Fuel retailers continue to offer a range of cards for their private customers. As they have had to respond to card markets at different stages of maturity, propositions are very fragmented ranging from schemes that provide rebates, to multi-retailer loyalty programmes and co-branded credit cards. This brief examines the different types of customer cards available.

Report Highlights
Most fuel retailer card propositions do not offer rebates on fuel; fuel retailers are more likely to allow points to be redeemed against shop products. However, some supermarkets and fuel retailers with smaller networks have been motivated to offer discounts on fuel. These range from less than 1% to 5%.

Fuel retailers should use their cards to encourage existing customers to make purchases that they otherwise would not have. Shell in the UK has been particularly innovative in this respect. It offers selected card holders double points on purchases of its premium fuel.

In markets that have a high usage of credit, it is advisable for fuel retailers to launch a co-branded credit card. One of the main benefits of a co-branded credit card is that the fuel retailer retains a proportion of the card revenues generated which in turn can be used to fund higher discounts on fuel.
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Figure 1: Jet offers customers in Germany a 5% worldwide rebate on fuel 2
Figure 2: Only four European fuel retailers belong to a syndicated loyalty scheme 5
Figure 3: Of those fuel retailers participating in independent loyalty schemes, only Tesco in the UK has a car insurance company and a hotel chain as members 6
Figure 4: Redemption on non-fuel items is focused on service station shop products and catalogue gifts 7
Figure 5: In a consumer survey, over 85% of Italian respondents believe that their trust is increased by companies participating in 'socially responsible activities' 9
Figure 6: By 2011, Finland, Norway and Turkey will have the highest number of credit card transactions per adult 10
Figure 7: There are no co-branded credit cards in Italy and Switzerland 11
Figure 8: In most European markets there are generally two or three major credit card issuers 12
Figure 9: EuroCard/MasterCard and Visa are by far the largest acceptance schemes in Europe 13
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