Mobile phones, insurance, electricity: compare tariffs and save several hundred euros

Zoom Image

Man in front of the computer: Taking the time to check the documents is worth it

Photo: Andriy Popov / PantherMedia / IMAGO

Saving has become part of everyday life, especially in times of inflation. Even Europe's largest digital conference, Re:publica in Berlin, deals intensively with the topic of "cash". However, the entrance fee is a whopping 300 euros, which the participants pay to meet the other digital pioneers from their industry.

In keeping with this, I will make my appearance there on Monday revolve around the question: How can you at least recoup the entrance fee with little information? The short answer: with the electricity company, with the mobile phone company, with the current account, with the savings and also with your insurance companies.

At this point, however, you don't have to travel to Berlin and you don't have to wait until Monday, I'll explain it to you now.

In every normal household, there are half a dozen decisions that decide on the ebb and flow of the wallet at the end of the month. For example, the following:

Energy

In fact, you can often save a lot by changing your electricity provider. With an annual consumption of 3000 kilowatt hours (kWh), savings of more than 400 euros per year are already possible. And this is how it works: Currently, your electricity supplier wants - let's say - 50 cents per kWh of electricity from you. At 3000 kWh per year, this is 1630 euros per year with the monthly basic fee. In fact, the provider will charge around 1400 euros including the basic price, because the federal government's electricity price brake of 2400 cents/kWh applies to 3000 of the 40 kilowatt hours. We all pay the 240 euro difference together from the tax coffers. If you instead rely on the currently best offer from an electricity comparison portal, you will only pay 982 euros. This will save you over 400 euros yourself and us taxpayers over 200 euros.

Mobile phone costs

At conferences, but also during your summer holiday in the EU, you may surf a lot with your smartphone – and of course your partner and your – let's say by way of example – two children. You may have four smartphone tariffs in your household. Let's assume that your partner and you currently pay 20 euros each for the frequent caller tariffs and 15 euros each for the children. As a frequent caller in the Vodafone network with seven gigabytes of data volume, you can get by with just ten euros a month. So you would save a total of 30 euros a month or 360 euros a year .

Current account

There are more than 100 million current accounts in Germany, and of course you have also set up an account for your children, which often costs nothing. An inglorious exception: the Hamburger Sparkasse (Haspa), which now charges 2.50 euros per account per month for the children. Adults pay 9.95 euros per month for the so-called Joker account at Haspa, plus 36 euros per year for the credit card. The couple has already dispensed with the deluxe version for 17.95 euros. Details can be found in the more than 50-page list of prices and services of the Sparkasse .

At Berliner Volksbank, you would get away a little cheaper. Here, the two parent accounts run online cost 5.90 euros each, the credit card costs 30 each and the Girocard also costs extra. Over the year, however, this is over 100 euros per person. Here, too, are the details in the more than 30-page list of prices and services.

Even more severe are the costs that the Bavarian savings banks charge their account holders. For example, the Sparkasse Schwaben-Bodensee can collect just under 200 euros a year for an online account, Stiftung Warentest has calculated. That adds up to over 400 euros for your family. The economical solution: For dual-earner households, DKB, ING, Consors or Comdirect are also available for very few euros, not only in Hamburg and Berlin.

Savings

We haven't even taken the largest position into account yet. Her family is frugal and conscientious. They have a total of 10,000 euros in the call money account for unplanned expenses and another 50,000 euros in a fixed-term deposit account, because the old oil heating system is to be replaced in three years. Unfortunately, you have the wrong bank for your savings. You will receive just 1.5 percent interest per year for two years on your fixed-term deposit at Haspa and 0.6 percent on overnight money. If you were to transfer the overnight money to the BMW Bank, there would now be 300 euros interest on the overnight money for the year instead of the 60 euros at Haspa.

And in the case of fixed-term deposits, four percent would be possible at Bank11 from the Rhineland. In bare numbers: 1250 euros more in interest every year! Even a short break during the autumn holidays should be possible with better interest rate decisions.

Insurances

And before the autumn holiday is planned too sparingly, you should go through the insurance folder again. In household contents insurance, insurers actually spend only 40 percent of the premiums paid in on claims later. That's why you can insure your household contents well and often much cheaper. For a normal 100 square meter apartment in Hamburg-Barmbek, only 150 instead of 400 euros will be due – including bicycle insurance and natural hazard protection. And in Cologne-Müngersdorf, the bill drops from 260 to 100 euros.

More on the subject

• Heat pumps and their alternatives:How to plan your new heating systemA column by Hermann-Josef Tenhagen

• Plan the right way, save the right way:20 tips for a cheap holidayA column by Hermann-Josef Tenhagen

• For all situations:More money for women – how to check your financesA column by Hermann-Josef Tenhagen

Similar savings can also be achieved in car insurance – already in the course of the year. If you assume that you will drive significantly less this year because of the Deutschland-Ticket and because you want to spend less on fuel anyway, you can tell your insurance company. If you reduce your mileage strongly enough, your insurer will reduce the premium – possibly by a hundred. And while you're at it: Take a look at what the competition is doing in car insurance. In recent years, switching from an expensive to a cheap one has sometimes resulted in two-thirds savings. What's more, existing customers pay more than new customers at many insurers. Change provider immediately if your contract allows it. If not, write down the possible savings in red in your calendar two months before your changeover date or save a reminder in your mobile phone. Maybe next year it will be 300 euros instead of 700 euros. A nice sum.

Also think about long-term investment with your funds. Over the decades – you think long-term – there are savings and profits of tens of thousands of euros in it. If you have 200 euros a month left over for saving and investing.