Combatting the rising cost of car ownership

June 12, 2025

Driving is getting more expensive

The cost of living is increasing rapidly, faster than at any other time in recent years. One expense that’s rising is owning a car.

Last week, we saw the cost of filling up the average UK car exceed £100 for the first time [1], and prices are continuing to rise with petrol now costing 187.51p per litre and diesel soaring to 194.17p per litre [2]. With fuel prices rising, April’s car tax increase [3] and Clean Air Zones being introduced across the country, car owners are seeing the cost of running their vehicle increase like never before.

Some costs are unavoidable, but there are ways you can run your car and save money at the same time.

How Caura can help

At Caura, we’re helping drivers keep their car admin costs in check – offering ways to save money on car insurance, as well as making it easy to avoid unnecessary fines.

Insurance is a significant annual cost associated with car ownership, and you can’t drive without it.

Another cost category that is all too common is unexpected fines, from missing expiry dates (tax and MOT) and increasingly from tolls and city charges that can be hard to spot and easy to forget about. Fines come as a surprise and aren’t accounted for in drivers' monthly budgets – meaning they can have a serious financial impact. We’re working to help drivers avoid hefty fines by making sure they’re up to date on their admin, and can pay charges quickly with no hassle.

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Keeping up to date with car admin

If you forget to renew your vehicle tax, MOT or car insurance, then you’re liable to a hefty fine. Renewal reminders can be hard to miss if you’re relying on post, and some are not automatically sent.

Caura automatically syncs with the DVLA to show you when MOT and tax are due to expire and adding your insurance renewal date takes a second*. We’ll then send you renewal reminders over email, and in-app, when it’s time to think about renewing. Gone are the days of driving without valid tax because you didn’t know it was overdue. Insurance and tax payments are quick and easy to make, with competitive insurance rates and no hidden costs.

Create your Caura account today - it's free to sign up and there are no additional costs!

Easy payments for driving charges

If you drive through a toll road or into a congestion or Clean Air Zone and don’t pay within the small window offered, you’ll receive a Penalty Charge Notice from the charge operator. Penalty Charge Notices can be up to £120 in Birmingham and £160 in London per offence. To make matters worse, government websites set up to allow drivers to pay these charges are slow and cumbersome, requiring as many as 20 steps to successfully make payment.

We’ve made it incredibly easy to pay these charges, it literally takes two seconds with Caura. No more filling out five pages of personal details every time you need to make a payment, you can pay in two taps on the app all with no processing fee or additional charges. Caura is the best way to be sure that you won’t receive a Penalty Charge, and because receipts are automatically stored in-app it’s also the easiest way to keep track of what you’ve paid.

In London, you can set up AutoPay on Caura for ULEZ, LEZ and Congestion Charge. This means that every time you drive into a chargeable London zone, we’ll take the payment automatically depending on what your vehicle is liable for. No confusion, no fines. Keep your costs down while giving yourself one less thing to think about.

Look at what charges you can pay for in two taps here: https://caura.com/payments/