The enormous rise in the average UK price of petrol in the summer of 2008 brought home to many how dependent we are on gasoline and how easy it is for factors beyond our control to impact the money in our pockets. Prices jumped to an average of 119p a litre at the peak, before dropping back to under a pound at the present moment. Despite the falling price of a barrel of crude oil (more than half of what it was), this price has not been reflected to any great degree at the pump, mainly because around 70% of the price of a gallon of gas goes to the British government as duty and VAT. Petrol is unlikely to fall much further in price unless the UK government slackens its taxation on gasoline which is equally unlikely to happen. In fact, there is a 2p per litre rise expected to occur by March 2009 at the latest.

In addition to this, major oil companies have been posting record profits, tens of billions of dollars in excess of the previous year. Oil companies aren’t going to give you a price break, government is powerless to help (they need the revenue) so you have to take matters into your own hands. With this in mind, and with petrol prices still high, how then can you save money on petrol?

A good place to start is by using one of the many really useful online petrol price comparison services! By using one of these petrol cost comparison web sites (listed at the end of this article) you can check which UK petrol stations in your area have the cheapest petrol prices. You can compare petrol pump prices by postcode, town or general area both in your home town, or if you are on the road, using a wifi connection. This is a great way to avoid paying over the average price of petrol and save money on your driving expenses.

So, where can you find a petrol cost comparing site? Check out some of the links below. These petrol price comparison sites are free to use and can help you find cheap petrol in the UK and save money.

Petrol Prices.com – Enter your postcode and PetrolPrices.com will show you the cheapest prices on unleaded petrol, diesel, LPR, Super and LPG allowing you to find cheap fuel in your local area.

Keep Moving – a great places to not only find cheap fuel price informaton but also loads of other useful road information, including CCTV road footage to give you live shots of UK road conditions, supermarket location checker to save money on food during road trips and more. KeepMoving.co.uk allows you to enter a route for any upcoming road trip and they will give you a list of the cheapest petrol stations in the UK on that route allowing you to plan filling up time and save money on gas.

At the current moment, the place to find cheap petrol is your local supermarket chain who are currently involved in a price war which is paring the price of gasoline, diesel etc. down to the bone. If you have a Tesco petrol service station near you, or an Asda petrol station or any of the others, then this is usually the place to find the cheapest petrol but using one of the above services can often be surprising.