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Hello savvy savers! Today, we’re diving into the world of fuel savings to cut you some motoring costs. From choosing the right petrol station to maximizing loyalty offers, we’ve got you covered.
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Choosing the Right Petrol Station: Beyond Fuel Prices
Selecting the perfect petrol station goes beyond the price listed on the pump. Loyalty schemes can play a crucial role in slashing your motoring costs. Let’s break down the loyalty programs of some leading petrol stations to help you make informed decisions on fuel savings!
1. BP – Beyond the Pump, Beyond Savings
BP’s loyalty program, BPme Rewards, is a fantastic way to earn and save. By signing up, you can earn points for every litre of fuel purchased and for every pound spent in-store. You get 1 point for 1£ spent on regular fuel and 2 points for every litre of Ultimate fuel. Points are worth 0.5p each and can be redeemed for discounts on future fuel purchases or even used at partner retailers.
Once you collect 100 points (=50p) you can convert them to the same value of Love2Shop, M&S or Amazon vouchers or spend them on fueling up. You can also convert 40 BPme points to 25 Avios. BPme Rewards users get also discounts in BP shops e.g. cheaper coffee.
Occasionally there are also for special promotions and bonus point opportunities to maximize your fuel savings.
My verdict– if BP is not your preffered petrol station (the closest/more convenient/cheapest) for you go for Texaco (at BP you need 200 points for £1 off for your fuel at Texaco it costs you only 100 points). I use Shell but due to legacy discount described below and not avaliable to all hence recommending Texaco points collection on fuel unless you were Shell Energy customer before Oct’23 then go with Shell!
Money Saving Girl
How much you need to fuel to get £3 off at BP?
- You need 600 points to get £3 off, so you need to spent £600 first as 1£ gives you 1 point!
- *£600 is ca 400 litre of fuel – when assuming 1 litre = £1.5
2. Shell – More than Just a Shell of a Loyalty Program
Shell’s Drivers’ Club is designed for savvy & loyal drivers. Instead of points, earn visits by spending £10 or more on fuel or £2 or more in the shop. Every 10th visit motorists using the Shell GO+ app or key fob receive money off fuel ( the discount depends on how much you have spent). Rewards can be redeemed for discounts on fuel car wash and 10% off snacks and hot food and drinks at Shell stations.
My partner and are Shell Energy customers and therefore eligible to receive a 3% saving on 60 litres of vehicle fuel each month at participating Shell stations as we joined Shell Energy before 5 October 2023. If you were with them and renewed a contract before 5 October 2023 you will qualify for this perk too!
My verdict– if Shell is not your preffered petrol station (the closest/more convenient/cheapest) for you and you are not Shell Energy customer (from before Oct’23) go for Texaco (100 points= £1 off for your fuel at Texaco).
Money Saving Girl
**I use Shell as we get usually £2.5 savings on car petrol (60 litres with 3% off means ca £ 2.5 savings); as we have been with Shell Energy before Oct’23. But I use Shell for car fuelling as its our local station and Texaco for motorcycle as the latter is on my way to work. I use only 10litres per 2 weeks, so it doesnt matter but it would take me 250 litres of Texaco petrol to match Shell on my motrocycle, so clearly Shell rewards is better as I need for it only 60 litres of pertol not 250! Sadly not all of us can use this perk so, then the second best is Texaco…
How much you need to fuel to get £3 off at Shell?
- Hard to say how much reward you get after your 10th visit but by the 10th visits you need to have spent at least £10 each visit so £100 in total ( I m half way that cycle so will let you know how much I see when I get my reward in my account). However, we can safely say that I can save 3% off 60 litres in a month so assuming 1 litre is £1.5 we spend £90 per tank which then offers us £2.7 in savings (3%). To save £3 we would need to spend £100 which is possible if we fuel up with petrol more expensive than E95…
- *£2.5-£3 discount is achieved by 60 litre of petrol as that’s the cap per month but can offer £2.5-£3 offset on the fuel price, provided that you had been Shell Energy customer before 5/10/23.
3. Nectar – Fueling Your Points, Fueling Your Savings
If you’re a fan of Sainsbury’s, the Nectar loyalty program can help save some money. Many petrol stations, other than Sainsbury’s own petrol stations accept Nectar card, these include BP or Esso. Collect Nectar points with your everyday purchases and use them to slash the cost of your fuel. It’s a seamless integration of your everyday spending with fuel savings. You can collect 1 point per 1 litre of fuel. 1 Point is then worth 0.5p (100 points are worth 50p then). So it means 300 points are worth £1.5 and on Nectar site we read that you get 5p off every litre of fuel when you swap 300 points when paying at the station, not the pump. Maximum fuelling is capped at 60 litres, so 5p*60 litres = 300pences to be saved, so which means 300 points offer you a saving of £3. You can also redeem the points on purchases other than fuel at Sainsbury’s or Nectar’s partners such as BA, Habitat, Eurostar, Argos or eBay.
How much do you need to fuel to get £3 off with Nectar at Sainsbury’s petrol stations or Esso?
- You need 300 points to get £3 off, so you need to spend ca £450 (assuming 1 litre = £1.5) first as 1litre gives you 1 point!
- *£450 is ca 300 litre of fuel – when assuming 1 litre = £1.5
4. Tesco Clubcard – Filling Up and Saving Big
Tesco’s Clubcard isn’t just for groceries; it can also fuel your savings at the pump. Convert your Clubcard points into Tesco Fuel Vouchers for discounted fuel prices at Tesco petrol stations or partners including English Heritage, Disney+ or RAC breakdown cover. You can merge your everyday spending habits with fuel savings or maximising on saving on partners’ offers ( IMHO this is more sensible if you need any of the partner offers)! 🛒🚗💨
You can collect 1 point for every 2 liters of fuel at Tesco Petrol stations- this is more than on all BP or Nectar card-accepting stations! Additionally (for qualifying purchases other than fuel, you’ll earn 1 point for every £1 spent in the kiosk). The number of points rises if you bank with Tesco Bank and pay for the fuel using Tesco Bank card or Clubcard Pay+ app.
Whenever you fuel up at Tesco or Esso use Pay+ as else you need to fuel more to get more points quicker!
You’ll collect 1 Clubcard point for every £3 spent on Esso fuel where there is a Tesco Express shop (again this is more than at BP & Nectar accepting stations), and 1 point for every £1 spent on car washes or other in-store purchases. You can also use your Tesco Clubcard vouchers for both fuel and in-store purchases at Tesco Express with Esso petrol stations when using your paper or digital vouchers before paying.
1 ClubCard point = 1p if you using it at Tesco and 2p if spending it at Tesco partners. So, every 100 Tesco Clubcard Points earned is equal to £1 in value when redeemed directly with Tesco and £2 in value when redeemed with Tesco’s partners.
I’d not spend Tesco Clubcard on fuel though as
a £3 voucher =£3 off fuel at both Tesco or Esso with Tesco Express.
As Tesco Clubcard points are worth 1p per point (100 points = £1) when redeemed directly with Tesco and 2p per point when redeemed with Clubcard Reward partners. You get better value for exchanging your Clubcard for other partner offers e.g. cinema tickets where 50p gives you £1 to spend, the same goes for railcards. You can trade £1.50 in vouchers to get £3 credit towards your railcard. So you can get more savings on other items than for fuel, of course, it’s not a saving if you don’t need the other items but fuel so your own judgement is needed here.
We turn every £5 in vouchers into £10.00 when using LeShuttle when travelling by car to Poland 🙂
My verdict: It looks like getting petrol at Tesco/Esso stations is NOT the best way to acquire points and then buying fuel for Tesco Vouchers is NOT the cleverest either.
How much do you need to fuel to save to £3 off with a Tesco Clubcard at Tesco petrol stations or Esso?
- 1 point per 2L –> so its 1point per £3 (if 1litre £1.5 on average) – @Tesco petrol stations
- 1 point for every 1 litre of Tesco fuel (excluding Esso)—>if you pay with Pay+ @Tesco petrol stations
- 1 point – £3 –> Esso stations accepting Clubcard (this may be similar to getting the petrol at Tesco stations and paying NOT using Pay+)
- to save £3 you need to collect 300 points (100 points = £1.00 in vouchers) so at Tesco petrol stations you need to get 300 litres and pay with Pay+ if you don’t use Pay+ you need twice so much petrol so 600 litres and at Esso you need to spend £3 per point so 900£!!!!
- *300 litre of fuel is ca £450– when assuming 1 litre = £1.5
- *600 litre of fuel is ca £900
5. Texaco – Texcellent Loyalty Rewards
Texaco with the Star Rewards program offers another opportunity to cut motoring costs. Earn 1 point per litre of fuel, each point is worth 1p. Motorists need 500 points before they can redeem £5 against fuel or exchange for vouchers at Love2Shop that can be spent on a lot of popular brands. You can also donate your points to charity and Texaco is supposed to match that donation!
It’s funny as they went extra lengths to compare all fuel-saving loyalty schemes and you see the below banner on their site yet last time I was at the station the cashier had to input some numbers from my app to their system – it took some extra time and didn’t feel like a seamless swipe of a scanner…so it takes a loyal customer to be willing to open that app and use that way (or maybe I was dommed at this particular station – need to check another one now)…Looking at the below comparison they seem to be the best! But they ARE NOT – the below table contains ERRORS!!! Check my summary!
How much you need to fuel to get £3 off at Texaco?
- You need 300 points and that means 300 litres of petrol to get £3 off!
- 300 litres will cost you ca £450 if avg price of the fuel is £1.5
6. Esso – Fueling Your Journey, Fueling Your Wallet
Esso is an anomaly as it accepts both Nectar and Tesco Clubcard to save on fuelling depending on the petrol station you visit.
You can skip the rest as it is exactly as above under the Nectar and Clubcard paragraphs.
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Nectar members collect 1 point worth 0.5p per litre of fuel and 2 points per £1 spent in participating Esso service stations. They can then swap 300 Nectar points to get 5p off every litre of fuel up to 60litres so ultimately 300 collected Nectar points at the station or Siansbury’s or elsewhere will deduct £3 off your petrol price.
Tesco Clubcard is accepted in Essso filling stations attached to Tesco Express stores and you can collect 1 point per every £3 spent on fuel. So using Nectar rather than ClubCard is better as £3 spent is roughly 2 litres of the cheapest petrol or less (if more expensive petrol), so to get 1 point you need more than 1 litre if using Clubcard.
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7. Morrisons – More Points, More Savings
Morrisons offers its own unique fuel loyalty program, Morrisons More introduced in 2023. Customers can earn 5 more points for every litre of fuel bought. Points are also received for on products sold at petrol stations. Once you collect 5,000 points you will get a £5 voucher in your Morisson’s More app. That voucher can be spent either in-store or online but not at fuel pumps.
How much you need to fuel to get £3 off at Morissons?
First of all you can’t get £3 voucher I’m only extracting this value to illustrate that in a comparable way to the other stations and rewards described here.
You need 3000 points to get £3 voucher but you can’t use it for fuel. However, to get this voucher and use it in the supermarket you need to get 600 litres (3000/0.05=60l). As we know from the above examples 600 litres is ca £450 if the price of fuel is £1.5.
Summary
When analysing fuel savings loyalty schemes & how to get £3 off fuel the clear winner is Shell but you would need to be Shell’s Energy customer before 5/10/23 to get 3% off 60 litres of fuel. If that’s not the case the best programs are these that make you fuel up 300 litres of fuel to allow for £3 discount in return, these are:
- Nectar at Sainsbury’s petrol station or Esso
- Clubcard at Tesco petrol stations or Esso
- Texaco
Having analysed the above I do think often it doesn’t make sense to frantically collect points and spend on fuel – it can be ‘by the way activity’ otherwise it may make more sense to collect these points at some supermarkets (Sainsbury, Tesco etc.) and spend on the offers from their partners as often the points value are doubled there.
Practical examples to maximize your fuel savings
Now that we’ve explored the major loyalty schemes, let’s dive into some practical examples to illustrate how you can fuel your savings:
- Stacking Loyalty Programs: Combine fuel purchases with other everyday spending to maximize points accumulation. For instance, use your Tesco Clubcard at Tesco petrol stations and earn points on both groceries and fuel.
- Promotional Periods: Stay alert to promotional periods and bonus point opportunities. Many loyalty programs run special promotions, providing you with a chance to earn extra points or discounts.
- Strategic Fuel Purchases: Plan your fuel purchases around loyalty program promotions and offers. If a particular petrol station is running a double points promotion, consider filling up there to boost your savings.
By strategically navigating these loyalty programs and making informed choices about where you fill up, you can cut some of yours motoring costs. The key is to align your everyday spending habits with these programs to maximize the rewards they offer. So, fuel up wisely.
