Techron Advantage® Visa® Card: Save Up to 55¢ per Gallon

Techron Advantage® Visa® Card Review

The Techron Advantage® Visa is the replacement for the old Chevron credit card, (although older cards wills till work through their expiration date). Issued by Synchrony Bank, this credit card features one of the strongest introductory offers compared to other gas cards, and is ideal for those who have an upcoming road trip or will be doing an extensive number of driving. Cardholders can earn up to 47¢ per gallon in Fuel Credits on qualifying purchases, but once the introductory period has passed most will find their gas station savings significantly lower and contingent on using this card on non-gas purchases (potentially at the cost of using other, more lucrative, rewards card).

The card has no annual fee, which helps to make up for lackluster discounts, but features no additional perks beyond gas station savings such as in-store discounts or special offers.

What are Fuel Credits?

Discounts at the pump at referred to as “Fuel Credits” function as rebates which are retroactively applied to your card balance as a statement credit. There is a maximum of $300 in fuel credits can be earned each calendar year.

Fuel credits from multiple offers can be combined and are automatically applied to at the end of the billing period that they were earned.

Introductory Gas Savings

During the first 90 days of opening an account, drivers can fill their tanks for an automatic 30 cents off per gallon – a significant savings for someone going on road trip with a fuel-heavy vehicle such as an RV or camper or even just commuting to-and-from for work.

Gas Savings Based on Fuel Grade (Limited Time Offer)

For a limited time, drivers can then take another few cents off the gallon depending in which grade of gasoline they are purchasing:

• Regular/Diesel: 3¢ off per gallon
• Plus: 5¢ per gallon
• Supreme/Premium: 7¢ per gallon

Gas Savings Based on Monthly Spend

In addition to the previously stated offers, Techron Advantage® Visa® Cardholders can earn either extra per-gallon discounts depending on their monthly spend on non-gas station purchases. Spending $300 or more will yield an additional 10¢ per gallon, while spending $1000 or more will garner 20¢ off per gallon.

Here’s how it works: once your monthly spending reaches a threshold (either $300 or $1,000), all gas purchases (previous and future) within that billing cycle will reflect the new discount.

For example, if you spend $500 with your Techron Advantage Visa card on travel, you will qualify to have all Chevron/Texaco transactions discounted with 10¢ in Fuel Credits. Say you spent $60 in gas during the month, that would be a statement credit of $6.00 back to your card balance. If you had reached the $1,000 spending requirement, you would receive $12.00 in Fuel Credit.

Store Card Vs. Techron Visa

Other Card Features

Other notable features of the Techron Visa credit card include no annual fee and Visa Platinum benefits and security protections. These include the following:

Synchrony Ratings

How does Synchrony stack up as a credit card issuer? Here is a selection of ratings for the bank:

Should You Apply for the Techron Advantage® Visa® Card?

While the introductory gas savings are impressive, the card struggles to provide enough long-term value to make the card worthwhile for the average consumer. The only value that’s guaranteed to cardholders after the signup bonus is a paltry 3¢ per gallon (once the fuel type discounts end in December 31st, 2019).

Even if the graduated discounts based on gas type were a permanent offering, they still fail to add any substantial value to owning this card. The nominal scaled discounts do little to shorten the exponential price differences between gasoline types and provide an inconsequential amount of Fuel Credits (you would have to spend $33 in fuel to get a single dollar’s worth of Fuel Credits at their regular 3¢ rate).

The only hope of wringing any real value of this card will require spending at least $300 on this card per month – and even then, will only be worth your while if you spend $75 or more on gas per month. If your monthly fuel bills are anything less, you’d be better off with a general flat-rate cash back card. 

Overall, the Techron Advantage® Visa® does have potential to unlock decent earnings at Chevron and Texaco stations but will require a strategic spending strategy to make it worthwhile. Since the card has no annual fee however, there’s no harm in owning this card if only to use for months of particularly high gas consumption.