Contents10 sections
For decades, the fuel card has been the standard solution for company refuelling: a plastic card, occasionally forgotten over the weekend, then hunted down in a hurry, either accepted at the filling station or not, and at the end of the month a consolidated invoice that the tax advisor then unpicks by hand. In 2026, this exact workflow is at a turning point: the app generation has reached the B2B market, and suddenly digital fuel apps are competing with the classic fuel-card providers. This guide shows which models exist today, what the key differences are and when it pays to switch.
What a Fuel Card Actually Is (and What It Is Not For)
In legal terms, a fuel card is not a credit card. It is a cashless means of payment in your company's name that is limited to specific filling-station networks. It performs three functions:
- Payment: the driver does not pay out of their own pocket, but to the company account.
- Identification: the filling station uses the card to recognise who the customer is.
- Accounting: at the end of the month, a consolidated invoice arrives listing all refuelling transactions.
What it is not: a tracking tool, a logbook or a substitute for telematics. Fuel cards only show who refuelled where and when; they say nothing about routes, speed, maintenance or utilisation. Anyone who wants more also needs a fleet management system.
Classic Fuel Card vs. App Fuel Card: The Key Difference
Until just a few years ago, there was only one kind of fuel card: the plastic card with a magnetic stripe or chip, issued by a fuel-card provider (DKV, UTA, Aral, Shell, e100) and working across a defined acceptance network.
Since 2023, a second variant has increasingly become available: the digital fuel card as an app on a smartphone. Instead of the plastic card, the driver starts and pays for the refuelling directly in the app on the smartphone; the card is now merely an entry in the provider's backend. Apps such as DKV InstantFuel are precisely this variant.
The key difference lies not in the payment mechanics, but in four structural points:
| Dimension | Classic fuel card | App fuel card |
|---|---|---|
| Physical card | Yes, dispatch required | No, smartphone only |
| Activation time | Regular contract process (application, check, card dispatch) | Within minutes |
| Loss risk | Card lost = have it blocked + wait for replacement card | App access blocked immediately via dashboard |
| Receipt format | Paper receipt at the station, monthly invoice digital | PDF, at the same time an e-invoice (ZUGFeRD) |
The following sections give the details on each of these points.
Your Own Company Credit Card vs. Credit Line: The Two Billing Models
This is where the second model difference lies, one that is even more important than card-vs-app: how is the refuelling transaction billed?
Model 1, credit line (classic DKV fuel card, UTA, Aral Card, etc.): The fuel-card provider acts as a lender. You refuel against its credit line, at the end of the month a consolidated invoice arrives that you pay. Requirements: credit check, collateral, credit-line setting. Advantage: consolidated invoice, one accounting entry per month. Disadvantage: you are a debtor to a fuel-card provider, the credit line is limited, and in the event of default you risk being blocked.
Model 2, your own company credit card (DKV InstantFuel, some other app providers): Here you store your own company credit card (Visa, Mastercard or V-Pay) in the system, the app charges the fuel amounts directly to it, and each refuelling transaction is a separate transaction. Requirements: only an existing company credit card, no credit check, no credit-line application. Advantage: ready to go immediately, no lender risk, fully transparent. Disadvantage: each refuelling appears individually on the credit-card statement, which is easily manageable thanks to the tax-compliant receipt export.
What suits which fleet size:
- Small fleets (e.g. trades, field sales, delivery traffic): This model is usually the more efficient choice. No credit-check effort, ready to go immediately, transparent on the credit-card statement.
- Larger fleets: Credit-line models with a consolidated monthly invoice and volume terms are the right choice here. DKV InstantFuel is deliberately designed as a small-fleet solution.
The Acceptance Network: Where Your Card Works
A fuel card is only as good as its acceptance network. Three figures are relevant here:
Stations in the DACH region, if your drivers mainly cover Germany, Austria and Switzerland, you need at least 5,000 DACH stations, ideally 10,000+. An app with only 200 stations is useless in practice.
European coverage, hauliers and field-sales staff in the EU need at least DE, AT, NL, BE, FR, LU. As soon as southern or eastern Europe is added, coverage becomes thin with many app providers.
Brand mix, does the network have a broad spread across brands (Aral, Shell, Esso, OMV, jet, HEM, etc.) or is it concentrated on a single brand family? The latter becomes expensive if your drivers want to head for other stations out of old habit.
DKV InstantFuel uses the PACE Mobility acceptance network with currently around 12,000 stations in 10 European countries (DE, AT, CH, NL, BE, LU, FR, IT, PL, DK). More on this: Understanding the acceptance network: what is behind the stations? and the live map of acceptance points with a brand distribution per city.
Important: the DKV InstantFuel acceptance network is not identical to the acceptance network of the classic DKV fuel card. Both are DKV products, but they use different refuelling infrastructures. Anyone who wants to use DKV InstantFuel everywhere the classic DKV card is accepted must first check the live map. The differences in detail: DKV acceptance network vs. DKV InstantFuel network.
Security: Tokenisation and Access Control
The risk of a classic fuel card: card lost, card stolen, card forgotten in someone else's car. The risk of a digital fuel app: smartphone lost or compromised.
Both risks are technically solvable today, but the digital variant has structural advantages:
- Tokenised card storage: with good providers, the card number is never stored on the smartphone but tokenised on the server side. If a smartphone is lost, there is no card-data leak.
- Personal driver accounts with authorisation control: every refuelling runs through the personal account of a driver whom the fleet manager has explicitly authorised beforehand. Anyone who is not authorised never even enters the payment process.
- Instant blocking via dashboard: you block a driver's access in seconds, with no card logistics. With classic cards, the wait for a replacement card is added on top of the blocking.
- Traceability: every refuelling transaction can be tracked online; anomalies (unusual times, unfamiliar locations) quickly stand out in the live overview.
Accounting: Tax-Compliant Receipt Export, Mandatory Details and Audit Security
A fuel card is only truly valuable when the data reaches the accounting department without manual rework. In practice, this means:
Structured, machine-readable receipts are essential. Modern accounting software reads e-invoices (ZUGFeRD, XRechnung) in a structured way and without any re-keying. If your fuel solution only delivers paper receipts or scanned PDFs, you pay for the manual entry every month.
Mandatory details under Section 14 UStG must appear on every receipt. For refuelling above €250 (typical for HGVs): a complete invoice with your company address, the filling station's tax number and a sequential invoice number. A good fuel app creates this complete invoice automatically.
GoBD compliance for the statutory retention obligation (Section 147 AO; since 1 January 2025 the period for accounting documents such as fuel receipts is 8 years). The receipts must be archived in an unalterable, machine-evaluable and audit-proof manner. A PDF on a local hard drive does not meet this requirement without additional protective measures.
E-invoice (ZUGFeRD): Modern fuel apps also deliver the receipts as an e-invoice in the ZUGFeRD format, a PDF with embedded, machine-readable invoice data in accordance with EN 16931, which the accounting software reads in directly. This fits the legal situation: since 1 January 2025, companies in B2B business must be able to receive e-invoices; the obligation to issue them formally also applies from 2025, with transition periods until the end of 2026 and the end of 2027 respectively (companies with up to €800,000 in prior-year turnover); from 2028 it applies to all. DKV InstantFuel provides fuel receipts and the monthly invoice in this form.
Which Fuel-Card Solution Suits Which Fleet Size?
A brief heuristic:
| Fleet size | Recommended model | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 vehicles | App fuel card (your own company credit card) or Excel + private cards | Classic fuel card often overhead. Excel is enough for a very small fleet. |
| Small fleet | App fuel card (your own company credit card) | Sweet spot of DKV InstantFuel. No credit check, ready to go immediately, transparent. |
| Larger fleet | Classic fuel card | DKV InstantFuel is deliberately designed for small fleets. |
| 50–500 drivers | Classic fuel card with a dedicated account manager | Volume advantages, personal support. |
| 500+ drivers | Hybrid (classic card + telematics system) | App fuel cards are primarily optimised for smaller fleets. |
How to Choose a Fuel Card
If you are comparing providers today, these are the eight questions that really count:
- Model, credit line or your own company credit card? Is a credit check required?
- Acceptance network, how many stations in your main region? An online map that is up to date?
- App vs. card, digital or physical? Both possible in parallel?
- Costs, monthly fee per driver? Setup fee? Minimum term?
- Accounting, is there a tax-compliant receipt export? Are the receipts e-invoices (ZUGFeRD)?
- Limits, card or driver limits? How quickly can they be adjusted?
- Reporting, is there a dashboard? Which data can be exported?
- Contracts, notice period? Data sovereignty when switching providers?
Frequently Asked Questions About Fuel Cards in 2026
Do I need a credit check for a fuel card?
With classic fuel cards (with a credit line): yes, almost always. The provider checks your creditworthiness and sets a monthly credit line. With solutions that use your own company credit card, such as DKV InstantFuel: no. You store your own company credit card, and the provider is not a lender. In depth: Fuel card without a credit check: does it really exist?
Can I use several fuel cards in parallel?
Technically, these are two separate products with their own networks and their own billing. More sensible than permanent parallel operation is a clear decision based on fleet profile: small and mid-sized car fleets are best served by the app fuel card, while HGV fleets with a focus on foreign travel are best served by the classic card. Anyone who permanently runs both has two accounting inputs and loses precisely the simplicity that the app approach brings.
Which VAT applies to refuelling abroad?
The respective local rate: Dutch stations with 21% VAT, Austrian ones with 20% VAT, etc. A good fuel app automatically shows the VAT correctly on the receipt. For the refund of foreign input VAT, there is the input-VAT refund procedure (Section 18g UStG); the application runs electronically via the BZSt online portal, and the deadline is 30 September of the following year.
What happens if my card is blocked (e.g. credit line reached)?
With classic fuel cards: no more refuelling possible at the station, the driver is left out in the cold. With apps that use your own company credit card: as long as your stored company credit card authorises it, you can carry on, up to the card limit, which is usually significantly higher than a fuel-card credit line.
What happens when a driver changes?
With classic fuel cards: collect the card, block it, apply for a new card + have it delivered, hand it over to the new driver. Logistical effort. With app fuel cards: deactivate the old driver in the dashboard (1 click), onboard the new driver via an invitation link, install the app, done. Typically under 5 minutes.
Brief Conclusion
Anyone making a fresh fuel-card decision in 2026 (whether a new customer or switching) should think about the two axes “app vs. card” and “own card vs. credit line” separately. For small fleets, the app model with your own company credit card (that is, DKV InstantFuel and similar solutions) is the more efficient choice in most cases. For larger fleets or HGV special cases, classic fuel cards with the credit-line model remain structurally superior.
A practical starting point: a 2-week pilot with 2–3 drivers, running in parallel with your existing solution, followed by a hard cutover. That is the least painful migration variant.
Further reading in the Fuel Card Knowledge hub:
Related topics:
Fuel card without a credit check: does it really exist?, when classic cards say no
Setting up the DKV InstantFuel app: setup guide, ready to go in around 5 minutes
Live map with all acceptance points, brand distribution per city
Glossary of all fuel-card terms, your own company credit card, acceptance network, AVV, GoBD in detail
Sources and legal foundations:
- Section 147 AO (retention periods, since 2025: 8 years for accounting documents): gesetze-im-internet.de/ao_1977/__147.html
- Section 33 UStDV (small-value invoices up to €250): gesetze-im-internet.de/ustdv_1980/__33.html
- Input-VAT refund procedure (Section 18g UStG): bzst.de
- BMF, FAQ on the e-invoice: bundesfinanzministerium.de