Loyal customers across the UK could be wasting billions of pounds by not switching their financial services and household utilities on a regular basis.
Research from Gocompare found that 49% of UK consumers didn’t switch any of the top ten most popular financial products last year, resulting in lots of missed savings opportunities.
Opting for different providers of car insurance, home insurance, household utilities and broadband services could result in savings which can quickly add up over the year.
Yet, of those questioned a startling 22% said they had never switched mortgage lender, bank, car insurer, home insurer or savings account at any point. Other services including broadband internet, mobile phones, landlines and energy providers had also never been changed by this group.
More than half of those in the survey believe that 2015 could be tough on them financially but the research suggests they are not making things easy for themselves.
Potential missed savings opportunities
Millions of consumers could be missing out on a massive £4.7 billion worth of savings just by failing to switch supplier for the three most common household expenses: car insurance, home insurance and energy bills.
Around £2.3 billion of savings could be made on car insurance, £1.7 billion on energy bills and £611 on home insurance.
Car insurance is the most switched financial product as 35% of drivers opted for a new insurer in the last 12 months. However, 34% have not switched in the past three years and half of that figure has never switched at all – potentially missing out on estimated savings of more than £230 each.
That means the drivers that have not switched in the last three years could be missing out a collective £2.3 billion of savings.
A chance to reduce home insurance and energy bills
Home insurance was switched by 29% of people in 2014 with estimated savings of around £70 for those who did opt for change.
One fifth of people have never switched their home insurance while the number of competitive energy offers is also increasing.
Gocompare found that only 18% of customers had switched, with brand loyalty meaning consumers were potentially missing out on savings of around £215 a year.
Customers can now switch banks in seven days thanks to new laws that came into force in 2013 but only 6% of customers opted to switch last year.
Essentially, loyalty to firms could be costing Brits significant sums as they fail to take advantage of better offers available from other providers. While not all firms will be cheaper, a number of opportunities may exist to ease financial pressures so it’s important that customers are always aware of current deals and prices from all suppliers.