I got a text from a diesel supplier in the middle of last month with the warning “early market oil prices indicate a spike in the price of oil so call me today while prices are still low”.

This turned out to be poor advice as over the following two weeks, prices fell by 5c/l excluding VAT.

Undaunted, the same company texted again last Monday: “After a week of price decreases, today’s market prices indicate a spike in the price of oil so call me today while prices are still low…”

But prices have declined even further this week – by another 2c/l excluding VAT. In old money, that’s another 9c per gallon saving by simply ignoring this unhelpful text.