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Verifone data: “Loyalty stacking” hits new high as gas prices peak

Wednesday, September 16, 2026 — 18:08:38 (UTC)

Verifone Data: “Loyalty Stacking” Hits a New High as Gas Prices Peak

NEW YORK, September 16, 2026: New payment data from Verifone, drawn from more than 40,000 convenience stores and fuel retailers across the country, shows that as gas prices rose this summer, a growing share of consumers combined loyalty and rewards programs at the gas pump, a practice Verifone calls “Loyalty Stacking.” By the final weeks of the season stacking had reached its highest point of the summer. This news comes as gas prices climbed to $4.32 a gallon this week, up from $3.20 a year ago, and diesel hit an all-time high of $6.26 a gallon.1

Verifone's payment solutions captured more than 590 million outdoor fuel transactions over the 15-week analysis window, from May 29 through September 10, 2026, covering nearly the entire U.S. summer driving season. Because it comes from actual transactions rather than survey responses, it shows what drivers did at the pump, not what they said they might do.

Loyalty Stacking Reaches a New High

About a quarter of all transactions included a loyalty or rewards card, and 2.86 million engaged in Loyalty Stacking, combining two or more discount programs on the same fill-up. That percentage rose steadily through the summer: from 0.43% of all transactions in late May to 0.52% during the July Fourth travel week, then eased through midsummer. It climbed again in August and reached a new high of 0.53% in the final weeks of the analysis window, the week of August 28 and the partial week through September 10, edging past the July Fourth peak and tracking closely with the summer's price swings.

The July Fourth week remains the single best week of the summer for savings: drivers who stacked rewards that week saved an average of $3.51 per fill-up, against $2.15 to $2.73 in a typical week. Across the season, drivers combined an average of 1.89 loyalty or discount programs when they stacked. Most retailers cap stacking at four programs; cases exceeding those caps are rare, affecting far less than 0.01% of stacking transactions all season.

Stacking doesn't always mean a better per-gallon rate. Drivers who combined programs saved 9.6 cents per gallon on average, against 15.7 cents for single-program users. But stackers fill up with far more gas — 26.4 gallons on average, against 11.5 gallons for single-program users — so they still save more money overall.

“Consumers are telling us exactly how they’re coping with gas prices at four-year highs — stack every discount and loyalty reward available and buy in bulk when they do,” said James Hervey, EVP of Petroleum and Convenience at Verifone. “A new season-high stacking rate heading into fall travel tells us this isn’t a holiday-weekend habit anymore — it is becoming how Americans buy gas.”

In total, drivers saved more than $82.8 million by using loyalty and rewards programs at the pump this summer. Because the data comes straight from live transactions rather than a monthly survey, it offers a real-time read on fuel-buying behavior, often weeks ahead of official government inflation reports. Verifone plans to revisit the data ahead of Thanksgiving travel to weigh what these savings could mean for a typical holiday road trip.

Verifone's Commander Family powers U.S. fuel and convenience store sites, helping site operators drive operational efficiency, loyalty, AI adoption and site modernization for petro and convenience retail owners. The Verifone Commander Family, including Commander C18 Point of Sale, Commander Fleet, Commander Payments and Commander Site Controller, is a single platform built for the full lifecycle of petro and convenience retail.

Methodology

Verifone's petroleum transaction data comes from more than 40,000 convenience stores and fuel retail locations across the United States using Verifone payment terminals. Verifone maintains and uses this data only in aggregated, de-identified form, and does not attempt to re-identify any individual, household, merchant location, or transaction within it. This release covers the full 15-week window from May 29 through September 10, 2026. The first week of that window (May 29 to June 4) falls at a data retention boundary, and the final week (September 4 to 10) is a partial calendar week. Both are included in the season totals above, but should be read as directionally consistent rather than strictly comparable to the 13 complete calendar weeks in between. Season totals are calculated by summing weekly aggregates across all 15 weeks in the analysis window. Verifone can capture payment data both at the pump and inside a convenience store, but this analysis looks only at payments made at the pump. For more information on Verifone's petroleum solutions, visit www.verifone.com/en-us/convenience-retail-petroleum.

‍ About Verifone

Verifone is a leading global payments technology provider trusted by the world's top brands. Verifone powers the boundless payments grid, enabling distinctive commerce experiences for merchants, fintech companies, and financial institutions wherever commerce happens. By combining a flexible platform, an open ecosystem of 2,500+ integrations, and four decades of payments expertise, Verifone eliminates payment complexity and expands what's possible across every payment channel.

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Source: Company press release.

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