Benjamin T. King is a partner at the Concord law firm of Douglas, Leonard & Garvey, P.C., a Concord resident, and an American Express card member since 1994.

Have “credit card rewards” ever caused you to lose your hard-earned dollars on your quest to save them? If so, you’re not alone.

Before I left my office the other night, I visited the American Express website to see whether any membership rewards might be available to this member since 1994 for fuel purchases. Why? The fuel light had glared accusingly at me when I’d rolled into my space that morning.

Its glare, undoubtedly, would become only more insistent when I started the car. Only a fill-up would quench my car’s thirst, a fill-up for which, I was sure, I had membership rewards to lessen the cost. And, sure enough, I did!

My membership rewards promised me 5 % cash back, on any gas purchase up to $20, from any Cumberland Farms fuel pump. I needed at least 14 gallons of gas, so I quickly calculated that I would reap a credit card reward of a full dollar, just by filling my tank at the nearest Cumberland Farms.

Traveling to the nearest Cumberland Farms for gas made me deviate from the path I would usually take for fuel, but wouldn’t you go slightly out of your way to save a full dollar? I sped past Loudon Road to the Cumberland Farms on North Main Street, where gas sold for $3.249 a gallon.

Wasn’t $3.249 a little high? I wasn’t sure. After all, I hadn’t filled up in awhile, hence the fuel light. Surely, the dollar credit I was poised to receive would compensate for any excess charges I was poised to pay. I pumped the gas and watched the charges climb, taking solace in the knowledge that membership rewards would be mine.

I might have savored my rewards, and remained blissfully blind to my folly, if I had headed directly home, without passing other gas stations, but I did not. I ventured onto Loudon Road en route to dinner at the Red Arrow Diner, only to pass the Mobil station where I typically fill up, selling gas for $2.949 a gallon, 30 cents a gallon less than my membership rewards had tempted me to pay at Cumby’s.

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While I waited for my liver and onions to cook, I computed the damage done. The Cumby’s fill-up had cost me $4.20 more than the Mobil fill-up would have cost, but ultimately only $3.20 more, given the “savings” I had reaped from membership rewards.

If only I had resisted the temptation of membership rewards and just filled up at my trusty Mobil, I would be $3.20 less in debt than I presently am!

But, wait, I did amass more credit card points with that fuel purchase. And if I make 20 purchases with the card this statement period, I earn 20 percent more points.

I’ll beat the house yet.