Allstar Fuel Cards

[rufmeister]

Noticed a couple of additional fees on my latest invoice, normally don’t check the invoices as there’s nothing really to check, but on this occasion I’m glad I do.

We have been charged:

£25 ecopoint
£23 zero liability

This is a weekly invoice.

I have queried it with them and they said that they had sent an email giving me the option to opt out and these charges have been on my account for nearly 2 years!!

I only ever open their standard invoice emails as I’m not interested in their marketing, so may or may not have received it, but certainly didn’t read it. I wish I could email all my customers about increased charges, and those that didn’t read or respond, keep their money!!

They have offered me a refund of the latest charges only and refuse to refund the rest.

Is this going to be a case of tough luck or is the money retrievable via other means such as small claims court.

[Simpo Two]

rufmeister said:

they said that they had sent an email giving me the option to opt out...

I only ever open their standard invoice emails as I’m not interested in their marketing, so may or may not have received it, but certainly didn’t read it.

I would ask them to provide a copy of the e-mail before considering court.

Personally I think the default position should have been 'off' with the choice being to opt in, or at least send a letter which is more likely to be read. But they may have it legally tucked up.

What are 'ecopoint' and 'zero liability' anyway? A contribution to climate change and insurance maybe? Judge Simpo says 'It may be legal but it's sneaky'.

[rufmeister]

Simpo Two said:

I would ask them to provide a copy of the e-mail before considering court.

Personally I think the default position should have been 'off' with the choice being to opt in, or at least send a letter which is more likely to be read. But they may have it legally tucked up.

What are 'ecopoint' and 'zero liability' anyway? A contribution to climate change and insurance maybe? Judge Simpo says 'It may be legal but it's sneaky'.

Im not sure what they are exactly but something to do with emissions and environment.

Very very sneaky, and no doubt it will be tied up from their end, but crazy. We spend over £2000 a month with them, and have done for several years, and they have lost us as clients now.

It looks like its a monthly charge as opposed to weekly, so luckily I had a query on the month it was charged, so now its around £7-800 charges I am looking at, but its still a chunk of money I didn't knowingly authorise to be taken.

[Simpo Two]

You could try the 'Please reconsider a refund of all these charges because otherwise we'll be moving to Company X'. I'm sure you're not the first person to find out these charges when it was too late.

[Al Gorithum]

Disingenuous at best. I stopped using them years ago.

[Greenie]

Awful, awful company. Used them for a few years and they used the method you describe to make various extra charges.

Moved to fuel genie - so much better. Generally supermarket station but coverage is no problem.

[rufmeister]

Greenie said:

Awful, awful company. Used them for a few years and they used the method you describe to make various extra charges.

Moved to fuel genie - so much better. Generally supermarket station but coverage is no problem.

Thanks, will look them up.

[Mr Overheads]

All Star have done this for years, all sorts of new charges and new ways of 'tricking' you into paying more on the drip. Margins on fuel are incredibly thin so on £2000 of fuel there will only be a few pennies per litre max margin for the fuelcard company.

All star are the only card that covers all stations so it's their USP.

[Jockman]

rufmeister said:

Greenie said:

Awful, awful company. Used them for a few years and they used the method you describe to make various extra charges.

Moved to fuel genie - so much better. Generally supermarket station but coverage is no problem.

Thanks, will look them up.

We use fuel genie. Great for Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s IIRC but not useable in Asda.

[nikaiyo2]

ALL the fuel cards are the same (except Fuel Genie) they always have hidden extras, card insurance, misfueling insurance, umpa lumpa tax, invoicing fee, that seem to appear a few/ 6 months after the cards are used.

The other trick is the fuel prices are usually daft, you glance at the invoice and it looks about right, maybe a few p a liter more than at the local Shell garage, but its worth it for the convenience so you sign off the invoice, even thought when you signed up they guaranteed to be lower than pump price.

Then you realize that the price on the invoice is +VAT.

Thanks for posting this, prompted me to check... BE Fuel Cards... 15p a liter more than at the Tesco/ Shell we ave to drive past to get to the motorway.

[IT Geek]

Also avoid the Fuel Card Company, you’ll never get rid of them if you sign up.

[rufmeister]

Spoke to a mate of mine with similar sized fleet and he’s said similar, they all add costs whether on top of the pump price or sneaky charges.

He now uses Shell cards and whilst only using them for a month or so, he’s happy so far.

[surveyor]

Not sure who we use, but we get a Shell card and a BP card. The Shell one works at Esso and a few other brands as well.

I know our accountant was getting a bit unhappy at the prices a few months ago and we ran an exercise comparing pump prices for a week. Nothing changed so I assume he was happy enough.

[red_slr]

How much fuel are you using and over how many vehicles?

[rufmeister]

red_slr said:

How much fuel are you using and over how many vehicles?

£2000-2500 a month over 7 vehicles

[red_slr]

rufmeister said:

red_slr said:

How much fuel are you using and over how many vehicles?

£2000-2500 a month over 7 vehicles

Could you use a credit card? Looks like each vic is only filling up once a week.
Thats what we have done. We have 2 company cards. Both sit in the transport office so if one card is out there is a spare.
Drivers write their reg and mileage on the receipt and accounts just reconcile the lot when the credit card statement comes.

Also with contactless limit now £100 you could put google pay or whatever on the company mobile?
I looked at doing this but our average fill is £300-£350 so not suitable.

[smifffymoto]

Whilst not this card,my old boss used Key fuels,PH Jones etc forvyears until he checked the cost and realised they put the cost of fuel up willy nilly when they felt like it.
His drivers now have a credit card and things are much simpler.

[Mick87]

Have you checked to see if they are over charging you for fuel as well?

I closed my amount with them last month after I noticed these two transactions that were made within 30 minutes of each other at the same fuel station..

Diesel
60.17 £81.19

Diesel
65.60 £90.61

[rufmeister]

To follow up this thread, we had all of the charges refunded, which I was astonished at, so still with them current,y, but that’s due to convenience more than anything.

I’m sure they will be recouping charges somewhere on the fuel price, but as we are operating all over the place right now, we need the convenience factor.

[8IKERDAVE]

I've recently moved our fleet away from them. Their charges are much higher than their competitors, the only advantage really being the convenience of being able to use any station.

Our fleet isn't that big and I've moved everyone onto a UK Fuels Shell card which has already made a significant saving. Unless you live out in the sticks or frequently travel to rural areas I would personally shop around.