The Utility Warehouse And Cheaper Utility Bills

The Utility Warehouse Has Me Confused

by Carol on October 5, 2010

Utility Warehouse Scam Life can be very complicated don’t you think?

I started this Blog with the view of at sometime in the future promoting the Utility Warehouse as a distributor (agent) and maybe making a little cash on the side. The problem is I’m getting more and more confused as the days go by.

The difficulty is getting an accurate picture of whether this company is good, bad or indifferent.

As I research deeper and deeper I find the question becomes who should I believe? Trawling the forums I find two distinct groups of people.

Group One

These are Utility Warehouse sales people who post great comments about how much money you can save by joining the Utility Warehouse Club. How it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and everyone should join. When you consider how many people sell this product it’s difficult to place a lot of weight on this type of post. Not that it’s not the truth but because they have a financial interest (they get commission) and therefore have a conflict of interest.

Group Two

These are people who believe they’ve been cheated by the Utility Warehouse in one form or another. Some have been miss sold and are now paying more than before and others complain of poor customer service and the poor quality of services received (poor broadband connection for example).

It’s common knowledge that people who’ve had poor customer service are ten times more likely to actually post negative comments than someone who’s happy with the service posting positive comments.

Separating the genuine happy customers from the background sales noise can therefore be challenging to say the least and makes finding the truth very difficult.

I’ll keep researching and post my finding as and when I have more information. However it just goes to show that you need to do your own independent research and take all you read with a pinch of salt!

My Cheaper Utility Bills

PS I’m not affiliated with the Utility Warehouse in any way.

Article Updates.

20th March 2011

I’d be really interested in peoples experiences with the Utility Warehouse good or bad. It’s easy to leave a comment just enter it into the box below this post. It would be nice to get a balanced view of what real customers think of the prices and customer service.

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How To Save £50 On Your Electricity Bill

by Carol on January 4, 2012

With the cost of electricity as high as it is today it becomes worthwhile looking at any small savings you can make in your electricity consumption.

Five or 10 years ago you’d probably only have saved a few pounds in the year from this idea but with escalating energy costs even these small savings can accumulate and can in a year be significant.

The culprits aren’t exactly energy hogs and in the normal course of events wouldn’t be something that you’d associate with a £50 per year saving but today things have changed.

The items in question are:

Mobile phone chargers.
IPad Chargers
MP3 player chargers
Laptop chargers
Any other rechargeable battery charger

It’s been discovered that most of us overcharge these types of devices and tend to leave them plugged in even when not in use this not only wastes electricity but is also detrimental to the batteries being charged.

Overcharging a lithium ion battery (and other types) will tend to reduce its lifespan and overtime the amount of charge it can hold forcing you to have to charge it more often which in turn makes the problem worse.

Because these chargers use so little electricity individually we’ve become complacent and just leave these devices charging far too long. Laptops are a classic example of this as most of us who have a laptop tend to leave it plugged into the mains whenever we have it switched on. Although its a pain to unplug it and then monitor the charge left in the battery only reconnecting the mains supply when the battery is nearly discharged over a year this overuse adds up.

Individually any battery charger isn’t going to cost you a great deal of money left on 24 * 7 but when we consider in the average household how many of these battery chargers we have each adding a minuscule amount to our electricity bill which when combined adds up.

Recent research had shown that the average household could easily save £50 per year by paying more attention to how long our devices have been on charge.

We are all so focused on the fact that Switching Electricity Suppliers can save us money we forget the main reason electricity bills are so high and that’s the amount of electricity we are using.

We should be focusing on reducing the amount of electricity we use because that effectively saves us money year in and year out. Any device that consumes electricity should be monitored and a decision made as to whether it really needs to be in use at any particular time.

Once we’ve reduced the overall amount of power that we use in our households generating our own electricity by the use of solar panels or wind turbines then becomes much more viable.

The Utility Warehouse UK
Rising Energy Costs Create Winners And Losers But Which Are You?

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Never Mind Utility Bills What About Your Credit Card Debt?

by Carol on December 30, 2011

Strange but true people seem to have difficulty prioritising things. As an example I’ll use my Niece who’ll spend hours collecting coupons and looking for the cheapest deals on her gas and electricity to save money.

Now don’t get me wrong she does save money this way but when questioned will reveal that she has a lot of debt and uses her credit card to stretch her money month to month. At any one time she may have a £1000 – £2000 outstanding balance that she pays the minimum on.

We all know (or should know) that Credit Card debt is expensive, very expensive and on a monthly basis is costing her far more than any savings she’s making elsewhere.

As the old saying goes don’t sweat the small stuff until you’ve sorted out the big stuff. She would be far better off focusing on the largest drain on her budget than the small savings she getting elsewhere.

One easy way out is to get a bank loan which at current rates is about 6% and pay off her Credit Card debt which is costing her 15% – 20% saving her 100′s of pounds a year.

For some strange reason people tend to treat credit card debt as being different to other types of borrowing. Because they pay off the minimum and see their balance going down albeit slowly they are able to kid themselves that it’s OK.

Well it isn’t OK the only way a credit card should ever be used to make a purchase is if you can pay off the entire balance at the end of each month. No ifs buts or maybes.

For many people this is going to be difficult because their income doesn’t exceed their outgoings and I appreciate that. If you’re struggling to put food on the table and can’t trim your budget any more your not in a good place but the problem is the longer you use your credit cards to top up your earnings the worse your problem is going to get. At some point the chickens are going to come home to roost and the longer you’ve been using credit cards as a crutch the harder you’re going to fall because all things being equal and with no increase in your income you’re guaranteed to fall and fall very hard it’s just a question of time.

Bottom Line:

If you are living beyond your means and you can stop then stop now
Consider a bank loan so you can pay off the credit card debt – at least that way you’ll be paying less
Cut your credit cards up if you can and never use them again
Go see Citizens advice

The Utility Warehouse Reviews
Over 6 Million People In Fuel Poverty

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Off Topic Rant – Getting Ripped Off Again It’s So Annoying

by Carol on December 29, 2011

This post has nothing to do with Utility Bills or Gas and Electricity prices but I’m so annoyed I thought I’d write a small post to vent my feeling – I love my Blog

The Problem

I’m getting old I’m 54 and sadly the abuse I gave my body as a young man (although fun) combined with 40 years of bad posture (although I teach Pilates now 6 years worth doesn’t offset 40 years!) has meant that every now and then I experience some joint related pain. Nothing mind blowing but enough to require some pain relief for a couple of weeks.

Now everyone knows (or should know) that taking any pain killer is bad for your stomach, kidneys and liver so the smaller the dose you take the better.

After much experimentation I discovered that mostly I could get away with 200mg of pain relief and was fairly certain that even 100mg would be effective. The problem was that the standard tablet size is 200mg so to get 100mg you have to cut them in half trust me it’s not as easy as you’d think.

The Solution

Easy you’d think just purchase 100mg tablets and all would be fine right? Wrong!

The Rip Off

To get 100mg tablets you need to drop to the children’s medicines and this is where the rip off starts. Now if a packet of 16 * 200mg tablets is say 40 pence in theory you’d think 16 * 100mg tablets would be the same or cheaper wouldn’t you after all it has only half of the active ingredient.

But no for some strange reason because it’s a children’s dose the price goes up by a factor of 5 to 10 depending on whether you buy it in tablet or liquid form!

Now how can that be? Does it cost any more to manufacture? No. Is it different apart from the dosage? No. Is their any difference? No.

So why is it more expensive? Greed that’s why it would appear that when it comes to our children’s health the manufacturers know that we’ll pay a premium and therefore fleece us like the stupid sheep that we are.

It’s daylight robbery 5-10 times as expensive I just don’t understand how they get away with it I really don’t.

Because I’d rather eat my own liver than be taken for a complete idiot (some would say I am anyway) I spend 10 mins and cut 16 * 200mg tablets in half.

Each time I take one I feel good knowing that I’ve not only saved money but also avoided becoming a sheep

P.S. The tablets in question are an over the counter drug and its name doesn’t begin with a “P”!

Loan Sharks Under A Different Name

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Feed In Tariff Mayhem – The Government Shoot Us In The Foot Once Again!

December 28, 2011

The old adage “If it sounds to good to be true then it probably is to good to be true” rings true with the governments recent fiddling with the Feed In Tariff. In the good old days any electricity generated by a consumer at home from a solar panel installation would earn them about 43 [...]

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Is This The Creepiest Way To Generate Electricity?

December 5, 2011

With electricity prices rising multiple times a year finding ways to save energy is becoming more and more important. But the strangest and creepiest idea I’ve come across to date is a crematorium in Durham who is going to use excess heat generated by cremating bodies to heat their buildings and ultimately to put power [...]

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Follow The Herd For Cheaper Electricity!

November 15, 2011

We’d all like to save money on our energy bills and most of us have already insulated homes, use energy efficient light bulbs turn the thermostat down and all the other common and highly effective ways of reducing the amount of energy a household uses. But then what? Those with plenty of disposable income may [...]

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November 2011 Rant – Rail Fares And Twitter Spam

November 10, 2011

I know this post is a little bit off topic as this Blog is about Utility Bills and Energy Saving but one of the great things about having your own Blog is that you can have a rant every now and then. My rants for this month are. Rail Travel Woes I wonder how long [...]

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Heating Oil Prices – Discover Options You May Not Have Considered

November 5, 2011

If you have oil fired central heating then no doubt Heating Oil Prices are a concern to you at the moment. Unlike households who heat their homes by gas or electricity your options when it comes to pricing are limited. Gas and electricity consumers can switch suppliers at the drop of a hat if they [...]

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The Utility Warehouse – A year Of Research

November 3, 2011

I’ve been posting on this Blog for about a year now and have a number of posts about the Utility Warehouse. I thought I’d write a summary of what I’ve discovered about the Utility Warehouse from the comments posted here and on other sites and forums. Firstly though I’d remind you that there are two [...]

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Smart Meter Rollout Woes

November 2, 2011

It looks like the government’s £12 billion plan to roll out smart meters in the United Kingdom may have hit a snag. It’s going to cost each household in the United Kingdom about six pounds a year to subsidise smart meter installation in all UK residences and not surprisingly some are unhappy about it. It [...]

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