We all want to reduce our living costs and one of the areas where we may be spending more money than we need is on regular household bills.
Although there isn’t much pleasure to be found in hunting around for better electricity and gas tariffs, with the internet and the number of price comparison sites that now exist, it’s an activity that is far easier than it used to be. Gone are the days when you used to have to phone around to get separate quotes from different companies. Now, just by inputting a few details, you can get instant comparative quotes from a number of companies. Once you find a better provider – in terms of price and level of service – they’ll be more than willing to run around taking care of the red tape that’s involved in switching supplier for you.
In the same way, you should also shop around for the best insurance deals. Perhaps more than any other regular bill, insurance is one of the ones that we show least interest in. When the renewal letter comes through the post, we just file it away – there’s nothing to do, the money will still be taken out of your account. The only difference is usually that this year’s premiums are slightly elevated on last year’s. However, it’s worth doing the same thing as with the utilities and shopping around for a better deal on insurance. A little bit of time spent on this tedious task could save you a significant amount – especially if you end up switching a number of different insurance policies.
Many insurers now offer discounted premiums for those people who put all their insurance policies with the one company. One of the most common types of insurance to put on a combined policy is home contents cover and buildings insurance. So, as well as getting separate contents and buildings insurance quotes, it’s a good idea to ask the price on a combined policy. Find out whether adding in health, auto and travel insurance will lead to further discounts.
Once you’ve got some better prices from other insurers, it’s always worth going back to your existing insurer to find out if they would be willing to match the best price in order to retain you as a client. You’ll be surprised at how keen companies are not to lose business.
Carrying out annual price checks on your regular household expenses will make sure that you’re not spending out unnecessarily and could save you a lot of money in the long run. Add it to the list of annual things to do!
