In decades past, gas credit cards could be very useful. Generally, they came with lower credit limits so more people could afford to have them. They were a great to use for travel as you could charge anything associated with the gas station on them. Typically, you would have several gas credit cards on hand, so you would always have a station nearby where you could use one of your gas credit cards.

Things have changed a lot the last few years and many people are choosing to not open or keep gas credit card accounts. Here are some reasons why you may want to forego having gas credit cards of any kind.

Gas credit cards tended to be good only with one company. Thus, the traveler may take along a BP gas credit card, a Shell gas credit card and an Amoco gas credit card. The idea is to never be too far away from a gas station that would accept at least one of your cards. Some stations would not take anything but a gas credit card, so your Mastercard and VISA were worthless. You could also forget buying anything from inside the station as well, as some were gas only credit cards. That is not the case today.

Most gas stations these days will accept at least three of the four major credit cards on the market. That means you no longer have to carry Shell credit cards and the like. The same credit card that you use for all your business travel will also work for your gas expenses. Keeping up with a bunch of different cards just so you never have to be worried about not having the right card is a thing of the past. In addition to major credit cards, most gas stations also accept bank debit cards, which means you have even one more reason to not bother with gas station credit cards.

Your best gas credit card has become your general credit card with the best interest rate. Traditionally, the best gas credit cards were the ones that had interest rates that were around the same range as a department store credit card. With much better rates on the market today with major credit cards, who needs to pay the extra interest?

One of the attempts to entice consumers back into the fold of carrying gas credit cards is to provide gas rebate credit cards or gas rewards credit cards. Cash back on transactions using the card may seem attractive, but note that you may have to pay off your full balance in order to get the rebate and in fact may lose it if you pay late. In the end your best gas rebate credit card will likely be a major credit card that either provides cash back on every transaction or issues you points for each transaction that you can later cash in.

Another promotion is to invite people to apply for business gas credit cards. The idea is that online access to your business gas credit card allows you to print easy detail for expense reports and such. The fact is you can do the same thing with your major credit card account. Leave everything on your major credit card set up for business purposes and save yourself a lot of time.

A great idea in their day, gas credit cars simply do not have the advantages they once had. Save your time and use your major credit card or debit card at the pump. It will keep life simpler.