Arval / Allstar Fuel Card Charges

Bean_Counter

Hi,

As a business we currently use Arval / Allstar as our fuel card provider and all has been well until now. Since January they have introduced a £2 per transaction surcharge which will cost us £'000s and make the card unviable. I have contacted them about this, can't as yet find someone to speak to but working this, and they will only communicate by e-mail within 5 days so far. This fee is on top of the annual charge for administering the cards.

My first question is does anyone else deal with Arval / Allstar and how have they dealt with this?

Secondly if I end up having to change provider can anyone recommend someone to move to? I know there are companies out there that offer a discount on the pump price but the coverage they offer is not sufficient. I need a provider that will be able to used at pretty much all filling stations as I can with Arval / Allstar at the moment.

Thanks in advance!

Bean_Counter

Hi Jakes,

Thanks for the reply. I agree with the points you make about about network coverage, which is why we have used your fuel cards for so long - I have yet to come across a petrol station that doesn't take them.

I do take issue with the fact that you consider a £2 charge per transaction to be 'minimal'. Based on a normal £60 fill that accounts for 4%. If I am putting some unleaded in can, say £6, you can see the percentage increase in cost is vast. I have still to establish if this is on top of you other fees that you charge.

I note that you say this was in the T&Cs. I am looking at these now, and please can you confirm which part mentions the £2 per transaction as I can not find it.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

BigPaul2750

We are also Allstar customer who has just been hit with these transaction charges and in our case we will incur additional costs of about £2,500 per year.
Your experience seems very similar to ours; I have spent hours over the last 4 weeks trying to speak to someone at Allstar without any success. I have sent e-mails to them and also left call back requests without much success. I did however get a reply this week and what used to be a friendly team have now changed and the person I spoke to about these transaction charges was rude and arrogant and couldn’t see why I was so upset with suddenly having to pay an extra £2,500 per year.
We had no notification about these transaction charges and I have insisted that they are credited. I was told that they wouldn’t credit them so we have commenced legal action against Allstar.
We have now left Allstar and gone to “the Fuelcard Company” with a card that you can use at Shell, Esso, Total & Texaco. This will not be as good for us but at least the annual card fee is 33% cheaper at £12 and we won’t be hit for £2500 per year transaction fees.
Mr De Kock, you say that the fee represents only a small percentage of the overall fuel expense and in percentage terms you are correct, however on a £50 fill up it adds another 4% to the cost of the fuel. You need to know that this transaction fee is wrong, I have no objection in company’s trying to make a profit but this fee is extreme.
I am amazed that Allstar expect their customers to just swallow this huge cost and I would love to know the numbers of customers who are switching. I myself have 5 friends who also run their own businesses and are Allstar customers and I have spoken to each and every one of them and none of them has received any communication regarding the new charges. Needless to say, these 5 companies and my own are going to switch to an alternative provider.
My wife used to work for Allstar many years ago and she can’t believe that they have introduced these charges.

Bean_Counter

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your response and it's good to know that I am not alone, although I would be surprised if all their customers just blindly accepted these charges.

I agree with every word that you say. Customer service has gone right down hill and even minor things like changes to the format of the invoices has changed for the worst.

I shall await Mr de Kock's response, but do not have the margin to accept these charges and in all likelihood will be changing supplier as well.

I am also glad that I am not the only one who missed these changes in the terms & conditions. I am re-read them and still can't find them.

Bean_Counter

More unhappy customers here.

Bean_Counter

BigPaul2750 wrote: »

We have now left Allstar and gone to “the Fuelcard Company”

I see that our friend Mr de Kock is also the Marketing Director at The Fuelcard Company according to this...

bettsyt

Dont be fooled by the Fuel Card Company calling you soon after you mentioned the Arval network charges as they are both owned by the same company! What they seem to be doing is putting this charge onto a lot of Arval customers & then trying to switch them to the Fuel Card Company instead as they make more from that side of the business.
If you did want to look into alternative fuel cards that dont have transaction charges please let me know.
Thanks
Tim

Bean_Counter

Anyone any idea why so many posts keep disappearing?

Savvy_Sue

Forum Rules - scroll down to 'Companies' for starters.

Bean_Counter

Thanks Sue - got it. Shame really as struggle to speak to them any other way at the mo. Back to the direct approach.

Bean_Counter

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Two advertising posts reported.

Just out of interest would MSE do a feature on this to advise business savers on the implications? This may well have significant implications for a lot of SMEs across the country or does MSE only stick to advice for individuals?