How this page ranks fuel cards
One formula for all 13 cards: the per-litre saving times the litres that land where the card earns it on your routes, minus every fee the provider publishes. That produces an estimated annual saving in pounds, and cards whose network fits your routes poorly are flagged rather than quietly ranked on a discount your drivers would rarely collect. Unlike our credit card data, most fuel card pricing is not published, so each card shows what its provider publishes, what an official reseller claims where the provider is silent, and what the ranking assumed. The rules are below and on the methodology page.
What each provider publishes
Read from each provider's own page, or an official reseller's where the provider publishes nothing. The last column is the figure the ranking uses.
| Card | Sites | Pricing | Published saving | Card fee | Modelled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bp Fuel & Charge (small business) | 3,400+ | pump-related | 3.5p (plain discount) | £2.00/month | 3.5p |
| bp Plus | 3,400+ | pump-related | none | not published | 3.5p |
| Shell Card | 3,600+ | pump-related | up to 10p (reseller) | not published | 5p |
| Esso Card National (WEX) | 3,600+ | fixed weekly | up to 10p (reseller) | not published | 5p |
| Keyfuels Pay As You Go | 3,500+ | fixed weekly | up to 10p (reseller) | not published | 5p |
| Radius One (UK Fuels) | 4,600+ | fixed weekly | up to 10p | £2.00/month | 5p |
| UK Fuels Truckone | 4,600+ | fixed weekly | up to 10p | £2.00/month | 5p |
| Texaco Fastfuel | 2,900+ | fixed weekly | up to 10p (reseller) | not published | 5p |
| fuelGenie | 1,350+ | pump-related | none | none | 2p |
| fuelGenie+ | 2,300+ | pump-related | none | £5.00/month | 2p |
| Allstar One | 7,700+ | pump-related | up to 8p | not published | 4p |
| Edenred Black (via Right Fuel Card) | 1,660+ | fixed weekly | up to 9p (reseller) | £2.99/month | 4.5p |
| Supermarket Fuel Card (Right Fuel Card) | 3,000+ | pump-related | none | £2.99/month | 2p |
How the estimate is built
- An "up to" saving is modelled at half. Providers and resellers publish ceilings, not typical rates, and the ceiling usually applies at a subset of sites (motorway or discount diesel sites). Half is a stated rule, not a measurement; the card shows both figures.
- A published plain discount is modelled in full. bp's 3.5p at bp-branded sites is the only one among the cards we track.
- Supermarket pump-price cards are modelled at 2p. No provider publishes the gap between supermarket and national-average prices; 2p is our assumption and is flagged on the card.
- A card fee the provider does not publish is assumed at £2 a month, the figure bp and Radius publish. Fees published as "up to" are halved like discounts, and per-transaction fees are charged per 45-litre fill.
- Network fit is an assumption on every card, set from the brands and site types the provider lists: the share of your litres that earn the saving for each route type. A bp discount that applies only at bp-branded sites gets the bp share, not the whole accepting network.
Network fit beats pence per litre
The biggest number in fuel card marketing is the discount; the biggest number in your saving is coverage. A card taking 7p a litre off at sites your drivers pass twice a month is worth less than 2p off everywhere they already stop, and a detour to reach an on-network site spends the discount on fuel. The calculator asks where drivers mostly fill up, supermarkets, branded stations, motorways or a mix, and weights every card's saving by it.
Our view: treat every "up to" figure as marketing until it is in your quote. The one plain number in the whole market is bp's 3.5p a litre at bp sites, and it is not the biggest discount on the page.
The kinds of fuel card
- Wide multi-network cards (Allstar One, Radius One) accept at most UK forecourts and suit fleets that refuel anywhere; Allstar charges per transaction, Radius per card.
- Branded network cards (bp, Shell, Esso) discount on their own stations and suit routes built around them.
- Supermarket cards (fuelGenie, Right Fuel Card's supermarket card) ride supermarket pump prices, which are already below average, for little or no fee.
- Commercial and HGV cards (Keyfuels, UK Fuels Truckone, Texaco Fastfuel) use fixed weekly pricing across truck stops and motorway networks, built for vans and heavy vehicles.
- Reseller cards (Edenred Black) negotiate one deal across several branded networks.
Fees, and the small-fleet trap
Fees come as a monthly charge per card, a per-transaction network fee, and sometimes a low-usage fee below a minimum volume. For a three-van fleet, a couple of pounds a month per card plus a pound or two a fill can eat most of a small discount. The calculator asks for your card count and litres first for that reason. Large fleets amortise fees into irrelevance and should chase the network fit and the negotiated rate instead.
Common questions
Is a fuel card a credit card?
No. A fuel card is a charge account: drivers fill up on the card, the provider invoices the business, and the balance is settled in full by direct debit, usually weekly or monthly. There is no borrowing facility and no interest rate, but providers do run a credit check on the business before opening an account.
How much does a fuel card actually save?
It depends less on the advertised pence per litre than on how much of your fuel lands where the card earns its saving. A deep discount on a network your drivers cannot reach saves nothing, and detouring to reach it burns the saving. The calculator weights every card's saving by the share of litres that earn it on your route type before subtracting fees. Most providers price by fleet size and negotiate, so treat any advertised figure, and our estimates, as indicative until you have a quote.
What is the difference between pump-price discount and fixed weekly pricing?
Two pricing models. A pump-price card takes pence per litre off the price at the pump, or simply pays the pump price at supermarkets. A fixed weekly price card sets one national price for the week ahead, whatever the forecourt charges, which is typically cheapest for vans and HGVs filling at commercial sites and motorway stops. Commercial networks and reseller cards usually use fixed weekly pricing; branded and supermarket cards discount at the pump.
Do fuel cards work for electric vehicles?
Some do. Of the cards we track, bp Fuel & Charge, Shell Card, Radius One and Allstar One put public EV charging on the same account and invoice; the rest are fuel only. If 30% or more of your fleet is electric, the calculator flags fuel-only cards as a weak fit, because a card that cannot pay for charging covers a shrinking share of your energy spend.
Why do businesses use fuel cards instead of a normal card?
Three practical reasons: consolidated VAT invoices that satisfy HMRC record-keeping without collecting paper receipts from drivers; purchase controls, since the card pays for fuel rather than anything a forecourt shop sells; and per-transaction reporting by vehicle or driver. The per-litre saving is often the smallest of the three benefits for an admin-heavy fleet.
What fees should I look for?
Four shapes: a monthly fee per card (bp and Radius publish £2, Right Fuel Card £2.99, fuelGenie+ £5), a monthly account fee, a per-transaction network fee (Allstar publishes up to £3), and a low-usage fee below a minimum volume (fuelGenie £3 a month under £500 spend, Allstar £9.99 a card a month on an underused account). A free card with a small discount can beat a discounted card whose fees outrun a small fleet's saving, which is exactly the trade our calculator prices. Always check the fee schedule in the quote, not the headline.
Why don't fuel card providers publish their prices?
Most price by fleet size, volume and route profile, and negotiate. Of the cards we track, only bp's small business card publishes a plain discount (3.5p a litre at bp sites). The others publish an 'up to' figure, or nothing, and leave the rest to a quote. So each card on this page shows what its provider publishes next to the figure the ranking uses, and the rules that turn one into the other are printed below. The ranking is useful for structure, which network fits your routes and which fee shape suits your fleet size; the final pence per litre comes from the provider's quote.
What the figures cover
Where a provider publishes nothing, the claim of an official reseller of that network is used and labelled as such, and where nobody publishes a figure the card says so. Allstar's fees come from its Standard Charges document dated August 2022, the latest it publishes. No provider was asked for a quote; the pence per litre the ranking uses is a modelled estimate, not a price.
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Per-litre savings in this vertical are estimates built from published claims by the rules above, and vary by fleet size and negotiated pricing. Fuel cards are charge accounts settled by direct debit and involve a credit check on the business. This is a comparison service, not advice; accounts are opened directly with the provider.