How we saved a lot of money on fuel with the AA Smartfuel Card – Backpacking Tips

Save money thanks to AA Smartfuel & App

Today we tell you our trick for the maximum possible fuel savings, with the AA Smartfuel Card in combination with a smart app.

The card itself is free and available at BP, G.A.S. (from 1.8.2019), Caltex (till 31.7.2019) and the supermarket Countdown. When you get the card, follow the registration steps on the box. We ourselves got the mobile APP after registering and thus had everything on the way always in view and knew when we have to redeem the savings at the latest.

 

 

How the card works

The functionality is quite simple. Fill up gas at a participating gas station for 40NZD or more. Which sort does not matter.

 

Participating gas stations:

• BP
• G.A.S. (from 1.8.2019)
• Caltex (until 31.7.2019)

For the $ 40, you can save 6-10ct per litre (depending on the day and if there is any action) on your AA Smartfuel Card while paying. Alternatively, you can redeem the discount directly. But that makes no sense to achieve the maximum savings. Nor does it make any sense to refuel more than exactly 40 NZD. You will not get more discounts if you tank for a higher amount. Use the opportunity to select the desired amount of fuel at the pumps, so you cannot refill too much.

It is also important to know that you can save up to 2 months on your discounts. In other words, if you did not use your discounts until the last day of the second month, they will simply expire. If you have the app, it will also show you what discounts expire at the end of the month, so you can always see when you have to refuel using the discount.

 

 

Use maximum savings

To get the maximum out you have to do the following. Every time you have room in the tank to refuel for 40 NZD you are looking for a BP, G.A.S. or Caltex station via the app Gaspy (German fuel spy). With the app you can see the prices of gas stations in your area. So you can look for the cheapest station. The app is based on the join in principle, so if you find different prices then please enter them in the app. The other users will thank you. More about the Gaspy app, we have put together here in the following post.

 

The refuelling process

When refuelling, at one of the participating gas stations, you decide that you want to have fuel for 40 NZD, but no more and not less! This will take you to the maximum discount value.

Now you do this until shortly before the end of the month OR until you have saved a discount value equal to the current fuel price. Unfortunately, if you have more discounts than the price of fuel per litre. And the discount unfortunately cannot be split.

 

Redeem your discount

As soon as it's close to the end of the month when your discounts expire, you drive your car for as long as possible without refuelling. If there is enough space for 50 litres of fuel you are driving to one of the participating stations.

The maximum amount that you can refuel with your collected discount is 50 litres. Do you refill more, and then the discount is only on the first 50 litres, so more than 50 litres refuelling makes no sense. If your car has a smaller tank or you are afraid to drive your car too empty, then we have had good experiences with a 5 litre jerry can. This can be used to refuel more if your tank is too small, or as a reserve if you are left empty-handed.

 

So as soon as you have refuelled your exact 50 litres of petrol at the petrol station, you say at the cash register this time that you want to use the discount. In English, the words “use” or “redeem” are at the cash register.

 

Concrete example:

• 50l x 1.799 NZD = 89.95
• 50 x (1,799 – for example discount 1,30 NZD) = 24,95

In that case, you would have saved 65 NZD. Of course, the savings vary depending on the amount of your saved discount. It is relatively easy to save a lot of money if you pull it through consistently.

 

With these 50 litres of fuel you should now ideally come over the “date line” and have to refuel only in the new month. Voila, you can save six times a year a lot of money while buying fuel.

 

 

Get fuel for free

If you do it perfectly and drive a lot, then you will collect as much discount as the fuel costs. Then the tank filling is free. When we did it, the cashiers but have always made eyes if you had 1.20 – 1.50 NZD discount, as even at high fuel prices, the sums quickly small. All in all, over the year we saved more than 360 NZD in fuel costs through the card.

 

Questions, suggestions or ideas

Do you still have questions about using the AA Smartfuel Card or do you know a better way to save money? Then we look forward to your comment under this article.