How to find the best-priced petrol

The dramatic rise in fuel prices in the last ten years has caused many Australians to re-examine the way in which they go about purchasing fuel for their car. Drew explains which days are the cheapest and how to find the best-priced petrol in your area.

According to the NRMA and MotorMouth websites, historically, the cheapest day for petrol is Tuesday or Wednesday. While this may have been the case in the past, this is not necessarily true now or into the future. According to the ACCC, there is no one day of the week which is the cheapest. There is a clear price cycle as pictured below in a 30-day graph. As you can see, the price cycle involves a steady decrease over 8-10 days and then a sharp price increase.

Mynrma.com.au
The MyNRMA petrol price search tool allows you to search for the best priced fuel in any area of Australia. You can also choose by brand and fuel type.

Carsguide.com.au
The Carsguide.com.au tool allows you to track fuel prices all over Australia and to search every petrol station within five kilometres of your postcode for the cheapest fuel price.

Motormouth.com.au
Motormouth.com.au allows you to search by your postcode, your street address or your suburb. This mean you can either refine or expand the search parameters to give you a better chance of finding the right price for your petrol finding needs.

The subject of finding petrol has become a bit of a dogfight, with accusations of collusion amongst petrol stations rife, prices consistently climbing at holiday seasons and the ever-present threat that we may in fact run out of this non-renewable resource, driving the price higher. It makes sense that you use any advantage you can to save a few dollars at the pump.