Using Your Phone To Find Cheap Gas

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

March 26, 2012 | 2:21 PM

Scott Detrow / StateImpact Pennsylvania

Gas prices keep going up. According to AAA, the average national price is now $3.89; in Pennsylvania’s it’s one cent cheaper.
How do you find the rare deals out there? Smartphone apps are one tool for gasoline price-hunting, according to NPR’s Jeff Brady:

Companies have applications for most smartphones out there to help you find the cheapest gas in your town. I tried out six applications on an iPhone and narrowed the selection to two that I found the easiest to use: GasBuddy and Fuel Finder.
GasBuddy launches quickly with a big, green gas pump button in the center of the screen labeled “Find Gas Near Me.” Just push it and prices pop up based on your GPS location. You can sort by distance or price.
One problem I found is it lists only the lowest price. In my case that was for a service station that charges 8 cents a gallon more if you want to use a credit card. Jason Toews, the co-founder of GasBuddy.com, says his company is working on that issue.

What sets gas prices? StateImpact Pennsylvania explained last week.