Best Small Business Fuel Card?

Jesper

I've my own Ltd. Company. 2 Directors. Recently bought a van and now I'm looking to get a fuel card.

The DCI card and Fuelwise card seem the best? is this right? Most of my driving is in Kilkenny/Dublin so coverage is ok with both cards. I do minimal mileage <400pw. It's more so for convenience/DD/Vat purposes I will use it.

martyoo

I'm with Applegreen. Price for diesel next week is 103. I got a quote off DCI and they were about 2 cents per litre cheaper than Applegreen.

DCI seem to be the cheapest at the moment.

kayaksurfbum

I use a fuelwise card. Last 3 years no complaints.

you get a text every 3 or 4 days with the current price per liter.

scwazrh

our dci rate today is 90.3 cent ex vat / litre.We've used dci for the last year but have had a few issues with them on prices on being higher than at the pump price.When Ive rang them they always do a better price but its annoying to have to ring them to get a good rate and if you forget to challenge their price you end up paying more than you would over the counter . They also charge an annual card fee so you need to take that into account .
That said the convenience of three weeks credit , emailed invoices and not having to mess around with fuel expenses is a plus

irelandspurs

I signed up for fast fuel last month and used for the first time last week. Get a text weekly with the price.

Zimmerframe

Didn't pay much heed to my bill for a while, and today noticed those "chancers" at DCI are charging me 96.10c per litre plus VAT = 118 cents per litre and that's at a Core station. The actual pump price in the same station is 106.9.

One DCI card for the shredder.

Kristopherus

Zimmerframe wrote: »

Didn't pay much heed to my bill for a while, and today noticed those "chancers" at DCI are charging me 96.10c per litre plus VAT = 118 cents per litre and that's at a Core station. The actual pump price in the same station is 106.9.

One DCI card for the shredder.

I don't use the card if an outlet is cheaper. After 2 weeks or so I'll get a call from DCI asking why I'm not using the card. I tell them in no uncertain terms to bugger off with their inlflated prices. Got an email this evening announcing that the price from midnight is110.823c (90.1 + vat). The dearest around my neck of the woods is 109.9c, with most outlets in the 105.9c to 108.9c. So DCI can sing for their supper for another while. In fairness they were 5-10c cheaper for most of last year. Its only in the last 2 months that they have fallen back.

Zimmerframe

Yeah, I didn't lose any sleep when there was a cent or two either way, but charging me €15 per year for the privilege of paying 12c per litre extra is taking the piss totally.

neris

in the past 2 months ive tried signing up with different fuel cards. dci, applegreen and some other crowd i cant remember now. dci were 1st and tried getting me on phone twice with no luck so i rang the person back 3 or 4 times and emailed them, still waiting to hear from them. applied for applegreen and the other crowd at the same time. heard from applegreen within 24 hours still not heard a peep out of the other crowd (who ever they are )

lucky john

DCI

using the card for a few years but noticed the price creeping up. Stopped using the card a month ago when the core pump price hit 96.1c + vat. after a couple of weeks the text had the price at 85.6c + vat. Then 84.6c + vat. yesterday it was down to 82.6 + vat. still haven't used the card. Looks to me like they profit from complacence on the users part. If you continue to use the card they keep upping the price to see if you have a breaking point.

Zimmerframe

lucky john wrote: »

DCI
Looks to me like they profit from complacence on the users part. If you continue to use the card they keep upping the price to see if you have a breaking point.

Yes that seems to be their business plan, all right.
They have ran out of rope with me. :mad:

martyoo

Looks to me like they profit from complacence on the users part. If you continue to use the card they keep upping the price to see if you have a breaking point.

Sneaky! Will need to start keeping a better eye on the weekly price texts.

_Kaiser_

lucky john wrote: »

If you continue to use the card they keep upping the price to see if you have a breaking point.

Do you mean that pricing is individual rather than for all users of the card?

It's been consistently higher than the local garages over the last few months or so and that gap is widening further. I use it because it's convenient but if there's some back-end ploy to see how much I'll put up with then I'll be looking for an alternative.

cormie

I use Direct Fuels in Bray, they supply an EDC card and also supply me with an Esso Card. The esso card can be used in pretty much any Shell/Esso in a lot of EU countries and it can also be used to pay tolls and organise a recovery through the AA, even if you don't have an AA account (you still have to pay for the recovery, but at least you know you'll be getting charged a reasonable rate and not getting ripped off by local independents).

The service has, up until recently, been fine, but I had a query with some toll overcharging back in I think September which still hasn't been resolved, they also sneak in a €15 card charge per year which the first few years I got refunded as I told them I was never told about the charge when signing up and I'm not willing to pay it. I'm still waiting to get the last one refunded though.

I might have to look for another supplier as I haven't heard back from my last 4/5 emails inquiring either charge. Prior to that, they had been very good with communication and answering all queries (including other over charges) so I don't know what happened them.

Also, don't ever buy unleaded with their cards, they pile on a huge mark up.

In terms of pump price, I'll need to keep a closer eye on this too to make sure the prices are actually competitive.

The convenience factor is a definite plus and being able to give drivers cards and pin numbers instead of giving them debit cards and pin numbers or messing about with cash.

huddlejonny

Just had a read off this thread about the best fuel card.

Our company has been using Fuelwise Texaco cards for a good few years now.

Like most of the people on here using cards, we get an e-mail once or twice a week to notify us of the price per litre.

Up until today, I have never queried it, even though our diesel bill is between 1-1.5k euros per month.

Long story short, I was offered a 12% reduction in price per litre against the price they sent me by e-mail at the start of the week.

I queried this with the customer representative and she is now going back to check some previous invoices to see if they can offer me some credit in lieu of the rip-off prices that we have been paying along.

The bottom line it seems that whoever you use for your fuel card - keep ringing them every couple of weeks to get the best price available.

martyoo

I'm still with Applegreen. Latest diesel price is €117.50.

Do any of you know a place near the airport think it's called Greatgas?? Think they do a card as well.

huddlejonny

martyoo wrote: »

I'm still with Applegreen. Latest diesel price is €117.50.

Do any of you know a place near the airport think it's called Greatgas?? Think they do a card as well.

My reduced quote yesterday from Fuelplus was down to €1.19 - passing the local garage last night and there price was €1.19 also.. I reckon we have overpaid thousands of euro over the last few years by not checking the Fuel Plus prices. They send their weekly price as an ex VAT figure which is very deceiving. Looking back at the price per fill in the garage versus what we paid on the FuelPlus card, in every receipt I checked we overpaid between €4 - €12 on every single fill.

Must check out Applegreen and other options. Does anyone know of a fuel card that you are guaranteed their best price all the time without having to ring them every few weeks?

martyoo

It's something I am not keeping an eye on either and I should be as diesel is my one of my biggest costs.

They send their weekly price as an ex VAT figure which is very deceiving.

`

Applegreen do the same.

huddlejonny

martyoo wrote: »

It's something I am not keeping an eye on either and I should be as diesel is my one of my biggest costs.

`

Applegreen do the same.

Last week we were quoted 1.10 CPL ex VAT by Fuel Plus / DCI. Works out at 1.35 CPL inc VAT

An extra €0.16 per litre than our local garages.

On their website Fuel Plus / DCI claim to offer the 'very best fixed wholesale fuel prices or they will refund the difference'.

We are in the process of getting a refund. How much I don't know but I have checked receipts as far back as 2015 and even then we were paying well over the odds upto 12% against the price of diesel on the local garages.

Bandara

huddlejonny wrote: »

Last week we were quoted 1.10 CPL ex VAT by Fuel Plus / DCI. Works out at 1.35 CPL inc VAT

An extra €0.16 per litre than our local garages.

On their website Fuel Plus / DCI claim to offer the 'very best fixed wholesale fuel prices or they will refund the difference'.

We are in the process of getting a refund. How much I don't know but I have checked receipts as far back as 2015 and even then we were paying well over the odds upto 12% against the price of diesel on the local garages.

The costs price of derv of the wholesale Platts index, as off this morning, is €1.1248 up €.0134 since yesterday.

So your price of €1.10 from last week is actually the cost price of fuel.

However where they are being disingenuous is that fuel retailers operate on a rebate system, we actually sell fuel below cost and then receive a rebate which makes up the below cost and also contains our margin. Average rebate would be between 14c-18c per litre, which ties in perfectly with your price being 16c dearer than bricks and mortar station prices.

You need to have a weekly bulletin email sent to your staff each Monday to advise them of the price fuel is costing you and at what level they are to buy at. Otherwise you are open to losing considerable money.

Another option is to have a derv tank in your yard, and buy bulk wholesale (very easy to do) and have your drivers draw from there.

The margin on fuel to retailers is approx 3 cent a litre, whereas he margin we get from fuel card transactions is a fixed 1 cent a liter. So no service station operators like taking fuel cards. We make triple the margin in regular sales ! The old misnomer is trotted out to us by the fuel card companies that the fuel card customer 'buy stuff in the shop'.

It's a very odd business really.

huddlejonny

Bandara wrote: »

The costs price of derv of the wholesale Platts index, as off this morning, is €1.1248 up €.0134 since yesterday.

So your price of €1.10 from last week is actually the cost price of fuel.

However where they are being disingenuous is that fuel retailers operate on a rebate system, we actually sell fuel below cost and then receive a rebate which makes up the below cost and also contains our margin. Average rebate would be between 14c-18c per litre, which ties in perfectly with your price being 16c dearer than bricks and mortar station prices.

You need to have a weekly bulletin email sent to your staff each Monday to advise them of the price fuel is costing you and at what level they are to buy at. Otherwise you are open to losing considerable money.

Another option is to have a derv tank in your yard, and buy bulk wholesale (very easy to do) and have your drivers draw from there.

The margin on fuel to retailers is approx 3 cent a litre, whereas he margin we get from fuel card transactions is a fixed 1 cent a liter. So no service station operators like taking fuel cards. We make triple the margin in regular sales ! The old misnomer is trotted out to us by the fuel card companies that the fuel card customer 'buy stuff in the shop'.

It's a very odd business really.

Very interesting read. Thanks for that. My problem with Fuel Plus is the fact we were getting a weekly emailed price from them but from what I now see is that the prices recieved are 10-12% higher than the pumps. My understanding of their weekly price was that we would be getting the best available fixed price possible.

On the rare times I did check these prices I never noticed their prices were being sent ex VAT. So at first glance it looked like we were getting a good deal compared to the garage pumps.

Lesson learned now though!

wexfordman2

Old thread I know, but I signed up with DCI (as a some trader) about 2 months ago.

Initially prices were cheaper, but now definately not. My local garage, known for being one of the most expensive in the area, is advertising on the forecourt cheaper than my DCI rate for the last 2 weeks.

As well as that, a mate has a fuel card with DCI, and he is getting a much cheaper rate than me.

Time to ditch I think, any alternative suppliers people would recommend ?

132.2 cpl for next week ffs. Who would have thought that a fuel card would result in you paying higher fuel charges.

martyoo

I've noticed Applegreen are doing the same to me at least. Checked it yesterday and some of their own stations are cheaper than what I am getting. The used to be about 1-2 cent cheaper.

132.2 cpl for next week ffs. Who would have thought that a fuel card would result in you paying higher fuel charges.

People get lazy and don't check. It's sneaky but happens it a lot of other areas too. Insurance, broadband/tv etc.

Kristopherus

wexfordman2 wrote: »

Old thread I know, but I signed up with DCI (as a some trader) about 2 months ago.

Initially prices were cheaper, but now definately not. My local garage, known for being one of the most expensive in the area, is advertising on the forecourt cheaper than my DCI rate for the last 2 weeks.

As well as that, a mate has a fuel card with DCI, and he is getting a much cheaper rate than me.

Time to ditch I think, any alternative suppliers people would recommend ?

132.2 cpl for next week ffs. Who would have thought that a fuel card would result in you paying higher fuel charges.

Are you getting the Core Site priced? If not, ring them in Galway and request best price. Having said that, DCI have hiked up the price above my cheapest stn. in the past 2 weeks.

CeilingFly

Plenty of threads about how dci deceive you. They hope you can't work out the vat inclusive price and in many cases their VAT EXCLUSIVE price is very close to the vat INCLUSIVE price of a forecourt.

You think you are paying 3-4c less, but in reality you are paying 20c more unless you haggle with them every 2-3months.

Most fuel cards operate the same way as many are run by the same company.

Avoid unless you absolutely need them.