From the I’ll-never-use-this files (similar to my previous pondering about Alaska’s MileagePlan), I stumbled upon the Shell Fuel Rewards Network and wanted to share an overview of the program because it looked really interesting.

Stop me if you’ve already heard about it and I must also disclaim: I live in New York City. I don’t have a car. I don’t even know where the closest Shell station is. But I signed up for the Fuel Rewards Network program all the same.

Why?

Automated savings

Even though I rarely drive and don’t own a car, I’m a sucker for automated savings. After signing up on the website, I asked to receive a FRN card in the mail. It came about a week later and was automatically attached to my account.

What I really liked most was that rewards can be earned via dining with credit cards stored in my account. I took a quick look, expecting the available restaurants to be a re-hash from iDine/Rewards Network. I was surprised when I saw a solid number of local restaurants in this program that wasn’t a part of Rewards Network. Hmmm.

So I enrolled all my cards. They seem to have a lot more promos for MasterCards, but will accept all the major CCs. The idea is that for every $50 spent, I save $0.10 on a gallon of gas. Not much, but all automated, and every little bit counts.

I’ll also save $0.03 per gallon just for swiping the FRN card before fueling. All of the rewards are stackable, too, up to $0.50 cents a gallon. Now that could save a few bucks – all for plugging in some credit cards one time.

More rewards

A lot of credit cards have gas stations as a special earning category. The Chase Freedom card has 5x on gas for one or two quarters of the year. The new Amex EveryDay cards have gas as a 2x earning category. Ditto for the Chase Ink cards. There are others, too. When points earned from credit card spend combine with the automated savings, that could net money saved and points earned.

Another way to earn rewards is to link the FRN card with certain grocery store programs.

Here are the ones that play together:

They also partner with… Total Rewards? So if you’re in Vegas (or Atlantic City), you can save on the gas to get there lol.

Expiration

“Fuel Rewards® savings earned through the Shell® Fuel Rewards® program expire on the last day of the month, immediately following the month in which they are earned. For example, Fuel Rewards® savings earned April 15th will expire on May 31st. Fuel Rewards® savings earned April 30th will also expire on 31st.”

Bottom line

Perhaps this will be useful to someone. Link your credit cards and save a few cents at the pump.

I really like the automated savings through dining and through linking other grocery programs. If swiping a card before fueling saves some money, I’ll all for it. When I do drive again, I’ll make an effort to fuel up at Shell just to try this out. They also have a mobile app so you don’t have to carry the card around, which is what I’ll use.

If you’re interested in the program, sign up is here.

Has anyone heard of this? Anything to add or report? Am I way off base with this one?

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