Price switching
Service providers call it inertia – the terrible habit we all have of sticking with the tried and trusted even though switching companies could save us a fortune.
In the past there was an excuse for this, as the tariffs from the confusion of electricity, gas, broadband, home phone and mobile phone services could be horribly baffling … and who wants to plough through hundreds of price charts?
But the good news is, you don’t have to.
There are now a number of excellent price comparison sites that will do the job for you, the likes of uswitch.com and simplyswitch.com, and they couldn’t be easier to use – in fact it’s quite fun seeing how much you can save.
Simply enter the details of your current provider; type in how much you spend on power, phone calls or whatever … and these websites will give you a tantalising ‘you could save’ figure.
You may not EVEN have to switch suppliers. Try this one. I rang up my current gas and electric provider, Npower told them I was on the Standard tariff and would like to be switched to their considerably cheaper Sign Online 8 tariff.
I was told by the (extremely helpful) sales person that ‘as you have become aware of this tariff … we shall of course switch you’. Some five minutes later I was £200 a year better off by my reckoning – probably the easiest couple of hundred quid I’ve EVER earned.
Why don’t you try it … and then reward yourself with the afternoon off! Better yet, put it towards that trip to New York!
Now the point is … they won’t come to you with these deals, you have to find them. And we cannot shout loudly enough that you must NEVER sign up to a new deal from the power companies’ doorstep sellers – they are there to bamboozle you with figures and you WON’T get the best deal – GO ONLINE.
And why stop with power? You should regularly check the cost of all your financial products, right down to your mortgage and bank account, as deals change ALL the time.
Ask yourself when you last looked at what you pay and what you owe … you’re definitely not getting the best deal right now.
Now I don’t expect you to do this on a weekly basis – no matter how much you love a bargain, life is DEFINITELY too short for that. But an afternoon spent every three months could rack you up hundreds, maybe thousands over a year.
‘I’m scared of switching you say.’ Don’t be. These sites make it so simple, and the switchover is invariably seamless.
In fact, with gas and electricity, the providers are legally required to maintain a continuous supply – no chance of the lights going out – the only thing you’ll notice is that your much reduced bill will come from a new provider.
You don’t even have to speak to a person from your existing provider (some of us feel uncomfortable telling the man from British Gas that, no, we don’t want his gas anymore).
The people from uswitch or simplyswitch will do the whole job for you.
Any more questions?
How do these people make their money and are we really getting the best deal when we switch.
These sites do take a commission for switching you over, but the information is there for you to access and check for yourself. They have to be whiter than white and we’re very confident that you will be sold the best deal.