Saving Money at the Gas Bank

ST. CLOUD, Minn., May 19, 2006 — -- The price of regular gasoline in St. Cloud is $2.79 a gallon, but Christine Blount is paying only 89 cents.

"Eighty-nine-point-nine cents a gallon," she says with a smile. "It's so nice to have inexpensive gas."

If it sounds like Christine is gloating, she is.

"My truck only gets 14 miles per gallon, but even so, I mean it only costs me $12 to fill it up," she says.

Blount is one of the 9,800 members of First Fuel Bank -- the only business of its kind in the country.

For a $1 membership fee, customers can pre-buy gasoline in bulk on the commodities market.

"We like to look at it as fuel price insurance," says Jim Feneis, whose family has run the fuel bank for decades.

Using a special debit card, members can withdraw gasoline at one of First Fuel Bank's six no-frills filling stations.

"We have the basics," says Feneis. "Squeegees and fluid to wash windshields, a trash bin, a machine that sells drinks, and a restroom."

The benefits are obvious.

"We have better than 300 members fueling at sub $1 a gallon, and we have thousands who are fueling at sub $2 a gallon," says Feneis.

First Fuel's million-gallon storage capacity allows Feneis to make a profit by hedging the market, and also makes his business model difficult to duplicate.

The savings are magnified for property manager Mike Stoebe, whose company runs a fleet of 35 trucks. This past December, he purchased a year's worth of fuel at $1.99 a gallon.

"If the fuel bank wasn't utilized," he says," it would cost us an additional $30,000 to $50,000 in operating expenses annually."

But, there are risks involved in playing the market.

Debbie Donnay locked in a few weeks ago at $2.79 a gallon, thinking prices would rise much higher. They haven't.

"This isn't doing a whole lot of good right now," she says filling the tank of her diesel-powered Jetta.

But despite the risks, as gas prices rise, so do the number of St Cloud residents using the fuel bank.

The cost of a gallon of gasoline has increased nearly 30 cents over the past nine months --