Most drivers are familiar with the never-ending dance that goes on at the gasoline pump, where fuel can fluctuate in price multiple times a day. But despite our constant grumbling, unless two stations are side-by-side, few of us go to the effort to actually find the cheapest gas around.
Now BillShrink, a startup that offers a variety of comparison engines designed to help users save as much money as possible, is looking to help you find the cheapest gas in your area, without forcing you to drive miles out of your way.
To get started, BillShrink initially asks for your home address and your most-visited destination, the make of your car, and how much gas you typically fill up when you visit a station. It plots your most commonly driven route on a map, locating nearby gas stations along the route and pulling data from partner services to get the latest gas prices from each station. It then looks at how far out of the way each station is, analyzing how much gasoline would be used in order to drive to a cheaper station and determining if the cost savings would be worth the trouble. You can also filter gas stations by the amenities offered (for example, if you wanted to make sure that the location you were visiting accepted credit cards or had a convenience store). After the initial setup, the service will monitor price fluctations on a daily basis, and you can elect to receive regular updates notifying when your ideal gas station switches.
It’s a neat idea, and BillShrink’s interface is very slick. I was initially skeptical about how much people would actually save, but BillShrink estimates that commuters could save as much as $200-$300 a year simply by regularly monitoring their ideal gas station, assuming they fill up on a weekly basis. This may be easier said than done (I suspect many people would rather pay an extra dollar or two if it saved them a ten minute drive), but I also know quite a few people who would walk half a mile to their bank branch to avoid an ATM fee, and this service would be right up their alley.
In any case, BillShrink isn’t planning to use the service to directly generate revenue, but instead sees it as a good way to drive traffic to its site. Unlike BillShrink’s other cost-saving services, which cover credit cards and mobile phones, gas is something people worry about on a day-to-day basis. BillShrink is hoping that this will lead them to come to the site more often, and hopefully stumble across its other (revenue-producing) services.
Seems Microsoft Brings Its Cost-Cutting Engine To The Home…
Sorry wrong comment at the wrong place… Why am I always the last one to know…
Can you not have an option to delete one’s own comments as long as the cookies are not expired?
Yeah..Wrong comment i think so..
Jason, you said right that “BillShrink’s interface is very slick”
I really liked using it’s interface; It’s cool and modern..
http://www.smartbloggerz.com
İs it just for USA?
Egitisim, yes just for the US. sorry
Nice one Peter, very novel.
> analyzing how much gasoline would be used in order to drive to a cheaper station and determining if the cost savings would be worth the trouble.
what if it gets you into a traffic jam though the cheaper station may be near?
This is a really cool tool but it can sometimes be ineffective as there may be a traffic jam or something but over all this is a really good tool. Today I am 16 and I will use this when I start driving.
Mohammad Afaq
Free Website Traffic
Traffic should be taken into consideration……
Nice post! Look at my site too at http://macmaniapodcast.com
Spam!
I think websites like this are what make us feel like we take the internet for granted too often. Sure, online features can get out of hand, and it’s tough to keep up with tweets and status updates and other breakthroughs in social media, but websites like this make life more convenient for us when it ultimately comes down to it – and that should be the driving force behind ALL technological developments.
Rachel, wow.. thank you for the comment, I forwarded your comment to my team, you made my day.
We’ll keep trying to make sure each one of our services we roll out this year makes life a bit more convenient and saves you money along the way. There is a ton of technology and complexity on the back end and our goal is to simplify the front for users like you.
Peter Pham
CEO
BillShrink
Is anyone else getting a Google Maps API error that says please read the terms of service???
Thanks Kenny, we’ve let the Google Maps API team know and we’re working on it.. we’re putting on a pretty big load on the API with all the alternative routes of every gas station on each lookup.
This thing is bogus.
I have a Blackberry from T-Mobile, and I allowed BillShrink analyze my monthly bill and make recommendations based on my usage.
This is what it came up with below, notice :
*none of the plans recommended include a DATA PLAN which is a requirement when you have a Blackberry.
* its recommending UNLIMITED MINUTES plans when infact my monthly voice usage is less than 60 minutes total.
Its a great front to sucker in unsuspecting people to buy the most profitable phone plan that the carrier is pushing !!!
Ethan,
That is the first time we’ve heard of such a report on voice. We take our accuracy very seriously and would love to work with you to make sure the analysis is accurate. We’ve done over a hundred thousand bill imports and there are actually over 10 Million plan combinations.
We strive for perfection, so please do contact us via our website and i’ll have someone immediately try to find the problem.
thanks
Peter Pham
CEO BillShrink
The T is next to the R, sorry I mistyped your name Ehran. We definitely want to earn your trust, I also sent you a msg on your blog.
I’m met Peter, he does not have what it takes to make this work.
The reco engine just doesn’t work.
They’re going to dive in to the deadpool pretty soon!
nice job guys, this one is the most useful yet for me on billshrink since its not a ‘one time thing’ and i can use it ever week at fillup time!
im sure ther’ll be alot of sites that will help you locate and save money on routine purchases.
CheapLocator.com – life savings
Seems very useful… But anyone knows where the gas price info is pulled from and how often? What’s the chance of getting a wrong quote?
Congratulations, Peter, for launching a new service so quickly. I checked it out, it works really well. (yeh, I have no life and actually drove to a station to compare the prices with what the app told me)
I’m still curious though how the partner service can gather up to date gas price information.
Lei and LG, GasBuddy has partnered with BillShrink to provide the real-time retail gas price information. OPIS is also a data provider. GasBuddy data is provided by a network of over 1 million volunteer gas price spotters to over 180 local gas price sites in the USA and Canada.
billshrink.com and value added websites like this buy demand information from toolow, gasbuddy, opis, AAA, etc. to construct their website.
Reliability is limited by whoever enters them. Gas buddy isn’t as accurate. TooLow is a bit more accurate because actual receipts are collected from consumers. AAA is a bit accurate too. When a customer wants reimburse for the gas, he/she has to submit gas receipts. As for OPIS, they have a network of merchants they work with to provide them data. This isn’t accurate because most merchants don’t submit pricing data timely and there’s a delay in realtime pricing information. OPIS is more for historical gas pricing.
Cheers.
great look combination GIS satellite imaging applications and internet infrastructure,what a pitty it just available for US traffic only when the same Cost cutting engine is actually need by all people around the world
The second I click view results, for the gas savings, billshrink’s site gets stuck and never progresses to the next screen.
Wow, nice to see someone is on the ball!
RT
http://www.privacy-tools.us.tc
Not sure how this adds any value over Mint.com yet.
Some prices are so outdated (the websites indicates how old the price is, and some are like 5 days old). I tried to update manually, but it didn’t get reflected, probably there is an additional verification process. It should at least show the price I entered to me even if others continue to see the old price.