Loyal or a rate slut?

I'm lazy, loyal and possibly pay too much. Unfortunately I was daft enough to have a smart meter installed and I believe that this can penalise you if you want to change suppliers.
All I wasted was my time and of course it isn't what it was cracked up to be.

Mollie, you are doing the rest of us a favour by staying put, accepting poor treatment and profiteering and being anti competitive. The companies and banks would have to charge the rest of we savvy types more if they couldn't coin it from you. Many thanks.

We look for cheaper deals every year and regularly change our car insurance, home insurance, energy provider and I also take up the banking switches offers and usually have 2 or 3 current accounts running at the same time and I just move money between them to get the benefits.

When my 94yr old mother's home insurance came up for renewal earlier this month I brought her paperwork home and went onto the comparison sites and found that for the same cover I could reduce her payment from £340 to under £200, which is a big saving!

I moved from EDF to Octopus over a year ago and what a difference. Recently I had to change my email account so I let Octopus know over a weekend and within a couple of hours I had a reply stating that it had been done. I am treated like a person by that company.

Anno at present if you have had a smart meter fitted by one company it is unlikely to work for another but mid year that is going to change, that is why I am holding back.

Something I forgot. Of course pay off your credit card in full each month but perhaps change to one which gives you cash back? For complex reasons we have a paid for bank account but the cash back pays for it so in effect all the benefits are free!

House and car Insurances are always compared and haggled over, change most years although my son stayed with his car company this year but after comparing online he rang them and asked if they would match their much lower site quote rather than expect him to use written one and have him leave - they did.
Fuel we are fairly low users (compared to many of our friends) so wouldn't really save much by switching.
BB and phone I switched from Virgin years ago when they got expensive, went to BT. Stayed with them 3/4 years by getting better deals when calling them. Switched to Plusnet a couple years ago and got a reduction last year.
Sky we battle every year, my sons task as OH would take first offer, usually have to threaten to cancel to get good deal.
Savings used to get switched about but not any good deals around these days, poor interest everywhere.

annodomini - if you have one companies smart meter they don't work with different supplier. I think they are working on bringing out one that will be able to switch, but they are individual companies at the moment.

Definitely change. Change insurance companies every year, bank, energy supplier, change internet provider unless they offer me a good deal. I’ve managed to push my Virgin Broadband and telephone bill down to less than £30 a month and that’s with upload speeds of 120 mbps, held my car and house insurance at the same cost and cut my energy cost by £25 per month by changing.

Why should I feel any need to be ‘loyal’ to a company whose first loyalty is making a profit for shareholders? I was with the same bank for 50 years, but now I just go for the latest best deal. I’m quids in.

I've never changed my bank as they look after me very well and I recognise all the call handlers by voice (yes...weird) however, I do sometimes transfer a lump sum into another account for maybe a year (Tesco was a recent move for 3% interest).
I use Topcashback regularly and got £99 when changing broadband from Plusnet to EE on an 18 month contract, bringing down my outlay to £199. I also received an extra £50 from EE as, if your previous provider charges you for leaving (mine charged £9.99 for the 6 days my contract had left) EE will pay you the £50 after you provide proof of the charge. That made my contract even cheaper at £149 for 18 months, BB+phone.
I'm with nPower for energy till this summer and exoect my bills to rocket as I've been on a 2 year fixed tariff. I like their customer service and their app. Household contents insurance is an excellent rate with all bases covered via Endsleigh. My ex covers the buildings and car insurance as it works out cheaper for multiples.
TPO gives me 1,000 mins+1,000 texts+2GB data for £3.99pm and I bought my mobile outright.
I'm really pleased when I can get a bargain that's good value in the long run.

I have a spreadsheet! I think that tells you how I view all this.

A couple of points I don't think have been made so far:

1 When using a comparison website look for the small print before you start and tick the box for whole of market otherwise you will only see the deals which pay the website.

2 When your renewal comes in, go to the company's website and see what they would charge you if you were a new customer. If you like that offer go back to them and tell them you want to cancel and come back again as a new customer and see what they offer you.

3 When you have done your research and are planning to switch contact the company and tell them you are leaving and they will often make you a good offer.

4 Use their webchat and copy and keep the whole thing as a record. Vodafone's customer service is rubbish so doing this has saved us a lot.

Savings don't seem to have featured much. I really am a rate tart with my savings and this is where my spreadsheet really comes into use. I know when a rate is going to change and anticipate it so that my money is always doing as well as it can eg we have a Nationwide account each and a joint one, on which we get 5% interest but only for a year so that is flagged up and will be changed when the time comes.

When Martin Lewis was holding his road show I went to ask him a question he couldn't answer. DS took a photo and put it on FB with the comment 'Mum telling Martin Lewis how to do his job'. Yes, I am very financially savvy which is why we have enough money to enjoy our retirement.

My sons have both changed to a 'green' electricity supplier and have encouraged me to follow suit. My problem is that EoN supplied me with a 'smart' meter and I don't know how that would work with changing suppliers. Has anyone here come across that issue?

With gas and electricity I feel switching is pointless - you could switch yourself into insanity if you took notice of the 'experts' who advise us we'd get a better deal by switching.

Switching is just a PR exercise by the Big Six energy companies who are quite obviously operating a cartel. Switching will do nothing to fix the major core problem - being fleeced by greedy energy companies who have the market stitched up!

Financially savvy so always looking for the best deal. Having internet access makes it a fairly simple task and have never had any problems with changing suppliers.

I'm happy to be nominated as real real 'rate slut', if changing providers to get the best deals makes me one.

I consider myself to be totally financially savvy and rather enjoy the challenge when each contract reaches maturity. One comment I would make is to those who clear their ccs every month: be sure you have one with perks. I have splendid and convenient private club facilities with one and very welcome cash back vouchers with another. MissA I'd be very interested to know the name of the smaller energy company you are having such satisfaction with. I'm keen to leave the big six if I can.

It makes sense to check up on these things, but I don't want to be changing every other day or whatever. I changed my energy supplier once and got a better deal. I always check annual insurances, car, home etc, and often come up with a better deal. But I don't want to keep changing my bank as I like the one I'm with.

If you haven't changed suppliers, it's probably broke! Have a look at a price comparison site - you may well be horrified at how much you're paying over the odds.
And changing suppliers for just about everything is as simple and transparent as could be!
I check whether I'm getting a good deal every time anything is due to renew, and haven't yet failed to get a better deal.

I change everything but my bank every 12 months. Our house insurance had gone up £40 this year for no reason so I got the same for £70 less. Car ins, breakdown cover always switched. Switched from British Gas to octopus this year, no problems at all, all done for you. Joined Martin Lewis energy club and they check if you are paying too much. They also have a collective switch off from time to time and this often has cash back with it. Also use Quidco, last year £120 saved going through their site to buy goods. My mother in law had not switched her house insurance for years and was paying over £600 for her bungalow, more than our 4 bed house. We live in the same area. I don’t mind paying for anything but I will not be ripped off.

Have switched energy suppliers several times with no problems.
Never switched banks but considering the possibilities.

Like to have a zero rate interest credit card, so payment for big purchases can be spread over maybe 6 months with no interest.

I'm now having concerns about Virgin for broadband/TV/phone package so will be looking into that.
I chose Virgin a few years back because this area had their high-tech cabling installed while at that time BT didn't. I believe they now do.
Could anyone tell me if switching to BT now would mean a new cable installation would be needed? IE are the systems compatible?

By the way I believe, as others have shown, that it's perfectly possible to handle all of these issues without relying on a husband to do it!!

We have learned that you don't have to switch at all - just ring your supplier and remind them you have a choice and that you need their best offer. In our experience, they usually lower your current rate.

When you change gas/electricity companies do you check the meter readings the new companies use as the base line? We changed to a new company and they asked us to read the meters which we did and we kept a note of the readings. When the first bills arrived I thought them rather expensive and when I checked discovered they had put back our readings by a huge amount which meant that one bill was £500 too much and the other £300. They we charging me again for fuel we had already paid for.
I refused to pay the bill and insisted our readings were correct. Eventually after much arguing and telephone calls they reduced the bills to the correct level - this I managed with the help of our previous supplier which we returned to -and we paid the correct amount.
You may think this was an isolated case but they did exactly the same to our next door neighbour and she had problems with them for years.

I change utility suppliers often, but stayed with the same one for the last 2 years,
I am being pestered to get a smart meter, but i dont want one, i always pay over what they say i need to pay,and get a good rebate, £400 last time,also i am not hit with anything extra to pay if i use more than anticipated
I changed from Talktalk last year to Sky and got a good deal, only £17 a month for phone and internet,
Talktalk was usually a good deal, but they doubled the price when my contract ran out, but when they knew i changed to Sky, offered me another good deal, too late
Kept my bank as i am happy with it up to now

Wouldn't dream of renewing an insurance policy or gas&electric without checking on both Martin Lewis & Compare the Meerkat. I had a really good deal with my utilities supplier, only to be told by Martin's site that I could cut my dd by a further £20 per month, still with the same company (one of the big 6) to one not even advertised. Sure enough, they were right. As for brand loyalty, they don't have any to you - why should you show any? At least check - you may not find a better deal, but I bet you will! And you can always start haggling with your current suppliers. Amazing how they can only offer over-the-odds prices until you are within 2 days of going elsewhere, when they suddenly find that they can at least match the new company's price.

The ball is in the consumers court and it is up to us to shop around for the best deals. So far so good where my home and car insurance are concerned. Now working on my electricity supplier.There is no such thing as loyalty these days.

Every year I shop around for the best deal on home and car insurance. Like others have mentioned, I have changed gas/electric suppliers a couple of times but regretted it so have gone back. I am currently looking into broadband/tv/phone packages as these seem to be a big expense to me

We change gas and electric supplier to get the best possible rate - that's just good housekeeping.
We don't change banks as we have always been very well served by First Direct.