Chevron Texaco Credit Card Review

Summary - The Chevron credit card is specifically designed for those use their gas from Chevron and Texaco stations. You can earn rebates by using this card at their stations. Let's find out more about this card.

Rebate Formula - The Chevron credit card pays you 10 cents per gallon rebate when you get your gasoline from Chevron and Texaco stations. You will earn 3% rebates on non-fuel purchases at their stations. For other regular purchases on the card, you will earn 1% rebates. You can earn up to $300 in rebates in one calendar year.

Annual Fee and APR - The Chevron credit card has no annual fee. The apr ranges from prime rate plus 7.99% to 14.99%. The card uses the average daily balance method (including new purchases) to compute balances.

Chevron Credit Card Gas Rebate Break Even Analysis

It is actually not easy to compare this card with it's peers because of it's rebate formula. Most other cards that pay rebates on gasoline pay between 2% and 5% rebates. But instead, this card pays you 10 cents per gallon. So the rebates vary depending on what the price of gasoline is. So rather than do an extensive comparison, I think it makes more sense to do some break even analysis. We will calculate the break even for 2%, 3% , 4% and 5%.

Break Even for 2% - The break even analysis for a 2% rebate is $5 per gallon. We have not come close to this yet. So it is pretty clear at today's prices, you are getting more than 3% rebates on this card.

Break Even for 3% - The break even analysis for a 3% rebate is $3.33 per gallon in gasoline.We have certainly been at the threshold.

Break Even for 4% - The break even analysis for a 4% rebate is $2.50 per gallon. Well, it has been a long time since we have even seen gas prices prices that low.

Break Even for 5% - Gas prices need to be at $2.00 for you to earn a 5% rebate equivalent.
 

Chevron Peer Comparison

Rather than going through a comparison with every card, I thought that it would be best to just highlight the rebate that other cards give. This is because with the way this card is set up, it is impossible to do a real apples to apples comparison as the rebates you will earn depends on gasoline prices.

Among gas station specific cards, some pay out rewards in terms of rebates and some allow you to save money per gallon. Among the cards that allows you to earn rebates, HESS is at 3%, Gulf Oil at 3%. Among cash back credit cards that pay gas rewards, the Amex Blue Cash Everyday pays 2%, Costco card pays 3% in cash back. Among the cards that gives you discounts per gallon, BP allows you to save 15 cents per gallon (if you fill 20 gallons a month). Shell's Drive for Five card allows you toe save five cents per gallon while their MasterCard has a tiered system which allows you to save up to 20 cents per gallon depending on how much you spend on the card.
 

Does the Chevron Card make sense?

Pros - To be honest, I cannot think of any thing great to say about this card.

Cons - Rebate for is a fixed amount based and hence, the rebate percentages varies with gas prices.

Verdict - If you look carefully at the rebates formula of this card, you will realize that this card works out well when gas prices are low. As of early 2015 (with gas prices having dropped in late 2014), this looks like a great card to get if you only fill up your gas at Chevron or Texaco stations. As a best practice, you should always pay your bills in full (regardless of which card you have) for this card because the APR is not exactly very low.

Many of you reading this may be considering this card because your credit has taken hit or it is fair (in the 600 range) and you are looking for an unsecured card. Some of you may already have a secured card or a high fee unsecured card and are looking to graduate to a no annual fee unsecured card. Gas cards and retail store cards are the type of cards most of you will consider. If you belong to this camp, we would also suggest that you consider the Barclaycard Rewards MasterCard, which pays 2X points on grocery, gas and utilities and is (in our opinion) a very good starter no annual fee card.

Chevron Credit Card
Reward Benefits
Rebate Percentages	Earn 10 cents per gallon at Chevron stations Earn 3% rebate on non-fuel Chevron Purchases Earn 1% rebate on all other purchases
Caps on Rebates	$300
Cost/Fees/Interest rates
Introductory rate	N.A.
Annual Fees	No annual fee
Purchase APR	Prime Rate plus 7.99% to 14.99%
Cash Advance APR	Prime Rate plus 14.99% min is 19.99%
Penalty/Default Rate APR	29.49%
Min Finance Charge	$1.00
Grace Period	20 days
Balance Calculation Method	Average Daily Balance (including new purchases)
Cash Advance fee	3% min $10.00
Foreign Currency Conversion fee	3%
Over-the-credit-limit fee	$35.00
Late Payment fee	$0 for a balance up to $14.99; $15 for a balance of $15.00–$49.99; $20 for a balance of $50–$99.99; $29 for a balance of $100–$249.99 and $39 for a balance of $250 or more.