Possible 5p-10p/litre petrol discount

Penny-Pincher!!

Im in Martin!!

PP
xx

clearvisor

MSE_Martin wrote:

How?

A consumer scheme's being set up to use bulk buying consumer power to negotiate a big petrol discount from a major retailer. You simply register for a free card that allows you to get the discount.

This already happens in the corporate market with fuel cards, so its great to see the consumer version.

When does it start?

That's the catch-22. To get the card up and running a critical mass of people are needed. Having said that, the number needed is apparently 10s of thousands, yet with 350,000 recieving my email tip, I hope we can help get close to that. (im not linked with the scheme, i just support the concept)

Who runs it and how much do they make?

Fuel campaigner Ben Scammel runs the http://www.pipelinecard.org/ website (note if the site doesn't work, that may be due to the huge traffic following the email tip send, so try later). He says the card will be completely free, but of course organisation costs need to be met, yet this will come out of the discount negotiated, as will his profit I suspect. Not that it's an issue with a free card anyway.

How realistic is this?

The proposition is a good one and Ben claimed to have already negotiated the discount and have it up and running, just needs enough people now.

How safe is this?

You're going to register for a webstie. Ben's reputation is as a fuel campaigner. I hope it is legit, I don't know though simply because the full details can't be released during the negotiation period. Therefore I cannot put a full "MSE says YES" stampa of approval on it, however it appears to be legit (you need to make that call yourself).

Therefore I prefer to ask the question what can you lose. The site only requires your name and email address - which is a good start (no credit card details are asked for). This means the worst that can happen is it spams you with sales pitches, though that seems unlikely. The real most likely 'bad event' is it doesn't get off the ground and nothing happens. So nothing lost. Hence I've registered personally. Cross your fingers.

Once the scheme is up and running, I will take another look at it then and re-evaluate it based on the concrete details.

What to do

Go to http://www.pipelinecard.org/ and sign up. (note if the site doesn't work, that may be due to the huge traffic following the email tip send, so try later)


Martin

Please feel free to discuss the scheme below


PS Ben is also a site user so i've invited him to discuss on this thread too


Update Some Further Thoughts 22 November

A few further points. One thing I noted on the site is there's no 'unsubscribe' option, I've pointed this out and been told it will come in a day or two.

It's also easy to question the economics of this - where will the 5p-10p come from as margins aren't that large (though it should be remembered part of fuel tax is in the form of VAT which reduces with price). I think 5p is feasible, yet it may be 5p off average fuel prices not 5p off supermarket prices. However all this is sadly just supposition at the moment, to see if it'll be any good, we need to wait for the numbers.

However as this site only requires a registering of interest and no payment, there is very little to lose. A fuel discount card with 100,000 users would be a powerful consumer weapon and bring prices down for many. Fingers crossed....

Up early as they say the early bird catches the worm, No problems registering,
thanks I joined in.xx

Sue_Hughes

Seems like a very good idea to me Still new to this site - looks good thank you

scorour

I've registered, worth a try ......

se999

Initially from the first posting I thought it was some sort of discount/cashback scheme, which is no risk etc., a bit like joining Rpoints etc..

But, just had a look at the site, and I'm a little confused.

On the first report in the media section ('pistonheads') there's a graphic saying 'pay with pipeline' so presumably it is actually going to be some sort of credit/charge card.

I think the pipeline website needs to make it clear what the card is.

If it's a discount/cashback scheme I'm all for it.

But not too keen on a credit/charge card idea, not too sure if it's too competitive when up against the other cashback credit cards and loyalty schemes, & maybe not worthwhile the unless you do a lot of mileage.

Hope someone can clarify this point.

inmypocketnottheirs

Driving, as I do, 40,000 miles a year, would be a great benefit. Let see if it happens ............

JimArnold

well I'm on but I do wonder if it will be usuable unless several retailers sign up. Round here I regularly pass 3 independents and 2 supermarkets The only 2 that are part of large chains are 5 miles off my usual routes

baldbopper

Thanks for this Martin. I and my partner have registerd as it looks good.

mike_paterson

SonniC55 wrote:

A fuel card for consumers to gain discounts on purchases....hmmmm....really
Even if this does come about it will never be greater than 5p and only usable in stations that will no doubt inflae thier price so that at best you will get the same price per litre than at the supermarkets. The only achievement will be for the petrol retailer gaining thousands more customers who foolishly think there getting a good deal.

It is well proven that consumers grouping together can achieve discounts not achieved by individuals. Example - get a group of 20 to go to Colchester Zoo or on a ski-ing holiday and you will get a big discount.

Not sure why you would think 5p is feasible but 10p is not - perhaps you could share your calculations with us to enlighten us?

SonniC55 wrote:

In reality if this card does take off then it will reduce the buying power of supermarkets which will in turn force the price up AGAIN. think people !!!

I for one will not be applying - the only gainers here will be the petrol company the card is tied to and of course the guy setting it up - the loosers
gee I guess thats us.

Amazing how you can turn a positive into a negative.
I am glad you won't be joining as it will mean that you can subsidise the rest of us

Wig

I haven't registered, but after reading all these replies I don't think I will register.

If the discount has allready been negotiated then Ben should be able to:

1. Tell us exactly how it is going to work
2. Tell us what the discount will be to the card holder.

How will it it work?

I think it is safe to say it will be a charge card, that's how all the lorry drivers buy their fuel. But as someone pointed out it is likely to be a fixed price nationwide (average price - 3p or so) This will benefit users in parts of the country where petrol is more expensive (Up North). I can't see why Ben is not explaining exactly how the scheme is intended to work and what the price will be.

Good luck to you all, I'm on the fence until some more details are announced.

And if that is how it will work, all that will ultimately happen is that hopefully all the citizens of towns with expensive petrol will sign up thus reducing the traditionally expensive areas to closer to the average price. And as usual the super markets will always be a penny or two cheaper. However, I think that even if it does work and only benefits those in expensive areas, people being what they are will not all sign up so it will not affect the prices in those areas (except ofcourse for the card holders).

**If I was a petrol manufacturer and I was designing this scheme, this is how I would do it. I would say to the forecourt owners that they have to accept this loyalty charge card account scheme. If someone fills up 100 litres of fuel the retailer doesn't see a penny of it (well maybe a penny or two for his trouble) but when the account is paid the money goes to the petrol manufacturer, and on the next delivery of fuel to the forecourt the garage has a credit of 100litres.

So the manufacturer is the one making the profit from the sale of the fuel not the fore court, therefore the potential savings are anything up to the normal wholesale price of fuel (to the retailers). The downside is that if everyone did this the garages will go out of business.