“Power to the people!”
This catch phrase is normally associated with various political movements and agendas.
You would not often think that people power can help you get discount petrol and ease the pain at the bowser. Would you?
After all, it’s not like we as individuals can make our own petrol at home, right? 😉
Petrol prices are often at the top of people’s minds and dominate many political agendas and election campaigns. After all, like electricity, petrol is a product each and every one of us must consume (whether you drive a car or take the bus).
Furthermore, it is a major ‘input cost’ of pretty much any other product or service we use which means that the cost of petrol impacts the price of pretty much anything we buy.
We’ve had a reprieve recently from high petrol prices due to the fall in oil prices on global markets. However, as expected and predicted by all economists and industry insiders, this reprieve was only temporary in nature and prices have now started to creep up again.
Furthermore, the dynamics of the global oil market as well as changes to the fuel excise announced in the last budget will mean petrol prices will only keep going one way for the foreseeable future: UP!
This obviously sucks but here at Spending Hacker we don’t believe in bitching and moaning or waiting on the government to act. Instead, we are all about people finding ways to help themselves tackle the rising cost of living and getting the best deal they can possibly get.
Therefore, in this post we will introduce an innovative and easy way to ease the pain to your hip pocket from filling up your car.
Discounted petrol through merchant loyalty scheme Go2 Rewards
This is quite a unique and innovative scheme and unlike other loyalty programs, it does not lock you to any particular service station brand and doesn’t require you to prepay for your petrol (like when you buy discounted fuel cards for example).
Go2 Rewards operates as a loyalty scheme for people with smartphones. Here is how it works:
- You download their app to your iPhone or Android Phone and become a member instantly. Both the membership and the app are free.
- You buy products and services from businesses in your local community. Some of these merchants will even give you special offers and discounts available only to Go2 Rewards Members.
- Every time you buy something from them, you obtain Reward credit based on your purchase amount. This reward credit gives you discount on each litre of Petrol you buy. The cool thing here is that the discount can be accumulated up to a whopping $1 a litre discount and you are not locked into buying your petrol from any particular service station so you can still shop around and buy from the servo which offers the best price.
- You buy petrol at your chosen servo as usual and if you have supermarket discount vouchers, you are free to use them as well.
- After you buy and pay for your petrol, you take a photo of your receipt through the Go2 Rewards App and nominate how much of your accumulated discount you want to use (up to $1 a litre). Go2 Rewards will then refund your nominated discount by direct deposit into your bank account within 72 hours.
Sounds complicated? The video below will explain it perfectly in less than 60 seconds
Cool ey?
Like any other offer, this one also comes with the obligatory T&Cs which introduce a few catches you need to be aware of:
- The discount is limited to 50 litres per purchase.
- You need to have an iPhone or an Android smartphone.
- You will only accumulate fuel discounts when shopping with businesses who participate in the scheme. The amount of merchants who take part may vary depending on where you live.
If you are a small business owner and would like to take part in the scheme as a merchant, you can get in touch with them by filling out this form.
The merchants page as well as the video below explains what’s in it for you as a business owner.
Photo by the real yomcat
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Hi there
I’d like to know something , how Go2 rewards makes money or proffits?
Do they collect money from the Merchants or the Gas station?
Regards
Mohamed
Hi Mohamed,
Go2rewards generates revenue for itself by taking a cut of the revenue generated for the business by their members.
It costs nothing to become a participating business and they only take a cut from the ACTUAL REVENUE generated for the business.
The idea is that instead of paying for advertising (which may or may not bring paying customers through the door), they take a cut from what their membership base has actually spent in the individual business.
More explanation available here:
http://www.go2rewards.me/merchant
Hi Michael,
Thanks so much for your fast reply , but kindly can you explain more?
Do Go2 rewards make profit from merchants or coffee shops when it advert to them through ( near by me map ) , or it makes profit from the Gas station that send customers on it , or it takes percentage from the customer’s purcahse?
And if the merchant offer a discount to consumer , the merchant will pay for Go2 rewards too?
at the end of the day , i’d like to know , how rewards rule goes on , many apps reward customers , but from where they do makes profit?
Thanks again for your help.
Regards
Mohamed
My understanding Mohamed is that Go2Rewards generate their revenue by taking a cut from the money customers referred by them spend at the participating merchants.
There is no charge to petrol stations as they are not part of the scheme (since the discount is provided as a rebate by Go2Rewards directly to the end user).
It’s basically similar to what group buying websites like LivingSocial or Groupon do: they advertise the business in return for a cut from the revenue their referrals generate.
If you are a business owner, Go2Rewards might introduce you to new customers (through the location-based search on the app) and once they come through the door, they are also encouraged to spend more as the more they spend with participating businesses, the higher their accumulated discount on petrol is.
This is basically a results-based advertising scheme. There is no cost for businesses to join the scheme and there are no ongoing fees or charges just for being on their directory. As a business owner, you only pay them a cut from the actual revenue they generate for you.
For further clarifications, I really recommend you contact Go2Rewards directly as they are best placed to answer your queries.
Thanks again for your comment.
Love the idea behind Go2 Rewards and wish them all the best in their growth - unfortunately seems to be not yet usable in Sydney due to lack of merchants.
For Go2Rewards it says ” Buy products & services from Local businesses & merchants..etc” .. Guess What ? There are NO local businesses & merchants for myself & many, many persons. Go2Rewards is predominately QLD based & creeps down as far as Grafton for participating NSW businesses. This is a DUD.. I downloaded the App.. Did a search for Local businesses near me in Sydney .. Got Zero that I could use..& got constantly directed to a page where I could place in suggestions.. What ? Go2Rewards wants you to do there contact & research work for Free.. No way.. I deleted my details & deleted the App.. Spend Hacker why are you messing people around with these dysfunctional, small time, non applicable businesses ? It drags down your own name which was Good until this experience here with useless Go2Rewards.. More research before offering opportunities is required to cull the time wasting “Wannabe’s” like Go2Rewards so clearly reveals itself to be.
Hi Joe,
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. All comments are very much appreciated as we love the interaction with our readers.
With regards to your points, here’s what I reckon:
1. While it is definitely true that Go2Rewards do not yet have a lot of participating merchants Australia-wide, I would not consider them a “small time” business.
As this clip from Channel 9 news in QLD shows, they have some serious ‘muscle’ behind them and also know how to get media attention and time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52PJGQLHsgI
Bottom line, this is an up-and-coming and rapidly growing business (almost 70,000 members already) which aims to save customers money and costs nothing to use. This ticks all the boxes for us as far as we are concerned.
2. It is not true that they expect their members to do their marketing for them and contact potential businesses. I have used the suggestion feature personally myself and they just ask you to provide the details of a business you would like to see in the scheme and THEY do all the contacting. No one expects people to work for free
3. We also like the way they are responsive to customer concerns around privacy and the security of personal financial details they keep on members (bank account details or PayPal) as this comment by one of their developers demonstrates:
Bottom line, we like this scheme and happy to use it ourselves and recommend to others but obviously every one is free to make their own decision.
Thanks again for your comment.
This sounds interesting. I like the fact that you can combine it with other petrol discounts. The catch is that I’d have to make sure there were companies in my area that were part of the program.
My current strategy at the moment is to use the cheapest Woolworths/Caltex petrol station in my area provided it is cheaper than the other petrol chains. I get 4 cents per litre discount using Everyday Rewards. I buy 5 litres of Woolworths milk for $5 to get another 4 cents discount. I pay with Wish cards purchased at a 5% discount. This Wish card discount works out to be about 7 cents per litre based on the price of $1.40 per litre. I always do my large fills at the bottom of the petrol cycle and do small top up fills during the middle of the cycle.