The 5 Best Fuel Cards for Your Business in the UK

The Esso Card from Wex Europe is the best overall fuel card for UK businesses. With this card, you'll be able to access great savings on fuel, while earning Nectar or Tesco Clubcard points. All for just £4 a month, unless you're in the emergency services or armed forces, then it's totally free.

Based on our research and more than 10 years of experience in the market, we've prepared a ranking with our five top business fuel cards in the UK, so you can find one to call your own.

With rising fuel costs and economic stagnation besetting the UK, business fuel cards provide crucial savings, which can help keep your business running. On this page, we review the best ones we analysed, including pricing information, pros, and cons.

If you feel like cutting to the chase, you can use our free quote-finding tool to quickly receive custom prices from the providers most suited to your business needs. However, if you'd like to know more the five providers we picked, just head to our list below.

1. Esso Card: Best overall fuel card for UK businesses

Esso Card Review

The Esso Card from WEX European Services is a well-rounded fuel card package. As well as offering savings on fuel, you can also earn Nectar points and Tesco Clubcard points when filling up at certain forecourts. This is a helpful incentive for your drivers to use the card, as they can also benefit from extra savings when shopping for essentials.

Its coverage is sure to never leave you out in the cold with a total of 3,600 stations UK-wide, including 2,380 24h sites, 1,170 truck sites as well as great motorway coverage too. They also provide a station locator feature, which is absolutely essential while on the road to ensure your drivers can quickly and easily identify their nearest site.

It doesn't offer as much range with regard to charging other vehicle-related expenses, as demonstrated by Allstar. With the Esso Card, you'll be able to purchase fuel and motor oil, but unfortunately, cleaning, parking and toll fees will need to be charged to another business card. This can in the long run, make expense management a little more complicated.

Esso Card Pricing

The Esso Card is slightly more pricey than the other cards on our list at £4 per month or £48 per year, how you choose to pay is up to you. Fortunately, there is no minimum spend here, as imposed by The Fuel Store or DCI. That being said, you can also avoid minimum spend limits with the BP List card, which is priced at only £1 per month.

A notable bonus with the Esso Card is that it’s completely free to Blue Light Card and Defence Discount card holders, so those who work in the emergency services or in the armed forces.

While it covers some major fuel brands, if you do need to fill up at another station, there will be an additional charge. As with the other cards on the list, it works on a fixed weekly tariff pricing structure, which allows you to better forecast your fuel expenditure.

2. Allstar One: Best for Wide Network Coverage

Allstar One Review

The Allstar One card is our top recommendation for wide network coverage. Boasting the UK’s largest fuel station network with a whopping 7,700 sites covering 90% of the country, Allstar is the clear winner in this department. Your drivers can consult Allstar’s Co-Pilot app which identifies the closest station while on the go.

They don’t offer points or discounts as seen with the Esso Card or BP List, but they do offer a pay-as-you-go subscription to AA breakdown and fuel assist protection, which provides roadside help in the case of misfuelling or other hiccups.

Allstar also allows you to charge other vehicle-related expenses to the card, beyond just fuel. You’ll be able to pay for M6 toll fees, engine lubricants, maintenance, parking and cleaning fees too.

Allstar Online is the name of their online platform which allows you to see live intel regarding your fuel expenditure in the form of tables and interactive dashboards. Plus, it's all collated in an HMRC-compliant invoice at the end of the month.

Allstar One Pricing

Allstar does not publicly display its full pricing plan online, so we can’t give a complete picture of where it ranks among the other cards.

What we do know is that you can choose to pay monthly or annually. By reading their terms and conditions we learned that they also charge a network service fee of up to £3 on all card transactions, which could add up in the long run. It also imposes an ‘Underused Account Fee' of £9.99 per card, per month but no specific figure is given for the amount of fuel you'll need to buy to avoid this.

Since Allstar provides a bespoke plan based on your individual needs and eligibility concerning how you earn rebates, it’s best to contact them directly to see how this may look for your business.

3. BP List: Best Low-Cost Fuel Card

BP List Review

The BP List card is one of many cards offered by the independent broker, The Right Fuel Card Company. It is valid at over 3,400 stations UK-wide including 1,200 BP sites and has great motorway coverage. It’s also accepted at third-party stations including Esso, Texaco and Gulf, but there will be a surcharge when visiting non-BP sites.

Other than fuel, it can be used for more extra vehicle expenses than the Esso Card and The Fuel Store Card but not quite as many as Allstar One. The BP List card is valid for toll fees and engine oil as well. As with the other cards in the list, this card also provides HMRC-approved invoices each week, so there’s no need to hold onto receipts for claiming VAT.

To top it off, this card gives access to the BPme Rewards program, which includes a range of features. You’ll earn points while you spend that you can redeem on fuel or on store purchases like food and drink. You’ll also be able to earn rewards, such as M&S or Amazon vouchers and you can also convert BPme points into Avios to save on flights.

BP List Pricing

At just £1 per month, this is the cheapest card in our shortlist of the best fuel cards for UK businesses. For this price, you’ll receive fixed weekly tariffs which removes the uncertainty around your fuel spending.

There is also no minimum spend or charges in the case of under-use, which are imposed by Allstar, DCI and The Fuel Store, which makes it a great option for smaller fleets with lower fuel consumption.

4. The Fuel Store Card: Best for Fraud Protection

The Fuel Store Card Review

With 3,500+ stations nationwide, The Fuel Store has a wide network of stations at which you’ll be able to fill up. While it’s pretty extensive, including brands such as BP, Shell, Texaco, Esso, Jet and Certas, it does fall second place to Allstar’s mammoth 7,700-strong network.

As with the Esso Card, you can also collect Tesco Clubcard Points and Nectar Points when using The Fuel Store Card. This means you and your drivers can also score extra savings on supermarket shopping.

Some of the other cards in our list, such as Allstar One, also offer a more comprehensive package in terms of being valid for other vehicle-related expenses. With The Fuel Store Card, you’ll be able to pay for fuel, oil, AdBlue and other lubricants but not parking, cleaning or toll fees or vehicle maintenance.

In terms of reporting, The Fuel Store Card grants you the ability to view both table format reports as well as interactive dashboards, to get full visibility of your fuel expenses. As is the case with the other cards in our list, you’ll also receive HMRC-compliant invoices to make VAT returns a breeze.

The Fuel Store Card Pricing

The second most affordable card in our list, second to BP List, The Fuel Store Card will set you back £15 per year.

One thing to note, however, is if you sign up for a business account, you’ll need to surpass 300L per month otherwise your fee can be hiked up to £10 per month. While that’s a relatively low threshold to hit, this card is best suited to those who know for sure that they will consistently use the card.

For £15 per year, you’ll be able to purchase fuel at a fair, fixed weekly price in line with the market rate.

5. DCI One: Best for Irish Fleets

DCI One Review

The main USP for DCI One and the other offerings from Diesel Card Ireland is that it boasts the widest network of Irish fuel sites so should be the go-to choice for businesses which largely, or even exclusively, operate there. DCI has 100% coverage of Ireland, made up of 1,719 sites, including HGV and 24h locations.

Their Velocity online portal makes reporting easier by grouping transactions by driver, location and vehicle. Like the other card providers, DCI sends weekly or fortnightly VAT invoices.

In terms of perks like loyalty schemes or discounts on hotels or food purchases, this card doesn’t provide anything extra. It allows you to purchase engine lubricants and pay for parking, so you can at least keep those expenses on the same account.

DCI One Pricing

At £18 per year, it falls right in the middle of our rankings when it comes to price. Just like the other cards in the list, when paying for fuel with a DCI One card, you’ll pay a fixed weekly rate. This means the guesswork is taken out of buying fuel and you’ll be able to better forecast your outgoings ahead of time.

This is another card that’s best for consistent users, as there is a £2 monthly charge if the card is not used, per card not used.

Our Methodology: How Did We Do Our Research?

At Expert Market, we aim to provide you with the most accurate, up-to-date, and transparent information possible. To help you better understand the cheapest fuel cards on the market, we’ve conducted in-depth, extensive research into 17 fuel cards, presenting you with the best five.

For this article, we first looked at all the card essentials you need to know when making your choice.

We then considered the most important questions for this particular article and then answered each one.

• Which card has the cheapest monthly fee?
• Are there extra fees?
• Which card has the biggest network?
• What security measures are on offer?
• Can you buy other vehicle-related items with the card?
• What extra perks are offered to drive savings in the bigger picture?

We then used these points to clarify the pros and cons of each card, helping you make an informed decision.