Hunt for switching hero
HOW much do you reckon you could save if you switched ALL your bills?
Think of everything from your home insurance to broadband and even your mortgage. Less than £100, a few hundred pounds or even £1,000 or more?
Well, today I challenge you to find out. We’re launching a search to find Britain’s best bills bargain-hunter.
We want every Money Mail reader to shop around ferociously — and tell us how much you save. Email or write to me, including details of each switch and copies of paperwork (not originals!) that show the drastic change in your new bill versus the old one.
It may take a few days of work to figure it out (and you’ll need access to the internet, I’m afraid), but it’ll be worth it. The vast majority of us are handing huge wads of cash to power giants, phone firms, insurers and banks because we haven’t invested the time to ensure we’re on the best deal.
The first place to look is your car and home cover. Anyone who hasn’t switched for several years will be paying through the nose.
Try websites such as Compare The Market, GoCompare and MoneySupermarket. If you haven’t shopped around for a decade or more, you could save thousands.
Then dig out your latest energy bill. Rumour has it that the major power companies are mulling over price hikes for the New Year. The cost to firms of buying wholesale gas has risen by 18 pc in the past six months and electricity by 16 pc.
According to comparison website Energyhelpline, a cold winter could push firms to pass this on to households. You can save up to £500 with the cheapest fixed deals that protect you against price rises.
You usually can’t switch phone or broadband deals in the middle of a contract, but once the deal expires many firms put a few extra pounds on the price. Comparison website uSwitch reckons you could save up to £184.
Finally, move on to your credit cards, bank account, mortgage and any other regular bills. There’s a ton of tools on our sister website
thisismoney.co.uk to help you shop around, and you can see a snapshot of the top deals on Best Buys below. Add it all up (including any switching rewards you get along the way) and let me know how much better off you are this year. If nothing else, you can have a jolly New Year knowing you’re not lining the pockets of some enormous firm and its overpaid chief executive while you’re celebrating.
BT bamboozle
MEANWHILE, my broadband switching saga, which began with last week’s column about BT’s pricing, shows no sign of abating.
When I signed up on the BT website last week, a clock on the screen warned me a few hours, minutes and seconds remained before the deal expired. I checked the website five days later and, lo and behold, the same deal is still available. The only difference is the ‘connection fee’ is £50 cheaper and the cashback reward appears to have jumped to £125.
The countdown clock, it seems, is no better than the ‘ONE room left!’ garbage spewed out by hotel websites. It wouldn’t bother me if BT had turned my broadband on by now, but it’s a 20-day wait while you watch the price tumble.
Fares unfair
ANOTHER year, another unfair rail fare hike.
Prices are rising 3.4 pc on average in January — the biggest jump for five years. These huge hikes are linked to the retail prices index (RPI), which is so flawed that it was stripped of its ‘ national statistic’ status five years ago.
For everything where the Government or companies pay you — benefits, pensions and so on — we get the consumer prices index (CPI), which tends to rise more slowly than RPI.
For everything where you pay the Government or a company — rail fares, insurance premiums, air passenger duty etc — costs seem to go up with RPI. Even Hetan Shah, the executive director of the Royal Statistical Society, disapproves of this despicable practice, calling it ‘inappropriate’ and lacking in integrity. At the very least, we deserve consistency. Better still, scrap the RPI altogether.