Gas,Elec,Insurance,Phones and Broadband

I have spent most of today trying to find a cheaper phone/broadband deal and better deal for our mobiles
I think my head is going to explode!
OH thinks he would like a fancy iphone thing (not happening!) but i have been trying to explain to him that neither of us use the extra bits on phones, talk,text, occasional photo thats it so its a waste of money but there is also the free gifts side of it.
DD12 wants an Xbox and DS wants an ipod or laptop for xmas and all of these things are free if you take 2 year contracts with some phones but i think they are too expensive and it would work out cheaper buuying the pressies and getting cheap contracts or PAYG any ideas or opinions
Who is it in your house who has to organise all these things, yup you guessed right here its me!
Do you stay with who your already with or shop around every year?
I shop around as i have noticed especially with insurance you dont get rewarded for loyalty (or not claiming it seems)
I feel like it takes me ages to sort out all this stuff any tips on doing it quicker(and not having my head explode!)

hubby does all that stuff. i have no idea who our providers are or how much we pay. i dont know and i dont care as long as its covered and hes happy. i know he studies everything and gets the best price but i leave it all to him x

Change lecy every 12 months or so, just changed last month. No gas live in the sticks. Broadband changed a couple of months ago, changing this scared me, wasn't sure how smooth change over was, modems, passwords and all that malarkey but it was easy, wished I'd done it sooner.
Most of our insurance were done at a brokers, but they couldn't compete for several quotes, bike camper van classic car so they have been moved. Still have 3 policy's with broker so not sacked them yet
I do all this Oh reckons its admin and its under my list of jobs

i stick with my bb provider but everyone so often i phone them and they give me a couple of months free. It always pays to phone companies and see what they can offer you. They want you to stay with them so should offer something.

Mobile phone dont use it much so just have a basic PAYG one that does me for calls and the odd text. As you say i wouldnt use alot of the features on a smartphone and its just another headache if it gets lost etc.

Xboxes and things dont apply here.

We've just done the car insurance and switched to a new company. We do shop around for home insurance and things like that, we had loads of issues getting insurance when we moved last year due to the stupid surveyor saying we had a house of unusual construction so we went with a company that said they didn't care, but now the first year is up we've had no issues.

I got a smartphone recently, researched everything online then DH went into a shop and presented them with the best deal we'd found and asked them to match it, which they did. I bought the phone for £135 and pay £11 a month for all you can eat internet, 300 minutes of talk time and 300 texts which is not too bad imo. It's not an iPhone, it's an HTC Wildfire and is worth the money for me.

Phone and broadband we have in a bundle with our Sky package. We haven't shopped around for gas and electricty, we're with ecotricity and they're pretty good so that's who we have!

Sorry I have no idea what the question was.

sounds a good deal on the phone. Do you go on this forum on it?

TP wrote:sounds a good deal on the phone. Do you go on this forum on it?

I do indeed!

You answered the question perfectly alec
I was probably a bit vague with what i wrote as my brain had been frizzled trying to work out our best options
i am really liking the sound of your phone we pay £15 each a month for our phones at the mo but really arent using what we are paying for

It was a bit weird the way we did it, the woman at the shop had never sold a phone in that way before! But it was a deal available on the website so she honoured it in the shop. It's pay monthly on a 2 year contract, pay upfront for the phone (it's actually gone up to £150 now, just checked) then you get minutes and texts in with the plan then you can add a "booster" either minutes (including international options), texts or internet and it's £10.21 a month. That's with T Mobile. The woman in the shop set the phone up and all that stuff and according to DH was really helpful.

The cashback sites generally have good cashback on contract mobiles. As MSE'rs though I'm sure everyone already uses cashback sites.
I sometimes think that it was easier before you could compare everything.
For my car insurance for the last couple of years I've doen all the comparison sites, that take much longer than the 10 minutes or so each & yet none of them could beat the quote with Co-op insurance by the time you added on legal cover & ability to pay monthly.
The cashback offered on some would have made it a better deal but not enough to risk them not paying up.

Its a bit of a mindfield.

i dont know whether i mentioned this but i often phone my bb provider and ask what deals they have? Last time i phoned they said they were glad i phoned as they are not allowed to phone people any more?

It seems if you dont ask you dont get?

Our joint mobil phone monthly bill with orange on their virgin tarif only comes out about £8-10per month. The phone belongs to me so that worked out even cheaper.

My car insurance is with a specialist insurance company that only deals with imports, classic and high end cars. Saved myself £1,500 in car insurance. You won't find them on those silly compare site's and they only advertise via specialist car forums. So free advertising for them equals less overheads which means lower prices for clients

House and contents insurance are with a company that ain't really known for insuring domestic dwelling they usually insure Church's and commerical buildings. Very cheap and don't quibble if you need to make a claim.

I have 2 different phone companies I BT for phone only and Virgin for cable TV, Cable Broadband and fax and it's far far cheaper than BT. Been with them since they were NTL.

i just bagged myself 3 months free internet. You can do this once a year ive been told you have to ask though.

TP wrote:i just bagged myself 3 months free internet. You can do this once a year ive been told you have to ask though.

Good work!