The government is planning on adding an additional 3p per litre onto fuel duty at the start of next year, with a further 5p set to be added in August.
This is a move which has angered UK motorists; prompting 110,000 motorists to sign an online petition. People’s anger with the move is perfectly understandable when you consider that 12.3% of the motorists questioned as part of a MoneySupermarket survey recently admitted that they can no longer afford to use their vehicles.
Over 50% of those surveyed admitted that they believed that fuel duty should actually be cut in the New Year in order to help people avoid debt. This is unlikely to occur, but there are things you can do to bring down your annual fuel expenditure:
Top up for less
You should always look around for the best deals by using websites such as petrolprices.com which list the cheapest filling stations in every area of the UK. With petrol prices differing by almost 20p per litre depending on the forecourt, you would be a fool not to utilise such services.
However, remember to factor in any special offers that you might have received when deciding which filling station to use. Supermarkets such as Morrisons and Sainsbury’s will offer fuel vouchers to customers who spend over a certain amount on their weekly shop. Sainsbury’s for instance currently offer 10p per litre discounts to customers who spend over £60 on groceries.
Credit cards
A survey conducted by Equifax revealed that 2/3rds of motorists are using credit cards to pay for fuel in petrol stations.
This is all well and good, but research suggests that approximately 1/3rd of these people are paying off less than 25% of their balance at the end of each month. This obviously results in customers also paying interest on top of their fuel bill which is resulting in them eventually paying far more for fuel each year.
However, there are credit cards available that actually offer fuel filling benefits. Sandtander’s 123 credit cards for instance pays 3% cash-back up to a cap of £9 per month.
Plan ahead
Always plan your route before setting off so that you don’t waste fuel by getting lost and adding needless miles to your journey. It might sounds like obvious advice, but too many motorists fail to set aside time to do this before travelling.
Sat-nav’s will prove to be of great assistance in helping to avoid this, but don’t fall into the false assumption that they are infallible. It always helps to have a map handy in case you sat-nav loses signal or malfunctions.
Drive with care
