Check Gas Prices Online or For Your Trips

Gas prices are rising again with conflict in the Middle East. If you are concerned about gas prices this summer, or any time of the year, you can check online for the best deals in a couple of ways. Both have their positives and negatives in their coverage. AAA allows it's online members to check U.S. prices through their various regional websites. The AAA Fuel Price Finder monitors the gasoline price charged through credit card transactions at the individual stations. You need to be a member of AAA (fee) and this won't record all transactions.

The free alternative that covers even more areas and Canada is gasbuddy.com. It relies on individual spotter reports across North America but it doesn't require any special computer connections either. So it's not automatically updated by every transaction but it encompasses more places and possibilities. In our checks, it had a pretty thorough report on even some small town gas stations. If a station was much lower than competition two days ago, it will probably have a lower price today.

Prices have been steadily falling, but as usual, they are still at higher levels than where the price climb began.