Fuel Cards & Loyalty

Loyalty, prepaid and postpaid — on one card platform

Stop running three schemes in three places. Cedars issues, authorises, limits and settles all three card models against the same pump and the same ledger.

The short answer

Prepaid means the customer pays first and the balance runs down — no credit risk to you. Postpaid means the customer fuels first against an approved credit limit and is invoiced monthly — right for fleets, but you are the lender. Loyalty means neither party is settling money at the pump; the card is earning a reward that you will owe later. Cedars runs all three on one platform, authorised at the dispenser and settled in one ledger.

Loyalty cards

Bring the regulars back and find out who they actually are.

  • Earn per litre, per value, or in points
  • Redeem against fuel, shop items or car wash
  • Tiers and campaign periods
  • Bonus multipliers on chosen products or hours
  • Reward calculated from real dispensed volume
  • Outstanding reward liability tracked in the ledger

Prepaid cards

Cash in advance, zero credit exposure, no chasing anyone.

  • Load a monetary balance or a litre balance
  • Top up at the station or against an account
  • Auto-decline once the balance is spent
  • Litre-based loading hedges price movement for the customer
  • Corporate bulk loading across many cards
  • Lost-card block and balance transfer

Postpaid fleet accounts

Win the corporate contracts — and keep control of the credit.

  • Credit limit enforced at the pump, not after
  • Cards per vehicle, driver or department
  • One consolidated monthly invoice per account
  • Per-vehicle breakdown inside that invoice
  • Ageing, statements and collections tracking
  • Automatic suspension on overdue balance
Authorisation rules

Control that happens before the fuel, not after

A monthly exception report tells you a driver filled a private car on the company account. It does not get the fuel back. Because our cards are validated by the dispenser automation layer, the rules are applied at the moment the nozzle is requested — so the abuse simply does not complete.

  • Account credit limit
  • Per-transaction volume cap
  • Per-transaction value cap
  • Daily / weekly / monthly ceilings
  • Product restriction by card
  • Permitted days and hours
  • Permitted stations in a network
  • Odometer or vehicle-reference prompt
  • PIN requirement
  • Instant block on a lost card

Fail any rule and the pump is not released. The attempt is still logged, so the pattern is visible even when nothing was dispensed — which is often the more useful signal.

Choosing the right model

If you want to…Use
Win a corporate or government fleet contractPostpaid
Improve cash flow and take payment up frontPrepaid
Sell fuel now at today’s price for later usePrepaid (litre balance)
Increase visit frequency from private driversLoyalty
Give staff or family controlled fuellingPrepaid or postpaid with caps
Shift demand into quiet hoursLoyalty with time multipliers
Serve taxi and delivery driversPrepaid plus loyalty on one card
Reduce cash held on the forecourtAny card model
End to end

From issuing a card to collecting the money

  1. Issue

    Open a customer or fleet account, set the model and rules, then issue cards per vehicle, driver or department.

  2. Authorise

    Card presented at pump or POS. Balance, limit and restrictions are checked on the station server, then the nozzle is released.

  3. Settle

    The transaction posts against the account with volume, price, product, pump, vehicle and attendant attached.

  4. Invoice & collect

    Monthly consolidated invoices for postpaid accounts, with ageing, statements, collections tracking and automatic suspension on overdue.

What the station gets

  • Contracted, predictable volume instead of passing trade
  • Less cash on the forecourt, and less cash handling risk
  • Prepaid loading improves working capital immediately
  • Credit exposure capped by rules, not by trust
  • Named customers instead of anonymous litres — real segmentation
  • Card revenue reconciles automatically against dispenser data

What the fleet customer gets

  • One monthly invoice instead of a shoebox of receipts
  • Per-vehicle and per-driver consumption reporting
  • Litres-per-100km visibility where odometer capture is enabled
  • Hard limits that prevent misuse rather than reporting it
  • No cash advances to drivers
  • Clean, auditable records for their own accounting
Questions

Fuel card FAQ

What is the difference between prepaid and postpaid fuel cards?

Prepaid is loaded with value before use: the customer pays first, the balance runs down, and the card stops authorising at zero — you carry no credit risk. Postpaid works on account: the customer fuels against an approved credit limit and is invoiced later, usually monthly. Postpaid wins fleet contracts but means you are extending credit and must manage limits, ageing and collections.

Do the cards work without internet?

Yes. Authorisation happens on the on-site station server, so cards keep working during an outage. Balances sync to the cloud when the connection returns. In a network, a card presented at one site is validated against the last synchronised account state.

Can one card be both postpaid and loyalty?

Yes. A single card can carry more than one function — a postpaid fleet card that also accrues loyalty rewards is a common configuration — and one customer account can hold many cards of different types.

What card technology do you use?

The platform is designed around the card and reader technology appropriate to your forecourt and budget, and the authorisation logic is independent of the medium. We confirm the specific card and reader hardware during the site survey so it matches your pump configuration and expected transaction volume.

How do we stop drivers filling their own cars on the company account?

Layer the controls: product restriction, per-transaction volume cap sized to the vehicle’s tank, permitted hours, a PIN, and an odometer prompt. Failed attempts are logged even though nothing was dispensed, so the pattern becomes visible before it becomes a loss.

Can we run our own branded loyalty scheme?

Yes. Earn rates, redemption options, tiers, campaign periods and card branding are all yours to configure. Because reward accrues from actual dispensed volume, the liability on your books reflects real fuel rather than keyed estimates.

What happens if a card is lost?

Block it immediately from the back office. Any remaining prepaid balance transfers to a replacement card, and the block applies across every station in your network on next sync.

Can cards be accepted across several stations we own?

Yes — that is standard on the Enterprise tier, with per-card control over which sites accept it and consolidated cross-site invoicing. See multi-station management.

Launch cards at your station

Tell us who your credit customers are today and how you bill them. We will show you the card setup that fits — and what it does to your cash position.