It costs £7 more to fill up your car than a year ago

MILLIONS of drivers hitting the roads this bank holiday will have to pay £7 more to fill up their cars than they did a year ago.

Petrol prices have jumped to a four-year high, rising above 130p per litre for the first time since August 2014.

Average prices on forecourts have gone up by just over 13p a litre from 117.02p over the past year, figures from the AA show. This equates to around £7.17 when filling up a 55-litre tank on a typical family car.

Drivers of diesel cars have been hit even harder with the average price rising by just under 15p a litre – or £8.15 a tank – in the past year. The average price is now 132.72p a litre, which is the highest level since September 2014, and up from 117.91p since the August bank holiday last year.

Around 15million cars are expected to use the roads over the weekend, and those drivers who go to motorway service stations face paying more than £80 to fill up with petrol because of the hefty premium they charge.

Luke Bosdet, the AA’s fuel price spokesman, said: ‘This is summer holiday pump exploitation at its worst. Ridiculously expensive motorway fuel prices have made the drain on holiday money even worse.’

The increase in forecourt prices has been driven by a rise in the price of oil. But campaigners have long accused fuel retailers of being slow to pass on price falls to drivers.