Money Saving Tips

1. Utilities

Have you changed your gas and electricity supplier recently? Use uswitch.com to find out who has the best deals at the moment and check regularly to make sure you are still getting the cheapest prices. The same goes for your telephone you don't need to use BT any more for your line rental, other companies can now offer you line rental cheaper than BT. Think about having a water meter fitted and see if you can lower your water bill. Try to cut down how much electricity you use, turn off lights when you aren't in a room, don't leave electrical equipment on standby and change to low energy light bulbs. Think about paying by direct debit, many companies will give you rebate if you pay by direct debit and if you get your gas and electric together from the same company.

2. Mortgage and Loans

How much interest are you paying on your mortgage and loans? See a financial advisor and see if you can cut your payments down. Don't take out payment protection cover on loans, this is something that banks, etc try to sell you and they make more money out of it than they pay out. If you think you won't be able to pay the loan at some time, don't take it out at all!

3. Credit Cards

Try and pay off your credit cards. The interest on credit cards is exorbitant. You could find a card with 0% on balance transfers, watch out for this as there can be a 3% charge to transfer or get a loan to pay off the cards, the interest will be much cheaper. If you must use a credit card, get one with cash back and pay the balance every month, don't just pay the minimum payment.

4. Mobile Phones

If you don't use your phone a lot, think about going onto pay-as-you-go, if you use it a lot, see if a contract phone would be cheaper. If you are on contract, you could ask your provider if you are on the best tariff for the way you use your phone and look at other providers as well, uswitch.com can help you with this as well. If you text regularly, there are websites that will let you send free texts, although some of them will limit the number you can send.

5. Insurances

Don't just renew your insurances when your renewal notice comes in. Shop around for cheaper car and home insurances. Check with your financial advisor that your life insurance is the best deal you can get. If you have annual travel insurance and you don't travel more than once a year, it will probably be cheaper if you get your insurance for each trip. Don't buy travel insurance

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about Spend wisely to save money?
We want to hear your view. Write now!