While many parts of the world are enjoying declining petrol cost, Singapore faces an inverse trend. The copious number of traffic lights and low speed limits are no stranger to Singaporeans; they work together to stretch the energy bill further. But overcoming these loathsome road characteristics is not exactly an Herculean task. Essentially, it just requires some minor tweaks to your driving behavior and the car.
Tires inflated to the proper pressure can improve petrol mileage by up to 3.3%. Such information on the proper tire pressure can be found in the car’s instruction manual.
Ensuring that the car has a properly tuned engine or has passed an emissions test can improve petrol mileage by an average of 4%, while addressing a severe maintenance issue can improve it by as much as 40%! Therefore, sending the car for regular inspections is a good practice!
Use the manufacturer’s recommended grade of motor oil which can improve petrol mileage by 1-2%. Besides, purchase motor oil with the “Energy Conserving”label to ensure it contains chemicals that reduce friction.
Stay above 48km/h as much as possible because the car consumes greater energy to combat wind resistance than rolling resistance at a lower speed. Carrying more loads and rolling down the windows can yield greater resistance at higher speeds, effectively cutting 1% to 15% of the fuel economy.
Time your acceleration adequately where you neither strain your motor nor trap your car in lower gears for too long which erodes fuel economy. A good estimate would be to accelerate to 80km/h within 15-20 seconds. Thereafter, keep a constant speed to prevent energy wastage on frequent deceleration and re-acceleration. Use cruise control function if available.
Brake less since braking converts useful kinetic energy into useless heat energy. Choose the route that has the least traffic – use the much vaunted Google Maps to plan the best route – to reduce unnecessary fuel wastage.
There is simply no need to warm up modern cars that are produced after the mid-1990s. Advanced engineering feat has made warming up irrelevant since sensors are now built into such cars to ensure the right mix of air and fuel in the engine – instead of relying on a warmed up engine to do the job uneconomically.
Owning and maintaining a car in any country especially Singapore can get very expensive. This is why pays to know how to save on your car costs.
Insurance and petrol costs may feel like fixed, but you can cut them down without sacrificing your safety and comfort. Try these 6 tips.
1. DRIVE SAFELY AND STEADILY
Being a speedster may cost you a lot on fuel and accidents. Accelerating quickly and kicking on the breaks hastily only wastes fuel. It also makes your brake pads and suspension system wear out faster. So, drive in a steady pace in top gear.
2. SEARCH THE BEST REBATE CARD FOR YOUR PETROL
With several petroleum companies in Singapore, you may wonder which company offers the cheapest petrol. Money Digest made things easier for you by comparing the credit cards that offer petrol discount in the market today. To see the full table and complete list, click here.
3. SHOP FOR CAR INSURANCE REGULARLY
It really pays to compare prices and switching your car insurance company (every year or every two years) to get the best deal. Get quotes from several companies and let the experts diagnose your car to save more. You may also want to raise your deductible to save more in case an accident or a major repair occurs.
4. GET RID OF THE SECOND CAR
If one car is enough and you are using your other car only to commute to work, consider public transportation or carpooling instead.
5. DITCH THE CAR WITH HIGHER ENGINE
To avoid accidents from happening, prevent them. Statistically cars with a higher engine are more likely to crash. More so, the bigger the engine of the car, the higher is its amount on insurance policies.
6. GET SERVICES FROM A REVIEW WORTHY GOOD MECHANIC
If you are not sure why your car is acting strangely, do not diagnose and solve the problem by yourself. Saying “it needs a new battery” might urge a shop to install one even if that is not the problem. This will only cost you more. Let the experts handle it.
Image Credits: Bob n Renee via Flickr
Now, your job is to find a good mechanic and a nice repair deal by getting estimates from three or more repair shops by gathering referrals from friends and surfing online for reviews. Try Yelp.com or Singapore car forums.
When your car ran out of petrol, have you had problems deciding which petrol kiosks to go to enjoy the most savings? With four petroleum companies in Singapore – Exxon-Mobil, Caltex, Shell and Singapore Petroleum Company, you may at times scratch your head and wonder which petrol companies offer the cheapest petrol.
Owning and driving a car in Singapore is expensive, and it pays to find out how to save on your fuel expenses.
Using the right credit card to make your fuel purchase is important, as you could easily shave off up to one fifth of your petrol costs. The savings is huge! Imagine spending $2,000 on a petrol in a year – you could have saved up to $400 in a year!
There are many credit cards for petrol in the market and while some offer instant site and card discount, there are also cards that offer rebates and rewards to sweeten up the deal.
So which is the best card? Let’s find out! (Scroll to the bottom to see summary)
Esso
DBS Black VISA/AMEX Card & DBS Esso Card
If you own the DBS Black Visa or AMEX card, you can enjoy 18% discount off your fuel if you top up your petrol between 7pm – 7am. (4% cash rebates will end on 31 December 2014)
With the Smile rewards, you can redeem $30 worth of fuel for 750 litres of petrol pumped.That works out to be a 2.5% cut to your fuel expenses after taking into account of the 35% bonus Smile points.
And that’s not all – don’t forget you also earn DBS Points for your fuel top-up, at the rate of 1 Points = S$5 spent. That’s 0.31% on top of all the discounts and rebates!
Total effective discount = 20.81% (Until 31 December 2014)
DBS Esso Platinum Card
Besides their Black Card, DBS also carries the Esso Platinum Card in their product suite, which offers up to 19.81% off your petrol. The only difference is you don’t enjoy the 4% promotional card rebates that the Black card offers. It makes up with a 7% card discount which is higher than the 4% of the Black Card. This will be the card to go for if you don’t want to stick to 7pm-7am rule and if DBS don’t extend the promotional 4% rebate for their Black Card.
Total effective discount = 19.81%
OCBC 365
OCBC 365 is next on the list for Esso’s pump. You can enjoy savings of up to 20.80% effective discount which matches up with the DBS Black Card. Unfortunately, good thing don’t last and the cash rebates of 4.3% will end on 31 December 2014 and you will need a minimum charge of $600 with a $80 cap in rebates for a month.
Total effective discount = 20.80% (Until 31 December 2014)
OCBC Plus!
Good news is you can get a higher discount using a OCBC/NTUC PLUS! Card! That’s because you get Link points when you use the PLUS! card and a $300 spend will get you an additional dollar off your groceries at NTUC FairPrice. That is equivalent to an additional discount of 0.33%.
Total effective discount = 21.13%
Citibank Dividend Card & Other Citibank Cards
Citibank Dividend Card matches up with the PLUS! card of 21.13% for Esso station. As long as you meet a min spend of $50 in a transaction, you will qualify for the cash rebates. You will also earn Citi Dollars for your transaction and 1,500 Citi Dollars can be used to exchange a $5 Shell voucher.
Total effective discount = 21.13%
Caltex
UOB Lady Card
With the UOB Lady Card, get up to 20.75% off from your fuel! It offers a relatively higher card discount to make up for a lesser rebates as compared to the first few cards. Caltex also has it’s own loyalty programme – the Thanks! Rewards. 40 Thanks! points is equivalent to a dollar off and if you add this together with the rewards from UOB (UNI$600=$10 SPC voucher), it sums up to an effective discount of 20.75%!
Total effective discount = 20.75%
UOB One Card
Another product from UOB is the UOB One Card which has higher discount than the UOB Lady Card. With an effective discount of 21.54%, it is the best card from UOB for motorists. That’s because besides the usual Smart$ rebate of 1.68%, you are also entitled to the UOB One Rebate of 2.80%. That’s massive even though you don’t qualify for the UNI$ programme.
Total effective discount = 21.54%
All other cards from UOB may get up to 19.07% off from their fuel purchase.
HSBC Premier MasterCard/VISA Infinite/VISA Platinum
HSBC Premier MasterCard, VISA Infinite and VISA Platinum offers a whopping 23.45% discount to your fuel – and that makes it the best credit card for petrol in 2014. (Ends on 31 December 2014 – This post may come a bit late, but we will keep it updated!) However, it comes with a few conditions to be eligible for the full discount. First, to get $4 off your petrol you will need to spend $80 on gross petrol. (Ends 31 Dec 14) That is equivalent to a 5% cut which is easily achievable should you need to top up a full tank on a RON 98. Next, to get the cash rebates of 5%, you are required to charge $800 a month for all 3 months in a quarter. Otherwise you are only eligible for 3% rebate.
Total effective discount = 23.45% (Ends on 31 December 2014)
All other HSBC cards can get up to 15.06%.
Shell
HSBC Premier MasterCard
If you want to refuel at a Shell station, then coincidentally, the HSBC Premier MasterCard tops the list again with a total effective discount of 21.81%. This time round it offers a higher cash rebates of 6% with a min spend of $800 a month for 3 months in a quarter. Unlike in Caltex, you don’t get the $4 off petrol for a $80 pump, but there is a Shell Escape Rewards where you can exchange 600 Escape points for $20 worth of voucher and you get additional 1 point for every $5 charged to your card. For its own card rewards, you can exchange for a $10 voucher for every 2250 points.
Total effective discount = 21.81%
HSBC VISA Infinite and VISA Platinum gets 5% cash rebates so total saving = 20.91% and all other HSBC cards get 16.61%.
OCBC 365 & Citibank Dividend Card
You can also use OCBC 365 Card to enjoy 16.54% or Citibank Dividend Card for 18.43% discount.
SPC
American Express Platinum Credit Card
If there is only SPC in your vicinity and you happen to own an American Express Platinum Card, you can enjoy the highest discount of 21.64% in SPC as compared to other cards. That’s because of a very generous 7% cashback on the financial charge amount and a 5% site discount. You can also get a $20 SPC voucher once you have accumulated 3,900 reward points from AMEX. (2 Reward Points = S$1.60 spent)
Total effective discount = 21.64%
POSB Everyday Card
Who say you need to be a high-income earner to enjoy exclusive discounts? With the POSB Everyday Card, you can get up to 20.10% discount for your SPC fuel.
Total effective discount = 20.10%
UOB Cards
All UOB cards get up to 20.33% off as there is a $3 petrol discount for every $60 gross spend.
Total effective discount = 20.33%
To summarise everything in a table:
Petrol Company
Best Credit Card
Total Effective Discount
Esso
OCBC Plus! VISA & Citibank Dividend Card
21.13%
Caltex
HSBC Premier MasterCard/VISA Infinite/VISA Platinum
