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Universal Premium Mastercard® review
Your rebates on fuel purchases may be canceled out by high fees.
- Get this card if you need a fuel card for your business, but have poor credit.
- Pick something else if you want a better rewards structure and fewer fees.
- Apply with a fair credit score of 580 or higher.
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Up to 6
Cents off a gallon
Up to $120
Annual fee
27.24%
Purchase APR (variable)
580
Recommended credit score
Review by
Kliment Dukovski
kliment.dukovski@findercrew.comKliment Dukovski is a credit cards and investments writer. He's written over 600 articles to help readers find and compare the best credit cards. Kliment has also written on money transfers, home loans and more. Previously, he ghostwrote guides and articles on foreign exchange, stock market trading and cryptocurrencies.
Expert review
The Universal Premium Mastercard® is a fleet credit card with an annual fee per card of up to $120 and a whole lot of other fees, including late payment fees of $150 or 10.99%, whichever is greater, up to 10 cents per gallon program admission fee, up to $15 check by phone fee and up to $50 fee for each ACH or Wire payment.
On the positive side, you can get volume rebates of 3 cents off per gallon at the Retail Savings Network and 3 cents off when you buy 30,000 or more gallons in a month. You can get a 5% rebate on purchases at Firestone and Tires Plus locations. That said, other fleet credit cards only require you to spend 10,000 or more gallons per month to get a 6 cents per gallon rebate. Unfortunately, this may not be enough to offset the number of fees you could end up paying.
If you’re looking for a fleet card to maximize your rewards and streamline your company finances, you may want to look elsewhere.
How to apply for Universal Premium Mastercard®
- Click Apply now.
- Fill out the application form with the required information.
- Review your application and submit.
What credit score do I need?
Apply with a fair credit score of 580 or higher.
Universal Premium Mastercard® benefits
- Fuel discounts. Get 3 cents off per gallon on volume rebates and 3 cents off per gallon when fueling at the Retail Savings Network. Combining the two discounts can get you a maximum of 6 cents off per gallon. To get the 3 cents volume rebate, however, you need to buy 30,000 or more gallons in a month, making this hard to get. Unfortunately, there is no information on which locations participate in the Retail Savings Network.
- Maintenance rebates. Get 5% rebate on purchases at Firestone and Tires Plus retail locations through the Mastercard Easy Savings Network
- Card customization. Customize each card based on driver or vehicle and set up spending controls. You can set fueling controls for certain types of vehicles in your fleet or limit the types of purchases per card so you know exactly where the company’s money is going.
- Online account access. Log in to your online account and get detailed reporting, including driver and vehicle listings, transactions, fuel summary and more. Download the data and integrate it with other company software.
Universal Premium Mastercard® drawbacks
- High risk credit account fees. If your account is deemed high risk, you’ll pay $5 per transaction or 2% of your account’s spend limit per billing cycle, whichever is greater. There are five instances where your account can be classified as a high credit risk account: Your credit score is lower than 660; your score drops by 51 points in a three-month period; you make more than one late payment in a 12-month period; your account is 30-days delinquent in a 12-month period; you make a payment that isn’t honored by your bank. FleetCor will monitor your credit card account once every three months and if there’s a change in your credit score, your account may no longer be deemed as a high risk.
- Security deposit. If your account is deemed high risk, you may need to make a secured deposit, which will act as your credit line for 80% of the amount. So if you deposit $10,000, your credit line will be $8,000.
- Fuel discounts exclusions. You won’t get volume rebates on aviation, bulk fuel, propane or natural gas purchases.
- Fees. The card comes with many fees.
Breakdown of fees
- Late payment fees of 10.99% of the balance or $150, whichever is greater
- Up to $10 monthly card fee; this could end up being $120 for one card each year or $1,200 for ten cards
- Up to 10 cents per gallon minimum program admission fee; this cancels out the potential 6 cents off per gallon deal
- Up to $15 for each optional fleet report
- Up to $15 check by phone fee
- Up to $50 one-time EFT payment method set-up, and up to $5 every time you pay via this method
- Up to $50 fee for processing each client initiated EFT/ACH/Wire payment
- Up to 0.9% foreign transaction fee and up to 0.2% currency conversion assessment fee
Compare business credit cards with gas rewards
Because the fees seem to outweigh the benefits of this card, you may want to look for another business card that also offers gas rewards. Compare your options to find the best card for you.
Bottom line
The Universal Premium Mastercard® comes with so many obnoxious fees that you’ll likely incur some each billing cycle. Also, the threshold to get 3 cents per gallon rebates is three times higher than with other fleet credit cards. There are better business cards with up to 3% cash back on gas purchases or fleet cards with 6 cents off per gallon, making it easier to get.
Consider any other business credit card as an alternative and you likely won’t be wrong.
