Car Fuel Budgeting - Consumer Fuel Cards?

bluebottle23

I roughly spend £100 a month on fuel.

I would like to take this out of my current account on pay day and have it in another account that I only use for fuel and ideally I would leave the card in the car permanently.

I'm a bit reluctant to do this with a current account card. Thought about pre-paid cards but not convinced.

Are there any other options? Maybe a consumer fuel card?

Ultrasonic

bluebottle23 wrote: »

I would like to take this out of my current account on pay day and have it in another account that I only use for fuel and ideally I would leave the card in the car permanently.

I'm guessing you are wanting to do this for budgeting reasons? If you are determined enough to try and organise a serparate card for this, couldn't you use the same willpower and organisation to simply not allow yourself to spend more than £100 a month on fuel?

Are there any other options? Maybe a consumer fuel card?

You could have the money in cash in your car I suppose.

Financially, the best bet is normally a cashback credit card. I'm not sure if there are any fuel cards for private use, but someone may well be along with a suggestion in a minute.

bluebottle23

Ultrasonic wrote: »

I'm guessing you are wanting to do this for budgeting reasons? If you are determined enough to try and organise a serparate card for this, couldn't you use the same willpower and organisation to simply not allow yourself to spend more than £100 a month on fuel?

You could have the money in cash in your car I suppose.

Financially, the best bet is normally a cashback credit card. I'm not sure if there are any fuel cards for private use, but someone may well be along with a suggestion in a minute.

I have various bank accounts that take care of different payments. On payday I put money into different accounts, all outgoings and savings are taken care of and i'm left with a sum in my main current account thats mine to spend for the month as needed.

Having a car is new to me and I'd like to make the fuel another fixed cost to me of £100 a month. So by separating it out as mentioned it means my main budgets stay the same. Any surplus each month will eventually lead to a free month for me, or cover an unexpected trip.

Ultrasonic

The multiple account thing sounds incredibly complicated to me but if it works for you then great!

If cars are new to you bear in mind that you'll get poorer fuel economy in winter than summer. At the risk of stating the obvious, you also need to budget (i.e. save) for things like servicing, MOT, tax, repairs (including guaranteed costs like tyres) and insurance.

Keeping cash in the car may genuinely be the simplest way to achieve what you want.

bluebottle23

Ultrasonic wrote: »

The multiple account thing sounds incredibly complicated to me but if it works for you then great!

If cars are new to you bear in mind that you'll get poorer fuel economy in winter than summer. At the risk of stating the obvious, you also need to budget (i.e. save) for things like servicing, MOT, tax, repairs (including guaranteed costs like tyres) and insurance.

Keeping cash in the car may genuinely be the simplest way to achieve what you want.

The accounts thing is fairly easy! All income goes into 1 account. From there its separated into 3 other accounts that all take care of different standing orders and Direct Debits based on type. Gives me a good knowledge of where my money is actually going. I also over pay into each by 10% a month and then once a year I get a free month :beer:

On the other running costs, one of my accounts takes care of these things by paying money in each month for when needed. But I leased the car to fix my costs as much as possible.

Concern with cash is genuine lack of security. Might just go with a current account if no one knows of any consumer fuel cards that dont cost.

Ultrasonic

bluebottle23 wrote: »

Concern with cash is genuine lack of security.

So long as you don't leave the cash on show this doesn't seem much of a risk. If someone did break into your car on the off-chance of there being something worth stealing, the cost to you of the damage to the car would likely dwarf the (up to) £100 cash lost. (Either paying to get it fixed, or from higher future car insurance premiums following a claim.)

I'd probably be more concerned about leaving my debit card in my car than cash to be honest!

bluebottle23

Ultrasonic wrote: »

So long as you don't leave the cash on show this doesn't seem much of a risk. If someone did break into your car on the off-chance of there being something worth stealing, the cost to you of the damage to the car would likely dwarf the (up to) £100 cash lost. (Either paying to get it fixed, or from higher future car insurance premiums following a claim.)

I'd probably be more concerned about leaving my debit card in my car than cash to be honest!

Perhaps but the debit card would only have max £100 to be had. I'll look into fuel cards more and see if there are any options out there.

Ultrasonic

bluebottle23 wrote: »

I'll look into fuel cards more and see if there are any options out there.

If you find one please let us know, then I won't be as useless the next time someone asks .