You know you’re getting old when you not only start noticing filling station fuel prices but, like the weather, they become a major topic of conversation!
I’ve always been a fan of, what I call, premium brand fuel – Shell, Esso, BP – even though some people insist it all comes out of the same distribution tank.
So, with my local filling station being Shell, I had a Shell Drivers’ Club loyalty card and didn’t think twice about filling up our car, my motorcycle or the fuel cans for the lawnmower.
Occasionally I received a £2.50 voucher in the post off my next fill-up and duly used it next time I topped the tank.
Recently Shell replaced this loyalty scheme with its new Shell Go+ loyalty programme which now rewards visits with 10 being the magic number.
My local Shell garage used to keep its fuel prices roughly in check with the local supermarket. I didn’t mind paying a couple of pence more a litre for Shell petrol or diesel but when the local Shell price was £1.39.9 a litre for diesel and local supermarkets were £1.26.4 and £1.27.9 it made me question the value of these Shell rewards.
With an 800-mile range, I usually fill our car when the gauge gets down to a quarter… or lower. On average, it takes 55 to 60 litres of diesel per fill.
Even at 12p a litre more, filling up with Shell is costing me up to £7.20 extra per tankful. Over 10 visits, at that price difference, that’s up to £72 more – only a few quid less than I would pay for 60 litres of supermarket diesel.
Free fill-up
That seems more rewarding to me – a free fill-up. Or the treat of a nice meal out with the wife, a couple of tickets for a football match or six bottles of half-decent wine.
Unfortunately, the new Shell Go+ reward scheme works on visits instead of points. Surely it makes more sense to be based on how much you spend. The more you spend, the more points you earn and the higher value of the rewards.
All you have to do is spend £10 or more on fuel or £2 or more in the shop. You get 10% off all hot drinks, deli2go, Jamie Oliver deli by Shell food ranges and Shell Helix Motor Oil and Shell Super Shine car wash or Quick wash every time.
So I could just fill up with £10 of fuel and turn my one tankful, at the Shell fuel price, into eight or nine visits but I can’t be bothered to keep going into the filling station.
And when I fill my motorbike it rarely takes more than £20 unless it’s running on fumes when I arrive and I don’t let it get that low. Normally it takes £16 to £18 so that would count only as one visit and, again, I’m not going to just top up with a tenner’s worth.
After a couple of visits I received a voucher for £2, hardly a reward given how much more I am paying for the fuel in the first place. It just doesn’t add up to good value at that price, however much you rate the fuel.
So instead of following this new reward programme’s slogan, after a couple of visits I will no longer ‘Say hello to Shell Go+’.
Instead, I’m bidding it ‘Goodbye’ because Shell fuel no longer seems a good buy for me!