Petrol averaged 172p a litre in the week of 21 September 2026, and diesel was just over 195p, according to the government’s weekly pump price figures. A full tank now costs most of us £85 or more.
Most “fuel rewards” hand back half a penny a litre, which is barely worth scanning an app for. We worked out what every UK fuel cashback route actually pays per litre, which ones stack, and what that adds up to over a year.
Quick answer: in September 2026 the highest-paying fuel cashback in the UK comes from cards, not forecourts. The Santander Rewards Credit Card pays 3% in year one (5.16p a litre on petrol) and Chase UK pays 2% (3.44p a litre).
Loyalty schemes like Shell GO+, BP Rewards and Tesco Clubcard are worth about 0.5p a litre. You can use a cashback card and a loyalty app on the same fill-up.
How can you get cashback on fuel in the UK?
There are four ways to get money back when you fill up. They’re very different in value:
- A cashback debit or credit card. You pay at the pump as normal and the card gives you a percentage back. This is where the real money is.
- A forecourt or supermarket loyalty scheme. Shell GO+, BP Rewards, Tesco Clubcard and Nectar give you points per litre. The points are worth far less than card cashback, but they’re free and they stack on top.
- Time-limited promotions. Card and retailer deals like the Barclays and Tesco 5% offer that ran this summer. They’re good while they last, but you can’t plan around them.
- Cash back at the till. This means taking cash out when you pay, not getting a reward. It’s a different thing entirely, and we cover it further down because it’s one of the questions we get asked most.
Supermarket gift card cashback, which works well for your weekly shop, mostly doesn’t work for fuel. We explain why below.
Which cards pay cashback on fuel right now?
Three widely available UK cards pay cashback on fuel as of September 2026. We checked every figure against each provider’s own page on 23 September 2026.
| Card | Fuel cashback | Limits | Fee / APR | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santander Rewards Credit Card | 3% in year one, then 0.25% | No monthly cap in its cashback terms | £0 fee, 24.9% APR representative | Your first year of heavy driving |
| Chase UK (debit card) | 2% | Up to £20 a month across all eligible categories; needs 15 card payments or Direct Debits a month and £1,000+ in savers | No fee | An ongoing rate on a debit card |
| Amex Cashback Everyday | 5% for the first five months (up to £125), then 0.5% (1% above £10,000 a year) | Ongoing cashback needs £3,000+ spend a year; welcome rate only if you haven’t had a personal Amex in 24 months | £0 fee, 29.1% APR representative | Big overall spenders who clear the balance |
Santander Rewards Credit Card: 3% in year one
Santander’s own page lists “petrol, diesel, LPG and electric vehicle (EV) charging away from home” in its 3% category for the first year after you open the account. After that, everything earns 0.25%.
There’s no monthly fee. Santander does warn that “there are some supermarket petrol stations where you might not earn 3% cashback,” because of how those sites are coded, so check your first statement.
Chase UK: 2% with no end date
Chase raised its rate from 1% to 2% on 1 June 2026. Its cashback page names BP, Esso and Shell, and says petrol bought “at major supermarkets” counts too.
Public EV charging points are included, home charging isn’t. The £20 monthly cap covers groceries, transport and fuel combined, so it tops out at £1,000 of eligible spend a month.
Amex Cashback Everyday: a strong start, then a low rate
Amex’s page shows 5% on everything for the first five months, capped at £125. After that it’s 0.5% on your first £10,000 a year, which is less than a fifth of what Santander pays on fuel in year one.
A credit card is only worth it if you clear it in full every month. At 24.9% or 29.1% APR, carrying a balance costs you far more than 3% cashback pays back.
If you’re unsure, stick with the Chase debit card, and read our guide on improving your credit score before applying for anything.
What is fuel cashback actually worth per litre?
Percentages and points are hard to compare, so we converted every route into pence per litre. We used the government’s average pump prices for the week of 21 September 2026: petrol 172.01p, diesel 195.53p.
| Route | Petrol (p per litre) | Diesel (p per litre) | How we worked it out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amex Cashback Everyday (first 5 months only) | 8.60p | 9.78p | 5% of pump price, until £125 is used up |
| Santander Rewards (year one) | 5.16p | 5.87p | 3% of pump price |
| Chase UK | 3.44p | 3.91p | 2% of pump price |
| Amex Cashback Everyday (ongoing) | 0.86p | 0.98p | 0.5% of pump price |
| Shell GO+ (regular fuel) | 0.50p | 0.50p | 1 point per litre, 200 points = £1 |
| BP Rewards (regular fuel) | 0.50p | 0.50p | 1 point per litre, 200 points = £1 |
| Tesco Clubcard (Tesco petrol station) | 0.50p | 0.50p | 1 point per 2 litres, 1 point = 1p in vouchers |
| Santander Rewards (after year one) | 0.43p | 0.49p | 0.25% of pump price |
The takeaway: year-one Santander cashback is worth about ten times a loyalty point per litre, and Chase is worth about seven times. Loyalty points are worth having because they cost nothing, but they’re not what saves you real money.
Shell’s premium V-Power fuel earns 2 points a litre (1p), and BP Ultimate earns 2 points too. The extra point is worth 0.5p a litre, and premium fuel costs more per litre than regular, so buying it just for the points doesn’t add up.
Can you stack card cashback and loyalty points?
Yes. Card cashback and loyalty points come from different companies, so you can collect both on the same fill-up. Scan your loyalty app, then pay with your cashback card.
This isn’t a loophole. Shell’s GO+ terms say you earn points when you pay “using any accepted payment method”. At Tesco you collect 1 Clubcard point for every 2 litres at its petrol stations (1 point per £3 at Esso stations with a Tesco Express).
Tesco says the rate only changes if you’re a Tesco Bank customer using its own card to collect or pay.
Here’s a 50-litre petrol fill-up at 172.01p (£86.00):
| What you use | You get back |
|---|---|
| Shell GO+ app only | £0.25 |
| Chase UK card only | £1.72 |
| Santander Rewards card only (year one) | £2.58 |
| Santander Rewards card + Shell GO+ app | £2.83 (5.66p per litre) |
What you can’t do is earn two loyalty schemes on the same litre. Each forecourt runs one scheme, so a Shell station gives Shell points and a Tesco station gives Clubcard points.
How much could you save on fuel in a year?
We worked this out on monthly fuel spend rather than mileage, because your spend is on your bank statement. Loyalty figures assume 0.5p a litre at 172.01p.
| Monthly fuel spend | Loyalty app only | Chase UK | Chase + loyalty | Santander year one | Santander year one + loyalty | Santander after year one |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £100 | £3.49 | £24 | £27.49 | £36 | £39.49 | £3 |
| £150 | £5.23 | £36 | £41.23 | £54 | £59.23 | £4.50 |
| £250 | £8.72 | £60 | £68.72 | £90 | £98.72 | £7.50 |
Two things stand out. First, a £250-a-month driver who pays with the best card and scans an app gets back close to £100 in year one. The same driver using points alone gets under £9.
Second, Santander’s rate drops sharply after 12 months, so Chase beats it from year two. If you’re not sure where your fuel money goes, our guide on auditing your spending shows you how to pull the number off your statements.
Do petrol stations do cash back at the till?
This is a different meaning of “cash back”: taking cash out when you pay by card. It’s one of the most common questions people search alongside fuel cashback.
The honest answer is that it depends on the shop, not the fuel brand.
None of Shell, BP, Esso or Tesco publishes a forecourt cash back policy that we could find, so what you can do at one Shell or BP station may differ at the next.
What we can say for sure is that LINK’s Cash at the Till scheme lets you withdraw anything from 1p to £50 at participating shops, and “you don’t even have to make a purchase.” If you need cash, ask at the kiosk.
If they say no, LINK’s online Cash Locator can help you find somewhere nearby.
Can you use a supermarket gift card for fuel?
Mostly no, and it’s worth knowing before you get to the pump.
Gift card cashback is a good way to save on your supermarket shop, including through apps like Gains App (disclosure: Gains App is built by the Up The Gains team). Fuel is the exception.
| Supermarket | Gift card at the pump? | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Sainsbury’s | No. Only its dedicated Fuel Payment Card works | Sainsbury’s gift card help |
| Asda | No, based on a secondary read of Asda’s terms, so check at the till | Secondary |
| Morrisons | No for standard gift cards | Secondary |
| Tesco | Depends on the card. App-bought e-gift cards are excluded from Tesco petrol stations. A physical card bought in store may work at the kiosk, but not at Esso-branded sites | Tesco for Business gift card terms |
In practice, a Tesco gift card bought through a cashback app won’t fill your tank, even though a physical one from the shop may.
Fuel deals that come and go
The best rates are often short promotions. They’re worth grabbing, but don’t plan around them.
- Barclays and Tesco, 5% (ended). Barclays customers earned 5% cashback on £5 to £200 of fuel at Tesco petrol stations, capped at £10 a month, from 1 May to 31 July 2026, per Barclays’ announcement. We found no sign of it returning as of September 2026.
- TopCashback Snap and Save. TopCashback runs fuel receipt offers from time to time. Check its site before counting on one. Our cashback apps roundup compares it with the rest.
- Supermarket fuel vouchers. Supermarkets sometimes run spend-and-save fuel coupons, such as pence off a litre after a big shop. The terms change with each promotion.
Forecourt payments sometimes don’t earn cashback even on cards that should pay it, because pay-at-pump and third-party sites can be coded differently. If a payment is missing, our guide to cashback not tracking shows how to chase it.
What about cashback on EV charging?
The same cards cover public EV charging, which matters as more drivers switch:
- Chase UK pays 2% at public charge points, naming GRIDSERVE, InstaVolt and Pod Point. Charging at home doesn’t count.
- Santander Rewards includes “electric vehicle (EV) charging away from home” in its 3% year-one category.
- Shell GO+ gives 1 point per kWh at Shell Recharge charge points, and Shell says members save 10p per kWh when charging through the Shell App.
Home charging is a household energy bill, not a fuel purchase. That’s covered in our guide to cashback on bills.
Which fuel cashback option suits you?
There’s no single best option. It depends on how you drive and how you handle credit.
- You drive a lot and always clear your credit card: the Santander Rewards card pays the most in year one. Put a reminder in your calendar for month 12, when the rate drops to 0.25%.
- You don’t want a credit card: Chase UK’s 2% debit card cashback has no end date, as long as you meet its monthly conditions.
- You spend heavily across everything, not just fuel: Amex’s five-month 5% welcome rate is the biggest short-term boost, but its ongoing rate is low for fuel.
- You don’t want a new account at all: download the loyalty app for the forecourt you use most. It’s small money, but it’s free.
- Whatever you choose: scan a loyalty app too. It’s free money on top of your card.
For the bigger picture across groceries, bills and shopping, our complete cashback guide works through the maths for every method. If you’re weighing up bank switching bonuses as well, see our free money offers roundup.
Key takeaways
- Card cashback is where the money is: 5.16p a litre with Santander Rewards in year one and 3.44p with Chase UK, versus about 0.5p from loyalty schemes (September 2026 prices)
- You can stack a cashback card with a loyalty app on one fill-up; Shell’s terms allow points with “any accepted payment method”
- A £150-a-month driver gets back about £59 in year one with the best card plus an app, against about £5 from points alone
- Santander’s 3% lasts 12 months, then drops to 0.25%; Chase’s 2% has no end date but needs 15 monthly payments and £1,000 in savers
- Only use a credit card for fuel if you clear it in full each month
- Supermarket gift cards mostly can’t buy fuel; app-bought Tesco e-gift cards are excluded from Tesco petrol stations
- “Cash back at the till” means withdrawing cash; LINK’s scheme allows up to £50 without buying anything at participating shops
