Summertime is fast approaching (forty days away actually — not that we’re counting or anything) which, between the kids being out of school and those oh-so-exciting family road trips to visit the world’s largest spoon in the middle of Wyoming, means there’s a lot of gas to burn driving around. With the stock market in the tank and layoffs abounding, Americans are already feeling the pinch as it is, but one company is trying to take the pain at the pump out of the equation.
Petrofix, a San Francisco based company, allows consumers to lock in a gas price for a set amount of time. When gas prices go up, the company will actually cut you a check at the end of the month for the increased prices. If gas prices go down, you still get to benefit from the lower gas prices. Essentially, you’re getting an insurance policy against over-paying for gas, except there’s no paperwork to file and red tape to cut through; your credit card is just automatically credited at the end of the month if average gas prices rise above the rate that you locked in.
There are no enrollment fees, which is nice. You pay around $0.25 a gallon, depending on current gas prices and which region of the country you live in, for the number of gallons you’ll use in a month over the length of the period you want to purchase gas for. The Petrofix site includes tools to estimate your gas usage.
Obviously, as gas prices go way down, you still might end up at a bit of a loss, but this is certainly a lot simpler than participating in securities and commodities markets.
This sounds like an amazing program. This should be a wise choice for many. I don’t really see gas prices going way down unless something significant happens in the world economy.