Tiffany Raiford
Someone said that gas prices are falling, though I haven’t really noticed. I’ll notice again when gas prices fall to where they were when I first began driving: $.99 per gallon. That’s when I’ll notice. I’m not complaining that they are dropping or that they seem to hover in the mid-$2 range since it’s a lot more budget-friendly than it was when gas was in the $4 range for a while, but I also drive a big SUV, so it just doesn’t matter to me. Sure, I like cheap gas, but it’s still not be on empty and still have to put $60 worth of gas in your car to fill it up when you used to be able to do the same to you first car for less than $25. Perhaps I’m holding onto the bitter.
In all honesty, I don’t pay that much attention to gas prices since I need gas regardless, and worrying about the price is not going to actually change the price. And then I realized that there is a way we can change the price of gas and save tremendously every single time we hit the pump. It’s so simple, really. You can save as much as 10% every single time you pump gas and it’s not even that difficult to do so. Want to find out how? Labor Day is this weekend, and that means many of us will find ourselves in the car preparing for a trip, and that means pumping gas at least once or twice. Now is a great time to go ahead and learn how to save money at the gas pump. Even if the savings do not seem all that impressive up front, they are. Even if you only save $.03 per gallon when you fill up using a gas credit card or rewards card, that’s big savings. Let’s say you fill up three times a week at 20 gallons per fill up. That means you’re saving $.03 per gallon, which turns out to be a much more impressive $.60 per fill up. So it’s still not a lot.
That doesn’t mean anything until you keep doing the math. Now you save $.60 at every fill up, and that’s three times a week. This means that you are saving approximately $1.80 per week. Still doesn’t sound like much, right? Let’s do that math again. Now you’re saving $93.60 per year on gas. That sounds like a lot more, right? Now imagine that you are saving 10% on every fill up. If you spend $60 to fill up your tank, you’re saving $6 each time. If you fill up three times per week, that’s a savings of $18. If you do this all year, you just saved $936. Now that’s a big deal.
Buy gas gift cards. That’s right; it’s that simple. If you take the time to look online, you’ll find that dozens of locations across the country are offering gas gift cards at a discount, which means you save a lot of money. For example, I can buy a $50 gas card at my local supermarket right now and get it for $40. That’s the promotion that they are running in an effort to sell gas cards and make people shop for things that they definitely need whether they realize this or not. Basically, all I have to do when I check out is tell the cashier that I would like to add the gift card to my purchase and then she will ring it up for the discounted price and allow me to save a bit of money at the pump. It’s not a bad way to save, especially since we all use gas regardless. It’s not like a gift card to a restaurant that we have no intention on going to in the first place anytime in the near future.
Here’s how to do it
If you want to take advantage of these gas cards, you’re going to want to know how to do it. The best way is to head to eBay, since that’s something you can access from all over the world. The gift card storefront is currently operating a promotion in which you can buy a $100 Conoco gas card for only $90. That’s 10% off the price of gas. Someone did the math and discovered that based on the average fuel economy of most new cars these days, that’s about 100 miles free and clear, which is a lot for anyone going on a road trip or vacation in the near future.
While eBay has the best option at the moment, it’s not the only one in the world. You’ll also want to check a number of other locations aside from eBay for gas cards. Walmart offers gas cards to those who are in the store shopping, and the price is several cents per gallon cheaper when you use one. It adds up over time even if you don’t see the savings too much at each trip to the pump.
There are other companies that offer this kind of deal, too, such as supermarkets and even gas credit cards. Gas credit cards, however, might be the best deal. Many cards offer a discount at the pump of several cents per gallon or even a certain percentage off the price that comes in the form of a statement credit. You can earn these credits by filling up using your gas card at the appropriate gas station, and save significantly on the stuff you already purchase when you are there.
Regular credit cards also offer rewards similar to this. You might want to check with the card you carry to see what kind of gas promotions they offer. Cards such as the BankAmericard offer cardholders cash back on many purchases, including a certain percentage of cash back on all gas purchases. It’s the things like this that really add up in the long run. It helps drivers save on gas and make each trip to the tank feel that much less painful.
There are so many ways you can save around 10% when you head to the gas pump; you just have to know where to look for those.
Photo and Illustration by Miguel Villagran/Getty Images
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