Can Martin slash your monthly bills?

It’s the forgotten utility, some people pay over a grand a year for broadband, phone and digital TV, but according to our Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis, this is the perfect time to make a phone call or click a link and save £100s on your bill. So here’s his masterclass.

Many people don’t use their home phones, just mobiles, is there any point in having it?

Broadband and line rental are married these days. Even if you use your mobile for all calls and don’t want a home phone, if you want home broadband – counter logically – it’s cheaper to get it with line rental than standalone. And when you add the cost of both together, many people are paying nearly £30/mth around £350 a year just for standard broadband – those on fast broadband are paying around £600/year. So check what you’re paying now, think of it over the year, it could be a serious cost – and if you’re out of contract you can move.

How do you find the cheapest broadband?

The best time to get your broadband is by waiting to pounce on short term cheap deals. Right now the cheapest standard broadband deals are ok, and fast is pretty strong. Yet if you’ve been languishing on your same provider for years, then just sort it.

Yet it’s worth noting what your cheapest is postcode dependent, so to find it useMartin’s Broadband & TV Unbundled tool which show’s what you can get in your area.

· Standard broadband and line. Newbies to Sky broadband going via certain comparison sites including Broadband choices and Uswitch (available to 90% of country) can get an 18mth contract for £18/mth plus a £10 set up fee. You can also claim a £50 prepaid Mastercard within 90 days of activation (diarise as Sky won’t remind you).Take that into account and it works out£176/year before calls, which is equivalent to £14.67/mth.

If you’ve currently got Sky there’s a deal from the Post Office, again via comparison sites like Broadband Choices that works in a similar way with a £75 Amazon voucher, that works out only a smidgeon more expensive.

· Fastfibre broadband and line.New Vodafonecustomers who go via up-to-38Mb speed fibre with unlimited downloads on an 18-mth contract (available to 83% of the country), for £20/mth(before calls) – so that’s £240/year. Or the same deal, if you want Superfast fibre broadband (up to 76Mb speed and unlimited downloads) is £24/mthon an 18-mth contract.

Or you can try and haggle.

What about those who have digital TV such as Sky, Virgin or Talk Talk?

How much you may be paying for your digital TV varies greatly, as deals tend to be customised to customers, but on average if you’re paying anything between £350-£1,000/year, you can easily bust this down and save between £200 - £400/year.

Yet there are no specific deals here, as there are too many iterations. Instead follow this system.

- Do a channel audit: Look at all of the channels you’re paying for, and ask yourself “do I really need every channel?" If the answer's 'no', and you're not bothered about getting Premier League matches or you’ve never watched movies then cancel it. Stop paying for channels you don’t watch it. It may be even better to switch to Freeview instead.

- Merge your TV package with broadband and line: If you’re paying separately for digital TV and broadband, look at merging them together. Often it’s far cheaper to get a deal that includes digital TV with broadband.

- Benchmark the price with comparison sites. Use sites such as Broadband Choices, Uswitch, and Martin’s link above, to see what’s available from the competition.

- Haggle (politely and charmingly) with your existing provider: If you want to stick with your existing provider, then at least haggle down the price with it, with a bit of financial flirtation.

Once you know what channels you want and whether you’re willing to merge your package, speak to your existing provider to see if it’ll cut the cost. This is best done if you’re out of contract.

Be polite and charming, and if it says no, then tell it you’re going to leave and ask to be put through to disconnections, known internally as ‘customer retentions’. As their job is to keep you, they have much greater discretion to give you better deals.

In fact, in my November poll, poll 86% of people who tried to haggle with Sky said they had succeeded, 79% with Virgin, 73% with Talk Talk and 72% with BT. I’ve heard of many success like Lewis who tweeted me “@MartinSLewis I haggled on the phone to sky tv and got 25% off the bill every month plus a couple of free extras! Saving £420 a year!”

- If it doesn’t work consider leaving: If it won’t match the price then do consider going elsewhere. You may find just cancelling gives you a better deal, as happened to Ashleigh who sent me a letter saying when she left Sky paying £67/month, three weeks later they sent her a letter offering her the same service for £27/mth.

Yet if you don’t want to leave and you’re worried they’ll disconnect you, then if that happens just say “I need to check with my husband/wife/canary first.”