When Vodafone Say Simplify They Mean Lets Charge You More!

Here's a question for you. How can you add £23 million pounds to your bottom line without a price increase? Well Vodafone have found a very creative way of doing just that they call it "Simplifying your bill".

How does it work? Simple they decide to round up your bill to the nearest 50 pence so if your bill is £33.51 they'll round it up to £34.00! From October 2011 that's exactly what they're going to do adding on average 1.6% to the average bill.

The things we put up with to have the latest smart-phone and tariff astounds me it really does. Better if more of you were like me and have a cheap pay as you go phone which costs me about £15 per year and no contract. Snag is no Facebook or Twitter but then again do I need them when I'm not at home?

I like to be "In touch but out of reach" and that's exactly what my cheap phone allows me to do :)

The rest of this article can be found here Vodafone Raise Prices And Call It Simplifying Your Bill I call it rip off your clients because they're addicted to Facebook lol

Rising Energy Costs - The Government Wins And You Lose!

Yes the very institution that proclaims it's only purpose in life is to help us is making a small fortune because of the spiraling energy costs. How are they doing this in a word VAT. With average energy bills up by over £200 per year the government are raking in an additional £200 million a year in revenue because of the 5% VAT that's added to our bills.

Now if that ended today you and I would get back over £65 in the year not a massive amount but it would garner some relieve to the beleaguered families who are having to choose between eating or heating their homes.

It's time we stopped just sucking it up and started campaigning hard to get this unfair tax rescinded. Maybe a letter to your MP showing your displeasure might help. Couldn't hurt could it?

Full Article can be found here.

Rising Energy Costs - Winners And Losers

The Great UK Mobile Data Scam - Don't Get Caught Out

Some things just come at you out of the blue and catch you unawares and that's what's happening to many people who have mobile data contracts and if you're not careful you to could become a victim.

What I'm talking about is using more data (Facebook, Web Browsing, Email and any other Internet related stuff) than your contract allows and then being charged through the nose for any overuse.

Want an example? According to their Website one of the major players in the market will charge you 60p per MB of data you've overused. That's per MB not GB and as we know there are 1000 MB's in a GB so a one GB over use could end up costing you £600! That's not a typo work it out for yourself.

If you happen to be abroad on holiday I shudder to think how much extra that's going to cost you and sadly as you've signed a contract you can't get out of paying no matter how unreasonable you think it is.

Discover what you need to do today to protect yourself by reading the rest of this article here Mobile Data Scams And How To Avoid Them

PS 500 MB's of data included in most contracts is a lot less than you may think no matter what the salesperson may have told you!

Over 60% Have Never Switched Utility Company

As strange as it might sound particularly as gas and electricity prices are spiraling out of control over 60% of UK residents have never switched suppliers. It is estimated that most people could save over £200 per year by switching yet many don't.

When you consider many people will spend hours researching the best and cheapest place to buy a £50 digital camera yet can't be bothered to spend the same amount of time looking at alternative utility suppliers they currently spend over £1100 per year.

Folk are strange and if you're one of the 60% why not spend a little time now looking at cheaper suppliers it could be well worth your while and save you a bundle.

A more detailed article can be found here Crippling Energy Bills Are Your Fault

An Alternative For The Utility Warehouse Cash Back Card

The Utility Warehouse has a pre paid cash back card enables you to save money shopping at various supermarkets and retailers. It's used by them as the icing on the cake and as a bonus for signing up with them for your utilities like gas, electricity, phone, mobile phone and broadband.

In many cases UW are not the cheapest supplier of these services and a large proportion of any money you save by switching to them is made up by this cash back scheme.

Santander have just released a cash back credit card that will give you 1% on supermarket shopping, 2% at certain department stores and 3% for buying petrol. It does have a £26 per year fee which means at 1% cash back you need to spend at least £2,600 to break even but for most people that's going to be easily done.

Also this is a credit card so no messing about topping it up before use and although UW's card will give you 3% for supermarket shopping I still think the Sanander 123 card could be a good fit for most people.

I'm going to apply for one and I'll let you all know how it turns out.

7 Million People Pushed Into Fuel Poverty

EDF is the latest energy company in the UK to raise energy prices. The rise is a whopping 15.4% for gas and 4.5% for electricity. It's estimated that this will add over £130 to the average bill per year.

Sadly it's also estimated that this will be enough to push the number of people into fuel poverty all the way up to 6.8 million. That's not a misprint just under 7 million people will have to juggle between eating, paying the mortgage or properly heating there homes.

Although by switching suppliers it's still possible to save a few pounds it's unlikely you'll be paying less than £1000 a year for your gas and electricity.

The world has finally gone mad when profit stops people from heating there homes and I fear for the elederly and anyone else on a low fixed wage. What do you think?

Related Post:

The Confusing Tariff Rip Off

Saving Money On Heating Oil

If you live in the USA you can benefit from cheaper heating oil by using a site called NeighborOil. This company acts like a Co-operative (although it is profit making) and buts heating oil on your behalf.

The advantage is that because it can bundle hundreds of people like you together it can negotiate fairly large discounts and some of this saving is then passed onto you.

I've been informed recently that there is a similar scheme in the UK called BoilerJuice.com which claims to do the same thing for us Brits. As I use oil for my central heating and I'm due a 900L fill over the next 30 days or so I'll give it a try and let you know if any real savings can be made.

Lets face it with the price of oil at the moment even a few pence per litre discount adds up.

Here's hoping :) If it doesn't work I may create my own co-operative (if it's legal that is)