Thanks to Nous I don’t have to think about my bills any more...

Chris, who lives in Essex with his wife and three young daughters, relied on Excel to help him manage his household bills. Then his employer, Carpetright, offered him Nous membership – allowing him to hand over the hassle of bill management to a team of bill experts.

How did you deal with bills before joining Nous?

Before Nous, Excel was my best friend. I have a glorious Excel spreadsheet telling me what all my bills are and how much everything is, and a nice little formula at the end that tells me the end amount.

‍Would you say you’re pretty on top of it?

The long and short of it is that going back three years – with brutal honesty – we were in a bad way and I had to enter a debt plan. We had various credit cards that we were just paying minimum amounts on. It was mounting up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up.

After the debt plan I started my spreadsheet, because we didn’t have the luxuries of a credit card to bail us out of things. This spreadsheet has rent, home, insurance, Council tax, energy bills, water bills, etc Everything is covered. So I could look at it and see what's left.

Did you take any pride in managing your bills or would you rather not have to do it?

It’s a bit of both. It gave me security, knowing that once the first of the month comes around all the bills are coming out, I can see what’s been done. I can see that once the bills are done, then yes, we can go and have a takeaway. It just covers every point of where we are. But yes, I would love to forget about the whole thing and not have to do it.

What motivated you to join Nous?

Yes, I love my spreadsheet. My family take the mick out of it. But one thing I don’t do is go out and compare things. I only challenge it if I think I've been overcharged for something, or if something's gone wrong. I think, this is what it is and this is where it's going to stay.

So when Nous came into work and explained what they do comparing deals and tracking when contracts are ending – I like that I don’t have to think about that side of it. For example, my phone contract at the moment is with Sky. If they told me it would be £100 tomorrow, I would pay £100 tomorrow, even though I know that BT is going to charge me £10. I would still pay the hundreds, just for sheer ease of everything. So having a tool that means I don't have to do that is brilliant.

What puts you off shopping around?

Partly I think it’s laziness. I don’t mind doing it, but I don’t always get around to doing it at the right time. I haven't got it noted down when contracts are ending, so I don't know that kind of stuff.

‍How was the experience of switching your energy with Nous?

That was very easy. I got a message from Nous when my contract ended saying you were looking at saving me money and you’d found a new deal and that’s what you recommended I do. Nous explained that things were changing with the cost of energy, and that one option in the long run would be more expensive and that another would be better. I appreciate the knowledge Nous had, explaining that going on to a fixed-term contract would be more in the long-term.

Were you happy to find out how much you could save?

I was happy when I found out, because I’d be quite willing to stay with my old provider. I’m saving for a family holiday so this will help with that. I took the family to Disneyland Paris in 2017 and that was brilliant. Now my youngest is four, she’s still at that magic age and she loves Elsa, Anna and Aurora, so I’d like to take them back.

What do you like about Nous?

I like that it’s done by WhatsApp. It’s not a case of waiting on the phone for 40 minutes to get hold of someone and then be put through to someone else, then someone else and bla bla bla. WhatsApp is quick and a lot easier!

What does it say about Carpetright that they’re offering the team Nous?

For me, it shows that they actually care about their employees and our welfare. They don’t want us to be throwing money down the drain.