Most UK fuel loyalty cards pay back about 0.5p a litre - roughly £7 a year for a typical 12,000-mile driver - and the schemes that look most generous hide the biggest catches. Here is every forecourt scheme compared with real numbers, the traps to skip and what genuinely cuts your fuel bill.
There is no single best fuel loyalty card, because the honest answer is that the standing rates are all small and strikingly similar. What separates the schemes is everything around the rate: what a point is actually worth, how many litres you must buy before you can redeem anything and whether the rewards can even be spent on fuel. This guide compares every major forecourt scheme on those terms, with the maths shown.
Last checked: 11 September 2026. Earn rates, thresholds and pump prices move - pump prices rose about 5p a litre in the second week of September alone - and we recheck every figure in this guide against the schemes' own terms when they change.
Every UK fuel loyalty scheme compared
The column that matters is the effective pence per litre - what the points you earn are actually worth against the fuel you bought. Everything else is packaging.
| Scheme | How you earn on fuel | Effective value | The catch to know first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tesco Clubcard (Tesco forecourts) | 1 point per 2 litres (1 point = 1p); 1 point per litre paying by Clubcard Pay+ or Tesco Bank Clubcard card | 0.5p per litre (1p with Tesco's payment cards) | You need 150 points (£1.50) before vouchers exist - that is 300 litres of fuel-only earning. Vouchers do now spend on fuel at face value |
| Esso sites with a Tesco Express (Clubcard) | 1 point per £3 spent | ~0.56p per litre at current prices | Rate moves with the pump price (price ÷ 300); first 100 litres per purchase; these sites earn Clubcard, not Nectar |
| Nectar at Esso | 1 point per litre (1 point = 0.5p) | Earns 0.5p per litre; the Esso swap can double what each point pays at redemption | The 300-points-for-5p-off swap reaches 1p per point only on a full 60-litre redemption - half that on 30 litres |
| Nectar at Sainsbury's | 1 point per litre | 0.5p per litre | Spending on fuel works in £2.50 blocks at the kiosk only - not at pay-at-pump |
| Shell Go+ | 1 point per litre (2 on V-Power); 200 points = £1 | 0.5p per litre (1p on V-Power) | Points expire two years on; redemption needs 25 base points first and works in even numbers only |
| BPme Rewards | 1 point per litre (2 on Ultimate); 200 points = £1 | 0.5p per litre (1p on Ultimate) | 25 base points before you can redeem, £1 minimum; unregistered plastic cards lose their points after 12 months |
| Texaco Star Rewards | 1 point per litre (1 point = 1p) | 1p per litre - the highest standing rate | Nothing is redeemable until 500 points, which means 500 litres; 12 months without a purchase closes the account and wipes the lot |
| Morrisons More | 5 points per whole litre (1,000 points = £1) | 0.5p per litre - paid out as grocery money, never off fuel | Fivers and vouchers cannot be spent on fuel at all; points expire after 12 months unconverted |
| Asda Rewards | Petrol earns nothing into the Cashpot | Nil standing - coupon route instead | Rewards Plus at selected stores: £75 of grocery spend in a month unlocks a 5p-per-litre coupon (14 days, max 99 litres) |
Two schemes are missing on purpose: Applegreen Rewards runs in the Republic of Ireland only, and Circle K Extra operates only in Northern Ireland, where a rolling three-month spend sets a tier of 1p, 2p or 3p off per litre.
Which fuel loyalty card should you actually get?
The thirty-second answer, with the detail below:
- You do a weekly shop at Tesco, Sainsbury's or Morrisons: use that supermarket's card at its forecourt and treat the fuel points as a small bonus on shopping you already do.
- You fill up wherever is cheapest: that instinct is worth more than any card - add the free scheme for whichever forecourt you use most and stop there.
- You pass a Texaco often and fill regularly: Star Rewards is the best standing rate, provided you will clear 500 litres well inside a year.
- You spend £75+ a month at Asda anyway: Rewards Plus and its 5p-a-litre coupon beat every points scheme in this guide.
- You collect Avios: Nectar (400 to 250) and BPme (40 to 25) are the two forecourt routes into air miles.
What fuel loyalty is actually worth in a year
Take a typical driver: 12,000 miles a year at 40mpg is about 1,360 litres. At this September's average unleaded price of 167.17p a litre (RAC Fuel Watch), that is roughly £2,270 of fuel. Here is what the schemes pay on it:
- Any 0.5p-per-litre scheme (Tesco, Nectar, Shell, BP, Morrisons): about £6.80 a year.
- Texaco's 1p per litre, or Shell and BP's premium-fuel double points: about £13.60 a year - and the premium fuels cost 10-20p a litre more, so double points never make premium fuel a saving.
- Nectar redeemed properly: swap 300 points for 5p off a full 60-litre redemption at Esso and each point returns 1p rather than 0.5p - the same £13.60 ceiling, reached only with big fills.
- Asda's coupon route: 5p per litre off one fill per qualifying month is £2 to £3 off a typical 40-60 litre fill - potentially £25 or more a year, the strongest recurring fuel discount here, if you already spend £75 a month at a participating Asda.
- A cashback card on top: up to around 1% on the best widely available cards - up to about £23 a year on that fuel spend - typically 0.25% to 0.5% ongoing on fee-free cards.
- Simply buying 3p a litre cheaper: about £41 a year. The boring lever is the biggest one.
That is the honest scale of it: fuel loyalty is a rounding error next to where you fill up. Collect the points at forecourts you would use anyway - never drive past cheaper fuel for them.
Supermarket fuel loyalty cards: Tesco, Nectar, Morrisons and Asda
Tesco Clubcard. Tesco's own forecourts earn 1 point per 2 litres - a 2023 change that halved the old rate for most drivers, alongside the partner boost dropping from 3x to up to 2x. The consolation from the same shake-up: Clubcard vouchers can now be spent on fuel at face value. Kiosk purchases earn 1 point per £1, and paying with Clubcard Pay+ or a Tesco Bank Clubcard credit card lifts fuel earning to 1 point per litre - double the standard rate. Vouchers last two years.
The Esso wrinkle. Esso forecourts with a Tesco Express shop earn Clubcard, not Nectar, at 1 point per £3 spent. Because that rate is money-based, its value floats with the pump price: at 167p a litre it works out at about 0.56p per litre, which currently edges Tesco's own forecourts. Esso sites without a Tesco Express are Nectar territory.
Nectar. One point per litre at both Sainsbury's forecourts and participating Esso stations, worth 0.5p each. The redemption paths differ: at Sainsbury's you spend points in £2.50 blocks at the kiosk (never at pay-at-pump); at Esso, 300 points buys 5p a litre off up to 60 litres - worth the full £3 only if you actually take on 60 litres. Points never expire, though an account untouched for 12 months can be closed with the balance lost. Nectar also converts to Avios at 400 points to 250 Avios - see our air miles programme comparison for what those are worth.
Morrisons More. Fuel earns 5 points per whole litre, which sounds generous until you see a point is worth 0.1p - the same 0.5p per litre as everyone else - and the punchline: Fivers cannot be spent on fuel. Your forecourt points come back as grocery money only. Points now convert in £1 steps (1,000 points each), and expire 12 months after earning if unconverted; a card unused for 52 weeks is wiped entirely.
Asda Rewards. Petrol is on Asda's excluded list twice over: it earns nothing into the Cashpot and vouchers cannot pay for it. The route that exists instead is Rewards Plus at selected stores, where £75 of qualifying spend in a calendar month unlocks a 5p-per-litre fuel coupon, valid 14 days, capped at 99 litres per transaction. That coupon is currently the biggest recurring per-litre discount of any scheme in this guide - built for committed Asda shoppers and nobody else.
Best supermarket - live UK rankings
Forecourt schemes: Shell Go+, BPme Rewards and Texaco Star Rewards
Shell Go+ has changed shape again: the old ten-visits system is gone and the scheme is back on points - 1 per litre of main-grade fuel, 2 per litre of V-Power, 200 points to £1. You need 25 base points before redeeming, redemptions work in even numbers of points, and points expire two years after earning. Hot drinks run on a separate buy-7-get-1 stamp card, and members get 10% off the deli range, engine oils and car washes. New members get £2.50 of points for joining with a marketing opt-in. There is no physical-card penalty - a card or key fob is available on request.
BPme Rewards mirrors Shell's shape: 1 point per litre of regular fuel, 2 on Ultimate, 200 points to £1, with a £2.50 welcome bonus and a shop rate of 1 point per £1. Points do not expire while the account is active, but two years unused closes it, and a plastic card never registered online loses its points after 12 months. The quiet differentiator: BPme points convert to Avios at 40 points to 25 Avios. Note there is no loyalty link between BPme Rewards and BP Pulse charging.
Texaco Star Rewards pays the highest standing rate on the forecourt - 1 point per litre at a full 1p each, fuel only, at around 730 participating stations. The trade-off is brutal at the bottom end: nothing can be redeemed until 500 points, which is 500 litres of fuel - the thick end of £835 at today's prices - and 12 months without a qualifying purchase closes the account and wipes the balance. If you will comfortably clear 500 litres a year at a participating Texaco - a weekly filler does this easily - it is genuinely the best rate going; an occasional visitor will likely never see a penny of it.
Stacking: where the real money is
Every mechanism here stacks, because they are paid by different parties. Scan the loyalty card, pay with a cashback card, use the coupon - all on one fill:
- Loyalty + cashback. A cashback credit card pays up to around 1% on the best widely available deals (typically 0.25% to 0.5% ongoing on fee-free cards) on top of any loyalty points - roughly doubling to quadrupling most schemes' standing value. One caveat from the card small print: category-based cashback depends on how a forecourt is coded, and some supermarket petrol stations may not count as fuel - flat-rate cashback cards are unaffected. And cashback only wins if the card is repaid in full every month.
- Loyalty + coupons. Supermarket fuel-save promotions (5p a litre off with a qualifying shop) appear periodically at Morrisons and Tesco and are always time-limited - none is running as we write this. Asda's Rewards Plus coupon is the standing version of the same idea.
- Welcome bonuses. Shell and BP both hand new members £2.50 in points, Texaco gives 200 points plus double points on your first three digital-card fills, and the Esso app adds 1,000 Nectar points on a first in-app fuel payment. Worth collecting once - they are one-offs, not rates.
For the wider theory of layering schemes without losing one to the other, our guide to cashback vs points vs discount codes covers the stacking rules in full.
When loyalty cards lose: base price beats points
A loyalty point is an incremental discount on whatever price you drove into. At 0.5p a litre back, a forecourt just 2p a litre cheaper with no scheme at all leaves you 1.5p a litre better off - and price gaps between stations in the same town are routinely bigger than that.
The extreme version is Costco: its members-only forecourts have been running around 7 to 8p a litre below the UK average on unleaded according to PetrolPrices' tracking, which at our 1,360-litre baseline is roughly £100 a year before the £42 membership - if you qualify, since Costco membership is restricted to listed employment groups and professions. Even its cheapness has a loyalty asterisk: the Executive tier's 2% reward explicitly excludes fuel.
The golden rule holds everywhere: supermarket rewards and forecourt points are worth collecting on fuel you were buying anyway, and worth nothing as a reason to buy dearer fuel.
Electric car? The loyalty picture so far
Shell is furthest ahead: Go+ earns 1 point per kWh at Shell Recharge charge points, and starting a charge through the Shell app is 10p per kWh cheaper than contactless at participating chargers - a bigger saving than any points scheme in this guide. Tesco's Pod chargers earn Clubcard at 1 point per £1 of charging (the free-charging era ended years ago). BP Pulse, despite the shared brand, has no link to BPme Rewards at all. Loyalty should be the tiebreaker on charging, never the reason: network coverage and price per kWh matter far more.
The bottom line
Set it up once and stop thinking about it: the free scheme for wherever you already fill up, your supermarket's card if its forecourt is on your route, a cashback card if you clear the balance monthly - and the cheapest sensible pump every time, because a few pence off the pump price is worth several times more than the points. Collect the welcome bonuses, redeem Nectar on big fills, and if anyone tells you a fuel loyalty card will save you £150 a year, ask them to show the maths - the schemes' own numbers say otherwise.
Frequently Asked Questions About Fuel Loyalty Cards
Which fuel loyalty card gives the best value?
Texaco Star Rewards pays the highest standing rate at an effective 1p per litre, but nothing is redeemable until you have bought 500 litres, and a year's inactivity wipes the account. For most drivers the honest answer is the scheme attached to the forecourt they already use - the standing rates elsewhere are all about 0.5p per litre.
Can I use a loyalty card and a cashback card together?
Yes - they stack. Scan the loyalty card, pay with the cashback card and both reward the same fill. The loyalty scheme is paid by the forecourt and the cashback by your card issuer, so neither cancels the other. Cashback only makes sense if you repay the card in full each month.
Do fuel loyalty points expire?
Almost all of them, one way or another. Shell points last two years; Morrisons points last 12 months unconverted; Tesco vouchers last two years; Texaco closes your account with the whole balance after 12 months without a purchase; BP and Nectar points survive while the account is active but die with two years or 12 months of total inactivity respectively. The pattern: keep using the scheme or cash out before you stop.
Are fuel loyalty cards worth it?
As free money on fuel you were buying anyway, yes - just at modest scale. The standing rates pay a typical 12,000-mile driver about £7 to £14 a year. The bigger wins are coupons like Asda's 5p a litre, cashback on the payment, welcome bonuses and above all buying cheaper fuel in the first place.
Do I earn extra points on premium fuel?
Shell and BP both pay double points on V-Power and Ultimate - worth about an extra 0.5p per litre. The premium itself costs 10 to 20p per litre more, so the bonus points never come close to making premium fuel a saving. Buy it for the fuel, never for the points.
Do I need a smartphone for fuel loyalty schemes?
No. Every scheme in this guide still offers a physical option: supermarket cards are physical by default, Shell provides a card or key fob on request, BP has free plastic cards in store (register online or the points lapse) and Texaco issues a physical Star Rewards card. The apps add conveniences - pay-in-app bonuses, coupons and balance tracking - rather than being the only door in.
Can I earn loyalty points charging an electric car?
At Shell Recharge, yes - 1 Go+ point per kWh, plus a 10p per kWh discount for charging through the Shell app at participating chargers. Tesco's Pod chargers earn Clubcard at 1 point per £1. BP Pulse currently has no connection to BPme Rewards, so BP charging earns nothing.