It’s a New Year and the many of us will be full of resolutions and good intentions, and as with every New Year the vast majority of us will be filled with motivation for getting our personal finances organised, and to that end there’s no shortage of Free Debt Advice articles doing their rounds online, but of all the possible courses of action that can be taken now to ensure you personal finances have the best possible year, perhaps the most important of all is don’t overlook the potential of getting the basics sorted, especially when it comes to organising those regular monthly bills and credit card debts.
1: Swap your gas and electricity supplier: The steep rise in charges by energy providers over the winter months sparked huge uproar in the latter months of 2010, forcing homeowners to look into swap energy providers. Although, as the severe weather passes (‘touch wood’) providers are reintroducing competitive rates once more. It is no secret that utility bills consume the majority of our monthly wage, so in order to minimize the amount to spend, compare your current deal with others offered in the market. It may well be, if you have been with your current provider for a significant period of time, that you are not on the best deal available. It really does pay to shop around!
2: Cancel your gym membership: It is a well known fact that large gyms and leisure centres significantly increase their gym rates in order to take advantage of the thousands of people that have made New Year’s Resolutions to get fit. So, if you want to have a healthier year in 2011, then perhaps exercising from home would be cheaper? Or, if you already have a membership, consider if you are making the most of what you are paying. If not, cancel your membership, it will save you hundreds of pounds every year.
3: Review your TV subscription: Save yourself over £600 a year by evaluating your current television subscription. If you find yourself with little time to watch television at all, and only get chance to catch the odd soap, then maybe it’s worth cancelling your subscription and investing in a FreeView box instead; you can get them from most retailers quite cheap today. If you are an avid watcher of sport though and feel the need to have a subscription, then maybe you could balance it out by cancelling your film subscription and instead rent a DVD as and when you fancy watching a movie. It’s a small change but nonetheless and important one if you want to cut down on your direct debits.
4: Reduce bill payments to the required level: The problem with direct debits is you can become accustomed to the set amounts being automatically withdrawn from your account. The illusion is that direct debits are a hassle free way of paying mandatory bills. However, try not to let this make you careless with how much is coming out of your account. Always check that your bills have changed if you know your usage/spending habits have changed. Don’t fritter away money by assuming that all the paperwork has been successfully put through the systems; be proactive and on top of your outgoings.
5: Transfer to a free current account: While it’s always useful to know what packages are available in the current market in regards to additional benefits, it can sometimes be that these ‘so called’ discounts are actually more costly than you would have first thought. A survey completed by The Guardian Newspaper last year concluded that over 7 million people in the UK spend anything between £5 and £40 a month on these package accounts. Weigh up if you actually use the additional benefits on offer to you. If not, it would be much more financially beneficial to open a free current account with no additional ‘benefits’.
6: Consolidate your debts: It is surprising how many people panic over their debt, believing it to be worse than it actually is. Obtain some professional advice if you have entered the New Year with a cloud of financial uncertainty casting a shadow over your life. Consolidation of your debts can make your repayment scheme much more manageable and you can avoid paying unnecessary amounts of interest.
7: Pay your car insurance up front: Stretching car insurance premium payments over a longer period of time can end up being much more expensive than paying it all in one go. Most motor insurance providers offer to split your payments into 12 monthly payments, although these can carry with them high interest rates. So make sure that wherever possible, you pay it all in one lump sum. Plus, by making the full payment you are assured piece of mind by not adding yet another direct debit to your account.
8: Change your broadband provider: How long have you been with your current internet service provider? If the answer is longer than a few years, it may be worth shopping around to compare your current deal with others on the market. With the recent introduction of fibre-optic broadband, the internet market has some very attractive deals at the moment as competition between providers’ increases. You could save a substantial amount by switching provider.
9: Remortgage: Has your mortgage deferred onto your lenders Standard Variable Rate (SVR)? If so, you are probably spending more than you should be. Interest rates on remortgages are usually much lower than SVR’s which means you could save a huge amount of money. Also, if you decide to remortgage with a different provider, they will generally have attractive introductory offers that you can take advantage of as a new customer.
10: Cancel magazine subscriptions: Do you have a magazine subscription, or any subscription for that matter, that you’ve been getting for years and perhaps never even considered cancelling it? If you rarely read your magazine or newspaper subscriptions then cancel them and you could save as much as £50 a year.