Compare the real monthly and annual savings of the Coast and Marathon fuel cards on your fleet's gallons, after fees.
Topics
About Coast
Coast is a modern fleet and fuel card built on the Visa network, so it works at any station that takes Visa with no network to plan routes around. It requires no personal guarantee, charges no per-transaction fees in the US, and its app lets owners set spending policies by driver, vehicle, day or merchant category with real-time alerts, plus 1 percent back on non-fuel business purchases.
About Marathon
Marathon's fleet card offers a slightly better discount than most widely accepted branded cards, supported by the WEX network for acceptance beyond its roughly 6,000 branded locations, more than most branded competitors. It includes automatic accounting and expense tracking, limits by amount, time and day, and a free app.
Coast and Marathon pricing
Coast costs $4 per active user per month with no inactive card fees. Fuel savings of 3 to 9 cents per gallon are applied on your statement at any gas retailer, alongside 1 percent back on non-fuel spend, so the discount travels with you rather than depending on an in-network station. Marathon rebates reach up to 7 cents per gallon when buying enough fuel at its stations each month, and with around 6,000 branded locations the maximum rate is easier to earn across more of the map than for smaller branded networks. The calculator applies each card's discount to your monthly gallons, subtracts card fees, and compares net savings and effective price per gallon at the current diesel price.
How they compare
Coast's pitch is simplicity: one flat discount that works at every Visa-accepting station, modern software controls and no personal guarantee, rather than a station network you have to fuel inside to earn the headline rate. Marathon squeezes a better-than-average branded discount out of a larger-than-average branded network, a quietly competitive middle path among the station cards. The honest comparison is a blended one: estimate what share of your gallons would actually earn each card's in-network rate on your real routes, set the discounts accordingly, and let the annual difference decide.
Sources