Savings Stories – How Julia saved money on her broadband and energy bills

“I work full time, and the last thing I want to do is add an hour to my day to trawl through all the comparison websites. It's not like I've never looked at my bills and made savings here and there, but it's just the effort needed to actually get anywhere with it that puts me off.”

The time and stress involved in getting on top of household bill admin means so many of us end up putting it off – and overpaying as a result. This was the case for Julia, a 34-year-old senior logistics manager for Naked Wines, who lives in Aberdeen.

For her the demands of work – and looking after her two dogs Pippa and Oz – meant she struggled to prioritise the task of sorting her bills. She joined Nous after her company offered her membership as a workplace perk, and saved £292 on her broadband and energy after we switched her to better deals. 

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How did you manage the hassle of dealing with bills before you joined Nous?

I’m very guilty of just letting things run on in the background and not really reviewing as much as I should. For example I’ve been with my mobile provider since I moved to the UK, which would be over a decade ago. It's just easier and more comfortable to just stick with the same providers.  

That kind of behaviour – especially now I live on my own – is just no way to be. It’s probably the first time I've lived on my own for any extended period of time at all. So obviously that means that you need to be a hell of a lot more careful with money. 

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What is it that was stopping you from getting on top of your bills?

It’s mostly just the effort involved, along with my lack of expert knowledge. For example, I've just switched over my broadband provider. I've never done that before so that felt like a little bit of a worry. And because I work from home, I need a reliable connection. That in-depth knowledge that I now have access to from Nous is really a weight off my mind.

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Have you ever been burned by a bad experience with a supplier?

I had a bad experience with EE, my mobile and broadband provider. EE is really sneaky with getting price increases in there every year.  if I look back at the price that I signed up for both with my mobile and my broadband, it's jumped up significantly.

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Your first switch with Nous was your energy provider, how did that go?

The switching process for my energy could not have been any easier. I thought I’d have to do quite a bit of groundwork to actually get it across the line, but it was almost completely out of my hands in the best way possible. I was really impressed by it. 

I’d also had a problem with my supplier – they had to come in last winter to replace the gas meter, which for some reason had just completely died. I have no idea what happened to it to this day, but it needed an entirely new unit. I found it really difficult to get a hold of them, so I contacted Nous and briefly outlined that I needed to log in because it was November and I had no heating and I was freezing. The agent I was speaking to at that time could not have been more helpful, and really nudged the process along. I couldn’t believe it because it was so far above and beyond, and very much outside the scope of what I would expect from you.

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Were you surprised to find out how much you could save on your bills?

I thought the savings would be smaller, quite frankly. If you look as an individual, on the comparison websites and what have you, you see some rates that are available to everybody, as opposed to preferential rates that Nous get. So with the energy in particular, it's made a huge difference. It is really impressive how much you have managed to save me.

In all honesty, it's probably all going on dog treats and dog toys and whatever else I need to keep them quiet. There's always a new bed that you need for them, or a new harness. It's incredible – it's essentially like having children that never grow up.

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What would you say is the best thing about being a Nous member?

For me it’s the peace of mind. I know that I could get savings on my own if I really put my mind to it but the effort involved is just monumental, especially when you work nine to five and have so many other things to be getting on with. 

The fact that every now and again I just get an out of the blue message saying: ‘Oh, by the way, your contract is nearly up. Did you want me to look into deals for you?’ – that’s fantastic. Absolutely amazing.

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What did you think when you were offered Nous membership for free via your company?

It's an incredible perk. I think it says that they genuinely do care about their employees, and that they are aware and conscious of the fact that a lot of us are struggling these days in terms of household bills. 

It really just screams to me that Naked Wines care about their employees much more than other companies might. 

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