Driving a car is a necessity for me. I’m sure it probably is for most of you! Have you ever wished that you could find the cheapest fuel in Britain? Don’t hold your breath! It’s probably because you’d use at least half a tank of fuel to go and find it anyway! Fuel prices are forever going up meaning that driving a car is going to get harder. If you’ve read my post on how to manage the cost of running a car, you’ll notice that I didn’t include the price of fuel, crazy right? Maybe not, I have a plan.

What would happen if you could get paid to fill up your car? I’m not talking free fuel unfortunately, but anything that can soften the blow of the already ludicrous prices that the big companies are charging has got to be worth it!

I’m not going to send you on a wild goose chase to find the cheapest fuel in Britain. It may sound crazy, but I buy all my fuel, no matter where I am, on a credit card. WHAAT?! Yep. Credit cards aren’t always the devil. The trick here is that not all credit cards are created equal. Enter the cashback credit card.

The Cashback Credit Card

Cashback credit cards give you a reward every time your spend on them. This reward comes in a few different options. The two most popular seem to be cash, or points (like Tesco Clubcard) and we know that points mean prizes most of the time. You’re not going to become a millionaire over night using them, sorry, but who would say no to free money?! For this cashback to be worth it, you do however need to be strict with your purchases and even more so the repayments.

If you have a local garage that you regularly use, it might be worth investigating what credit card offers would benefit your more as there are many.  I regularly fill up at the Tesco garage near me, so I’m taking full advantage of the Tesco Bank Clubcard Credit Card. This doesn’t give me cash, but as mentioned earlier, I get Clubcard points, which I can use in store or double the points up in the boost program to use elsewhere. I get point for using the credit card, I get points for spending at Tesco. There’s no downside that I can see. A day out to Longleat with my girlfriend and daughter was all paid for using Clubcard vouchers. Winner.

It’s not the cheapest fuel in Britain if you earn interest

All these benefits are worthless if you accumulate interest on your card. The Direct Debit MUST be setup to pay the full balance each month. No questions about it.

It doesn’t matter if this credit card doesn’t have any interest free offers on purchases or balance transfers. It doesn’t even matter if the APR is astronomical. All that matters is that as soon as you have it in your hands, before you use it for the first time, make sure you setup the Direct Debit, in full from your current account. It’s probably best to do this the day after you get paid if you haven’t already, take a look my post about Automating Your Money.

When you pay the balance off in full, you don’t get charged interest. When you don’t get charged interest, small kittens are saved from their peril.

If your Direct Debit is setup and paying off in full, go ahead and buy your fuel and worry a little bit less about buying the cheapest fuel in Britain.

TL;DR – Get Paid to Fill Up your Car

1. Get yourself a cashback credit card
2. Setup a direct debit to pay the full balance every month
3. Purchase ONLY your fuel with this card and NOTHING ELSE.