Cheaper Petrol

[stevenage_saint]

I saw this on another website but after reading about it on the Money Saving expert think it could be worth posting on here.

Possible 5p-10p/litre petrol discount

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 less than 10,000 and 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)

__________________

[Kazi]

Sounds like a good idea, should it materialise

[fergy]

I signed up...can't see any catch and if it comes about it will be excellent.

[Rob]

the price of petrol here has gone down recently by about the equivalent of 3p

[steveo]

sounds good to me, cant see a catch so put me name down :)

[Mr Morse]

Nonsense!

The price of refined product is fixed on the open market, not by men in grey suits and there is little or nothing that this gimmick will achieve. The fuel retailers already operate on a margin of only 1-2p per litre and have no incentive to introduce this product.

FYI: The price of oil will remain high; at >$50/bbl for the next 3-5 years until the vast untapped field of the middle east (in particular Saudi Arabia) can be brought into production. Thereafter, a price in the region of $30-35/bbl is predicted.