Richard, 60, will be around £7,500 better off this year because of his financial astuteness. Not only does he shop around to ensure he is on the best deals for home and car insurances, utilities, phone, broadband and mobile, he is also a master of beating the banks.
He uses interest-free balance transfer credit cards and even though he has the money to clear the balances in full, he keeps that in a savings account so it is earning interest, while his debts aren't. Richard, who is retired and lives with his wife Wendy, a part-time receptionist in a three-bedroom house in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, also has current accounts with five banks. The couple have a 30-year old daughter, Amanda.
So, for the first time ever with our money makeovers, we haven't been able to make Richard any savings because he's doing such a good job himself.
Richard said: 'I wanted a make-over as I was intrigued to see if there were any products that we hadn't considered or if there were any products we could have possibly missed. However, I am happy that you haven't been able to find any savings for us as this just confirms that I do take the time out to make sure that I have the best deals available to me'.
It's not rocket science - you just need to take advantage of the comparison tools available on moneysupermarket to identify the best deals and the savings should soon start mounting up.
Credit Cards - £835 a year better off
Richard has three credit cards with Virgin, Halifax and Alliance & Leicester. All of these cards have 0% balance transfer deals and most of them are interest-free for at least 12 months.
He has transferred a combined total of £18,000 from these cards in to a current account then moved the funds into a Tesco Internet Saver paying 2.75%. Richard's trick here is that at the end of the 0% deals the balances on the cards will be paid off in full and although he hasn't been paying interest to the card companies, by transferring the money into the Tesco account he potentially stands to earn up to £495 over the year.
Richard also makes good use of cashback credit cards with American Express and Egg. The balances on these cards are always paid off in full when used and depending on the amount spent Richard can earn up to 5% cashback with American Express for the first three months up to £100. After the initial 3 months the cashback is tiered to 0.5% on spending up to £3,500, 1% between £3,500 and £10,000 and 1.5% thereafter. He can also earn up to 1% cashback with Egg.
Richard uses the Egg card where American Express is not accepted. Based on his current spending Richard could potentially earn £340 in cashback over the year.
He also has a House of Fraser store card which he only uses if there is a promotional discount on offer and as with the cashback cards if he does use it, he clears the balance at the end of each month.
If like millions of other people, you think there is little difference between current accounts so it doesn't matter which provider you bank with, think again.
Richard has managed to boost the returns he gets from current accounts by a staggering £930 a year.
He and Wendy have a joint account with Royal Bank of Scotland which their direct debits are paid out of.
The Keeble family also have three Halifax Reward Accounts, three Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct Accounts and three Abbey Preferred In-Credit Rate current accounts. He transfers money into each of these accounts each month from his Tesco Internet Saver to earn the interest and rewards on offer then transfers the money back to the Tesco Internet Saver.
Not to be outdone when he is abroad, Richard also has a Nationwide BS FlexAccount which he uses only when he is on his travels, however one point to note is that the debit card is now only free to use within the Visa Euro Zone.
Halifax Reward Account - this pays £5 per month regardless of the balance of the account as long as £1,000 is credited each month. Because the Keeble's have three of these accounts they earn an extra £180 over the year.
Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct Account - This account is currently paying 5.0% on balances up to £2,500, assuming at least £500 is paid in every month. The Keeble's keep the maximum £2,500 deposited in each of their accounts. Richard makes sure the minimum of £500 is transferred into the accounts each month, but he has standing orders set up so this money is then transferred back into his Tesco account. By doing this Richard stands to earn an extra £375 in interest over the year.
Abbey Preferred In-Credit current account - Richard also holds three Preferred In-Credit current accounts which also pay 5.0%. As with the A&L accounts these each hold the maximum £2,500. Abbey requires at least £1,000 a month to be paid into the Preferred In-Credit Account, so Richard moves money over from the Tesco savings account and transfers it back out again. This nets the family a further £375 a year in gross interest.
Savings - £6,084 a year better off
As well as the Internet Saver with Tesco, Richard has savings elsewhere, from which he stands to earn more than £6,000 in gross interest over the year:
He has three fixed rate bonds - £50,000 is held in a 5.0% one-year fixed rate bond with Clydesdale Bank which will earn him £2,500 at the end of the term. £25,000 is with ICICI Bank in a one-year bond paying 5.10% in which he will receive £1,275 in interest over the year. Finally he has £40,000 invested with Ulster Bank in a six-month bond paying 3.46% which will make £1,384 over the term.
Richard also has six regular saver accounts - two with Barclays and two with Bradford & Bingley all paying a rate of 6% and two accounts with Halifax paying 5%. He pays £250 per month into the Barclays accounts and £500 per month into the accounts with Halifax and Bradford & Bingley. Over the year he will earn a combined total of £925.
Car and Home Insurance
Richard has the best deals available to him for his needs at the moment. He pays £145 per year to Tesco for his buildings & contents insurance and £270 per year for his car insurance with The Co-operative Bank.
Utilities - £897 (compared to incumbent tariff)
Richard currently pays £13.00 per month for his gas to Ebico and £16.50 per month to British Gas for electricity giving a total annual bill of £354. Richard could make a saving of £76.91 if he changed to the npower Sign Online 15 dual fuel tariff paying via monthly direct debit, however he was one step ahead of us with this one. He had started to apply for the npower product until he realised that the discount received wouldn't have come off his bill until the end of the year, meaning that if a better deal came along in the meantime he would potentially be missing out on any savings available to him. Even with the deals he has at the moment he is saving a massive £897 compared to the standard deals offered to him through the incumbent providers for his area.
Richard's home phone line is with BT in which he pays £12.50 per month including line rental and has Freeview television.
Richard also has a pay as you go phone with O2 which he tops up with £10 every 3 months. By doing this it enables him to receive the reduced rate O2 Home Broadband product which offers him 8Mbps of speeds and unlimited downloads all for £7.34 per month, non O2 customers would pay £12.23 per month for the same deal.
Disclaimer: Please note that any rates or deals mentioned in this article were available at the time of writing. Products underlined can be applied for directly.
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