Gas really has been getting more and more expensive lately.
For a regular small car, a tank of gas can easily run $40-$60. If you drive an SUV or pickup, $80-$100 per fill-up is also totally normal. And gas prices are hard to avoid. If hotels are expensive, you can stay fewer nights. If flights are expensive, you can skip the trip. But for commuting, picking up kids, and grocery shopping, you still have to drive.
So if I told you there is a method that can bring the Shell gas price all the way down to $0.01/gal, or 1 cent per gallon, I think it is worth spending a few minutes looking into it. And you can do it from home with just a few taps!
The entry point for this method is actually pretty easy to overlook: 1,500 McDonald's points can be redeemed for a Shell Rewards Code. One Code by itself is nothing special. The fun part is that Shell Codes redeemed from different McDonald's accounts can all be added to the same Shell account, and the discounts can keep stacking.
If your local Shell gas price is $3.50/gal, stack the discount above $3.50. If your local price is $4.20/gal, keep stacking it above $4.20. As long as the total discount exceeds the gas price, the final price will be pushed down to $0.01/gal.
For example, if you fill 15 gallons and the local gas price is $3.80/gal, a normal tank would be about $57. Once you get it down to $0.01/gal, it costs only $0.15.
So what you are really getting value from here is not those 1,500 McDonald's points, but the entire tank of gas afterward.
How to Do It
- Re-download the McDonald's App: If you already have the McDonald's App on your phone, uninstall it first, then download and install it again.
- Register a new account with an email address: Choose email login and add a random suffix to your own email address. For example, if your original email is [email protected], you can change it to [email protected]. The emails will still go to your original inbox.
- Go to Rewards & Deals and turn on location access.
- Find the 1,500-point reward: Go back to Home, then tap More points, more free food → 1,500 Bonus Points when you place your first mobile order → Add to pickup order → Pickup.
- Order the cheapest item you can find: Tap the magnifying glass and enter a zip code. In the morning Pacific Time, you can search 11368 and look for salt at around $0.05. At other times, you can search 96193 and look for a sugar substitute at around $0.01. If you really cannot find those, sauce for ten or twenty cents also works. You do not need to pick it up! You do not need to pick it up! You do not need to pick it up!
- Complete the order: Review & Pay → Counter → Place Order → I'm already here, then wait for the 1,500 points to post.
- Redeem the Shell Code: Go to Rewards & Points and use the newly posted 1,500 points to redeem a Shell discount code.
- Add the Code to the Shell App: Open the Shell App, go to More → Rewards Code, and add the Code from McDonald's. The key point here is that every new Code you get in later rounds should continue to be added to the same Shell account.
- Repeat the process: After finishing one round, delete the McDonald's App and start again from step one. Keep changing McDonald's accounts, but always use the same Shell account so the discount keeps stacking higher.
There is no need to stop at $2 or $3 off/gal in accumulated discounts. The real target depends on how high your local gas price is.
If gas is $3.50, stack above $3.50. If gas is $4.50, keep stacking above $4.50. Once the discount exceeds the gas price, the final price is $0.01/gal.
An Example
Gas near me is shockingly expensive right now, at $6.1/gal.
But when I pull up my Shell fuel rewards, yes, you are reading that right: I can take $4.1 off per gallon, which means I am effectively paying $2/gal for gas.
Rococo's Take
If this promo could only save $2 or $3 in the end, I honestly would not bother.
But taking a tank of gas from fifty or sixty dollars down to a few cents is a completely different story.
The first time you go through the process, you will definitely need to spend a little time figuring it out. But once you understand it, the rest is basically repetition:
Register → place an order for a few cents → get 1,500 points → redeem a Shell Code → add it to the same account → keep stacking.
So my suggestion is simple: try one round first.
See whether you can successfully receive the points, redeem the Code, and add it to your Shell account. After the first round works, you will naturally know whether this method is worth continuing.
And with these kinds of deals, the most fun part often is not just how much money you saved. It is suddenly realizing:
So these systems can be combined and used like this.
The real win is not the one-cent sugar substitute, and it is not the 1,500 McDonald's points.
The real win is turning an entire tank of gas into just a few cents.
About Luokeke
Hi, I’m Luokeke, and I’ve been living in the U.S. for more than ten years. I love researching credit card offers and also enjoy sharing everyday deals. I handle the finances at home and have quite a bit of insight into investing and personal finance. Below are the articles I’ve contributed!
Besides credit cards and points, I especially like digging up deals that are actually useful in daily life, such as Sephora beauty and skincare, grocery shopping, restaurant takeout, home goods, and all kinds of exclusive promotions. After all, deal hunting isn’t about stockpiling a bunch of things you won’t use; it’s about saving money on the things you were already going to buy and occasionally giving yourself a little surprise.
My posts may be a little chatty, and I’ll also share my real ordering experiences, things that were a miss, and how products actually felt in use. I’ll seriously recommend the things that are worth it, and I’ll also steer you away from promotions that aren’t a good deal, hoping to help everyone enjoy spending while saving money wisely together.
If you have questions about the steps in my posts, or want to learn more about credit cards, beauty, shopping, baby and maternity deals, lifestyle offers, family travel, or tax-saving tips, you can scan the QR code below and add me on WeChat.
- Please note “From US Card 101” when adding me, and briefly mention what you are interested in, such as credit cards, beauty, grocery deals, or everyday deals, so I can approve you more quickly.
