Utility bills seem to be rising every time you open a newspaper. For example, from 18th August 2011, British Gas will be putting up their gas bills by 18% and electric bills by an average of 16%*. These increases will hit about nine million households, amounting to an extra £190 to find for the average dual fuel customer per year.
So, what can people do to try and stay on top of rising prices? Well, prepaid cards, especially those that offer a Standing Order facility, such as the Cashplus prepaid Gold MasterCard®, may be a big help.
Once a customer has signed up for this handy free benefit, he or she can set up as many as 20 standing orders per month, ideal for everything from satellite TV subscriptions and mortgage payments to water, gas and electric bills.
Apart from saving the customer the time and money involved with travelling to pay the bills, because bills are automatically paid (as long as there's enough money in the card's account to cover them), there's no risk of having to also find extra cash for late payment fees. This leaves more money available to cover the rising costs of the essentials.
Keeping control of a budget is made easy with a prepaid card, as the customer can track balance and transactions instantly online 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And if internet access isn't readily available, the information can be obtained by phone. In fact, many people will find balance updates via texts very useful, for example, by helping them decide if buying something they've seen on the high street would leave them a little short of the money they need to pay their gas bill.
What's more, in these credit crunch times, paying on time is crucial, as paying late can show up on a credit history file. And that can damage the customer's chance of being approved for credit, or make a loan more expensive if it is offered. But what if the customer already has a bad credit record? Well, as long as the person applying for a prepaid card is 18 years old or over, and lives in the UK, they will generally be accepted – without credit checks being involved. In fact, with Cashplus, the online application process takes just a few minutes and the Gold MasterCard can arrive in just three to five working days.
Another reason why the Cashplus prepaid card is particularly worth looking at is its iAdvance feature. This can offer a loan of up to £400 for as little as one day to as long as 25 days. That's ideal if there's still a while to go until pay day when an unexpectedly high utility bill drops on the mat – a situation that more and more people may find themselves landed with. What's more, the money can be in the customer's account within just 1 hour of signing up for the loan.
Some prepaid cards offer free Purchase Protection feature, which can prove invaluable – especially if the customer looks for bargains on the internet in order to make cash go that little bit further. That's because if the website turns out to be ‘dodgy', or whatever's been paid for doesn't arrive or is damaged or it's just not how it was described, the card company can help the customer to get their money back.
So, all in all, anyone that's concerned about staying on top of rising utility bills should look into the many ways that prepaid cards can help.
*Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14077651
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About Advanced Payment Solutions Ltd (APS)
APS is the leading European prepaid card provider, with more than 500,000 cards issued and £500,000,000 in payment turnover. Its flagship product, the award winning Cashplus prepaid Gold MasterCard® is the UK's first general purpose prepaid card for consumers and in the last couple years APS has developed a growing interest among small businesses which now exceeds 2,500 who are utilising the benefits of the Cashplus prepaid Gold MasterCard to manage and control their business expenditures.