Gasoline discount apps/programs?

I turn my radio off to get through those ads... The people reading the scripts sound so dishonest, but that's more about the dummy writing the script...

Best path forward for this is getting on a credit monitoring website like Experian or something similar and start doing work to boost your credit rating and watching the credit card offers as they roll in.

I did this about the same time I started paying off my credit cards in full and despite having huge grad school loan debt, my credit rating soared to highest of high and started getting cash back on every purchase and went through 2 credit cards that gave me $200 cash back if I maxed out the cards half way... Soon as they credited the accounts with $200 I paid off the remaining balance and took the cards out of my wallet.

Meanwhile I'm now being flooded with more offers for matching cash back in full after a year for credit cards... It's kinda hilarious... So many people don't deal with credit card debts that they'll literally give you $200 to be their victim, but once you pay off the card they fail! Lol...

No way a gas buying cash back for a Prius can compete with that.

 

I don't buy gasoline anymore but when I did, I tried a Shell discount card. But a couple of days late on one payment, their late fees wiped out my savings. It was cheaper to drive a Prius than the Shell discount card. My EV is 1/3d the cost per mile of my previous Prius.

IF you want to switch, I recommend starting with any used, 2015-later, BMW i3-REx. Use eBay motors to see the successful sales with an accurate cost estimate. Look for one-owner or end of lease, used BMW i3-REx.

Avoid the 2014 BMW i3 as there was an expensive motor mount problem that I got fixed under warranty with three weeks in the shop. Also, get the Range Extender (REx) version because CCS-1 chargers have problems and the BMW has a 50 kW charge limit. Our BMW i3-REx gave 72 mi EV around town, a '10 stop' car and on the highway, 39 mpg at 70 MPH.

Bob Wilson

 

I really stop worrying about the price of gas when it's below $3 a gallon, and I don't play with snakes so I cannot avail myself of some of the giant monster mega-bank cards, but some of those are reportedly worth using if you already have a relationship with Citi, Wells Fargo, BOA, etc...
Some in my family use their Kroger rewards cards for gas purchases, and report large savings.
If there are still Walmarts in your part of the PNW I'm told that their "+" membership features 10 cents off of gas, along with all the usual other perks. If you don't want to get caught by your friends filling your Subie at a Murphy station, they offer "up to" 10 cents off at other stations too (Exxon and Mobil.)
Since I live in flyover country I know people who have the WM plus membership and would pay the $98 a year (or $13 a month) even without the 10-cents off of gas for the other perks.
CR has those deets.
Is a Walmart+ Membership Worth It - Consumer Reports

I would lean well away from a gas-only card since you can get more rewards from either a points card or a membership card and not be limited in the number of participating stations.

YMMV.

 

We shop at Kroger's for all our groceries. Use their coupons - digital coupons and manufactures coupons and have a Kroger Plus card for the in store savings. Kroger's Plus is not a credit card just a store card where you identify yourself at the checkout when you checkout and they can identify you and what you purchased. You then receive discounts and special store pricing as well as coupons based on what you might purchase in the future.

In our area all Shell stations will allow you to scan your Kroger's Plus card at the pump and save $.10 a gallon and we do it every time.

Kroger's Plus Card allows you to identify a charity and based on your total purchases in a year from them, they donate a certain percentage of that money spent to your organization of choice - ours is our children's former High School.

 

For those who have Publix grocery stores, twice a month(?) they have a special offer to purchase a $50 gas station gift card for $10 off if you purchase $50 in groceries. I take advantage of this every chance I get since it basically gets you 20% off fuel purchases. It's available for any $50 gift card for several different gas companies/convenience stores (Shell, Circle K, etc)

 

The Costco card gives 4% back of gas purchases, so I haven't paid attention to other programs.

I suspect most grocery chains have some type of awards program that includes gas discounts.

 

coincidentally:

upside-app.240236

 

The radio advertising totally turned me off. When the advertisements first started it was "I've made over $200 dollars this week". I looked at my wife and said BS. Even at a quarter per gallon, you would have to buy 800 gallons that week to "save" over $200. After several months they changed the numbers, then again about a month later and now it just says something like "does this really add up to anything" and the lady says, "I've made about $200". You don't "make" anything, even if it is some type of refund. It's not a job. If no one has noticed, blatant lies in advertisements is a pet peeve of mine, especially car stuff. And of course, now, our local "influencer" is trying to push the app. The sh*t just never ends.

 

I literally turn the radio off when their fake ads come on... Just the tone of the people reading the script makes it sound like 100% pure BS...

Only thing worse are the cars for kids ads. That sleazy operation only donates 5% of their revenue to a charity, which is a religious group and the same ad they've been playing for two decades is the ad that got them paying fines in western states for false advertising and so they paid the fines and kept using the same ad with a few words at the end changed. Can't stand them!

 

I know the US and Australia can be very different, so this may not be relevant. But here's a quick description of how things work here.

The two dominant supermarket chains have links to the two dominant service-station companies: Coles is linked to Shell, and Woolworths to Caltex/Ampol. They operate the little shops at the service stations as well as their own big supermarkets. If you spend more than $40 in the supermarket, you get a voucher for 4c or 8c per litre off your next fuel purchase (currently, prices for 91-octane fuel (what you can use in a Prius here - our octane ratings are different) range from about $1.70 to $2, so 4c a litre is a 2-3% discount. BP and 7-Eleven offer some sort of membership schemes that give you a similar discount through apps.

But they're pointless. The independent retailers and the smaller chains are cheaper. At my local service stations today, Ampol and Shell were offering 91 at about $1.80, so with the 4c discount it was $1.76. The independent retailers were offering it for $1.65.

Maybe it's different in the US. But here, these schemes aren't intended to save you money; they're intended to make you think you're saving money, and to keep you loyal.

 

I don't use Kroger gasoline anymore after a few times everyone who had pumped fuel here at the local Kroger affiliated store had their car die from bad gasoline. I would only use Kroger diesel if I still had a diesel.

I did have a Kickback card for a local Conoco that had Top Tier fuel. I only use Top Tier gasoline from now on.

But I've decided to stick with a local Sinclair that also has Top Tier fuel just because they have free air for the tires. The air at the Conoco is $1.75 and doesn't always work for me. I'd rather spend 3¢ more per gallon and buy my coffee and occasional snack or bag of ice there and have free air that I don't even have to ask if I can use it than to support a store that makes getting air hard and expensive.

As for local radio I listen to quite a bit but haven't heard anything here that sounds too good to be true. I do listen as local radio is important to me and if I do purchase a from a local business or service that was advertised on the radio I'm always sure to tell them that I heard about them on the radio.

 

Since 11/2020 my lifetime earnings have been $73.34 that I have "made"or got back in cashback from using the app.

I can provide screenshots.

 

You meant 11/22 - right????

 

We occasionally participate in a grocery/gas discount thing. We've got a dupe of somebody else's barcode tag.

Sometimes we get to cash in the points, but sometimes they use the points before we do.

The important thing is that the grocery store is getting some really weird data.

 

Since I don't listen to the radio, I don't know what program on Mobil and Chevron radio ads OP is referring to. But in my experience, there are many legit discount programs from various sources. I have used a local grocery store point discount program, Shell gas discount program, and various credit cards with higher cashback % on gas, etc. They do save, but the amount of savings all depends on how much gas you need to pump and how often. And how convenient it is to drive to a "participating" gas station must be taken into consideration.

When we had three cars and our local grocery store was offering a gas discount program from the purchase point, it was convenient for us to use a particular gas station Sunoco at the time with the points accumulated from regular grocery purchases. They usually limit to 20 gal max with a discount, but we often accumulated enough points to earn $1/gal off. Since my car alone could not take 20 gals of gas in a single purchase, when I had a large discount like that, I would go to the gas station with my son and wife following me behind and pump all three cars at a single purchase to use the max amount with the discount.

But after switching to PHEV and especially after COVID, I don't put much effort into saving gas costs anymore. I use to stop at gas stations every 10 days, but now with PHEV having 40 miles of EV range, I hardly put any gas in the car except on a long trip. The grocery gas program changed the participating stations from Sunoco to Mobile. We don't have a local Mobil gas station, so I am now mostly using Shell Fuel Reward Program if I have to stop at a gas station and use a 5% cashback credit card. That is essentially $0.20/gal off on $3/gal gas ($0.05/gal by Fuel Reward and 5% of $3 is $0.15). Otherwise, just fill up whenever we go shopping at our membership club to get 50c/gal off with purchase.

I have read that some app-based gas discount programs such as Gas Buddy extract quite a bit of your personal information from your phone. So be careful signing up for those app-based programs.

 

About $2.50 a month....sweet. Better than nothing, but a far cry from the lady on the commercials...she was rolling in the cash every week. I guess she was purchasing fuel for a 747.

 

I had the same thing for a while... Someone named "James Brooks" has accidentally used my phone number at Safeway grocery stores and I was getting like $0.40 off per gallon if I only filled up once a month... The drawback was that I'd get lots of spammers blowing up my phone thinking I'm James Brooks.