Monday, March 5, 2012

GasBuddy... Get the App, get Gas

Get the App, Get Gas


SmartMoney reports on the 10 Things Gas Stations Won't Tell You
"You can't actually buy gas online, but Web resources can help you find the cheapest fill-up in town. Among them, GasPriceWatch.com and GasWatch.info help people track pump prices.
But the most comprehensive of the bunch is GasBuddy.com, which includes a network of 174 local sites, complete with maps and message boards that tally gas price by ZIP code. People are frustrated by the variation in the price of gas, says GasBuddy.com cofounder Jason Toews, and they are using the Internet to take control."
"It has worked wonders for Sue Foust. Every day, as she passes roughly 10 stations on her commute across Tucson, Ariz., Foust makes a mental note of their prices, then posts them on TucsonGasPrices.com, a local affiliate of GasBuddy.com.
Then every four days or so, when she needs to fill up, she checks the prices others have posted in her area. It turned out the Shell station she used to frequent is one of the most expensive in the city. Now she fills up elsewhere. I really do feel like I'm saving money, she says."

The Good

I have used both the Android and iOS versions of GasBuddy - both are free. The feature set is sparse - basic sorting by price, Octane, and proximity. At $3 a gallon I might not pay much attention, but at $4 a gallon, I'm going to take 2 minutes to save some money.


The Bottom Line

In Round Rock, Texas the price variation might be as high as 25 cents per gallon, or about $3.50 per 14 gallon tank... enough to buy a gallon of milk, or to feel less guilty at Starbucks. 

~Xolo

1 comment:

  1. The GasBuddy product is a great product as long as the gas stations charge a single price. In areas where certain station charge the different prices for cash and credit. For example:

    Suppose you have 2 competing stations, Station A charges $4.00 cash or credit, Station B charges $3.97 cash / $4.07 credit. If GasBuddies post the cash price, then someone looking to make a wise fueling decision will sort the app by price and is directed to Station B ($3.97 cash price), but actually pays $4.07 credit. If the price shown is the credit price, they could be paying $4.00 at Station A. According the advocacy group, NACS, “..60 percent to 70 percent of all motor fuels purchases are now paid with plastic, but that figure can climb to as much as 90 percent of all transactions when prices are climbing” (See http://www.nacsonline.com/NACS/News/FactSheets/IndustryIssues/Pages/CreditCardFeesaGrowingChallengeforConvenienceStores.aspx). This means that the majority and even vast majority of consumers are making unwise decisions by using GasBuddy. The fact that these unwise decisions are unknowingly made by the 60% - 90% of gas consumers, a deception exist, which translates into fraud. GasApp contributes to unfair competition and, therefore, the consumer suffers.

    Can a cashless consumer drive to an ATM machine, get cash, and bring it back to the station? Of course, he can. He will incur an ATM fee and waste gas driving to the ATM machine and back and incurs an opportunity cost because he will have to forego the credit card points. This doesn’t sound like a wise fuel purchasing decision to me.

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