The FiftyUp Club mantra to cut household bills

Here at the FiftyUp Club we spend far too much time thinking about ways to cut your household bills. We believe our members should and can demand more. As Christmas is fast approaching, here is the FiftyUp Club mantra to cut household bills.

1. Shop around – The sad truth is most people pay more than they need to for their insurance and household bills. It’s important to do your homework and shop around. See what offers and discounts are in the market and choose the offer that’s right for you. Many households still get no discounts at all on their electricity, which means they’re paying as much as $500 extra in a year for an average household. That’s money down the drain!

2. Be prepared to change providers – whether it’s electricity or insurance, you must be prepared to ‘switch’. Switching – or at least the preparedness to move providers – is what gives you power in your relationship with businesses. You’ll be amazed at what some providers offer their customers who are about to change to another provider. Just like that, customers are given ‘new’ discounts or offers that are not on the open market.

3. Loyalty can be a trap – Loyalty isn’t always rewarded. In fact, it’s often the savvy customers who shop around and make the most of current offers and deals that get rewarded. Unfortunately, when it comes to price the most loyal customers often cop the biggest premium increases. For example, next time you get a renewal notice on your car or home insurance, go online and see what price they offer a new customer for the same cover. Sometimes you will catch them out charging you more.

4. Big vs Small – when it comes to providers, bigger isn’t always better. Sometimes a big bank or insurer is a safer bet, but sometimes they just charge a premium for their brand. Challenger brands often work harder for new customers, especially in a commodity such as electricity where they’re all selling the same product.

5. Discounts don’t last forever – you may have landed a massive discount, but they don’t last forever. Often you’ll get a discounted rate for 12 months. While we urge people to take a big discount when they can, read the fine print and be prepared to shop around again when the discount period ends. Sadly, it’s a common practice for electricity retailers to revert customers to an inferior discount once their contract expires, and sometimes they don’t even bother to tell you.

6. Ask for a Discount – the reality is sometimes all you have to do is ask. If you know you can get a better offer with another provider, why not ask your current provider if they can offer you a better deal or at least match it. Often one phone call can do the trick. 

7. Always explore new offers – new discounts and deals always emerge, and they’re often for a limited time as a provider tries to attract some new customers without upsetting existing customers too much. What may have been the best offer 3 months ago won’t necessarily be the best offer now.

8. Don’t go it alone – The FiftyUp Club now has more than 105,000 members, which gives us a huge amount of buying power. The Club was created to help consumers 50 and over get the discounts, special offers, and improved products and services they deserve. So let us to some of the work for you!