Inaccurate fuel finder apps could cost drivers £260 a year

With petrol and diesel prices soaring, shopping around for the cheapest place to fill up is one way to save money on motoring costs. One way to do that is by using Government-powered fuel finder apps.

What Car?’s research revealed that prices on four of five fuel price checking sites that use the Government-supplied real-time data were showing outdated information. This means drivers using these sites could end up paying between 6p and 8p per litre of fuel (petrol and diesel respectively) due to the inaccurate price information. 

That equates to £3.60 more to fill up with petrol and £4.80 more for diesel, based on a typical family SUV with a 60-litre fuel tank.

Drivers who rely on a fuel price app and regularly visit sites where fuel prices are higher than stated could end up £22 out of pocket each month and pay £260 more than expected over a year.   

Only one of the sites was showing prices that had been updated on the day What Car? checked, in line with the new Motor Fuel Price (Open Data) Regulations 2025 introduced by the Government on 2 February. These require fuel retailers to register with the scheme and provide accurate and up-to-date information on prices to the real-time data service, and to update these within 30 minutes of any changes.  

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) says 92% of fuel retailers have signed up to the Fuel Finder scheme, and that its colleagues at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) are taking enforcement action against companies that have not signed up to the scheme. 

What Car?’s research 

On 4 May, What Car? checked prices for regular (E10) petrol, regular (B7) diesel and super unleaded petrol (E5) and found that the correct prices were being displayed on Petrolprices.com because the app had been updated by the provider on that day. 

However, prices on four of other sites – Confused.com, Fuel Finder UK, Fuel Spy and MotorMouth UK – had not been updated and were showing older prices in two out of four locations. 

All five fuel finder services provided correct prices for a Tesco Superstore and a large Texaco station – but four of them showed incorrect prices for two other locations, one operated by Shell and the other by Harvest Energy. 

What is the Fuel Finder scheme?

The Government introduced the Fuel Finder scheme in February 2026. It uses a third party to collect real-time fuel prices from fuel stations around the UK, and provides this information to app and website providers so they can publish it for consumers. 

Monitoring of the scheme was relaxed at first to allow retailers to register and get up to speed with the requirements. However, from 1 May, the CMA started enforcement action against companies that weren’t complying by sending out hundreds of warning letters. These will be followed by fines for companies that continue to ignore the regulations. 

The discrepancies in the price information found by What Car? suggest that some of the fuel finder apps are not being updated often enough to reflect price changes in a timely manner. 

The DESNZ says the navigation and price comparison websites and apps that use the data are responsible for displaying the information in a timely manner, and there may be a short lag depending on how frequently they refresh or process information. However, consumers can report errors online.

A DESNZ spokesperson said: “Fuel Finder will play a crucial part in our work to tackle the cost-of-living head on, with potential savings for households who own a car of around £40 a year at the pump.”

However, What Car? believes the DESNZ and CMA need to act faster to enforce the legal requirement to provide up-to-date information and ensure the fuel apps using Government-sourced data are also providing the latest information.

What Car? Consumer editor, Claire Evans, said: “More needs to be done to help cash-strapped motorists. With fuel prices likely to stay eye-wateringly high for the foreseeable future, motorists need easy access to the latest fuel prices so they can save money wherever possible.” 

How to save money on fuel

Even though some fuel price apps aren’t necessarily as up-to-date as they could be, they can still help motorists make big savings on fuel. We compared the price of fuel at a motorway services area with a nearby Tesco superstore and found that a petrol car owner using the motorway fuel station could pay £12.60 more to fill up, with a diesel car owner paying £6 more – and an older car which requires E5 super unleaded costing a staggering £19.20 more. The extra cost would be substantial in the long-term if the motorway services were used regularly.

Other ways to save money on fuel 

• Don’t take huge detours to save 0.5p/litre as you could end up spending more on getting to the cheaper fuel station
• Use loyalty cards to generate other savings, but not if the fuel costs more in the first place
• Check prices on fuel apps before you set off
• Don’t let your car’s fuel tank run down to empty so you can avoid panic buying
• Avoid filling up on the motorway network, instead use sat-nav tools to quickly find cheaper fuel stations nearby

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Next: Fuel finder tools rated: find out which Government-recommended fuel finder tool is best