Fuel Cards – Buying guide

If your small business operates a fleet of vehicles, the cost of fuel may be one of your biggest recurring expenses. With prices consistently on the rise, this eats straight into your margins. But there is a simple way to cut that expense: setting up a business fuel card account.

Fuel cards offer cost savings to your business

• Many schemes allow you to pay weekly fixed wholesale rates for diesel and petrol, which is consistently a few cents cheaper per-liter than pump prices
• You’ll also save by avoiding fill-ups at expensive motorway stations
• Some cards allow you to limit purchases to fuel which cuts wasteful spending
• Irish fuel card providers offer reward schemes in which you collect points to trade for fuel discounts

As well as administrative benefits

• Online invoicing and regularly scheduled fuel payments make financial planning easier
• Drivers no longer need to carry cash or company credit cards to fill up
• Administrators no longer need to pester drivers for receipts
• Spending restrictions reduce the risks of fraudulent driver’s claims
• Interest-free credit options with most fuel cards sooth short-term cash flow problems
• Most cards offer fuel consumption tracking reports, enabling you to pinpoint where fuel is being wasted

And help small businesses recover precious VAT

One-quarter of all Irish business mileage claims are not backed by valid receipts. In such cases, your company loses the 20% business fuel VAT you should be claiming back. What a waste!

Business fuel cards change that instantly. All fuel transactions are listed on an invoice which is sent directly to your company. Your finance department receives HMRC-approved VAT receipts. And you get reimbursed for 100 percent of business fuel VAT.