MyGas review

We review MyGas, an app that displays local petrol prices in your area

You’d think petrol stations had taken a leaf out of video game console manufacturer’s sales book with the way their prices are shooting up these days. It’s as though they’re trying to create a shortage demand, making us all want to rush out and buy lots of petrol even more than we already do, because it’s so very desirable and exclusive.

Whenever this happens with something like the Wii Fit, or 3DS, websites inevitably spring up to keep so we can all keep each other updated on current stock levels across the country. In many respects, that’s exactly what MyGas is aiming to do, by providing a user-updated overview of petrol stations across the UK.

The app puts the iPhone’s GPS to use in helping you to dig up the cheapest oil in your current vicinity, overlaying your position onto an in-app Google Map. It then loads in petrol stations available on the current map view, denoting their company by way of small logos; quite useful if you like to fill up your reward cards by using specific suppliers.

But the real aim isn’t to help you find a Shell or BP station, but to hunt down the cheapest price. The “Nearby gas stations” option swaps out the map for a list of stations ordered by their proximity to you, closest first. Next to each is the current reported price of your preferred fuel type (selectable in the options) and when the price was last updated by another MyGas user.

You can take a closer look at the overall price list for that station by opening its individual page from the list, where you can also confirm whether the broadcast prices are correct or not. If they’re not, you can enter the current price to update the system for all the other MyGas users out there.

Doing so might not help you directly, but if a station starts to get a lot of business as news of its lowest local price spreads, it will hopefully encourage those prices to stay low, so it is definitely worth doing.

From this page you can also jump out to the Google Maps app, where a route from your current location to the selected garage is automatically entered. You can also rate the garage on more than just its prices, giving the venue itself a rating based on quality of service - another important factor when you’re spending so much money.

Some of the prices reported by MyGas are old enough that you can be pretty sure they will have changed, which is something of an inherent problem with its reliance on crowdsourced info. Hopefully the developer will garner enough support, and provide enough promotion to allow the app to become a reliable, definitive source for local petrol prices. It is certainly making headway.

As you can pick up the ad-supported version for free (removing the ads can be done via an in-app purchase) there’s no risk to joining this vigilant community. It can only help you out in the long run, and it’s not the worst feeling taking a few coins out of the pockets of the oil profiteers every now and then.

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