Save €700 euro a year with our quick switch and save guide
ON National Savings Week it’s all well and good to take about putting money aside for a rainy day — or even a holiday.
But when the latest credit union ‘What’s Left’ tracker shows 1.7m of us have just €100 disposable income left each month once the bills are paid, how can any of us stow cash away?
Truth is, you can — by saving on your household spending.
The trick is to shop around. New research from Amárach found that those who switched a broad range of suppliers — they dubbed them ‘power switchers’ — could save up to €1,600 a year, with the biggest savings to be made in health insurance and banking. These were also the two areas we are least likely to switch — less than one in five Irish people have switched health insurers in the past 12 months, with around one in 10 switching bank account provider.
Men under the age of 35 are the most proactive switchers, according to the stats — and six in 10 of them will take a foreign holiday this year. On the other hand, people who had never switched a household bill were least likely to take a holiday.
It’s going to be a tough year, with water charges looming, the full property tax and constant hikes in energy and health insurance prices. But even with all that, you could still make savings — once you’re prepared to shop around and switch. Only 45% of us have changed a product or service in the last 12 months; just 14% have switched provider for home insurance, for example. The reasons given to the National Consumer Agency? It’s “more hassle than benefit” and “there’s not much difference between the providers”.
But there are huge savings to be made by shopping around.
Gas and electricity prices have soared by 35% in the last three years. That’s approximately a €500 increase. But the NCA says seven in 10 of us don’t even check our bills and only 16% of us have changed our provider in the last year.
According to the price comparison website uSwitch, families could save €254 annually by switching gas and electricity. Websites like www.bonkers.ie and www.uswitch.ie can find you the best deal — and make the switch for you, for free.
If you have never switched before it will most likely mean you are on a standard energy tariff. These are typically the most expensive in the market. The best advice is to come off it and find the cheapest deals.
Use your common sense too and check out energy saving tips on powerofone.ie — for example, turning down the thermostat by one degree can cut your bill by 10%. Close curtains, and if you’re going to use the oven, bake a few meals at a time to get the most out of it.
Car insurance is another area where it pays to haggle. An NCA survey found that a 25-year-old teacher with a full licence for three years had a €595 difference between the lowest and highest quote. It seems that car insurance is a sector where we are more likely to switch.
As for TV and broadband, the best advice here is to bundle — by combining your broadband, home phone and digital TV products onto the one package, you can reduce your monthly bill by up to €200 per year.
Don’t be afraid to use brokers to do the work for you — so long as they provider is paying the bill.
Try a company like www.healthinsurancesavings.ie to drive down costs. They know all the tricks, from corporate plans to split cover. And there are huge savings to be made.
Bank charges are one of the biggest areas where savings can be snapped up. In 2012, banks started introducing charges again, and now a family with two accounts could be paying €260 a year in charges. But the good news is there are ways to avoid them — Permanent TSB, for example, will waive charges once you have €1,500 going into your account each month. It doesn’t have to stay there — it can just pass through your account.
The National Consumer Agency has a full list of bank charges and fees on its website www.consumerhelp.ie.
So that’s €252 by switching energy provider, €200 by bundling your TV, broadband and landline, and another €260 for a bank account without charges — that’s a saving of over €700 before you even look at health insurance, car insurance and your mobile phone. Those power switchers have the right idea.
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