Grandson saves gran £800 a year on her bills in just one hour – how you can do it too
A GRAN saved herself £800 a year by bringing down the cost of her bills with the help of her grandson. Annie Jessop, 90, was forking out £144 a month, or £1,728 a year, for her TV, broadband, phone and mobile bills. But her grandson Danny Jessop, 30, was able to slash this price down […]
A GRAN saved herself £800 a year by bringing down the cost of her bills with the help of her grandson.
Annie Jessop, 90, was forking out £144 a month, or £1,728 a year, for her TV, broadband, phone and mobile bills.
But her grandson Danny Jessop, 30, was able to slash this price down to £77 a month, or £924 for the year – and it only took him one hour over the phone.
This marks a saving for Annie of £67 a month, or £804 for the entire year.
Annie is with Sky for her TV, broadband and landline phone but she didn’t need to switch providers to get a better deal.
When Danny called up, Sky was able to reduce her bill by taking away channels she didn’t watch.
How to find a cheaper deal
YOU won’t know if you’re on the cheapest deal until you see what else is on offer.
Comparing prices is the only way to make sure you’re getting the best value for money and it could just save you hundreds of pounds a year.
Here’s how you do it:
- Before you start comparing, you’ll need your latest bill to hand. This will include all the important details you’ll need to shop around, including the name of your provider and how much you’re paying.
- Customers can use websites such as uSwitch.com or ComparetheMarket.com to compare tariffs and find a cheaper deal.
- Here you’ll need to fill our your personal details so the websites can start comparing prices.
- If you find a better deal, be sure to tell your current provider all about it.
- Haggling doesn’t cost a penny and while no means a sure fire way to get them to lower their prices, it has proved successful in securing a better deal for households.
- If they can match or beat the price you found online, then you’ve managed to save yourself some money.
- If not, then you can switch to the cheaper deal you found elsewhere.
- You can also sign up to MoneySavingExpert’s Cheap Energy Club for free alerts on when cheaper deals become available.
It turns out Annie was also signed up to an old package that isn’t being sold anymore, so Sky updated her to their current and lower price.
Up until Danny got in touch, Annie hadn’t updated her Sky package in almost three years.
Her grandson also saved her cash by cancelling her Sky Box support insurance because her Sky Q box is on loan from the company, which saves £10 a month.
He told The Sun: “She asked me to help look for a new mobile as she wanted something with a camera on, so I suggested we could also look at her Sky bill.
“I called Sky and spoke to them about her bills and explained she was paying far too much and some of the content she did not watch.
“The salesperson went through her account and as she was on packages no longer available, he switched these to Sky’s current offerings.”
How to haggle the right way
HERE are our tried and tested tips for haggling.
Be confident: Even if your inner Brit is cringing at the thought of embarrassing yourself – just ask.
Be nice: Chat to the person on the phone. If you’ve got time for the staff then they will have time to look into getting you a discount. Even if they say no after you’ve asked, don’t get angry.
Pick the right time: Be patient during peak times, such as lunch time or after 5pm, as call centre staff will be inundated with phone calls.
Do your research: When you compare big money items, like tech, shop around to see if you can get it cheaper anywhere else. They might match it or do you a deal.
Freebies: If you’re turned down for a discount then why not ask for them to throw in something for free like an accessory for gadget or a better warranty.
As well as switching her to a cheaper package, Annie was also eligible for further discounts which reduced her TV bill from £60.50 to £31.
Her phone and broadband was brought down from £50.50 to £39.
Danny said: “This was all without any haggling on my part. I could have probably reduced this further with a bit of effort.
For her mobile, Annie was paying a high amount for data she didn’t use so Danny managed to switch her to a more cost-effective deal.
By changing her deal from Virgin to Sky, the total monthly spend was reduced from £23 to £9.
This increases to £13 a month for the final six months, which is still a saving of £10 from the original bill and includes unlimited calls, texts and 1GB of data.
Ru Bhikha, senior commercial manager at uSwitch, said: “It’s no secret that loyalty doesn’t pay, but what sometimes does surprise people is just how much you can save when you shop around, especially if you’ve been with your provider for a number of years.
“A few minutes spent on a comparison site is all it takes to find the range of offers available.
“Not only will you likely find a cheaper deal, but in many cases you will end up being on a better service too.”
We’ve contacted Sky for comment and we’ll update this article if we get a response.
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