How sure are you that gas prices will keep going up?
Some folks say that these high prices are here to stay, and they’re going to keep going up for a while. Others think it’s a bubble based on oil speculators that will eventually burst, bringing prices down.
If you’re among the former, how sure are you? I ask because of MyGallons.com. The idea is simple: Buy X gallons of gasoline through the company at today’s prices — it’s put on a debit card that has gallons instead of dollars — then use the card at BP/Amoco, Chevron, Citgo, 76, Shell, Texaco, or lots of other stations to buy gas at whatever the current price is. The company says it’s accepted at 95 percent of stations across the country.
The site/service isn’t doesn’t appear to be a joke. Jokes usually don’t make liberal use of trademarked logos — there’s too much legal trouble to be had, and jokes never actually let you pay by credit card.
Anyway, so you fill your debit card with, say, 50 gallons at $4.00 each, then when the price jumps to $4.25 you just made, er, $12.50. Or saved $12.50 — however you want to look at it. Oh, but you have to pay $1.95 to fill/refill the card. So you made $10.55 (right?).
If you drive a lot, and prices continue to go up
Other things I noticed. From the privacy policy:
We may offer contests and sweepstakes to our account holders form time to time.
and
MYGALLONS does not currently sell, trade, or otherwise transfer outside the company personally identifiable information that account holders voluntarily provide (emphasis mine)
That, plus the $1.95 charge to fill the card, seem to be the only catches. Well, and the fact that gas prices could drop if this is indeed a bubble.
But if you think the worst is yet to come, maybe you want to hedge your bets.
Trae says:
If I were to bet, I would say that you’ll see the prices stay near this or go up. I highly doubt you’ll see the price go down before everyone is getting 50, 60, 70+ mpg and it is no longer a major concern.
Your prices are a bit off though, there is a $30 annual fee if you sign up for auto refill service and $40/year for manual refill. So you have to substantially commit to the program to gain any savings.
Assuming a $1/year rise (~$.08/month), 12000 miles per year traveled, and 20 mpg…you’ll save $4 for the first month, $8 for the second, and so on. So over a year you’ll save $312 ($272 with the annual fee). And the first 4 months you won’t save anything just trying to break even off of the annual fee.
And just say we level off, and for the next two years we stay between $4-$4.50. It will take roughly 5 to 6 months to pay back the annual fee, and your savings is only $116 a year.
And the better gas mileage you car gets the worse your savings are. And this assumes you’ll be able to use a gas station that follows this program 100% of the time.
I think this is a good concept for a small business with a fleet of trucks or something like that but the average consumer really needs to evaluate their specific situation before committing to something like this.