What a difference a day makes...

thetopcat84

I used to think of myself as pretty shrewd when it came to household bills, but after today... well, I'll let you be the judge...

I was supposed to be working from home, when I got distracted by the fact my Sky contract is up on 8th of August and it got me thinking about special offers and what-not. We've had Sky with the sports package for a year and we got 25% off for the duration, which was good at the time.

However, I decided to look at also taking broadband and maybe phone with them, figuring it's cheaper to bundle the lot together, especially as I was out of contract with O2 for broadband, but still in contract with BT for phone & line rental.

In comparing BT with Sky for phone, I was looking back over previous bills when I suddenly realised that for the best part of a year, BT had been taking direct debit line rental as well as the £120 line rental saver annual payment! One phone call later with much wailing and gnashing of teeth resulted in a refund plus compensation from BT of £220. They also released me from the contract I was in.

Next phone call was to O2 to discuss and compare the broadband, and they immediately told me how valued I was and told me I was eligible for half-price broadband (£6.25/month) on a 12 month contract plus a 12 month Xbox live gold subscription (worth about £35). Sky's equivalent broadband deal was £7.50/month. This gave me an additional effective £116 as I was previously on a £13/month O2 package.

Figuring I was free from BT for phone & line rental, I checked in here to see if there were any other offers going on line rental and discovered MSE's Primus deal. This was ideal for us, we only have the landline for broadband and parental contact. BT's line rental saver would have been £10.75/month, whereas Primus is only £7.99/month, giving another annual saving of £33.

I then realised I'd done nothing with Gas and Electricity bills since we moved into the flat last year! Phoned Scottish Hydro-electric, gleaned all the information I needed to compare and contrast and to their credit, they even helped me find the best deal (as well as sending me a free 'iplan' gadget to monitor electricity usage). However, even though they pointed me towards EDF/npower, I came here and checked to see what the latest deals were and found the Scottish Power deal offering £70 cashback on top of the £95 saving based on actual readings.

A grand total of £534 for the coming year (less phone calls :rotfl: ) and that's without even having spoken to Sky! If I can convince the other half that a freeview+ box is enough, I can add another £340 to that amount

StanVanDamn

Well done thats great news - amazing how many people dont do this and just pay over the odds

rosejack

That's fantastic, well done. Had you heard about MSE prior to that day, or did you start looking for offers and came across the site? Just curious

thetopcat84

rosejack wrote: »

That's fantastic, well done. Had you heard about MSE prior to that day, or did you start looking for offers and came across the site? Just curious

Hi rosejack, I'd heard of the site for some time, but just decided to have a look while I was at it to see what was about. I often check the savings section to see if there's any good bits of info on deposit savings (I can't rave about the First Direct Regular Saver account enough).

I was also recently inspired to a better cash-back credit card (Capital One Aspire) which I got for myself with a second card for my fiancee to get further through the thresholds (we have a joint account set up for all our bills, so now we use the credit card and a direct debit to do exactly the same thing).

I have yet to convince the good lady that freeview+ would work just as well as Sky+ and I don't think I will convince her either :rotfl:

Jackwil80

Clever thing to do! good work:)