Three financial tasks that could leave you £1,000 better off

The final bank holiday of the summer is tantalisingly close for most of the UK, and along with it, another opportunity to spend a few hours on the financial jobs that can have a huge impact on your bank balance. You’re not going to want to spend the entire day knee-deep in paperwork, so here are just three jobs that can leave you more than £1,000 better off, and still leave you time to barbecue in the rain.

1. Save £240 with a direct debit cull

Direct debits are a great way to automate payments, so you never miss a bill. However, they’re also a great way to forget all about a monthly expense, so you end up wasting money on things you’d forgotten you were paying for. If you bank online, these will all be listed on one page, so it’s usually very straightforward to cancel. Just check whether you need to give the company notice, and that you’ve completed any minimum periods first. Even if you just find a £20 a month subscription you no longer need, this will save you £240 a year. Read more: What is the 50/30/20 budgeting rule and does it work? While you’re delving into your direct debits, it’s a great chance to set one up too. If your cull has freed some cash up, you can divert it into a direct debit to cover your most pressing priority. That might mean paying down expensive short-term debts, building an emergency savings safety net, paying into a pension, investing in a stocks and shares ISA, or a combination of a few of these things.

2. Save £470 on your bills by shopping around

Nobody is denying that shopping around and switching can take longer than it should, especially when businesses make it difficult to cancel or when pricing isn’t as straightforward as it could be. However, the savings can make the effort worthwhile. Switching your broadband to a cheaper provider could save you up to £150 a year, according to Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) figures. Switching to a SIM-only deal on your phone once you’ve covered the cost of your mobile handset as part of your monthly payment could save you £320 a year, and cutting your media package to a streaming service could save £500 a year. All three could save £970, and even if you’re not prepared to lose the extra TV channels you could save £470.

3. Make £419 more by shifting savings

It’s easy to think our savings are hard at work, especially when we check our statements and add up the interest payments. However, in the past few weeks, savings rates have been falling — particularly among easy access accounts. Banks have been cutting rates for existing savers, and offering lower rates for new customers too, so your savings may be far less rewarding than you think. It’s worth checking the rate you’re being paid, and then having a look at the wider market. The difference it can make is striking. The HL Savings & Resilience Barometer shows that the average household has £6,095 in cash ISAs. Moving from the average easy access cash ISA paying 3.34% interest to the best on the market which pays 5.2% would leave them £118 better off over the next 12 months. Meanwhile, the average household has £13,850 in savings accounts. Most of this is in easy access accounts. If it was moved from the average easy access rate of 3.11% to the best on the market (5.2%), it would leave them £301 better off over the year – that’s a total of £419. If you can spare the time for all these jobs, you can easily save £1,000 – without parting with anything you really value. That’s a decent head-start on saving towards spending the next summer bank holiday somewhere where you can rely on the weather.