- Find a higher paying savings account
- Cut your gas and electricity bills
- Tax-free savings
Sue Hall, 35, a married mother-of-two, lives in a three-bedroom house in Bristol with husband Andy. She works part-time running an independent publishing company while Andy works in social services.
With two sons, five-year-old William and 16-month-old Oliver, Sue volunteered for a moneysupermarket.com makeover because she's keen to make sure there's some extra cash coming into the family coffers each month to put towards savings for her children's futures.
After going through Sue's bills and expenditure we found she and Andy could save themselves nearly £900 a year. Their biggest saving was on their home insurance, which has just come up for renewal. But the Halls were also paying more than they needed for gas and electricity, car insurance and mobile.
With a few simple checks and comparisons, we made big savings for them in these areas. And as well as reducing the amount Sue pays each month, her new tariff gives her twice as many texts and inclusive minutes. Sue and Andy's mortgage can't be beaten at the moment as they are on Cheltenham & Gloucester's SVR which is only 1.25% - this has gone down in line with the recent interest rate cuts which is saving them £339 a month. Similarly, prior to our money MOT, savvy Sue had already transferred her credit card debts to a 0% deal with Virgin, ending in September this year.
Sue said: "I'm really surprised at the savings, especially the home insurance. I can now finally open a savings account for the whole family as a 'rainy day' fund and start to clear my overdraft."
Here are the areas we made her savings in:
Home Insurance - potential savings - £505 a year
Sue was paying about £55 a month or £660 per year with the Halifax. After three break-in claims on her garden shed, she saw her premium rocket and had cover for outbuildings excluded. With the policy due for renewal, Sue was keen to find a cheaper alternative. We found that if she changed to Swinton Insurance her annual premium would fall to £155.37, saving her a massive £504.63.
Car Insurance - potential savings - £70 a year
The Hall family car is a seven year old Vauxhall Zafira. Sue's current policy, which is about to end, is with Diamond and cost £331. However by switching to Hastings Essential she'll be able to cut this to £261.36 over the year giving a saving of £69.64.
Savings - potential savings - £28 a year
Sue currently has a very low interest account with Lloyds TSB but is frustrated that she is not able to deposit as much as she would like to.
Before our MOT, and thanks to savings made on her mortgage, she had started to save &oound;100 per month which she doesn't necessarily need access to. We worked out that if she put her money into Barclays Monthly Saver account, which is paying 6.0% she'll earn an extra £28.25 in interest over the next 12 months.
Utilities - potential savings - £145 a year
The Halls are on British Gas' Discount Tracker tariff and they pay £60 a month for gas and &poun;40 a month for electricity. However, by using our utilities comparison tool, we found that they could save an estimated £145.32 a year by switching to npower's Sign Online 14 tariff.
Current Account - potential savings - £60 a year
Sue has an Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct Current Account which gave her a free overdraft for the first year. However, she is now out of the 0% overdraft period offered by the account and currently pays £5 per month in overdraft fees.
If she changed this account to a Barclays bank account, which currently offers a 0% overdraft for 12 months she would save £60 over the year.
Mobile Phone - potential savings - £84 a year
Sue is paying £25 per month for a Vodafone tariff which gives her 200 minutes and 200 texts. However, she is out of contract so can switch to another deal without incurring a penalty. If she changed to the 3's Mix & Match 500 product she would receive 500 mins or 500 texts, or a mix of the two, for £18 per month, saving her £84 over the year.
