Marathon Fuel Card Review: Rebates and Rewards on Fuel

A petroleum refinery company, Marathon Petroleum runs a chain of US gas stations where customers who one of its top fuel cards – Fleet or Universal – can receive extensive perks, discounts and rebates.

The key difference between the two options is that the former can only be used at Marathon locations and has no fees, while the latter is accepted at 95% of US gas stations but has monthly costs to consider.

In our Marathon Fuel Card review below, we’ll dive into what else is appealing about its two cards, the differences between them, and everything you need to know about Marathon including its relative benefits and shortcomings over other fuel card suppliers in the US.

Marathon Fuel Card Review: Marathon’s Card Fees, Rewards and Incentives

Let’s dive into what fees, rewards, and incentives you can expect using each Marathon’s fleet fuel cards, starting with its Fleet Card and followed by its Universal Card.

After that, we’ll also detail Marathon and Arco’s rewards scheme, which further incentivizes fuel spending at relevant gas stations.

The Fleet Card

Aimed at small to medium-sized fleets, Marathon’s Fleet Card Program gives you control over your fleet’s expenses.

First off, this program can help you save a bit of cash. When your drivers fill up at any one of Marathon’s stations using the Fleet Card, you’ll be given a rebate of 1¢ to 7¢ for every gallon – depending on how much your fleet buys regularly.

For instance, if it buys 500 to 2,999 gallons a month, you’ll get 1¢ back per gallon. Go through 3,000 to 4,999 gallons a month, and you’ll earn 2¢ per gallon – and so on. Of course, this means you won’t get any rebates if your fleet needs less than 500 gallons a month – if that’s the case, this may not be the best card for you.

These rebates come at no extra cost to you either, as you’ll have no fees to pay to start saving via the Marathon Fleet Card.

Importantly, Marathon will give you 24/7 access to real-time data that tracks the products and services your drivers are using their Marathon cards to buy. You’ll see where, and at what time, things are being purchased, plus the amount being spent. Armed with this information, you can improve your fuel efficiency and cut out any unauthorized spending.

When you give company fleet cards to your drivers, the prospect of a fraudster getting his or her hands on one is always a worry. Fortunately, Marathon is cracking down on fraud, using security measures that require valid driver ID numbers and accurate odometer readings for each purchase.

The Universal Card

On the face of it, Marathon’s Universal Card Program is pretty similar to the Fleet Card Program. Like its counterpart, the Universal Card offers savings of 1¢ to 7¢ per gallon, real-time monitoring, and fraud protection.

However, when it comes to coverage, these two fleet cards are miles apart. Not only is the Universal Card accepted at Marathon’s stations, but it can also be used at any establishment where partner WEX Inc. is accepted – and you’ll find these establishments all over the country.

Because of this wider acceptance, Marathon requires a fee to use the Business Universal Card, too. It will cost you $40 to set up a card and $2 per month thereafter to continue using it. These rates aren’t publically advertised on Marathon’s website, but if you give them a call as we did, then you’ll discover this to be the case.

Given this near-nationwide acceptance and its higher fees, Marathon recommends its Universal Card Program to medium to large-sized fleets. It also makes it a suitable fuel card for truckers driving cross-country routes.

Marathon-ARCO Rewards Scheme

Whether you have a Marathon fuel card or not, you can earn rewards via Marathon and ARCO’s rewards program each time you purchase fuel from its gas stations.

Essentially, you earn 5¢ for every gallon you purchase. Plus, you can earn extra rewards and offers, such as discounts on qualifying store items; generally, the more you spend the higher your additional rewards.

When you consider you are already getting up to 7¢ per gallon for using either Marathon fuel card, adding the Marathon ARCO rewards scheme to the mix can regularly take your bonuses to around the 12¢ per gallon mark depending on your fuel consumption.

All you need to do is sign up via your mobile number in-store, via its app, or on its website for free. Your phone number acts as your loyalty ID to use during purchases. And after completing your profile using one of the selected methods, you’ll begin earning. If you end up getting a Marathon fuel card, we think it makes a lot of sense to sign up for Marathon ARCO Rewards, too.

Marathon Fuel Card Review: Finding a Marathon Station

The number of stations at which your drivers’ Marathon cards can be accepted will depend, of course, on whether you’re on the Fleet Card or Universal Card Program.

If your drivers hold Fleet Cards, they can now fill up at any of Marathon’s over 6,000 stations – that’s around 500 more stations than five years ago. Plus, Marathon owns Speedway, which in turn owns GasAmerica, SuperAmerica, Express Mart, Hess, and nine Road Ranger stores – so its cards can be used at these brands’ locations, too.

Most of these stations can be found in the Midwest and Southeast US – if your fleet operates in these areas, you’ll have fantastic coverage with the Fleet Card Program.

And if it doesn’t, don’t fret. Marathon has teamed up with payment processing company WEX Inc. for its Universal Card Program, so Marathon’s Universal Cards can be used at any station that accepts WEX payments. According to Marathon, that includes 45,000 service locations nationwide and 95% of America’s retail fuel locations.

When it comes to finding their closest station while out on the road, there are several handy apps your drivers can use – but we wouldn’t recommend them all.

The Marathon Petroleum app only finds and displays Marathon stations and none of Speedway’s. The same goes for the Speedway Fuel and Speedy Rewards app, which only locates Speedway stations.

While using a combination of both apps could work, your drivers will likely find switching between the two a little fiddly. Instead, we’d suggest they use the WEX Connect app, which enables you to sort station searches by brand – as well as by location and price.

WEX also offers its own fuel cards, read our review of WEX to learn more.

Marathon Fuel Card Review: How Does Marathon Compare to Other Fuel Cards?

You now know what Marathon’s two cards offer and roughly where its gas stations are located. But how does that compare to other top fuel cards on the market?

Here’s a summary of how our other favorite fuel cards for fleet businesses compare to the Marathon Fleet and Marathon Business Universal card programs.

Costs, fee structures and value vs other cards

Costing either nothing for its Fleet Card or a small fee of $2 per card, per month for its Universal Card, both Marathon fuel cards are some of the most affordable on the US fleet market.

For instance, the ExxonMobil BusinessPro card has identical fees and station network size (95% of US stations) to the Marathon Universal Card. However, we’d say the Universal Card is better value for money since it provides higher rebate rates of up to 7¢ per gallon rather than ExxonMobil’s limit of 6¢ per gallon with its BusinessPro card.

Savings and discounts vs other fuel cards

As discussed, both Marathon fuel cards offer competitive, volume-based rebates ranging from 1¢ to 7¢ per gallon. In addition, new customers can receive boosted savings for the first four months of 15¢ per gallon for every gallon.

Other fuel cards can offer even more competitive rebates, such as Comdata’s claims of up to 25¢ off per gallon, but these high rebate cards tend to have much smaller networks or more expensive fees. For Comdata, you’ll need to pay $8 per month, per card and only have around 15,000 stations to top up at to see the benefit. Like Marathon, it does have a handy station locator app to find its cheapest stations, however, as you can see below.

Network acceptance and coverage

Marathon provides solid choices to consumers regarding network acceptance, given you can opt for only Marathon-branded stations (primarily located in the Midwest or Southeast of the US) with its Fleet Card or extend your acceptance to 95% of US stations with its Universal card.

Other fuel cards vary widely in their station acceptance, too. Many competitors provide a broad network comparable to Marathon’s Universal card, like WEX’s identical 95% coverage or a similar figure of acceptance with Edenred‘s anywhere with Visa policy.

If you’re opting for a cost-free card, however, Shell’s Small Business Card may be a better pick than the Marathon Fleet Card since it has more than double the size of its station network at over 13,000 locations versus 6,000. You’ll need to confirm which option has more stations in your locale, of course, but Shell likely has better coverage (it covers 47 of the lower 48 states). You’ll get higher base rebates too, since it starts from 2¢ per gallon (although big spenders will notice it has a lower 6¢ per gallon upper limit compared to Marathon’s Fleet Card’s 7¢ per gallon).

Our Methodology: How Did We Review Marathon Fuel Cards?