Fuel cards costs and fees: what do you need to know?

Implementing a fuel card program in a given company becomes a must after a certain number of vehicles in a company fleet has been reached. Besides lowering pump prices in some cases, fuel cards bring better management of fuel expenses and performance gains in accounting duties. It’s the end of individual expense accounts, receipts management, data entry mistakes, and the headaches that go with distinguishing private expenses and professional expenses: business fuel cards simply help rationalise expenses management.

For the comparatively low price of a fuel card, employers enjoy many benefits:

• Most fuel card providers do not charge any subscription fee in the first year, or even later,
• Those who do charge subscription fees do not charge them more than £24 per annum,
• It’s sometimes needed to add up to this amount a maiden deposit.

Other than the cost of fuel cards in itself, additional fees and commissions have to be considered to compute an estimation of the annual cost for the company. Fuel card issuers earn money by charging commissions, as a percentage of the total monthly fuel invoice. These commissions are usually based on historical invoiced amounts for the same perimeter.

Using fuel cards therefore helps lower fuel consumption, optimise VAT recovery, curb certain abuse, so that in the end, business fuel card fees are more than compensated by the savings generated.

Other than subscription fees and commissions, the cost of additional, optional services also has to be taken into account.

In order to compare the costs of business fuel cards and fuel card providers, services like Companeo bring you several business fuel card quotes, sourced from reputed providers: it’s a good way to start implementing fuel cards in your business.