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Back to MoneySaving school...
Save £1,000s with our bill-busting checklist

As the new school year starts, we've prepared a checklist to help you sort your main bills, giving you a lesson in how to ensure your finances are top of the class. Hopefully it'll leave you with more cash for the things you enjoy. So get to your desk, sharpen your pencils, let's get started...

- BROADBAND & LINE: Are you paying over £20/mth? Until Thu you can get it for '£13/mth'. Millions are fleeced, paying up to £45/mth, but hot, short-lived promos can slice your bills in half - or better. Check our Broadband Unbundled tool to find the cheapest deal in your area. Yet many are short-lived, incl those below that end on Thu...

- Standard speed, avg 11Mb (poor service): TalkTalk '£12.42/mth'
- Standard speed, avg 11Mb (decent service): Sky '£13/mth'
- Fast fibre, avg 35Mb (poor service): TalkTalk '£18.34/mth'.
- Fast fibre, avg 36Mb (decent service): Sky '£20mth'.
- See Broadband Unbundled for even faster speeds.

The prices above (for new customers only) are the 'effective monthly cost' by adding all charges and taking off any vouchers or freebies, and spreading it over the contract length - all either 12 or 18 months...

- PETROL & DIESEL. Drivers, find YOUR cheapest forecourt in mins. Prices are the highest in 4yrs but the keys to saving are nifty tools to find the cheapest fuel near you and making your car more fuel efficient.

- CREDIT CARD DEBT. Are you paying interest? Do a 2min check to see if you can shift it to 0% for up to 36mths. A 0% balance transfer is when you get a new card to repay debts on other credit or store cards for you, so you owe it instead. As you pay no interest, payments eat into the debt, so you're debt-free quicker - possibly saving £1,000s.
IMPORTANT: Before you apply use our Balance Transfer Eligibility Calculator. It shows which of the top cards you're most likely to get without harming your creditworthiness. Here are the top deals.
- Longest NO FEE card. Santander (eligibility calc / apply*) gives 27mths 0% (18.9% rep APR after).
- Need longer? MBNA (eligibility calc / apply*) offers up to 36mths 0% for a 2.49% fee of the amount shifted (21.9% rep APR after). Full help and more best buys in Best Balance Transfers (APR Examples).
Balance Transfer Golden Rules.
a) Clear debt or shift again before the 0% ends, or it jumps to the rep APR.
b) Go for the lowest fee in the time you're sure you can repay.
c) Never miss the min monthly repayment or you could lose the 0%.
d) Don't spend/withdraw cash. It usually isn't at the cheap rate.
e) You must usually do the transfer within 60/90 days to get the 0%.

- COUNCIL TAX. Can you save £1,000s via our 10min check & challenge system? Up to 400k homes in Eng and Scot are in the wrong band, so may have overpaid for years. Our council tax guide shows how to check & challenge your band (incl the risks). Some get £1,000s back and cheaper bills, eg, Judy: "We were in the highest band in the village, claimed and received £2,500, thank you."

- Do you qualify for a discount? You may if you live alone, are on benefits, are a student, you have a severe mental impairment or live with someone who does. See council tax discounts.

- ENERGY. Are you one of 11m languishing on a Big 6 standard tariff, overpaying by £360/yr? If so, sort it NOW with a 5min check. If you are, you're being ripped off. The avg Big 6 standard tariff is £1,221 on typical use, compared to the cheapest deal on the market at £859/yr.
It only takes 5 mins to find a new deal, and switching's easy. It's the same pipes, gas & elec. Only service & price changes. We know many want a big name so our Cheap Energy Club has a special Big Name filter. If you just want the cheapest, trong>do a full market comparison. Plus you get £25 dual fuel cashback if we can switch you.
- MOBILES. Pay over £10/mth for mobile use? STOP and check if big savings are possible. If out of contract, happy with your handset and you've had your Sim for ages, you can probably slash costs as Sim prices have dived in recent years.
Most people use less than 4GB data and at this level there's lots at sub-£10/mth. Our top picks for new customers are below, all on 1mth contracts:

- 1GB, 500 mins & unltd texts for £5/mth from iD Mobile* (uses Three)
- 3.5GB, 2,000 mins & 2,000 texts for £8/mth from Plusnet* (EE)
- 6GB, 2,500 mins & unltd texts for £10/mth from Plusnet* (EE)

Check old bills for your usage or try a free checker tool. See our Best Sim only guide for more deals and switching help.

- CAR & HOME INSURANCE. Do you just auto-renew? If so you're committing a MoneySaving sin. Instead, find cheap quotes in mins. Just accepting your renewal quote almost always means getting overcharged on both car and home insurance. Luckily the remedy is easy.
Simply check comparison sites three weeks before your renewal or policy start date to find the cheapest deals. In just a few mins each, they whizz through dozens of providers to find your best price. See our car insurance and home insurance cost-cutting systems for full help and the hot deals compariso ns miss.

- WATER. Are you throwing money down the drain? Use a quick calc to check if you can save with a water meter. You can't switch supplier to save like with energy, but some may be better off with a water meter. See how to check if you can slash your water bill.

- SUPERMARKET SHOPPING. Are you a brand snob? Don't be, and go wild in the discount aisles to save £1,000+/yr. Supermarkets are geniuses at making us spend our hard-earned cash on stuff we don't need, and they don't always make discounts easy to find.
To fight back, we've 35 Supermarket Tips incl how to max discounts and play the Downshift Challenge by going a brand level lower, sometimes with little taste difference. James saved: "@MartinSLewis Just took the MSE Downshift Challenge and cut the weekly shop from £133 to £89."

- MORTGAGES. Urgently check if you can slash mortgage costs by £1,000s as ultra cheap deals are still available - just. If you've a mortgage deal ending in the next six months - or you pay your provider's potentially pricey standard variable rate (SVR), which most intro deals revert to - check NOW if you can save.

Top rates for new customers are at close to their cheapest ever level and despite last month's base rate rise, they've barely risen since, though brokers say they're more likely to go up than down. So there's still a window for super-cheap rates. Full help in our Remortgage Guide 2018, plus use our Mortgage Best Buys tool to benchmark the top deals.