App review: GasBuddy for iOS
About three weeks ago, I bought a new car. For those of you who love cars in addition to pocketable technology (like me), then you might be interested to know that it’s a 2012 Mazda3 hatchback.
It’s a wonderful car with tremendous gas mileage to boot, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in saving as much money as possible when I do have to fill it up. In fact, quite the contrary has happened: I’ve become incredibly aware of how efficiently I’m driving, and how much gas is in the different parts of the state that I may have to drive to.
Still, I’m a forgetful human being. No matter how many mental notes I make about gas prices in each city, I will inevitably forget them and end up spending just a little more on gas than I wanted to – or than another station was selling it for. Luckily, I have a smartphone and there are plenty of apps to help you find the best gas prices around. I’ve used plenty of them, but my absolute favorite is GasBuddy.
The premise of GasBuddy is very simple: it finds your location, looks for gas stations near you, and then looks up the prices that are entered by other GasBuddy users.
To find gas near you, all you need to do is either enter your zip code, state, or city; or, more easily, you can simply hit the Find Gas Near Me button and have your device automatically find gas stations that are near you.
After it’s loaded up the nearest gas stations, you’ll be presented with prices and how far away the station is. All prices are entered by users of the app, and you can also see how long ago the prices were updated. For the most part, prices are incredibly accurate, no matter how long ago they were updated.
GasBuddy is a free app – and I’m sure most of you use (or have used) it – but it’s a powerful tool in my arsenal of iOS apps and it is definitely worth a mention – I don’t know any car owner who likes to spend more on already-expensive gasoline, and I’m sure none of you like it, either.
You can download the app through the QR code or download link below. Are there any other money-saving apps that you use?