Single mum saves £680 using moneysupermarket.com

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Published:
02 November 2010
Topic:
News,Gas & Electricity,Home,Makeover,Current Accounts,Savings

Chantel Mason works in corporate banking but she never seemed to have enough cash left in her own bank account at the end of the month.

She got in touch with moneysupermarket.com because she felt there should be disposable income left once the bills were paid, to treat herself and her 13-year-old daughter Sabrei.

"I don't think my money is spent wisely and I would like to know where my money can be best spent to free up more cash."

Chantel is also worried that her car is getting on a bit and would like to free up some cash so she can take out a loan for a new one.

So, the moneysupermarket.com team ran her figures through the normal comparison tools on the site, and she could save a respectable £680 a year by switching.

"I knew I could save some cash but I didn't think it would be that much," admitted Chantel.

Home insurance - £290

Marks & Spencer has just offered Chantel a home insurance renewal quote of £450 a year if she wants to continue her policy.

Loads of people in the UK fail to shop around for the best deal when their renewal time comes round and so their home insurance ends up auto-renewing and they sleep walk into higher premiums.

Chantel lives in a three-bedroom terrace house and has two years no-claims - she made a claim back in 2008.

If she switched to Sheila's Wheels for her cover, she'd pay just £158.69 a year - a saving of £291.31.

Savings - £160

Money might be tight for single mum Chantel, but she is still determined to save for Sabrei and places £80 a month into a children's regular savings account.

At the moment, the balance is an impressive £2,500, but she only earns 1.05% in a Halifax Save-4it account. If Chantel moved over to the Halifax Children's Regular Saver, her daughter would earn an impressive 6.00%.

That's going to net her an extra £149.49 a year in interest, which will really boost the savings pot.

On top of that, Chantel's own savings could be working a little harder. She has £400 in an ISA, which she occasionally dips into to cover her current account if she slips into the red.

She's earning just the minimum interest with Santander, but if she moved this to a Halifax ISA Direct Reward account, she'd earn an extra £11.20 in interest a year.

This may not sound like much, but it's a decent return on just £400 and, if she adds to this account, she can be confident her money is working as hard as possible earning 2.80%.

Gas and electricity - £120

Chantel thought she was paying too much for her energy bills and she's absolutely right.

She currently forks out £804 a year on a standard tariff with British Gas. Anyone on their provider's standard tariff could save money by moving to a better deal, as these never have the energy firm's best offer.

If Chantel switches her household to npower's Sign Online 20 tariff, she'd save £120.27 a year. She'd also be able to manage her account online, allowing her to stay on top of meter readings more easily.

Current account - £110

At the moment, Chantel banks with Santander has her account doesn't pay much interest. She tends to stay in the black and, when she does slip into the red, she quickly uses her savings to clear this debt.

But there are some accounts that pay you to use them and Chantel could certainly be benefitting from one.

The best current account with a switching incentive is the Santander Preferred In-Credit current account, which pays 5.00% for 12 months on balances up to £2,500 and also gives switchers a £100 incentive when they move to it.

However, this is not suitable for Chantel as she does occasionally dip into the red and it charges a high rate of interest on overdrafts. Also, she already banks with Santander so would not qualify for the switching off.

But she could move to first direct's 1st Account and receive a £100 switching fee (although she'll have to move all her direct debits over in order to receive this bonus payment).

It comes with a £250 interest-free overdraft, which will be a decent buffer if she does slip into the red. There is a £1,500 minimum monthly funding requirement on this account however.

Another option would be the Halifax Reward Account. Customers receive a £5 reward each month as long as they deposit £1,000 or more into the account. In addition, anyone switching to this account through moneysupermarket.com, will receive £50 cashback, which means in total, Chantel would be £110 better off with this account over the next year. However, she'd need to be careful about slipping into the red as Halifax charges £1 per day for overdrafts up to £2,500 so this could prove expensive if she was overdrawn for more than a few days.

Total saved: £682.27

If you think you could make savings but don't know where to start and would like moneysupermarket to do a financial makeover on you, email us at makeover@moneysupermarket.com.

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