How can I get cheaper petrol?

How can I get cheaper petrol?

Consumers can use specialist websites, apps and loyalty schemes to get cheaper petrol.

You can use the MotorMouth website or app to find the cost of petrol near your home or office.

MotorMouth has a simple colour-coding system that makes it easy to tell, at a glance, how prices in one part of your city compare to prices in another.

Residents of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide can get buying advice from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission website.

This website explains whether now is a good time to buy petrol, based on that city’s petrol price cycle. Here is the sort of advice it provides:

• “Prices are decreasing but they are likely to decrease further. If possible, motorists should delay buying petrol until later.”
• “Prices are increasing. If motorists shop around they may find some retailers that have not yet increased prices.”
• “Prices appear to be around the lowest point of the cycle. Now is a good time for motorists to buy.”

If you want to see how prices have been tracking over the past few months, and even the past few years, you can go to the Australian Automobile Association website.

The AAA offers month-on-month data, including the minimum, maximum and average price in different communities, and whether prices have been trending up or down.

Loyalty programs

Coles and Woolworths offer discounts of four cents per litre every time you spend $30 in one of their supermarkets.

Drivers can redeem Coles petrol vouchers at almost 700 Coles Express outlets around Australia. And if they spend $20 inside the Coles Express store after filling up, their discount will jump from four cents per litre to 14 cents.

Woolworths petrol vouchers can be used at the 500-plus Caltex Woolworths outlets. The discount increases from four to eight cents if you also spend $5 in-store.

IGA has its own petrol program, although this applies only to supermarkets in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, as well as selected stores in Victoria.

Here’s how the program works:

• Buy petrol at any service station
• Keep the receipt
• Spend $30 or more at a participating IGA supermarket
• Present your petrol receipt at the supermarket cash register
• Receive a discount of four cents for every litre of petrol you bought

Drivers can also get discounts of up to 22 cents per litre if they get an EasyFuel card – although some people might find it hard to find partner businesses where they can earn discounts and partner service stations where they can spend them.

Here’s how you can accrue discounts:

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