In these severe economic times everyone is trying to save money, and drivers are no exception. There are a few ways to reduce your costs while driving a car, and these are mainly altering your driving techniques or saving on fuel costs. You should try and use higher gears at lower speeds, and if you don’t over-rev the engine your fuel consumption should be reduced considerably. Fuel costs, however, seem to be constantly on the move, and in order to save money, there are some great apps that could help you find the cheapest fuel.
WhatGas
This app comes in a free Lite version with ads, or a paid version (currently at 71p). It compares fuel prices so that you can find the costs of unleaded, Diesel and LPG in the UK and Ireland. Handily, it actually contains information from over 50,000 filling stations all over the world, so you can even use it if you go on holiday. A facility for you to add petrol stations and prices in your area is a lovely feature that can help others find the best value fuel as well.
To find the cheapest petrol station nearest you, you can browse a map and just click on a station to see the fuel prices. If you are only looking for one type of fuel or if you would prefer to only search particular brands of fuel, then you can filter by that as well. Once you have found the cheapest petrol station near you, it will even give you directions on how to get there.
The AA
This app is free for some features, but if you want the ability to find the cheapest fuel then you need to be an AA member. Without membership, the app will help you plan routes, avoid tolls and congestion charge zones, and get real-time traffic information.
However, once you are a member you can also report a breakdown and track the van on its way to you, view parking options, but most importantly, find the cheapest places to fill up with fuel. The fuel prices are constantly updated by the AA, and can be viewed on a map. When you specify your location, it will list the prices and fuels of the closest five petrol stations to you so that you can choose the cheapest.
PetrolPrices
This is another free app that can help you find the cost of fuel in the UK. The prices are updated daily and there are over 8,000 petrol stations included here which is a 98% coverage of the total. All the major fuels are covered, both unleaded and super unleaded, Diesel and premium Diesel, as well as LPG.
You can either find the cheapest fuel near you, or search for the nearest while also specifying fuel type and brand if you like. And like the WhatGas app, once you have chosen your preferred petrol station, it will give you directions on how to get there.