Sheetz Visa

Sheetz is a chain of gas stations and convenience stores that is owned by the Sheetz family. They are located in Altoona, Pennsylvania and their stations and stores are present in Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

This Visa was launched in partnership with First BankCard (which is a division of the First National Bank of Omaha). Compared to it's peers, it is a pretty decent card and here are it's highlights:
 

• 8 cents per gallon savings (when used with MySheetz Card)
• 5X points for qualifying purchases at Sheetz
• No annual fee

Gas Savings : 5 cents per gallon off when you use the Sheetz Visa. Another 3 cents per gallon off when you also use your MySheetz Card. Total savings of 8 cents per gallon.

How You Earn Points? : 5X when you use your Sheetz Card for purchases at Sheetz stations and convenience stores. 1X for other regular purchases.

How You Redeem Points? : Points can be redeemed for cash back, merchandise, travel and gift cards.

Annual Fee : $0

The reward program of Sheetz is administered by Maximum Rewards. The points that you can can be redeemed for cash back, gift cards, merchandise, travel. Even if you do not have enough points to fully redeem for an item, you can use points for partial payment (though you need to use a minimum of 1,000 points for that).

 

It is very interesting comparing the Sheetz Visa with it's peers. And before we do that, we have to be aware that most stations have two types of cards, a Visa or MasterCard or a store card. The store cards tend to have simpler reward program. Most allow you to save 3 to 5 cents a gallon. Since you can save 8 cents a gallon (when you combine with a MySheetz card).

However, when you look at gas station credit cards (Visa or MasterCard) rather than their store cards, the rewards are slightly different. Most will allow you to save more on gas (per gallon) but they only allow that when you spend a certain amount on your card. Essentially, they want you to charge a lot on the card to give you the savings. For example, if you look at the Shell MasterCard, BP Visa, Marathon and Chevron cards in the table above, you can see that the savings you get on gasoline depends on your spending level. The great thing about Sheetz is that you save 8 cents per gallon regardless of how much you spend on the card.
 

If you fill your gas at Sheetz stations, then you might just want to consider this card. What I really like about this card is that regardless of how much you spend on the card, you will save 8 cents a gallon as long as you use the card and have your MySheetz Card. 8 cents per gallon savings is higher than the 5 cents savings by Shell's Drive For Five Card and 3 cents per gallon savings by Chevron card. Other gas cards are moving towards rewarding you with more savings based on how much you spend on the card. BP for base it's savings based on every $100 increment that you spend on the card. Chevron's card has a base savings of 3 cents per gallon but you get increase if you hit certain spending thresholds. With the Sheetz Visa, you get 8 cents per gallon savings regardless.

Some of you reading are rebuilders and are considering this as a step up to a no annual fee card from your high fee sub prime cards. Based on consumer reviews, it appears you need a decent score (high 600s) to get this card. If you use Sheetz stations, then I would give it a shot. If your scores are in the mid 650s, you might consider other cards like the Barclaycard Rewards MasterCard