Gas prices surge to $4.24, forcing Americans to raid their savings
A gallon of regular gasoline jumped from $3.30 in April 2025 to $4.24 by April 2026, and the price spike is forcing millions of American households to make painful trade-offs at the pump and beyond.
The surge, driven largely by the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict and disruptions to global oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz, has hit family budgets already stretched thin. For workers who depend on their cars to get to work, higher fuel costs are eating into grocery money, pushing credit card balances higher, and draining emergency reserves.
New data from employer-sponsored emergency savings accounts now shows that transportation has become one of the fastest-growing reasons Americans are tapping those funds, revealing how one category of rising costs can cascade through an entire household budget.
Emergency savings withdrawals for transportation jumped 35% in one year
Data from SecureSave, a provider of employer-sponsored emergency savings accounts, shows that nearly 12% of all employee withdrawals at the end of March 2026 were designated for transportation expenses. That represents a roughly 35% increase from the same period in 2025, USA TODAY reported.
SecureSave co-founder and CEO Devin Miller told USA TODAY that American households are in a "precarious" position because everyday cost disruptions can unravel a tight budget. The national personal savings rate stood at just 3.6% in March 2026, well below the long-run average of 8.4% dating to 1959, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Prices at the pump have increased dramatically, and consumers were just not ready for this
The average U.S. household will pay roughly $857 more for gasoline over the rest of the year because of the war-driven oil price shock, economists at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research estimated. "This is definitely directly because of the Iran war. But the war is just one of several causes. The consumer ends up eating the cost," Marshall told USA TODAY
The Iran war and years-long affordability pressures compound the fuel crisis
The Iran conflict disrupted oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, which handles about 20% of the world's daily oil and gas supply, and national gasoline prices surged nearly 50% in about 2.5 months, the Center for American Progress noted.
Marshall emphasized that the war is only the latest chapter in a cost-of-living crisis that has been building across American households for years. Vehicle parts sourced from global suppliers are also climbing in price alongside shipping costs, Marshall told USA TODAY.
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Nick Maynard, a senior vice president at Commonwealth, a national nonprofit focused on financial security, told USA TODAY that the affordability challenge for low- to moderate-income Americans had been "pervasive" well before the war began.
47% of Americans say they have sufficient liquidity to cover a $1,000 emergency, meaning 53% do not, according to Bankrate's 2026 Emergency Savings Report.
Employer savings accounts reveal how transportation costs cascade through budgets
Emergency savings accounts like the ones SecureSave provides work through automatic paycheck deductions, removing the burden of actively transferring money into a separate fund. Maynard described them as a "dynamic" tool that lets workers deposit, withdraw for genuine needs, and rebuild over time.
Major employers, including Delta Air Lines, AutoNation, and The Fresh Market, have adopted these programs, and some companies contribute alongside their workers, Maynard confirmed.
Car repair costs appear just as frequently as fuel expenses in withdrawal requests, reflecting how broader vehicle ownership costs are rising alongside pump prices, Miller said.
Miller described the financial damage as a compounding cycle, citing workers who lost income after vehicle breakdowns forced them to miss shifts. "When you miss shifts, you make less money, and when you make less money, your budget's even more blown up," Miller explained to USA TODAY.
"For consumers, the thing that we really worry about at this point is that most people don't have a lot of excess money in their accounts, so they can't absorb additional shock," Marshall warned.
Key data points on gas prices and household savings in 2026
- The national average gas price rose from $3.30 per gallon in April 2025 to $4.24 per gallon in April 2026, a roughly 28% year-over-year increase and roughly 50% since February 27, just before the war began.
- Nearly 12% of all employee withdrawals from SecureSave accounts were designated for transportation at the end of March 2026, a 35% year-over-year jump.
- The U.S. personal savings rate fell to 3.6% in March 2026, compared with a historical average of 8.4%.
- 59% of Americans could not cover a $1,000 emergency without going into debt, and 53% lack sufficient liquidity to cover a $1,000 emergency expense.
The figures cited above were sourced from USA TODAY, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Center for American Progress, and Bankrate.
Summer driving season could deepen the strain on American wallets
Memorial Day weekend marks the start of peak summer driving season, and fuel prices heading into the holiday look starkly different from a year ago, when gasoline sat at multiyear lows.
An April CNBC All-America Economic Survey of 1,000 Americans found that nearly 80% had changed their spending habits due to elevated fuel costs, with about 60% cutting back on entertainment, including eating out, movies, and concerts.
With the personal savings rate sitting at less than half its historical average and 53% of Americans lacking the liquidity to cover a $1,000 emergency, households are in a "precarious" position heading into the summer, Miller told USA TODAY.
He warned that rising fuel costs during peak driving season could deepen the strain, as routine price spikes layer onto already tight budgets and push more workers to tap their savings.
"What we have found is that it's these little things that trip people up," Miller said, not necessarily job loss or major health events, but cost shocks like surging gas prices that break an otherwise carefully managed budget.
Related: Bank of America raises red flag on summer gas prices
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This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 3:07 PM.