Savings Stories – How Andrew saved money on his energy bills

“Adult life admin is pretty boring. I don’t understand all that stuff and I’m not interested enough to bother researching it too much. I was quite happy to roll over and have my belly tickled and just pay whatever. I always knew I should be doing better as a so-called responsible human being, but I never did.”

For Andrew, a 42-year-old signaller, the tedium of dealing with his household bills meant that he kept putting it off. He knew that he was probably overpaying – but still didn’t want to face the headache of getting on top of his contracts.  

So when his employer, Network Rail, offered Nous membership to all their employees he decided to give it a go. And after just a few days, we’d already switched him to a fairer energy deal.

Before you joined Nous, what would you say was your approach to handling your bills?

I was pretty poor at dealing with my bills. I would just sign up to whoever and I wouldn’t really shop around, so I’d end up paying whatever it is they’re asking. I’d end up staying with one company for ages. And I was always pretty rubbish at understanding things like tariffs and that kind of stuff.

Dealing with bills is such a big workload for people like me who struggle a bit with shopping around and not being particularly au fait with deals.

And what do you like about Nous handling the hassle of bills on your behalf?

With Nous you get one central place where you can go, and you’ve got people who clearly know what they’re talking about working on your behalf. It takes a lot of the burden off.

One of the reasons I didn’t look around and do this stuff myself is that life gets in the way. I’m busy working and the rest of it. 

It’s great having peace of mind that there’s a company out there looking out for my interests and getting me deals. It’s been perfect for me that this has come along.

All that chopping and changing suppliers and this and that – having that taken away has been brilliant. And it’s great feeling like you're kind of supported in achieving real savings as well.  

It's great to save money, especially when it allows you to do kind of big life-changing things like putting that money into buying a new house. It makes a real difference. 

‍Nous found you a better deal for your energy after a few days, how did that all go?

Nous contacted me to say they’d found me a deal with another energy supplier, and it was just a case of sending a couple of bills, and the rest was done. I didn’t have to do anything other than that, it was ridiculously easy. 

I knew I was paying over the odds. When I moved into my property I was signed up with one energy provider, who then went bust. Then all of a sudden I was getting contacted by a new company saying: “We’re your new energy supplier and we’re going to charge you this”. And I thought – hold on a minute. I had built up quite a lot of credit with the old energy supplier, and all that had disappeared. After lots of to and fro, I then got it back, but I just had no control over the whole thing.

I was really surprised by how much I saved with Nous. We’re buying a house at the moment so that’s been really useful for the deposit and stuff. 

‍You joined Nous after being offered membership by Network Rail – what did you think when you heard they were giving membership to the team?

I joined Nous through Network Rail’s intranet and signed up, and then I didn't really think about it. I thought I would just give it a go to see what happens and I’m glad I did. It feels like a real benefit, not just saving you 10% on the cost of a washing machine or something ridiculous. It's given tangible real savings and it’s been great. 

I think Network Rail offering us Nous shows they’re willing to help their employees – it makes you feel really valued. They've provided a real tool to help their employees, with potentially quite life-changing benefits.