These apps could help you save money at the gas pump — or offset what you pay

Gas prices are surging to record highs as tensions escalate in Ukraine, and President Joe Biden announced earlier this week that the United States will halt the import of Russian oil.

The average cost per gallon of gasoline in the United States sat at around $4.25 on Wednesday according to AAA, the highest level recorded since July 2008.

The result? People across the country are seriously feeling the pinch at the pump.

» READ MORE: How much does gas cost in Philly right now?

Unless you cruise around in an all-electric car, use public transportation or ride a bike, you'll feel it, too, if you haven't already. And for now at least, it's unclear when this supply-and-demand imbalance will ease up and let you refuel without wincing. But there are a few ways you might be able to reduce that burden with just a little planning and the phone in your pocket.

- Hunt for the best prices. There's a pretty good chance you comparison shop for other things, so why not your gas? GasBuddy - perhaps the most popular of gas price apps - offers a straightforward view of the gas stations nearby as well as how much you can expect to pay per gallon. One thing to keep in mind: those prices might not always be accurate when you show up, because the service relies in part on people reporting prices when they fill up. (You can easily see when they were last updated, though.)

If that gives you pause, you could try pulling up Geico's website on your phone - it offers local gas price information too, as does AAA's smartphone app if you're a member. Since driving around searching for good deals can sometimes cause you to pay more at the pump, do yourself a favor and try to do some of the legwork before you get behind the wheel.

Here's another option if you're already in your car: Google Maps can be helpful in displaying nearby gas stations and prices. We don't recommend fiddling with your phone while you're behind the wheel, but if it's connected to your car through a service like Apple's CarPlay or Android Auto, you can do a little comparison shopping from your infotainment screen.

- A note on privacy. We didn't spot any glaring dealbreakers in these apps' privacy policies, but they do require access to your phone's location. That makes sense - it's hard to figure out what gas stations are around you if the software doesn't know where you are. But if you're concerned about your privacy, you might not want to let these apps see your location when you're not actually using them. Here's how to make sure that doesn't happen.

On iPhones: Open the Settings app and tap Privacy, then Location Services. Then find the app in question, and make sure the "Allow Location Access" option isn't set to "Always."

On most Android phones: Open the Settings app and look for the "Location" or "Location Permissions" heading. Tap that, and make sure the app in question isn't listed under "Allowed all the time." If it is, tap the app's name and select one of the other options.

- Rethink your ride. If you rely on the same, straightforward commute every day, you could probably - but should not! - make the drive with your eyes closed. But for longer trips where you don't have much advance knowledge of the area, or if you're curious about the idea of optimizing your time on the road, Google Maps might be able to help.

Last year, Google added an option to show its best guess at the most fuel-efficient choice, and while that's sometimes the shortest route anyway, the company takes into account elevation and traffic patterns. Using it is as simple as punching in a destination as you always did on the iOS, Android or Web version - just keep an eye out for a tiny green leaf icon on a particular route option.

To see if it's worth it, select that "green" route option - the app will offer an estimate of how much fuel you'll save compared to other possibilities.

Certain credit cards (and even some debit cards) are all about giving people cash back on their purchases, but not everyone has one of those tucked away in their wallets.

What might make more sense is signing up for the services that offers cash back on purchases like fuel fill-ups. Apps like GetUpside and Trunow are two examples, though they take slightly different approaches.

Trunow is the simpler of the two in some ways: if you show up at a participating gas station, you can use the app to scan your receipt. Once you whiz through a (seemingly optional) survey, you get up to 1 percent of your purchase back as "points" that can be cashed out via PayPal once you hit a certain threshold. (Other services, like Checkout 51, rely on similar receipt-scanning tricks.)

The downside? PayPal takes about half of your withdrawals as a cut, though you can use the points at other participating retailers at their full value.

GetUpside is a little different - rather than just scanning a receipt for fuel you've already purchased, you have to "claim" cash-back offers at participating gas station chains. That means the whole thing requires a little planning upfront, though it has more options to receiving payouts.

These apps come with a few other catches: they can show you which gas stations nearby participate in their cash-back programs, but like GasBuddy, they rely on users to update prices when they go to fill up. Needless to say, not everyone bothers doing that. And not all local gas stations support these services at all - it's mainly big chains that do - so you might have less luck trying to use them where you live.

All told, you shouldn't expect to collect loads of money off any of these mobile cash-back services, but they might be a decent way to get some value off a purchase you had to make anyway.

- Get paid for your commute. If you've got a long commute ahead of you, it might be worth trying to make a little money off it. We're not talking about signing up to be an Uber driver, either - popular navigation app Waze has a carpool feature that could help take some of the sting out of filling up.

Right off the bat, we should note this clearly won't be an option for everyone. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has eased its mask recommendations and the federal government firms up plans to move past the pandemic, carpooling should be a no-go for the covid cautious. And there are plenty of other reasons to be wary of letting strangers into your car, so steer clear if the thought makes you uncomfortable.

That said, if you don’t mind the idea of sharing your space with others, you can use tap the prominent Carpool button inside the app to plug in your route, the time of day you’ll be driving, and open yourself up to additional riders who pay a small fee for the hassle. You’ll ultimately wind up with more money to contribute to your gas fund, though again, only you can decide whether any of this is worth the risk in a pandemic.