According to the Federal Reserve, report in a NYTimes article, Americans have nearly a trillion dollars of revolving debt (which includes credit card debt). That’s a lot of debt… oh yeah, total consumer debt is $2.57 trillion. Amazing right?

Those are two really big numbers huh? Well, if you were John Adams Kansas, President - Banking of Capital One Financial Corp., then that top number would be your total compensation package for 2007. If you were Richard D. Fairbank, Chairman, President and CEO of Capital One Financial Corp., then that bottom number would be your total compensation for 2007. In fact, if you were Richard D. Fairbank, you’d probably be upset about your number because it’s 45.5% less than what you got in 2006, which was nearly $37.5 million dollars.

Before people get all upset that they’re making so much money, their salaries are $0. Their bonuses are $0. It’s all in stock. I’m not pointing their salaries because I think it’s excessive, though they might be, I wanted to point out how ridiculous those numbers are. (Data taken from the July 2008 issue of Cards & Payments)

This is the most amazing debt story I’ve ever heard. When the story starts, Diane McLeod tells us that she has $286,000 in debt. Her story is one of misstep after misstep, from rolling her credit card debt (~$25k) into an adjustable rate mortgage ($10k in fees, plus it adjusted) to raiding her 401(k) (which cost $3k in taxes, paid in credit cards). Along the way, she was given shoddy advice from people with their own interests in mind. I’m not absolving her of responsibility but someone had to extend her this credit. She’s not drowning in debt, she’s halfway to the center of the Earth.

This figure is again from the New York Times series The Debt Trap (click on Start and then the lifetime link). The average household has thirteen credit cards. 40% of households carry a credit card balance. While having 13 cards doesn’t mean you’ll use them all, you can’t escape the 40% figure… especially when you couple it with that first number.

Guns won’t bring down America, debt will.

I’m a huge fan of credit cards and I’ve never been in credit card debt before. I’ve been fortunate enough to learn the dangers of easy credit and was never seduced by its siren song, or her underhanded tactics like double cycle billing. The latest saga involving credit cards is debate in Washington over the proposed consumer protection rules offered by the Federal Reserve Board under an update to Regulation AA (Federal Trade Commission Act) — Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices.

Would you like to contribute? Here’s the press release discussing the proposals, simply scroll down to Proposals for Comment and click on Submit comment underneath Regulation AA.

My thoughts:

Freezing Interest Rates

One of the proposals is prohibiting banks from increase rates on pre-existing credit card balances. At first glance, this makes total sense. When you sign on the dotted line for a mortgage, you are aware of how the interest rate will behave. On a 30-year fixed mortgage, it will never change. On a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage, it will be set for five years, then change every year after that. While in the last few years this was abused, in principle is makes total sense. You know what you’re getting into. With credit cards, the rate is always variable and can always change. However, you accept that when you apply for and begin using the card.

That being said, I do think that credit cards should be adjusted to reflect the way it’s actually being used and that requires that rates be locked at the time it is being spent. The consequence of this is that all interest rates will rise because it reflects a greater risk assumed by the credit card company and credit cards will be harder to get. You provide no proof of income when you apply for a credit card, perhaps that will change.

Application of Payments

Consumers taking advantage of 0% for life offers recognize this little line item, credit card companies apply payments to the lowest interest rate first. For example, recent 0% for life offers usually require two or three purchases a billing cycle. The cost of those purchases is at the prevailing rate, usually much much higher, and payments are applied to the 0% offer.

Consumers should be allowed to pay down whatever balance they want, not be forced to pay the lower offer. In all cases, this will be the amounts with the highest interest rate. Don’t listen to Dave Ramsey, you want to pay the higher interest rates first, not the ones with the smallest balances.

Double Cycle Billing

This is tactic is just underhanded. If you’re an impartial observer, you can understand variable interest rates because credit card companies put it plainly in their agreements. Double cycle billing? Give me a break. Double cycle billing is when they take the average of your two previous bills and charge interest on that. I don’t even know why this was even acceptable in the first place.

Summary

Obviously, the banks don’t like it:

“We are deeply concerned that these rules will result in less competition, higher consumer prices, fewer consumer choices and reduced consumer access to credit cards,” President and CEO Edward Yingling [of the American Bankers Association] said in a statement.

I don’t agree that they go to far, I think they’re great proposals, but I do agree that it will result in less competition, higher prices, fewer choices, and reduced access but that’s exactly what we need. We don’t need credit card offers piling up in our mailboxes, we don’t need the average family credit debt to be around $10k, and we honestly will survive if there are fewer credit card companies.

Weigh in on proposed credit card laws [CNN Money]

(Photo: thetruthabout)

With the price of food and gas where it is, everyone’s looking for an edge and for more and more people, myself included, that edge is in maximizing what you can get out of credit card cash back reward programs. Credit card companies charge vendors a hefty percentage to process credit card transactions (AMEX and Discover charge the most, that’s why they often have the best cashback programs), so doesn’t it make sense that they pass along some of that to you? Of course it does!

So here are eight tips I use to ensure I get the most cash back out of credit cards, hopefully you will find them useful as well.

1. Know Your Spending

Every card is tailored to a slightly different person and a slightly different spending profile. They’re looking to get a slot in your wallet or purse and so they sometimes offer strange groups of eligible cashback categories in order to get there. The best way for you to figure out which card is best for you is to check your budget and see where your spending is.

Unfortunately, gone are the days when supermarket purchases offered 5% cashback but purchases at gas stations and auto maintenance offers are still around. For me, the answer is combining Costco’s cheaper gas with either their Costco TrueEarnings card, which offers 1% cash back, or the American Express SimplyCash Business Card, which offers 3% cash back. You can get Costco gas without a membership in some areas.

Here are some popular categories and the cards I use (if applicable):

• Movies: Citi mtvU gives 5% ThankYou Rewards, which I turn into cash for student loans. You can also submit grade reports for free ThankYou points.
• Books (& anything at Amazon.com): Again, Citi mtvU card.
• Gas: Costco TrueEarnings card, I use it at Costco for 2% cashback on gas. This only makes sense if you already have a Costco membership.
• Everything Else: Citi CashReturns offers 1% plus a 20% bonus for the first year.
• Home Improvement: The Home Advantage Card from Bank of America offers 2% at home improvement stores in the first year, I don’t use this card because I don’t spend a lot in this category.
• Office Supply: If you buy a lot of office supply equipment, the American Express SimplyCash Business Card gives 3% cashback in this category, I don’t use this card because I don’t spend a lot in this category.

There are certainly more cards out there but those are the ones that were ever on my radar given my spending categories.

2. Skip Stuff, Get Cash

I always opt for cash back because it makes the math easier and you can never have “loss” in the conversion. I know some people like to get “stuff” but often times, if you check out the catalogs, the conversion of points to products is never in your benefit.

Let’s take the simplest example of a gift card on the Citi ThankYou network. Each ThankYou reward point is worth approximately a penny, meaning 100 points equals one dollar. If you were to trade in your points for a $5 Barnes & Noble Gift Card (Item 1111022), it would cost you 1,000 points - or $10 worth of points! Of course as you get to larger gift cards, the exchange rate is more favorable ($10 gift cards cost only $15 in points) and it only starts to become even when you reach the $25 gift card level, depending on the vendor. The loss is most obvious with gift cards but it happens with stuff too because you’re often paying retail value in points.

3. Don’t Get A Zillion Cards

In my list above, I mentioned that I didn’t get the AMEX SimplyCash or the Home Advantage card because I didn’t spend a lot there. From time to time I do spend money at Home Depot or Lowes in spurts, as I will soon do to repair drywall damage in the next week or so, but it doesn’t make sense to load down your wallet or purse with a ton of plastic you don’t use regularly.

First, applying for a lot of credit cards will damage your credit score for a little bit. Second, you risk losing track of them if you don’t use them regularly. Maybe you forget to pay a bill or one of the cards falls out when you’re running around, losing track can wipe away an entire year’s cash back in one unfortunate incident. Finally, who wants to carry around all that extra weight anyway?

4. Have Backup

You’ll want at least one card that will give you 1.2% cash back on everything (for the first year, there’s a 20% bonus on top of the normally 1% cash back offer) that you can turn to if you forget whether you can get better cash back rewards on a purchase. Most cards will have at least 1% cash back so finding one will be a cinch. The Citi CashReturns card is our backup 1.2% card because there is no limit (crucial) and they send a check automatically once you reach the $50 threshold. The only way you can do better is if you can find a card that will deduct the cashback right off the credit card statement (the American Express SimplyCash(SM) Business Card will do this) or find one with a higher cash back, which I haven’t seen yet.

5. Beware Low Limits

Discover Card’s Open Road card offers 5% cash back. Ordinarily that would be a screaming hot deal, but read the fine print and you’ll see “Earn a full 5% Cashback Bonus on your first $100 in combined gas and auto maintenance purchases each billing period.” Woah. $100 can’t even fill the tank for some people. So the 5% looks good at first glance but really isn’t that great.

6. Write Down Cashback Percentages

Get some scotch tape and write down all the categories and percentage cash back on the face of the card. Some cards offer rewards in categories you don’t normally spend in, by writing it down you can flip through your cards as you wait in line so you can maximize your rewards. For example, the Discover More card is part of a program where the 5% cashback reward categories change every quarter. There’s no way for you to keep track of what it covers this month because it changes four times a year, so rather than rely on memory, write it down and change it as the program changes.

7. Always Pay In Full

Never carry a balance. Any interest you pay will erase your reward totally and completely.

8. Stop Spending

What!? What kind of tip is this? It’s actually the best tip. On some things you can’t simply “stop spending,” like food and gas, but on others you might want to consider putting off the purchase for a few days, weeks, or months until the economic climate recovers a little. Skip that movie once a week or cook dinner more often, those little steps will save you more money than a few percentage points off your bill.

Do you have any tips or tricks to maximize your cash back? If so, please share!

(Photo by crocidillicus)

I’ve never liked having any debt because it’s always made me feel uncomfortable owing someone money. When it comes to major purchases like a home, it’s unavoidable; but for smaller ticket items, I avoid debt like the plague because I know it’s a slippery slope to go down. You start owing a little here, a little there, and the next thing you know you’re making large monthly payments with little to show for it.

But we’ve all been there. We all slip up. Whether it’s eating too much at a meal, spending too much when you’re out with friends, or something else, stuff happens and you deal. Well, if debt happened and you’re looking for some tips on how to get it unhappened, I’d like you to check out these ten steps I’ve learned over the years.

1. Dedicate Yourself To Eliminating Debt
The first step to eliminating your debt is to really come to grips with it and your dedication to eliminating it. Whether you have $1,000 of credit card debt because you wanted a new television or if you have $100,000 in student loan debt, step one is to fully understand it all.

Get a piece of paper and write down every debt you have, the monthly payment, its interest rate, and the period of repayment. Just “knowing” in your mind is not enough, write the whole thing down so you know for sure how much you are paying. Now go to a site like Dinkytown.net and calculate how much you are paying in interest if you were to follow the repayment structure. Take a deep breath because that number will be huge. You now fully understand the magnitude of that debt and the importance of eliminating it.

Now make a promise to yourself, to your spouse, to your children, to whomever - you are going to eliminate this debt.

2. Get A Friend
Everything is easier if you get a friend involved with your goal of eliminating debt. Having a friend know that you’ve made this commitment will help you whenever you face obstacles. For example, let’s say you’re hanging out with a group of your friends and one of them suggests a movie. You’ve already spent your entertainment budget for the week and a $9 movie is going to take away from how much you’ll be able to pay towards the Visa bill this month. Having a friend there, one who recognizes what you’re trying to do, can help when you suggest a cheaper, or free, alternative.

Having a friend involved also helps in keeping you accountable. For me, and many other bloggers, blogging keeps me accountable because so many people know what I’m trying to do. Many debt bloggers talk about their debt out in the open, tracking it monthly, because they know it will keep them accountable. Heck, nothing is stopping you from starting a blog!

3. Budget, Budget, Budget
You can only make progress on your debt if you are aware of where your money is going. A budget is the only way you will be able to get a solid handle on your finances and the only way you’ll be able to continually pay down your debts. If you earn $1000 a pay period and spend $1001, you’ll never be able to repay your debts. If you earn $1000 a pay period and aren’t sure how much you’re spending, you’ll again never be able to repay your debts. Establish a budget for how much you will spend on each expense and stick to it (more on sticking to it later).

4. Prioritize It
How important is it to eliminate this debt? You understand the debt, you’ve made yourself a promise, you’ve even told a friend, but what is this debt preventing in your life? Is it stopping you from putting enough away to buy a house? Is the constant monthly payment preventing you from saving towards your children’s education? Many things in life are about trade-offs, what are you trading away in return for keeping this debt just one more month? By prioritizing, you might recognize that there are a hundred things more important to you than the stuff you bought with that debt or the other things you’re paying for. Trim them so you can put more money towards your debt.

5. Remind Yourself Constantly
I’ve written in the past about how you can curb spending by writing goals on your credit cards. Trent of The Simple Dollar takes it one step further and puts a picture of his kids on his credit cards to remind himself. It’s easy to forget our goals if we don’t constantly remind ourselves of them.

When I was younger, my father smoked cigarettes, as many Chinese men do. My sister and I wanted him to quit and he agreed to. To help him along, we put No Smoking signs all over the house as a constant reminder of his promise to his. I’m to report that my father hasn’t smoked since he made that promise and I like to think our little signs played a small role.

6. Eliminate Temptation
Alcoholics avoid bars because that’s where the temptation is. What is your vice? Love shopping at the mall? Stop going to the mall. Love electronics? Don’t go to Best Buy or Circuit City. Remember your priorities, remember your promise, and try to eliminate temptation from your life.

One of my temptations is good food, I like going to our favorite restaurants because I can order food I enjoy. To overcome this, I tap on the other things about life that I enjoy that are in concert with good food. My wife and I have been spending more time in the kitchen cooking new recipes and trying new things. I enjoy spending quality time with my wife more than I enjoy good food. The side benefit is that we save money by not eating out and we are healthier for it!

7. Establish Milestones
To help you achieve the goal of paying off your debt, it’s important to establish realistic milestones. Eliminating a large debt is a marathon, not a sprint, and this idea is much like one that I recommended people looking for jobs. By establishing achievable short-term and mid-term milestones, you give yourself a sense of progress and accomplishment. If you owe $10,000 and plan on paying it off over two years, set milestones every six months or every quarter. As you hit them, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment and it will boost your morale…

8. Reward Yourself
… then rewards yourself for achieving those milestones and stretch milestones. If you manage to pay off $2,500 in the first six months, reward yourself somehow with something fun (but inexpensive!). Go out and get some ice cream (we love Rita’s Ice!) to celebrate your accomplishment. Treat your friend to some ice cream too, to thank him or her for helping you get this far.

9. Snowflaking
So you’ve been humming along for a few months, hitting your intermediary milestone, removing temptations, rewarding yourself for meeting your mini-goals; but you feel like there could be more you could do. There is. Snowflaking (a term I attribute to Paid Twice) is the idea that you take “found money” and put it towards your debt in the form of unscheduled payments. Sell a used book for $20? Put that towards your highest interest debt. Find a $5 bill somewhere? Snowflake it towards a debt.

10. Don’t Go Back
This final step is for those who have achieved their final milestone goal and have eliminated all of their debt. First off, congratulations. What you’ve accomplished is not simple, regardless of how you felt your progress went. It’s difficult taking that surplus each month and putting it towards a debt to someone else, so kudos for the achievement. However, the job isn’t finished yet. Much like how alcoholics are never “cured,” you always have the fear of relapse.

Unless you have the cash to pay for something, don’t borrow (unless it’s for a house or car) the money you need. For some this means you go to an all cash lifestyle (NCN doesn’t use a credit card for this very reason) and for others it means you simply make the card difficult to get a hold of. If you can’t pay it off at the end of the month, start saving until you can. You know how hard it is to get out of debt, don’t go back in.

(Photo by Christina Lam Photography)

As an online marketer of sorts, I was delighted when American Express Business Gold offered a 5% discount on my pay-per-click ad spend at Yahoo Search Marketing (I don’t spend a lot but 5% is still 5% off). I had hoped that someone would start offering cash back business cards on other advertising networks but also resigned myself to the fact that online marketing is still a minority in the business world.

Well, Advanta, which I had always known as one of the only credit cards with a 15 month 0% balance transfer promotion, has begun offering the Advanta Platinum BusinessCard for Online Marketers. It’s a card that is perfect for someone just starting their business and looking for an edge, you’ll see why in a moment.

Here are the categories that earn 5% cashback (there is a catch):

• Online PPC Advertising, including Google™, Yahoo!® and MSN® Search
• eBay® Fees
• Website Hosting, Shipping, USPS
• Computers and Office Supplies
• Cellular Services and Gas

There is one drawback though: Earn 5% on the first $1,200 in Bonus category purchases annually and up to 1% on other purchases. (and the 1% on other purchases is tiered, “Cash Back rewards are earned based on your annual level of Net Purchases, excluding Bonus Qualifying purchases, as follows: .25% on up to $3,000 in purchases; .50% on purchases between $3,000.01 and $5,000; .75% on purchases between $5,000.01 and $15,000; and 1% on purchases in excess of $15,000.”)

Who would benefit the most from this? Bloggers, novice or beginner internet marketers, eBay sellers, and website operators; especially if you don’t already have a business credit card. It’s important for every business to have a separate business credit card to segregate your personal and business “lives.” This one has no annual fee one and some cashback benefits, so it makes a good choice (American Express Business Gold has a $125 annual fee). $1,200 goes a long way when it comes to eBay fees, hosting, and other business expenses but is less effective on pay-per-click campaigns once you get that ball rolling.

I’ll be sticking with the American Express Business Gold card for the 5% discount (it’s not cash back, it’s a straight discount, you get 1% cashback on the other 95% though) on Yahoo Search Marketing (despite its slow demise) is a better move given the limits of the Advanta card.

Every month, go through you wallet or purse and ensure that everything in it has a reason for being there.

The other day, while standing in line at the DMV to take a photo for my driver’s license renewal, I saw a man pull his Social Security Card out of his wallet. As we all know, the Social Security card is no more than a regular piece of paper that, given years in a wallet, is bound to disintegrate. This guy’s Social Security card was in such sorry shape that it looked like it was torn from the Constitution. Years of sitting in his back pocket, for no good reason, had his card about a year away from being dust and there was little reason for him to carry it every day (in fact, new Social Security cards instruct you not to carry it on you).

Besides deterioration, another good reason not to carry the card, or anything you don’t use on a daily basis, is that you could lose your wallet or purse. If that unfortunate event happens, you have the burden of replacing or canceling cards that had no reason being in your wallet or purse in the first place. Added headache without any reason whatsoever.

So once a month, clean out your wallet or purse so Constanza doesn’t mistake it for his.

Big props to NCN (I guess he’s okay with people knowing his first name is Jason!) on being profiled by CNN Money! For those who don’t know who NCN is, he’s the mind behind No Credit Needed. He’s also the first person I think of when you talk about people overcoming debt, especially credit card debt (despite what the article says, it was more like $7-$8k of credit card debt). He’s a nice guy to boot.

I personally don’t agree with his approach towards credit cards, he never ever uses them, but that’s the beauty of personal finance and blogging. Personal finance is an area where there is no right answer, there’s just a right for you answer. I don’t buy junk food like BBQ potato chips because I know I will eat the whole freaking bag in a day, he doesn’t have credit cards because he doesn’t want to surrender all he’s gained - that I can understand and respect.

Either way, it’s a great accomplishment to have overcome such a debt and being profiled is icing on the cake!

In the pantheon of credit card reward programs you essentially had those cards which offered you straight cash back or those cards which offered you points that could be redeemed for various rewards. Until the last year so, I’d always used a cash back credit card rather than a points reward card because I wanted the discount. 5% cash back is a 5% discount, 5% in points might be a 5% discount if the reward program offered rewards I would’ve otherwise purchased with cash, but there’s never a guarantee. With 5% cash back, I’m guaranteed to get the maximum value out of it.

A year ago I signed up for the American Express Business Gold Rewards card because I needed a business credit card to segregate expenses (their sizzling hot $250 promotion helped too) and kept using it because it offered 5% off Yahoo products such as their advertising network. Without the 5% off (this was a direct discount, not 5% in points), I don’t know if I’d still be using it because it’s a rewards card that gave you 1% in points.

One side effect of my business spending is that we’ve been able to convert those points into gift cards at restaurants we normally would go to (though we wouldn’t go as often without them!). One such restaurant is Roy’s, a well-known Hawaiian fusion restaurant chain located near the Inner Harbor of Baltimore. In fact, we used those cards twice in Hawaii (once in Kauai and once in Hawaii Kai, Oahu) to entirely pay for our meals.

I can see the allure of these types of rewards program though, you get to enjoy all of the spending without any of the guilt.

What’s your take on different programs? Are you a strict cash back person or do you like rewards? Both? It depends?

(Photo by crispyteriyaki)

I was reading No Debt Plan’s post about how you should only by appreciating assets on credit when I came to two conclusions: there aren’t many appreciating assets and, given the first observation, an asset’s value has more to do with its utility than its resale value.

There aren’t many appreciating assets out there in the first place. Besides your house, I don’t think there are many things regular people buy that appreciate in value. Regular folks don’t buy art, rare stamps, or other exotic collectibles (the collectibles they do collect are often of dubious resale value and people collect them for the fun, or utility, they derive out of having the hobby) and even if they did, the prospects of those items appreciating are murky at best.

Asset value has more to do with utility than resale value. When I buy a car, I’m certain it’s a depreciating asset, but I buy it all the same because it provides utility. Economists will argue it provides as much utility as its value depreciates (otherwise, if it provided more then people would pay more for it, if it provided less then people would pay less for it) and they’re right. Remember that buying a car affords you the ability to widen your geographic reach. The most important reason for widening your geographic reach is that it increases your employment prospects (it also gives you more options when you buy more depreciating assets!). So, while you are buying an depreciating asset, it could be provided you with a job opportunity that earns you more than if you didn’t have the car.

Lastly, don’t call your car a depreciating asset, I’m pretty sure it hurts her feelings.

Getting a good gas cashback credit card is the easiest way to save on gas, bar none. With gasoline prices increasing every single day, everyone is looking for ways to save on driving. Since you probably can’t sell your car and get one of these highest mileage cars, the next easiest thing is to get a credit card that gives you a little extra cashback on gasoline purchases. At the moment, besides specific gas station branded credit cards, I think the two best options out there is an American Express card and a Discover card.

The best option right now has to be the American Express SimplyCash® card because it offers 3% cash back on gas, office supplies, and wireless services and it credits the cash back automatically on your statement. You don’t have to request or wait for a check, you don’t have to find out what reward you want, everything is credited automatically (totally hands off cashback system FTW!). That’s a 3% discount off your gas with no catches, no gimmicks, no BS. The tricky part is that it’s a business card but anyone can apply for a business card. This is the land of opportunity and anyone can hang out their shingle, so enter your Social Security number as your Federal Tax ID and you’re golden (you’re technically a sole proprietorship, there are no additional tax forms to fill out to identify yourself as a sole prop and this is perfectly legal, check with a legal or tax professional and they will confirm this). I don’t know the criteria for approval so it’s just you and your credit score from here.

Other salient details of the card are that there is no annual fee (I won’t recommend a card with an annual fee unless there is a compelling reason) and they have a 0% introductory APR on purchases for up to 12 months. The card also gives 1% cashback on all other purchases and offers all the features and benefits of American Express’ OPEN network.

A close #2 is the card my wife and I use, the Discover® Open Road(SM) Card. The Discover Open Road card is a consumer card, so you don’t have to play business owner, and it offers 5% cashback on both gas and auto maintenance purchases. Whereas the AMEX card only gave you 5% on gas (and other business-like services), this one includes auto maintenance. Unfortunately, the 5% cashback bonus is only on the first $100 of gas and auto maintenance purchases a month! (Thanks Joe!). This makes the AMEX card a much better card. However, one additional perk of Discover is that you can get anywhere from 5% to 20% cashback bonus when you redeem your cashback in the form of a gift card from one of their retail partners. I used to get double cashback when I sold stuff on eBay because I’d convert my cashback for gift cheques to various stores I frequented. This card also has no annual fee and does offer a promotional 0% APY balance transfer until June 2009. This the card my wife and I currently use for gasoline purchases, but given the new limitation we’ll probably look for another one.

Update: How could I forget the awesomeness that is the Costco TrueEarnings card? If you get the Costco TrueEarnings Business card, you get 5% cashback on already cheap gas prices; if you get the Costco TrueEarnings regular card, you get 3% cashback on already cheap gas prices. You also get 3% back at restaurants and 1% back on everything else. The only downside is that there’s an “annual fee” in the sense that you have to be a Costco member ($50 annual membership).

Beyond that, you have a few cards that give gimmicky 12 month promotional cashback offers or are specific to a particular gas station company. I am never a fan of the limited time promotions unless the offer is especially juicy and I don’t want to be tied to a particular gas station, I like freedom.

What gasoline card do you use?