High fuel prices - AA comes to the rescue

New and established AA members are getting a helping hand to beat the high cost of filling up. On average, UK drivers have so far this year paid £3 a tank more for petrol than in 2011, when fuel duty was frozen.

New members recruited each day get the chance to win a £500 Shell fuel voucher  - effectively giving them a free litre of unleaded everyday day for a year (current average price 137.7p a litre).
 
Members who stay with the AA for a year or more get a free smartphone app to help them hunt down cheap fuel prices. Other providers charge £2.99 for the privilege.
 
"Pump prices in different parts of the UK are described as a postcode lottery. Now the AA, with the help of Shell, is introducing a prize draw that will take away the fuel price worries of one new AA member every day," says Michael Cutbill, AA marketing director.
 
"Each day's new recruits to AA membership get the chance to win that day's £500 Shell voucher, but that's not all. After a year, all of them become eligible to download the AA cheapest fuel-price mobile phone app - for free."
 
Average petrol prices have risen by as much as 8p a litre this year. Having started the year at just below 132p a litre, a spike in the wholesale price sent average pump prices to 140p a litre in March. This added £4.40 to the cost of filling a small 55-litre petrol tank. Having fallen as low as 133.5p a litre in mid May, the UK's average cost of petrol is now 137.9p.
 
Average UK diesel prices have this year gone up from 140p a litre in January to 146.5p in March, before falling to 138p in May. They have now returned to more than 142p a litre.
 
In the past two years, the average price of petrol between January and August has averaged around 140p a litre and diesel 142p. In 2011, when fuel duty fell 1p a litre in the March and started a 30-month freeze, petrol prices between January and August averaged around 133.5p a litre.