Tuesday 1st of September 2009
People who do not check their energy bills could be forking out too much, a claim suggests, which could put paid to their debt management efforts.
According to the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), most individuals rely on the energy company to do the calculations concerning how much they owe, but leaving this financial commitment in the hands of a firm may not be the best way to follow a debt management plan.
Indeed, a financial expert will oversee a debt management plan and will highlight the ways in which households could cut back in order to make sure all their financial commitments are met. This could include regularly checking energy payments.
A spokesperson for CCCS says that when it comes to paying off personal debt, Britons who do not keep an eye on their home heating bills "could be overpaying and the amount that you overpay could be used to pay off debts or it could be money that you don’t have which is going to push you into debt".
Recent research from uSwitch.com found that 73 per cent of consumers believe a maths qualification is required to understand household energy bills.
By Kimberley Parsons
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June 1st, 2011 at 9:05 pm
I found myself in a financial bind because I invested too heavily in the real estate back in the 2000s. Just about everyone who has dabbled into real estate in the early 2000s rave about how much money they have made. Feeling jealous and envious, I attempted to do the same, but to find that it is not as easy as all the TV shows claim to be. Especially if you had purchased the homes at the highest, which no one would have known until the bubble had burst. In any event, I was left with these properties which were not selling, and eventually I had to dump them with a huge loss. The financial loss from these bad investments meant that I had to file for bankruptcy to get myself out of this rut that I was in. One moment I seem to have everything in this world, many properties, paper asset of over $1M. Then in the blink of an eye, when the real estate market burst, I had nothing. Since the fallout of my financial demiss, I have learned that I cannot look for the shortcut to making easy money. If you want to be financially rewarded, make sure you are aware what you can afford, and stick to a budget that is reasonable. Or else you might be way over your head, and that can result in a need to file for bankruptcy protection.