Banking

New fuel reward programme vs the rest – as petrol prices shoot over R20 a litre in South Africa

Staff Writer

 ·10 Feb 2022

Financial services group Sanlam is the latest to offer a fuel rewards programme to customers, just as South Africa’s fuel prices once again shoot past the R20 per litre level.

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy announced yet another price hike for petrol and diesel in February, with the former increasing by 53 cents per litre and the latter around 80 cents per litre for the month.

This has pushed inland petrol 95 prices to R20.14 per litre, only a fraction below the record high of R20.35 seen in December 2021.

All of South Africa’s major retail banks have entered into rewards partnerships with service stations, offering customers cashback or points as a reward for filling up with preferred brands.

Sanlam now also offers fuel rewards through its Money Saver credit card. It has partnered with Total Energies to give customers a guaranteed R1 per litre back.

“Most loyalty programmes tier their members by paying less than R1 cash-back to most members to allow them to pay a generous reward to a small percentage of elite customers with big portfolios/support. We do not differentiate based on tier status or the size of your financial portfolio. We simply guarantee every cardholder a R1 back for every litre of fuel purchased at Total,” it said.

So, how does Sanlam’s fuel reward compare with the established rewards on offer?

BusinessTech delved into the banks’ reward programmes looking at fuel rewards in particular, sourced from publicly-available documentation and information.

To calculate rewards, we used a 55-litre petrol tank, which at the current rate of R20.14 per litre (Petrol 95), would cost R1,108 to fill. Based on Sanlam’s reward structure, this would give customers a simple R55 back when filling up.

This is how it compares to the rest:

Capitec

Capitec announced in February 2021 that it would partner with Shell service stations to give customers cash back when they fill up using a linked Shell V+ rewards card.

The rewards work by swiping a V+ card and paying with a Capitec card for fuel or at Shell Select – this nets customers a 20 cents per litre ‘cash back’ on fuel and 0.5% cash back on selected items.

There are a few caveats, however: in-store cash-back excludes purchases on tobacco, phone cards, lubricants, car wash and municipal services – while all the cash is loaded onto the V+ wallet, which can only be used to make purchases at Shell itself.

Other limits include the cash-back expiring after 12 months, with no way to withdraw the money in cash.

While the 20c per litre reward is exclusive to Capitec customers, the normal V+ reward is 15c per litre, regardless of the bank card used. This does not ‘stack’ if you are a Capitec customer – meaning the actual reward is simply 5 cents per litre more than what you would usually receive using the V+ rewards card with Shell.

• Spending R1,108 to fill a 55-litre tank using this reward would give you R11.00 back. The normal V+ reward would be R8.25.

Nedbank Greenbacks

Nedbank has tied its Greenbacks rewards to BP service stations, where swiping a Greenbacks-linked card will get customers a ‘guaranteed’ 25c cash back per litre.

It does not involve loyalty tiers or complex qualifying conditions, but does require the Card Swiper package.

Card Swiper is free for activated Greenbacks accounts on Optimum, Savvy Plus Gold, Savvy Bundle and Nedbank Professional Banking accounts – but for all other accounts, it costs R24 per month.

A Nedbank customer not using one of these accounts would need to spend around R1,500 – or the equivalent of 96 litres of their fuel type – every month to ‘break even’.

• Spending R1,075 to fill a 55 litre tank using this reward would give you R13.75 back in rewards.

Discovery Bank 

Discovery Bank’s reward programme, Vitality Money, offers fuel rewards at select Shell and BP service stations. Discovery’s earn rules for fuel rewards are opaque and not easy to track down outside the claim of “up to 20% back on fuel purchases”.

However, an ‘internal use’ document published online for use by brokers, does provide some insight into how this is structured.

According to the document, the Vitality Money fuel rewards work on top of Discovery’s Vitality Drive rewards programme, which offers up to 50% back in fuel purchases. Ostensibly, you could get up to 70% back on fuel purchases, if you’re willing to navigate the complexities of Discovery’s ‘behavioural’ model of rewards.

Focusing only on the Vitality Money portion of the reward, Discovery awards a maximum of 2 Discovery Miles for every R1 spent on fuel. This only kicks in on fuel purchases over R75, with a monthly cap of R1,000.

A top-level Vitality Money member can thus earn a maximum of 2,000 Miles this way – the equivalent of R200 back. Shell’s and Pick n Pay’s (BP) fuel rewards work on top of this, if not replaced by Discovery Drive.

• Spending R1,108 to fill a 55 litre tank using this reward would give you R200 back in rewards. At the current fuel price, a full tank would exceed the R1,000 cap.

FNB eBucks

FNB’s eBucks fuel rewards have gone through a significant change in 2021, effectively splitting the rewards into two groups.

The first group is the Aspire Current Account – the account that replaced the old ‘gold’ accounts in June 2021. If you are using this account, you can earn a maximum of R150 back in eBucks every month when you swipe your qualifying FNB Aspire card at Engen.

The earn rate for this reward is 60 cents per litre. Using FNB’s double-up eBucks reward – quarterly – this can be as high as R1.20 a litre, if you manage to jump through all the requisite hoops.

For FNB Premier, Private and Private Wealth account holders, the old system of earning up to R4.00 a litre at Engen service stations still stands. This can be increased to R8.00 per litre if all other conditions are met – specifically, having WesBank vehicle finance, a car registered on its Nav app, and all fuel purchases for a quarter being made at Engen.

The basic earning level for eBucks fuel rewards for these accounts is 10c per litre, which could in theory be doubled up to 20 cents if the other requirements are met.

On top of the complexity of navigating the eBucks earn rules, the bank also applies limits to how much you can be rewarded through fuel spend. Fuel rewards cannot be more than 20% of total rewards earned in a month, or more than R2,000 – whichever cap you hit first.

Rewards are also limited to Engen, and payment at the forecourt only, with no eBucks earned at any other service station. Quickshop purchases are considered general purchases, not part of fuel rewards – this includes if you pay for your fuel at the Quickshop tills, instead of the forecourt.

• Spending R1,108 to fill a 55 litre tank using this reward would give you the equivalent of R5.50 to R440 in eBucks. For Aspire account holders, the range is between R33.00 and R66.00.

Standard Bank uCount

Standard Bank offers fuel rewards at Astron (Caltex), tied to its uCount rewards programme.

Like FNB and Absa, the level of fuel reward with Standard Bank’s uCount depends on which reward level customers are at.

For the full benefit of R5 per litre, a customer would need to be at reward level 5, which includes the qualifier of having to spend a minimum of R20,000 per ‘cycle’, using a Standard Bank credit card.

Nevertheless, the ‘cash back’ earn rate starts at 20 cents per litre for debit card users at tier 1, climbing to 50 cents per litre. Credit card users start at 35 cents per litre, up to R5 per litre at tier 5.

The fuel rewards apply only to fuel and oil purchases and exclude all other payments at Astron. The reward earning is also capped at R1,000.

Another caveat is the annual fee to join uCount – R365 per year. This is roughly R30 a month, so a tier 1 debit card customer would have to spend the equivalent of at least 150 litres a month to cut even (or 6 litres for a tier 5 credit card customer).

• Spending R1,108 to fill a 55 litre tank would give you between R11.00 and R275.00, depending on card type and rewards tier.

Absa Rewards

Absa’s fuel rewards are for customers who fill up at Sasol – where they can receive up to 30% back on fuel purchases, depending on their rewards score, and what card they’re using.

Debit card users earn between 0.5% and 4.5% back, while credit card users start at 1.00% and can get all the way to 30% if they max out their reward level (800 points+).

The rewards are also not exclusively tied to fuel, but apply to any purchases made at Sasol – excluding bill payments, pre-paid airtime, and electricity and lotto purchases.

Absa’s rewards are capped, however, and only apply to the first R3,000 spent at Sasol – so a top-scoring customer can’t get more than R900 back a month.

The bank still rewards customers if they fill up at other stations, though this is at a flat rate of 0.15% cash-back.

• Spending R1,108 to fill a 55 litre tank would give you between R5.54 and R332.40, depending on card type and rewards tier – or a flat R1.66 at fuel stations other than Sasol.

The table below outlines how the rewards work, and the limits and limitations that apply:

Read: Here is the official petrol price for February