'The best thing about Nous is the peace of mind'

“I wasn't completely lazy with sorting my bills, but I certainly wouldn't have spent hours on it. All in all I would probably have fallen in the middle of the pack.”

Josh, a 28-year-old solicitor living in London, was always keen to make sure he had decent deals for his household bills – but never wanted to spend hours scouring the internet to find the best deals. 

While he took pride in getting a fair price, he resented how long it took him to do the work. After he was offered membership through his employer, Bates Wells, Nous started managing his bills and doing all the work for him saving him time and stress – plus more than £200 by switching his mobile.

‍How did you manage your bills before you joined Nous?

It depends on the bill. With my phone and broadband I  was usually pretty hot on trying to make sure I had decent enough deals – I would shop around and stay up to date with it. I certainly wouldn't have been paying way over the top for a phone contract or for my gas & electricity, but I certainly also wouldn't have been spending hours of research trying to get to the best deal possible.

I took a bit of pride in it. Finding a good phone deal and knowing that someone is paying 30 quid for a phone and you're paying 10 pounds for exactly the same thing is always a nice thing. There's a sense you’ve achieved something and it feels quite savvy. So I do enjoy finding savings. 

‍Have you ever been stung by a bad deal?

I had a bad experience with some of the major providers, usually a mixture of prices being unnecessarily high and customer service then being very difficult to then deal with. I found that very frustrating. With my energy I've had some really difficult dealings with some providers for unexpected charges or unnecessary charges. You find yourself on the phone for genuinely multiple hours at a time, trying to resolve an issue or a charging dispute. 

‍What did you think when you first heard about Nous

I got access to Nous as a work benefit, and when I found out about it I thought it was genius. In one way, your work could just give you more money and that would be lovely, but a really clever way of actually making you feel the benefit of more money is by helping you save money on your household bills. It's cheaper for the company, and you probably save more money than they would be able to give you anyway. 

I would happily pay someone to actually work for me in finding the best deal, because then I can be confident that what I'm getting isn’t because they have some sort of deal with the supplier, but because they've worked hard to find good deals. 

I thought the WhatsApp communication was brilliant. You don’t have to go onto some sort of external platform and keep checking up on an external chat site, or keep checking your emails or your junk to check that stuff has come through.

How was your experience of saving money with Nous?

It was really good, Nous gave me a couple of options and some information, and I gave some feedback. I chose one that wasn't just the cheapest thing available, but it was what worked for me. The conversation was really helpful, because it made me feel like there was sort of a bespokeness to what was going on – and then the actual switching process was extremely easy.

Having a mobile switch handled through Nous took out all of the admin. Plus with the information Nous provides meant I knew I wasn’t missing any steps. 

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

‍I had a sense that there were going to be much cheaper contracts but if I had done it myself, I probably wouldn't have landed as low as I did with Nous. Plus it would have taken me more time to do it.

How will you use the money that you’ve saved?

Definitely on holidays. Whenever I make a saving, I think that’s easily something we could chuck against a holiday. If I would have spent this money on household bills anyway, why not spend it on something big? I'm trying to do a big trip next year for a few months. The more the merrier in terms of cash towards that.

What are the key benefits of being a Nous member?

It’s the massively reduced admin, plus confidence that you are paying what you should be for your bills and that there isn't anything that's much better out there for you. 

That for me is the primary one  – I don't have to sit there and wonder, is there something better? And if I do wonder if there's something better, I know I can just ask, and I'll be told, and that gives me a huge amount of peace of mind. 

‍