. The question is if the entire process is worth the $2 you gain.

As you can see, there are winning and losing scenarios with fuel rewards programs. You simply have to make the decision of when it is worth it and when it's not.

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