Cancelling a fuel card, how to proceed?

When choosing a fuel card for one’s organisation, it’s especially important to get information about contract cancellation procedures. The fuel card service is indeed governed by a contract between the organisation employing the cardholders and the card issuing company. Contract renewal is automatic for all fuel cards, and contract duration is usually open-ended: cancelling the contract and the cards requires that the relevant administrative process should be followed strictly.

Fortunately, it’s not necessary to wait for the anniversary date of the contract to cancel it. In most cases, all it takes is to send a letter requesting the cancellation of the contract. But note that depending on card providers, it’s necessary to observe an advance notice period. Sending the letter via registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt is strongly advised. 

Just to make sure, it’s a wise thing to do to check the terms of service document attached to the fuel card contract, as these should indicate the name and address of the organisation to which cancellation letters should be sent, as well as the advance notice timeframe. These mandatory contract cancellation conditions are also mentioned in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section on the card issuer’s website.

It’s also possible to cancel the fuel card contract when contractual obligations have failed to be met. This can be triggered either by the company where the cards are used, or by the card issuing organisation. In either case, the party which has failed to meet its obligations has to pay for contract cancellation-related costs. These costs include for the most part the costs for returning the cards.

Even if fuel card contracts are generally open-ended, cancelling fuel cards is pretty straightforward, but does require some degree of formalism. Looking into the conditions required for cancelling a fuel card contract is important, and this should be done right from the stage when the organisation decided to introduce a fuel card program.