AA Smartfuel savings

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › AA Smartfuel savings

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#742023 9-Jan-2013 06:41

I think another point being missed is with all the accumulating of 6c in the first one or two fills, you're actually paying full price for those tanks of gas and only getting the discount on the 40 litres when you actually redeem. I can't see how this can be to any great advantage

MikeB4

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#742024 9-Jan-2013 06:42

I was an AA member prior the change to the current. I would accumulate a lot of points and it was worth the annual fee. The change to the current made the AA pointless. Any savings barely reaches the annual membership fee, add in free roadside assist with some insurances or in our case with the new car warranty AA is irrelevant. I have cancelled my membership.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

sbiddle

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#742026 9-Jan-2013 06:49

lucky015: Although it is a fairly decent system it is only slightly more effective than picking your gas station wisely which allows you to buy as much as you want as often as you want.

Not to mention if you're lucky enough to live in a city such as Auckland or Rotorua where pricing can easily vary by 10c + per l near Gull sites

dickytim

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#742031 9-Jan-2013 07:15

ubernoob: I think another point being missed is with all the accumulating of 6c in the first one or two fills, you're actually paying full price for those tanks of gas and only getting the discount on the 40 litres when you actually redeem. I can't see how this can be to any great advantage

1, You are putting $40 (not litres in each time for a top up and getting a discount to be used later) remember you are only putting in about 19 litres

2, You get the accumulated discount off 50 litres (not dollars) when you redeem it,

If I was to save my discounts for 2 months I would be better off.

I would top up twice a week (current use is about $80 for me) so for that period I would accumulate 0.96c per litre.

Once I decided to spend this I would put 50 litres in costing $57.

non-discounted fills would cost $640
Discounted fill cost me $57
total $697

If I used the discount immediately each time (as I do) $723.79

Potential saving is $26.79

There are some other things you can do, I top up our tow vehicle with $40 (it only does about 100km a month) I take my parteners car and fill it up for her and accumulate the discout.

Really tho for the discount it is not worth my time to go to the petrol station twice as many times in a week, my car holds just over 70 litres and the convenience of filling it everytime outweights the couple of dollars a week, I use the mileage to determine how well the car is running, if it required an oil change and how irrattic my driving is!

In short yes you can wrangle the system but you have to decide if it is worth your time to do so!

Also another note about the old type of AA coverage, I too used to recieve a very good discount on my membership and roadside cover. I will not be cancelling my membership as for the last 2 years I have required a tow from Wellsford to Pukekohe and it has been covered by my membership in full, it would have cost $800 odd each time otherwise.

scuwp

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#742043 9-Jan-2013 08:15

+1 for the old AA membership points. I often wonder what's the point of being a member now other than the piece of mind if we have a breakdown.

The petrol/points juggling act seems like a lot of work for negligible result. I would put this under the heading of 'false economy'.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

jonherries

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#742044 9-Jan-2013 08:21

Does anyone know of an app that tells you where the cheapest petrol is?

IIRC there used to be a website.... Cant remember the name.

Jon

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sbiddle

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#742050 9-Jan-2013 08:32

scuwp: +1 for the old AA membership points. I often wonder what's the point of being a member now other than the piece of mind if we have a breakdown.

The petrol/points juggling act seems like a lot of work for negligible result. I would put this under the heading of 'false economy'.

I can't help but agree. Previously I would get an automatic discount off my yearly subscription without having to do anything.

Apart from the automatic 6c/l discount Smartfuel is an incredibly complex program.

trig42

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#742058 9-Jan-2013 09:05

I am an AA member, therefore I have a Smartfuel card, but as work pays for my gas (I have a BP card), I do not use it.

It sounds mighty confusing. How do you choose to 'bank' or 'spend' your fuel discounts?

sbiddle

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#742059 9-Jan-2013 09:08

dickytim:
If I was to save my discounts for 2 months I would be better off.

Don't rewards expire at the end of the calendar month they are awarded?

davide

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#742089 9-Jan-2013 09:56

Isn't filling with $40 and accumulating the 6c discount, almost (bear with me...) the same as filling with $40 and spending the discount?

Because eventually you will use the discount, and it still only works as 6c per litre rather than a percentage off the bill... if when you happen to use the discount in the future the petrol is 1c cheaper than when you accumulated, well, great work. But it doesn't change much...

Unless you don't use the discount and it expires and then you have lost it...

Confused of Auickland :)

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dickytim

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#742095 9-Jan-2013 10:06

sbiddle:
dickytim:
If I was to save my discounts for 2 months I would be better off.

Don't rewards expire at the end of the calendar month they are awarded?

someone mentioned earlier that they last for 2 months but the website says valid until the end of the following month, so it looks like it is a maximum of 2 months is reality.

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RedJungle

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#742106 9-Jan-2013 10:47

sbiddle:
scuwp: +1 for the old AA membership points. I often wonder what's the point of being a member now other than the piece of mind if we have a breakdown.

The petrol/points juggling act seems like a lot of work for negligible result. I would put this under the heading of 'false economy'.

I can't help but agree. Previously I would get an automatic discount off my yearly subscription without having to do anything.

Apart from the automatic 6c/l discount Smartfuel is an incredibly complex program.

+2 - Absolutely hate the new system. Poor value, very confusing to work out. And it's also very slow at the counter in some places too - I guess they don't have the latest POS equipment or something. Because they seem to need to manually key in a bunch of information into a device, print out a docket, and then manually re-enter a bunch of information from that docket into the POS. All while a long queue of impatient customers scowl at you.

As you say, it was so much better when it just went towards my annual subscription.

scuwp

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#742136 9-Jan-2013 11:46

The only advantage is that you can collect points from other purchases, not just gas. So for example you could buy a fridge from a participating store, then use the discount off a tank of gas.

Re the work "fuel cards"...to the best of my knowledge you typically cannot use these in conjunction with any other bonus or discount system, as the fuel rate is already discounted.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

casewindow

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#742247 9-Jan-2013 13:40

The whole system is hideously confusing. It sounds like some marketing/business/project people at AA got together to come up with something without considering whether the public would actually understand/care/buy in to it.

I am sure there are a select few that make the most of it, but from my perspective I swipe it and claim the "discount" every so often, but it was far better under the old system with the reduction in membership fee being more directly correlated with the card swipes.

All this has meant is that I don't really even bother going to a petrol station that supports AA cards as a rule, I simply choose one and if it happens to be an AA card place (BP?) then that's just a bonus.

The entire system has been severely diluted.

TinyTim

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#742797 10-Jan-2013 13:32

I want 95; all the BP stations around here have 98. So I go to Z now. (Particularly if I've been shopping at Countdown.)

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