Along with wife Helen, 45, son Chris, 18, and daughter, Amy, 15, the Bell family live in a four-bedroom, semi-detached bungalow in Hellesdon in Norwich. Paul works as an assistant catering manager at a local high school and Helen has a part-time job. He feels the family finances are spiralling out of control as they struggle to cope with rising costs and a low household income.
With no savings, Paul has two main areas of concern regarding his monthly outgoings - gas and electricity bills and his credit card which, due to racking up over £6,100, has been costing him hundreds of pounds in interest and £122 a month just to cover the minimum payment. By entering his details using our comparison tools on Moneysupermarket.com, we saved him £1,434 on these areas alone.
Paul and Helen's mortgage is with Southern Pacific on a fixed rate deal at 5.7% and as he is tied into it until August, we have advised that he reappraises the mortgage market nearer the time. Paul is tied into a new mobile phone deal with O2 for 18 months, so until his contract ends we couldn't make him any savings in this area.
Paul was delighted with the huge savings and intends to put the money back into his family income and spend some on his children. Son Chris is to be a dad in the next few months and daughter Amy has a blossoming football career at Norwich City Football Club's Centre of Excellence.
Paul said: "I don't mind admitting we got ourselves into a bit of mess financially. I've never earned good money as I really value my family life and always put that first. We manage but never have any money left for luxuries. Recently, it just seems like the bills are getting higher every month. These savings are brilliant and I'm amazed how easy it is to get on to a better deal. I wish we had done it ages ago."
Credit cards - potential savings - £958 a year
One of the main areas of concern for the Bell family and one which Paul calls a "money pit" is his credit card. He currently has £6,150 outstanding on a card with Goldfish at an APR of 17.9%, which he pays the minimum payment of £122 per month. If this was swapped to Virgin's Credit Card he will receive 0% on balance transfers for 16 months giving a saving of £957.99 over 12 months.
Utilities - potential savings - £476 a year
The Bell family has seen their gas and electricity bills leap by £50 a month in the past couple of years - from £75 per month to £125 with Scottish Power for both Gas and Electricity. If they swapped to British Gas' WebSaver 2 tariff this would make a huge annual saving of £475.69.
Current Account - potential savings - £200 a year
Paul presently banks with his local building society - Norwich & Peterborough. His average monthly balance is around £1,700 overdrawn, which results in a penalty charge at 11.79% EAR. If this was changed to the Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct Current Account, which offers 0% on overdrafts for 12 months, this would give a saving over the year of £200.43 in interest.
While the free overdraft lasts only a year, A&L has one of the most competitive overdraft deals on the market. Customers are charged 50p per day for being overdrawn bu this is capped at £5 per month, so the annual overdraft cost is just £60.
Home Insurance - potential savings - £131 a year
The Bell family live in a four-bedroom semi-detached bungalow. Paul currently has his house insured with Halifax, paying £228. However, he has made a couple of claims over the past few years and therefore has no 'no-claims bonus'. If Paul moved his home and contents policy over to Virgin Money home insurance, his annual premium would fall to £96, saving him £131.
Broadband/phone- potential savings - £132 a year
Paul currently pays £11.75 for BT Option 2 phone which gives him free evening and weekend calls. He also pays BT £17 per month for broadband which gives him up to 8Mb speeds and 10GB worth of downloads. A total monthly cost for both totalling £28.75. A quick check on our broadband comparison site showed that if this was changed to Talk Talk's phone and broadband tariffs, Paul would pay a total of £17.74 a month - which includes broadband up to 8Mb and a 40GB download cap, monthly phone-line rental, free evening and weekends calls. In total, he could potentially save £132 a year.
Car Insurance - potential savings - £58 and £35 a year per car
Paul and Helen each have a car and have just renewed the policies for both - Paul's with Co-operative Insurance and Helen's run-around with Swinton. However, by entering his details on to our comparison site, we have still managed to save him a combined total of £93.53 by moving the policies to Swiftcover and LV=, respectively.
Disclaimer: Please note that any rates or deals mentioned in this article were available at the time of writing.
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