Support for non money savvy elderly

bylromarha

My mum died in November. Going through her finances has been a real eye opener.

Living a 3 hour drive away, I didn't discuss money much with her. She always taught me how to find a bargain at the supermarket, but don't think she cottoned on that she could find a bargain in her utilities, insurance and the like. I mentioned swapping utility provider a few times through the years, but never got further than that.

It SHOCKED me how much she was paying for her loyalty to Nationwide in the form of high level of insurances. Her utility bills were high cost per unit.

Mum would never have got on the internet for herself, and I would have taken my laptop down and made the changes happen if I'd known just how much her loyalty was being "rewarded".

Are there any charities I can donate to which support non internet savvy people in making these switches to cheaper companies?

margaretclare

Interesting. I wonder just how many people stick with the same providers, insurers etc, for the same reason.

A case in point is Saga for car insurance. Of recent years we've had a good deal with them. This time round, DH did his usual punt around the net looking for comparisons and, suffice to say, quoting like-for-like they were a long way from being at all competitive. When he spoke to them about this they didn't seem at all concerned. 'Well, if you don't want the business...' and he's gone to Churchill instead.

Will do the same when the house insurance comes up for renewal in March. But it did make me wonder - as Saga aim at the older age-groups, is there this same inertia among a lot of people, who just re-insure unquestioningly year after year?

Errata

Are there any charities I can donate to which support non internet savvy people in making these switches to cheaper companies?

My local AgeUK has a dedicated worker who does exactly this.

yangptangkipperbang

Errata wrote: »

My local AgeUK has a dedicated worker who does exactly this.

Ummm - I always trawl round for my insurances/etc and have always found AgeUK/Concern to be expensive, so I would be careful if they recommend themselves.

Got my car renewal from Aviva last week, it had gone down ! Everyone else was way more expensive, so am staying put this time.

Errata

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

Ummm - I always trawl round for my insurances/etc and have always found AgeUK/Concern to be expensive, so I would be careful if they recommend themselves.

The branch I referred to in my post doesn't. The worker looks for the best gas and electric deals regardless of who the supplier is.

Savvy_Sue

margaretclare wrote: »

Interesting. I wonder just how many people stick with the same providers, insurers etc, for the same reason.

My mother hasn't shopped around, and isn't interested in doing so. It's odd in one way, because when we were younger she knew the price of all our staples in all the local shops, and we'd have to go to the Coop for milk, and elsewhere for bread, to save a penny here and a penny there, probably cancelled out by the wear on our shoes!!!

But in those days, every penny had to count. She is now comfortably off, and doesn't want the hassle (even though it isn't much hassle!)

If my older brother were to tell her to switch (after checking on the internet, of course), she might do so, but there's no point me saying anything.

She did let me research whether or not she needed separate Card Protection insurance, and was quite pleased when I told her that her home insurance gave nearly as much cover as the separate cover, can't remember what was excluded but we decided it was a low risk anyway.

Then I discovered that the Card Protection cover wasn't valid anyway, as it was still in Dad's name, and she'd just left the DD running for over a year. :mad: I managed to get that back for her.

And I'm even going to confess that we didn't get other quotes for car insurance for a few years, because the cost seemed reasonable and there were just too many other things going on at the time. We did switch last year, and gas and electric too.

Mind you last night I spent over an hour checking prices for flights for our next holiday. I was EXHAUSTED at the end of it, and I'm still not convinced I got the best price, but I was starting to lose the will to live ...

bylromarha

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

But in those days, every penny had to count. She is now comfortably off, and doesn't want the hassle (even though it isn't much hassle!)

Looking through Mum's accounts now, I think she thought she was comfortably off, but the savings went down and down and down. If she'd shopped around a bit, she could have had more money in her pocket. I don't think it even occurred to her that she could.

mumps

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Mind you last night I spent over an hour checking prices for flights for our next holiday. I was EXHAUSTED at the end of it, and I'm still not convinced I got the best price, but I was starting to lose the will to live ...

You have my sympathies, I did the same last week. Really excited about the trip but it seemed to take alot of work to check it all and I think I saved about £20 over my first hit, I was also checking out rail travel and an interrail pass. Probably didn't even reach NMW for the time spent. I am looking forward to it, roll on summer 2013. Fingers crossed that we all have a great time.

I am busy researching places to visit so that will keep me busy for a while.

Savvy_Sue

mumps wrote: »

Probably didn't even reach NMW for the time spent.

:rotfl: That's the thing, isn't it, would you rather save a few £ or have the time to do other things?

To add insult to injury in my case, the admin fee for the flight's been charged to my bank account, but the actual 'ticket' hasn't appeared in my email yet, nor have I been charged for that!

And I've still got to research a hotel for a weekend in Oxford, and a train ticket to Didcot for a girly non-weekend, and a possible trip to the Isle of Man in the summer ...