Paying these bills monthly is an expensive way to pay them. Many companies add between 7% and 10% to the bill and then divide the bill by 10, 11 or 12 months. 10% paying this way is an APR of almost 23%.
Car tax is another common bill which should be paid annually. Paying your car tax quarterly is more expensive. For example a 1400cc car tax paid yearly is €333, but paid quarterly the annual cost is €376 or €43 more expensive. A 2000cc car tax paid yearly is €614, but paid quarterly the annual cost is €692 or €78 more expensive.
What can you do? By paying bills annually can save you a lot of money. You don’t have to switch all your bills to annually straight away. Switch what you can afford this year and next year you will be able to afford more. Or actively compare prices and with the amount you should be able to save on many bills, these savings will help you switch to annual bill payments.
Try actively reducing your bills. With increasing energy costs and tax increases, our income is reducing. This is an important time to review all your bills to see where some savings can be made.
Shop around. It may take a little time, but it will save you money. Comparing prices on line is so easy now as most of the work is done for you.
Compare insurance prices. Most of us still pay our car and home insurance bills by habit, without making comparisons with quotes from other Insurance companies. With so many comparison websites now, it is simple to do a comparison before you pay. Or if you deal with a broker, they should be doing this for you automatically on your behalf. Check that your broker is doing so and if they are not, move your business to someone who provides this service.
If you are a Home Payments client you will receive emails automatically 14 days before your insurance is due, reminding you to compare prices.
Avail of insurance discounts. You can get discounts for various reasons such as if you have a smoke detector, a burglar alarm, 5 lever mortise locks or if you have your house and car insured with the same company. Ask your insurance company or broker what discounts they offer.
Ensure you have the correct insurance cover. Having the correct insurance cover is very important. You must insure your house to cover the cost in case you have to rebuild it. This is the cost to rebuild the house, not the market value to sell the house. With your contents insurance you should be insured for the cost to replace all your contents with new items. If you are over insured you are wasting money and if you are under insured and need to claim, you will not receive your full claim. Get the correct floor area of your house and ring your broker or insurance company to ensure you have the correct level of cover and are not under or over insured. The broker will have the current rebuild costs per square foot in your area so take a few minutes to measure the floor area of your home, if you don’t know it already. You can simply measure the length and depth of the house and multiply it by 2 for a two storey house, to get the approximate floor area.
Saving money on your cable TV. Many Households have taken up one of the various Cable TV packages over the past few years. Are you paying for packages that you are not using? Review your usage, if you find you use the terrestrial stations more than the 100’s of channels, think about canceling the package or simply check if a cheaper package is available providing the channels you actually look at.
Save money on your utility bills. Currently this must be the easiest way to save money. With so many companies now offering discounts for switching and it being so easy to do so, there is no excuse not to save money this way. For information on what to look out for when switching utility providers, click on the articles below from our News Section.
Save 20% on your gas bills with Flogas (November 2010)
Watch the standing charges cost when Switching Utilities (December 2010)
For more ideas on where you can save money on your bills, Click Here or click on our How we can save you money button on the right of this screen.
If you are already a Home Payments client, look at the list of bills included in your account, in the client login section, click Analyse my Bills to see how much you spent last year on Electricity or Gas for example so you can easily see how much you would save with the percentage discounts offered by other utility providers.
Call us today on 1890 92 92 55 to book your confidential, no obligation consultation and find out how you can enjoy Freedom from your Bills. Or simply fill in the Request a Free Call Back form on this page and one of our financial consultants will be in touch with you for a Free chat to answer any questions you may have.