Fuel loyalty programs in Europe

[ard]

I am going to Europe and touring parts of Germany and Italy by car. Is anyone aware of fuel rewards / loyalty programs in Europe I can sign up for (similar to the Shell Fuel Rewards and similar programs in the US)? I would probably only save the proverbial drop in the bucket but still. The interwebs are surprisingly bereft of useful information.

Many thanks in advance.

[Rick Lee]

Subscribed, as I'm going to Germany in a few weeks.

I listen to HR Info (Hessen radio station) in German every day to keep the language chops up. There is a lot of discussion in Germany now about a gas rebate, but I'm sure it would only apply to German citizens. You probably know you have to pay to use the restroom everywhere in Europe. In most German gas stations it's .50€. You'll then get a coupon for €.30 which you can use in the store/cafeteria and they tend to be pretty good.

But I'm not aware of anything more than that. Their version of Costco/Sam's is called Metro and I can't recall seeing gas pumps at Metro other than in Belgium.

Bottom line is grab your ankles.

[Arizona_928]

Diesel still cheaper than gasoline there?

[2.7RS]

The loyalty of a 1000cc three cylinder turbo diesel.

65mpg.

Why worry about fuel prices

[Captain Ahab Jr]

What car do you drive at home?

Only little cars in Europe I wouldn't worry about fuel costs

[svandamme]

shell has Shell GO+


If cost is your goal : just refuel in the cheapo gas stations that don't do reward schemes.
only for vpower which is the expensive juice with detergents and no bio crap

Why would you care that they got biocrap in their fuel,
why would you care bout detergents

I assume you'll be running a rental ar, so get the cheapest fuel you can find and it will be lower then the reward schem on expensive premium fuels

[908/930]

I cant help with the fuel. When picking up car at rental company go over the car carefully prior to leaving, almost was screwed by this in Germany. Also if you were thinking of driving in Rome, just don't, take a train in. One thing I liked about Italy was they had large signs on the highway telling where the photo radar was, classy. I would not say only little cars there, I had a Citroen SUV in Italy and an Audi A6 T in Germany both pretty thirsty turbo diesels, but fuel still cheap compared to the optional rental insurance in Italy. When returning the rental in Rome the person checking the car could not believe I had no dents, he checked the car twice and congratulated me.

[ard]

Updating this thread, since I am on the ground here. Fuel loyalty programs seem sparse and seem structured in such a way that you have to link a EU bank account to a loyalty card and you get refunds deposited back. I didn’t investigate carefully but that is what I gleaned.

What annoys me more is that I cannot seem to pay by credit card at any gas station in Italy. Most seem to be completely unattended and even if there is a convenience store “attached” to the premise it is a separate entity that is not associated with the gas station. At the Agip station I found a payment kiosk but it refused my Chase, Citi and USBank issued Visa cards, even though I had used these cards earlier on the trip for other purchases, as well as filed a “travel notice” with the issuers. I called Citi and they didn’t even see the transaction attempted on their side. The CS rep instructed me to use the tap feature on the card, but to no avail. He concluded that whatever entity ran the payment systems at Agip gas stations didn’t play nice with US-issued credit cards. However, the very nice Italian lady at the convenience store helped me out by selling me “a bunch of nothing” and charging my credit card 50 euro and handing me a crisp 50 euro note so I could pay cash at the payment kiosk. Nice!

[908/930]

Well at least you figured out how to open the gas cap cover, it took me at least five min to figure out where the release lever was on the Citroen, LOL. Where are you roaming to? Do check out the old small fortified towns, very cool, and lots of great Pizza and wine.