Nouveau Bills: 20 bills most of us didn’t pay 10 years ago that now cost us £41bn a year*

• £66 a month – the cost of Nouveau Bills for every UK adult;
• Tattoos are the 3^rd biggest Nouveau Bill, followed by TV streaming services, cosmetic treatments, subscription delivery services and online casino and bingo;
• Survey also names the modern services people ‘can’t live without’.

New research from GoCompare has revealed the £41bn bill for modern goods and services -things that are sapping our finances now, but which most of us wouldn’t have been paying out for just 10 years ago.

The comparison site has identified 20 so-called ‘Nouveau Bills’ that are costing UK adults £66 a month or £788 a year on average, including mobile data, tattoos, streaming services, online casinos and bingo sites and online subscriptions. 

In a short period of time, new technology has transformed the way we live - from the way we communicate and access information to the way we shop and entertain ourselves.  While the obsession with self-improvement, has also changed what we spend our money on. 

The survey also asked participants which of the modern goods and services they couldn’t live without.  Broadband (72%) headed the list followed by smartphones (52%), mobile data (26%), TV streaming services such as Netflix, Now and Amazon (23%) and subscription delivery services such as Amazon Prime (14%).  Other modern day essentially were music streaming services including Spotify and Deezer (10%), beauty treatments including eyebrow threading, manicures, etc. (8%), coffee pods (8%), cloud storage (8%) and online newspaper and magazine subscriptions (6%).

Commenting on the research, Georgie Frost, Consumer Advocate at GoCompare said, “These figures just go to show the extent to which our budgets have been stretched in recent years.  At a time when incomes have remained relatively unchanged, finding budget for up to 20 new bills in our lives is a big ask.  It wasn’t so long ago that we just had to worry about the basic household bills and perhaps the cost of running a car.  Now, most of us have also acquired a list of online subscriptions, contracts, treatments and services that we suddenly ‘can’t live without’. 

“Something’s got to give.  While we might question the necessity of some of the ‘new bills’, they are a real and significant drain on funds for many people.  To make way for the new bills, we may need to address some of our ‘old bills’.  Most of us are still paying too much for the likes of gas and electric, car insurance and home insurance.  So perhaps the best advice might be; before you take on a new bill – check and see if you can save money on an old one by switching to a cheaper provider.”  

For more information on how to save money on your bills visit: https://www.gocompare.com/money/

-Ends-

For further information please contact:

Anders Nilsson, Martyn John or Louisa Marsden at GoCompare on 01633 654 054 / 01633 654 725 / 01633 655 132

Gordon, Jason or Liz at MAW Communications on 01603 505 845

Keep up-to-date with GoCompare on Twitter; @GoCompare

Notes to editors

*£41bn figure: using the average annual cost of Nouveau Bills for every UK adult (£787.92) multiplied by the total number of UK adults (51,767,543 source: ONS June 2017) gives £40,788,682,481 or £41bn.

**On the 29th December 2017, Bilendi conducted an online survey among 2,334 randomly selected British adults who are Maximiles UK panelists.  The margin of error-which measures sampling variability-is +/- 2.2%. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and regional data to ensure samples representative of the entire adult population of United Kingdom. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.

About GoCompare

GoCompare is a comparison website that enables people to compare the costs and features of a wide variety of insurance policies, financial products and energy tariffs.

GoCompare does not charge people to use its services, and it does not accept advertising or sponsored listings, so all product comparisons are unbiased. Gocompare makes its money through fees paid by the providers of products that appear on its various comparison services when a customer buys through the site.

GoCompare does not sell its customers’ data.

When it launched in 2006, it was the first comparison site to focus on displaying policy details rather than just listing prices, with the aim of helping people to make better-informed decisions when buying their insurance. GoCompare has remained dedicated to helping people choose the most appropriate products rather than just the cheapest, and has teamed up with Defaqto, the independent financial researcher, to integrate additional policy information into a number of its insurance comparison services. This allows people to compare up to an extra 30 features of cover.

GoCompare is the only comparison website to be invited to join the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

For more information visit www.gocompare.com and www.gocomparegroup.com