Gas Saving Rip Offs

There are many places on the web that provide real fuel efficiency tips that will help increase your gas mileage. And with the cost of gas skyrocketing, many consumers will do anything to increase their gas mileage or stretch their gas dollar farther. Products claiming to improve a car's fuel efficiency or offering discounts at the pump are filling up the web. Beware the old axiom – “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Fuel-Efficiency Products

Products that sound too good to be true – Run your car on water, add pills to your gas, adding acetone to gas, magnets on the fuel lines, oil additives, and mounting devices on the engine that manipulate gas and air. The EPA tests 100’s of such products only to find that only a handful of them increase your gas mileage (barely), some even decrease your gas mileage. AND POSSIBLY VOID THE CAR WARRANTY. All car warranties have clauses covering modifications or abuse. You could wind up paying for damages caused by installing one of these gas saving devices.

Gas Rewards and Discount Gas

Web ads promoting free gas cards are another too good to be true item. These promotions involve signing up for offers on web sites in return for a card good for gas discounts or free gas. The total cost of these offers may wind up costing more than if you had just bought the gas outright. Alternatively, the gas savings card may not even arrive, much like the rebates that “get lost” in the mail. Or the free gas card offer is disqualified because all the rules to receive the card were not met. The Better Business Bureau is warning consumers to carefully investigate these offers.

Watch for red flags when investigating the free gas offers:

Look for contact information about the company offering the free gas offer.

Look for details of how much it will really cost for the free gas offer.

Carefully read the details of the free gas offer.

Finally, copy the web address of the company into a search engine and add one of the following terms without the quotes “+ scam”, “+ fraud”, “+ complaint”. This will quickly bring up a list of any sites that have reviews or consumer complaints about the free gas offers.

Gas Rewards Credit Card

At $4.00 a gallon, a credit card with a 3% rebate equates to saving 12 cents a gallon. Though you may get a nasty surprise on your credit card bill; some gas stations charge as much as $.50 per gallon as a surcharge for using plastic to pay for gas, but you won’t know that until the credit card bill arrives in the mail.

Visa and MasterCard prohibit gas stations from charging a surcharge for paying with plastic at the pump; Discover and American Express do not. If you discover extra surcharges, report it to your credit card issuer and dispute the charge. They want to know; after all they are getting fees from the merchants that accept their card. Anything that would discourage you from using your credit card they want to know.

Gas Vouchers and Coupons

Coupons and vouchers for almost everything imaginable can be found on Ebay. Scarfing up a $2o gas voucher for a few bucks seems like a real prize. But these vouchers and coupons are often counterfeit or can be printed off the internet for free. Doing a quick internet search with the words “coupon” +the issuer’s name will often bring up a list of sites that have the real scoop on the deal.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. To get real gas discounts and savings, it takes a little research to sort through all the scams and frauds that are waiting to pick your pocket. No one gives away anything without wanting something in return. Always ask, “What are they going to get for giving me this?” Usually, it’s your money. If it is a card for free gas, how come they aren’t using it themselves?