Finding a fuel card that suits your business can be tricky. Whether you are running one vehicle or one thousand vehicles, it still pays to find the option that is best for you. But firstly, you might be asking what is a fuel card actually for?

A fuel card allows you to keep track of your vehicle-related costs, so you won't need to hold on to numerous receipts. If you are operating a fleet of vehicles, it will let you control the type and amount of vehicle-related spending, associated with each vehicle (or driver).

There are many fuel cards available - from those that are supplied by the fuel companies, to fuel cards supplied by third parties, such as Cardlink. Cardlink's product range includes DualCard, OneCard and FleetCard.

When you travel extensively through various towns, driving around to find the right fuel station can be frustrating and time consuming. It pays to opt for a card that lets you fill up at a variety of stations. Cardlnk's FleetCard and OneCard allow you to buy fuel at all major fuel stations, while DualCard allows you to buy fuel at both Shell and Caltex (including Challenge stations). The important thing when assessing the coverage that you require is to think about where you drive and which stations are in these areas. For fleets that travel throughout remote areas, the more stations that accept your particular fuel card, the less chance you will have of being stranded without a matching petrol station.

When people think about fuel cards, they also think about fuel discounts. It pays to bear in mind that the discounts that are offered can either be on National prices (the set national fuel price), Regional prices (the price for the region in which you are buying fuel) or Pump prices (the price that you see when you fill up). These prices are not always the same, so it is a good idea to check what price your discount is on.

If you run a small business, you may find that some cards have a minimum spend on fuel per month to qualify for a fuel card. Cardlink's cards have no minimum spend.

Many businesses want greater control over how much their employees spend and what they buy with their fuel cards. The advantage of the FleetCard and DualCard is that a business can restrict their fuel cards to certain kinds of purchases.

Financial reporting is important to a lot of businesses and this is provided with all of Cardlink's cards. Most fuel cards come with a consolidated tax invoice and some cards also come with vehicle reporting - such as fuel consumption. This can be an important factor when deciding which fuel card to go with, especially with larger fleets, so it pays to ask if the information that you require comes with your fuel card.

Finally, you need to think about who is going to use your fuel cards. If the same person will be driving a range of vehicles, then they will need a personal card. However, most businesses prefer to assign their fuel cards to a particular vehicle registration, so costs are matched to each vehicle.

The best advice is to talk to the various fuel card providers, explore your options, and find out which card will be right for you.