Time to tackle the home admin: As lock down threatens income for millions, here’s how to reduce outgoings by up to £2,100
GoCompare is urging those concerned about their income as a result of the Coronavirus to act now to reduce their outgoings.
As stringent measures come into force to tackle the spread of the virus, such as staying away from pubs, restaurants and other venues along with concerns for the wider economy, many people are beginning to worry about their income and their jobs.
While the action that many of us can take to completely protect our lifestyle is limited, most people can reduce their household outgoings with a series of simple steps.
According to GoCompare, households could reduce outgoings by up to £2,100 this year by reviewing their insurance, regular current account payments, energy provider, credit card bills and broadband and TV packages.
Here’s how to do it:
Car insurance
Find out when your car insurance renewal date is and mark a date in your diary to shop-around four weeks before. Look out for your renewal letter and get online to compare the new premium offered by your existing insurer with what other insurers are prepared to offer you.
People who shop-around with GoCompare for car insurance typically save up to £256.1.
Home insurance
It is rarely worth switching insurance mid-policy term, as you are likely to pay cancellation fees, so again get ready to shop-around at renewal being careful to make sure you are comparing like-for-like cover as well as costs.
Shopping-around for home insurance could save up to £100.2.
Energy bills
Around 11 million households are still on a standard variable tariff with a big energy provider – meaning they are almost certainly paying more than they should for their gas and electric. If that’s you, there are unlikely to be any penalties from switching to a new provider. Better still, there are several auto-switching firms like weflip and Look After My Bills that will ensure that you stay on a great tariff, year after year.
Comparing energy deals could save you up to £476 on your gas and electricity bills.3.
A current account clean-up
Get your bank statements out and look for direct debits for items you no longer need, or memberships and donations you’ve forgotten about.
On average, you can save £28.33 per month this way – that’s £340 a year in total.4.
Credit card debt
The average household credit card debt is £2,655. With an average credit card interest rate of 19.87%, that would rack up interest payments alone of £38.25 a month.
By switching to a 0% credit card, you could save £459 a year on interest.5.
Broadband and TV packages
Most people start a broadband or TV contract on an introductory price and over the years, the price rises. If it’s been a while since you switched, you may be surprised by how much you’re paying now. Do you still need the same channels? Can you replace them with NOW TV or another subscription service? Shopping around could achieve all that and save you money with a fibre broadband bundle upgrade too.
Switching from a premium TV and broadband bundle to a basic fibre and Sky Cinema deal could save £540 a year.6.
Anders Nilsson from GoCompare, said: “We’re already well into unchartered territory with the Coronavirus outbreak and the kind of special measures being introduced now are going to have a direct impact on many people’s finances. Households are going to be genuinely concerned that their income may be reduced or that that there could be job losses. Now is the time to act.
“If you’ve got some spare time, dig out your bills and log on to your online accounts. With a little bit of work, we reckon some households could save up to £2,100, particularly if they’re new to switching. Few of us are going to be able to insulate ourselves completely from the economic impacts of this pandemic, but we can take sensible steps to reduce our outgoings.”
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For further information please contact:
Anders Nilsson or Louisa Marsden at GoCompare on 01633 654 054 / 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:
- Car insurance: According to independent research from Consumer Intelligence conducted between 1 October to 31 October 2019, 51% could save up to £256 with GoCompare Car Insurance.
- Home insurance: According to independent research from Consumer Intelligence conducted between 01 Oct 2019 to 31 Dec 2019, 25% of customers could save up to £100.08 with GoCompare Home Insurance.
- Energy Bills: Between 1st October and 31st December 2019 at least 10% of customers who provided their usage and received a price for switching both gas & electricity could save £475.92.
- UK adults spend on average £340 a year on old direct debits, standing orders, subscriptions, donations and unused memberships. (Source: on 10 October 2017, Bilendi conducted an online survey among 2,000 randomly selected British adults who are Maximiles UK panelists).
- The Money Charity, May 2019.
- Broadband and TV packages: From GoCompare.com – the BOW Fab Fibre +Sky Cinema Pass deal costs £30.99pm compared to Sky Superfast TV +Sky Sports +Sky Cinema +Ultimate TV bundle which costs £76.00pm. That’s £45.01 per month saving or £540.12 a year.
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.
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