With fuel at record prices, anything that’ll make a difference is more than welcome.
It’s pretty shocking just how expensive petrol has got – and it could keep getting higher.
The 5p discount at the pumps promised by the Government hasn’t made any difference (if it’s even been passed on), so you’ll need to take it into your own hands to reduce how much you’re spending.
Hopefully these tips will help you do that.
Find the cheapest petrol near you
As a general rule, supermarkets tend to have the lowest prices, though these can vary massively from town to town.
Don’t forget to look at both sides of the road. It always amazes me how petrol stations on opposite sides of the same road can sometimes have massive differences in price per litre.
There are also a couple of websites which compare the prices of petrol based on whatever postcode you enter. These can be handy if you know in advance you need to fill up but they’re less useful if you’re driving!
PetrolPrices.com
You have to register to use this. By default you’ll see results within five miles of the postcode you enter, but you can expand this as far as 20 miles. There’s also an app you can download to your phone.
Confused.com
A completely free service which covers 83% of petrol stations. You can expand your search to a 25-mile radius. You get 20 searches per week but have to log-in to Confused.com to see the full results.
Work out if it’s worth going out of your way to fill up
The flip side of locating cheaper petrol stations is that they could be some distance away. This means using more petrol to get there and back.
When I looked at this last year, it was hardly worthwhile when it came to saving a few pence (assuming a 5-mile round trip), but the bigger the difference in price the more likely it was we’d save.
Of course, prices are even higher now, which means that journey to and from the petrol station will cost more, so you’d need an even bigger difference in price per litre to justify the trip.
Ideally though you’d choose which station you visit as part of a planned journey, using the tools listed above.
Make your car lighter
The heavier your car, the more petrol you’ll use. So get rid of anything in the boot that you don’t need, and take off things like roof racks if you’re not using them.
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Don’t always fill up
Also, it can make sense to only half-fill your tank at the petrol station as that extra weight makes a difference too. Or put enough in so you can get to a location where you know pumps will be cheaper.
Though of course, if you’re going on a long motorway journey or going out into the sticks, both places where prices are much higher, it could be worth topping up. It also means you won’t run out if you can’t find a petrol station.
Change how you drive
You might not realise that the way you drive can change your fuel consumption. This includes how you brake and accelerate. I’m no driving expert, so it makes sense for you to read this article from the RAC with some suggestions.
Get points and cashback
There’s little point using a petrol station just because it offers points back, but if you are at a garage offering them then it makes sense to claim them.
Obviously the supermarket ones have their own schemes. Esso uses Nectar, while BP has its own BPme (use code 000PEV3B when joining and you might get £2.50 worth of points). Download the apps so you’ve got them on your phone if you happen to visit one of their stations.
When you do pay, use a cashback debit or credit card to earn a little back (at most 1%) on your spending.
The confused.com prices seem hopelessly out of date. It’s better to use Waze, it shows you petrol prices in the area and gets updated more regularly
PetrolPrices.com is brilliant, but it really needs more people to sign up and report prices. In my area it often feels like there are only one or two of us reporting prices, so they’re often 4-5 days out of date, which is no good when prices are changing so rapidly. We all benefit from having this information available, so I’d encourage everyone who reads this to get actively involved.
It’s worth being aware also, that if you are using the self-service pumps at Sainsbury’s, you need to make sure you have at least £100 in your account for pre-authorisation.
I use Chase as an additional account so only transfer as much as I need each time. Completely forgot about this and couldn’t work out why my card kept getting declined when I knew there were funds in there!
At the end of the day what can the government do they a measly 5p off but from what I did see it went straight in to the garage forecourts till there must be vast profits being made by both oil company’s as well as on the forecourts as you see one garage selling for £1.79 a ltr then look across the road and another selling for £1.89 ltr so is the one selling at a loss or the other just ripping you off?