Here’s how to reduce your weekly petrol bill
Forget driving to A¯ tiamuri – there are ways to save money on petrol every day of the week.
Motorists descended on the North Island town when the Gull station reduced its fuel prices.
But AA PetrolWatch spokesman Mark Stockdale said drivers should be careful about travelling too far out of their way for cheaper fuel.
‘‘If you travel 5km it night be worth it to save 20c a litre but if it’s 20km you’re probably spending your saving.’’
There are other ways to get more reliable discounts.
LOYALTY SCHEMES
The petrol discount market has changed over recent years.
Pak’n Save and New World offer discounts for Mobil via their FuelUp scheme, which operates at some supermarkets around the country. Non-participating New World and Pak’n Save sites have their own petrol stations and offer discounts for those. You could save 6c a litre this week.
Countdown now offers OneCard customers the option of collecting OneCard point for AA Smartfuel discounts. Shoppers who spend $100 in a week earn 3c off a litre. Those who spend $200 get 6c. Smartfuel members can add to their discount by shopping at other retailers that accept the card.
The petrol stations also offer their own incentives – Mobil Smiles offers one point for every litre of regular fuel and gives $5 off after someone as collected 300 points or $10 off after 500.
Z’s Fly Buys Pumped scheme offers 6c a litre off to people who swipe their Fly Buys card, with bigger discounts on selected days. Some petrol stations offer to match the discounts competitors offer drivers.
Stockdale said people should go on to the various schemes’ websites and get an understanding for how they worked and how they could maximise their totals. People earning Smartfuel points from Countdown could opt to condense their shopping to $200 a fortnight rather than $100 a week if they were struggling to hit the 6c threshold, he said.
But Jessica Wilson, head of research at Consumer NZ, warned against chasing points. ‘‘If you’re going out of your way to places to earn points to buy petrol, driving out of your way, shopping at a particular place or limiting your choice of retailer, then you’re not likely to come off better off as a result.’’
REDUCE YOUR FUEL CONSUMPTION
Stockdale said motorists could make a much bigger difference to their fuel bills by driving in a way that reduced their fuel consumption.
‘‘If everyone drove in a more fuelefficient manner all the time it would cut their consumption by 20 per cent.’’
He recommended driving as if you have a carton of eggs under your right foot. ‘‘You’re accelerating and braking gently. If you do that it will help reduce your fuel costs.’’
People should also look ahead of them and anticipate when they would have to stop, he said, and coast to a halt rather than heavily applying the brakes
Keeping tyres topped up with air would also help – that should be done monthly, he said. ‘‘All tyres lose air. There are lots of cars running on underinflated tyres but you can’t tell.’’
DON’T FALL FOR SMALL DISCOUNTS
Bodo Lang, head of the marketing department at the University of Auckland business school, said motorists tended to inflate the impact of small discounts offered by petrol stations.
‘‘The price is highly visible and displayed on roadside signs. It’s a good that we buy frequently so we get a sense of ‘3c less, that’s amazing’ when over a year it’s very little. It’s not nearly as much as we think it is.’’
He said a similar price difference in grocery goods would not even register in shoppers’ minds. But petrol purchasing decisions were driven largely by price and location.
Stockdale agreed 3c-a-litre discounts would not make a material difference. ‘‘You would waste that money just through normal driving.’’