DRIVERS at forecourts across the country will be dreading filling up their cars after huge price hikes in the cost of fuel.
The average cost of filling up a tank has hit an eye-watering £105 – and prices are still rising despite wholesale costs dropping.
You could save 17p compared with the national average at the cheapest location
The average price of a litre of petrol is now 190.65p and for diesel it’s 198.42p.
But exactly how much you pay will depend on where you fill up.
We’ve tracked down the 20 cheapest places to buy petrol in the UK, with prices starting at 173.9p per litre.
Data from price comparison site Petrolprices.com, shared exclusively with SE, reveals where to fill up.
The cheapest location is a BP garage in Rochford, near Southend, where unleaded petrol was selling for 173.9p per litre.
That means you could save a whopping 17p compared with the national average, which is 190.65p, according to the RAC fuel watch.
And a Jet station in Birmingham is selling petrol for 179.9p a litre – 10.75p cheaper than the national average.
There’s also another Jet in Leeds that is selling petrol at a decent price. At that station you can fill up for 181p a litre.
And at the Esso near Houghton le Spring in Tyne and Wear, you can get petrol for 181.9p per litre.
Petrolprices.com works out where the cheapest petrol is by looking at price data from Experian Catalist, which collects forecourt price information for over 8,490 UK petrol stations.
The website also uses its own crowdsourced data, which comes from both users and verified forecourt owners.
It’s worth remembering that you may be able to find cheaper petrol stations though.
There has been pandemonium this week after eagle-eyed drivers spotted fuel at one Shell garage for 20p less than the national average.
The hunt for cheaper petrol comes as the AA said that soaring fuel prices should have fallen by 4p last month.
The motoring association accused fuel retailers of pocketing profits while the nation is facing a crippling cost-of-living crisis.
Fuel prices in the UK have been on the rise due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, which has caused oil prices to soar.
Most of Europe relies on Russia’s oil and gas reserves for its own supply, however leaders have pledged to ban oil imports to punish Moscow which has seen prices skyrocket due to an increased global demand.
How to find cheap petrol near me
You can use price checker websites such as Confused.com to double check where your cheapest petrol station is.
Drivers have been on the hunt for the best deal recently.
People rushed to a Shell filling station in rural Devon earlier this week after it was revealed it was selling petrol at 164.9p a litre.
Long queues have formed at the forecourt as drivers went out looking for a good deal.
So, if you are thinking of visiting a station that is selling cheap fuel, it might be worth picking a time of day when fewer people are on the roads.
While this petrol station might be cheaper than your closest forecourt, you shouldn’t drive miles and miles out of your way for cheaper fuel.
Using extra fuel is likely to cancel out any potential saving you might make.
Money saving guru Martin Lewis recommends that people use price checking websites like Petrolprices.com first before heading out.
When the money saving expert revealed the website to his Twitter followers, it got so much traffic it crashed.
Many petrol stations, including the ones run by supermarkets, operate a loyalty scheme and its worth signing up to the ones you use the most, so you can get a little extra back from time to time.
While the benefits might be small they do add up – so look to see if your local station has a scheme going.
Elsewhere on SE we found the bedtime heatwave gadget that’s adding to your energy bills.
And there has also been a warning to thousands of energy customers to check their direct debits.