Take control of your home bills

The year of 2022 will go down as one of the most challenging for users of services at home whilst inflation has been rising and become rampantly high and impacting on day to day shopping.

There is though a way to mitigate some of these increased costs by bringing all your services under one company.

That company is Utility Warehouse and they offer a range of great value services and have become a British success story.

The cheapest gas and electricity is on offer and where three or more services are combined home owner customers could qualify for an extra £150 off, called a boost by the company.

By the way the Boost ends on the 10th September 2023 – so please do not delay in securing not only a FIXED rate one year deal, but also the extra £150 off through the boost?

Any questions? Please call Laurence on 07957890757.

Why not take a look here?

Exciting Annual Conference

Over the last weekend, Utility Warehouse (16 and 17 March 2013), hosted its annual conference called Express Day – more than 5,500 attended in Telford.

Lots of recognition, announcements, awards and a key note speaker, sorry speakers, Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz, who have co-written Go for No. Awesome presentation, and their principle is something I was taught many years ago.

The company itself has launched a number of initiatives for team members to make their life simpler to grow their customer numbers and teams.

Have also introduced a number of enhancements to services and reduced the price of same too (apply to existing customers as well), when many of the other suppliers have increased prices.

It is now possible for business customers to sign up online – previously only residential.

Also both within the business club and residential club there are no upfront charges for new mobile handsets making it even easier to offer mobile phone deals to new and existing club members and customers.

Further information can be found here for the services: www.go-fast.co.uk and here for how the business works: www.future-biz.co.uk

Data Charges on home Broadband

One of the downsides many users at home face are hidden charges, well in most cases they are not hidden, but simply not realised by the customer.

There is evidence that many people do not realise or understand the implication of using more data than their deal provides with huge charges being applied after the fact.

Come the middle to end of January, all will be revealed with punitive charges appearing on bills up and down the country.

With massive downloads over the Christmas and New Year period as families spend time at home, often data allowances in some of the cheaper deals are simply not enough with limits of 2Gb, 10Gb and 20Gb for many of the popular packages. Downloading HD films can eat 4 or more Gb of data in one hit, download a few in a month and suddenly your data allowance is gone. Use iPlayer or similar, and that creates a double wammy of data usage.

Maybe you have three or more laptops and a number tablets too – these all eat data and come out of your allowance.

It gets worse with some providers terminating your deal and thus leaving you without a connection.

With many more devices now using data in the home, previous usage levels may not deliver in the correct way during 2013, so perhaps now is the right time to do a complete review.

Utility Warehouse as standard offers 40Gb a month, and for their Unlimited Package, just charge a set few pounds more for peace of mind and no heavy drain on the bank account.

Who do you know who has been hit with an extra £20, £50 or higher charge that would like a better deal, often faster and with UK based support?

Deals can be found here: Go-Fast and start at £2.99 per month plus line rental (T & Cs apply), and the new service, Ultra with up to 80Mbps is available in some parts of the country – there is an online checker for all services, simply add your phone number and postcode, and the system will tell you what is available for your locale in a couple of minutes.

New lines can also be installed, thus helping cable users and the install cost starts at £24 for a single line. Please ask for details?

Would you like to discuss your options and seek advice, then please either email to hello@combyne.co.uk with your full contact details or call Laurence on 0844 826 1730?

Free Utility and Telephony Audit

An example of how families are suffering

UPDATE: Wednesday 26 September 2018
(previous updates Wednesday 18 October 2017 and Wednesday 26 May 2018).

It is interesting that this remains as popular today as it did, when first used back in 2001.  What is extraordinary is that people at home are suffering financially as much in 2001 and 2011 as in 2017 and 2018.

An interesting statistic today (18/10/17): ‘There are 4.1 million people in financial distress’ also 5 million people and families would struggle with a £50 per month increase in their mortgage or rent.  The offer of a Free Utility and Telephony Audit has been a mainstay of Combyne Group now for over twenty years and with family budgets being ever more squeezed as evidenced by the the article in 2011, now is the time to make decisions that will ease the pain.

The audit now includes Quality of Service too, both from using and support.
Partnering with a company that is top in the UK is part of that audit.

Budgets in 2018 are ever more squeezed with pay rises not keeping pace with inflation (went up again in Aug 2018). Increased Council Tax, increased National Insurance, increased rents/mortgages, decreased benefits and so on.

Sitting down with a set of personal or business bills, has always delivered the right results for clients. We have the confidence to say, this is the best way forward or you already have a great deal, so stay where you are.

The starting point though is seeing a full set of 12 months bills, understanding the trends, the usage levels, plus taking on board changes in the future and then giving clear advice.

We can look at the following services, and provide alternatives, which are award winning for both the home and small business market:

Mobile Phones – new deals announced April 2018. Up to 20Gb data month
Handsets and Sims or Sim only deals
Broadband – ADSL and Fibre
Landline
Electricity – we can now offer two year fixed rate deals (expires in 2020)
Gas
Free LED light bulbs for life for home users, installed free.
Non Geographic numbers

We explain, we handhold and we support on an ongoing basis.

When we first published this article average savings were in the range of £200 to £400 per annum for a home user, now with added benefits it is often in the £600 to £800 range. It all depends on personal circumstances and will be clearly and accurately explained, when discussed.

Added benefits include: CashBack card and this now delivers CashBack from all UK stores online and on the high street.
Refer friends and family and there can be an extra £150 a year in shopping vouchers.
Home Insurance launched in 2017 – typically delivering £100 of savings.

Email to info@combyne.co.uk  call to 0844 826 1730 or fax to 0871 900 1129.

[Combyne Group Update no. 24] That was the week that was – back to normal now

Good morning from a very cold and foggy Sutton.

What a week weather wise ……. Sutton got it right some days, and on others it didn’t, but looking at the depth of snow and how quickly it fell, quite understandable – the new grit and salt boxes did work a treat, and places where previously I had slipped over, just did not happen this time. It was also good to see the gritters out on Wednesday and Thursday doing the main roads and some of the busier side roads. London Tonight visited the area on Wednesday and reported as well – hope you got spotted on TV!

I have written a short article about the impact of snow here: https://combyne.wordpress.com/2010/12/05/snow-stops-pay/ and would love to hear your stories and how it affected your business? Please email to the address above, and I shall add the best of them to my blog with your links attached, to provide some complimentary publicity – my blog goes to over 5,000 businesses.

Personally, I love the snow, I am a Capricorn – a goat to the uninitiated, since my birthday falls in 24 days time, however, for some this weather is a nightmare often due family commitments, or being in a business that needs to physically deliver a product, and I respect that. I was therefore somwhat amused by Jonathan Hunt MP, minister for culture on TV this morning, explaining how really fast broadband would have been a saviour in such foul weather. Sorry, how does really fast broadband deliver fuel and supplies to a community cut off by snow drifts and sheet ice? He also claimed 600,000 new jobs would be created. I ask how many will be lost due to faster broadband? You can read more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11922424

But enough of the negatives, let’s look for some positives instead …………..

Tomorrow sees the ever growing Business over Breakfast at our new venue:

The Greyhound Hotel, 2 High Street, Carshalton, SM5 3PE

6:45am for a 7am start and a £10 meeting fee. The breakfast is rather good too.

Ian Morgan tells me we have a new member, since our last meeting before the snow, which is great news, so the group grows ever larger. Why not come along tomorrow and learn about the power of face to face networking – please drop an email to laurence.lowne@combyne.co.uk to confirm your place? And if you have some questions, please give me a call on one of the numbers below today.

Have a great week. Be safe, be warm, and please check on some of your elderly neighbours to make sure they are okay too?

Best regards

Laurence Lowne
Combyne Group
www.combyne.wordpress.com
0844 826 1730
0795 789 0 757

Business Continuity

A whole industry has grown up around these two words.

An area of specialism for Combyne Group too.

What happens when your internet connection falls over?

A simple and cost effective solution is mobile broadband – two flavours:
£12 + vat per month for up to 3.6 meg with 1GB of data 18 month deal, or
£15 + Vat per month for up to 4.5 meg with 3 Gb of data 24 month deal

This can of course be used when you are out and about doing business on the move or when in areas without WiFi.

How about those phone calls, when your line(s) go down.

A simple solution is to have the non-geographic number, you already have in place diverted to either a mobile or professional call answering service.

Combyne Group can supply all three, and always recommends NGNs to all businesses.

These are hugely cost effective solutions and can be the difference between a business surviving or going bust.