Check your bills NOW as hikes hit - save £100s on broadband, mobiles, fuel, food etc

It's price rise season with a host of hikes - urgghh. Most major mobile firms are upping prices by 4%-ish around now, council tax jumped this month by an avg 5%, while Sky raised b'band & TV rates on Sun. With the price of essentials such as food and fuel also up, make all this the trigger to sort your bills...

1. Save £300+/yr with hot, short-lived broadband & line promos. Even before any hikes (remember BT raised prices in Jan too), millions already overpaid at up to £43/mth on older b'band & line rates. Yet the hot deals below are the best about and can more than halve some costs.
   
   They're for new customers and are postcode-dependent so links go to our Broadband Unbundled tool, which shows if you can get 'em.
   
   Standard speed (up to 17Mb) - fine if just browsing or emailing 
   
   - New. Now Broadband (part of Sky) standard b'band & line '£15.84/mth' - £9.99 upfront then £15/mth for 1yr, equiv £15.84/mth.
   - Ends Fri. Post Office standard b'band & line '£16.23/mth' - £19/mth for 18mths. Claim & spend a £50 Amzn vch & it's equiv £16.23/mth.
   
   Faster fibre (up to 38Mb or 52Mb) - best for heavy users, streamers, gamers or if many use it at once in your home
   
   - New. Now Broadband (part of Sky) up-to-38Mb fibre & line '£20.84/mth' - £9.99 upfront, then £20/mth for 1yr, equiv £20.84/mth.
   - Vodafone up-to-38Mb fibre & line '£21/mth' - A simple price for 18mths, with nothing upfront and nothing to claim.
   - Ends Thu. BT up-to-52Mb fibre & line '£21.16/mth' - There are a few steps to this 18mth deal so the full cost breakdown is in the link above. The key is to claim and use a £150 prepaid Mastercard & pay 1yr's line upfront so it's equiv £21.16/mth. Pay line monthly & it's equiv £22.22/mth.
   
   What about TV? Broadband Unbundled has top TV deals and shows if it's cheaper to get TV & broadband/line from the same firm or not.
   
   
2. Drive down petrol & diesel costs by finding YOUR cheapest forecourt. Govt figures show fuel prices hit a 3yr high in Feb, and while they've since dipped, petrol is still 2% up on a year ago. As prices vary - eg, in Birmingham we found unleaded from 113p-127p/L on Tue - there's a nifty tool to find the cheapest fuel near you. Avoid hefty spending with lots more Cheap Petrol & Diesel tips.
   
   
3. Pay over £10/mth for mobile use? STOP. It's Sim-ple to save with a new, er, Sim. While costs inch up, new Sim prices have actually dived in recent years. But many still pay well into double-figures per month on old deals, so if out of contract and happy with your phone, big savings are possible as you can get lots of calls and data for £10/mth or less.
   
   Here are the top deals for a new Sim - the chip in your phone that allows you to make calls etc - based on data use. All 1yr deals unless stated:
   
   - Low: iD Mobile* - £5/mth, 2.25GB, 250 mins, 5k texts (1mth).
   - Medium: Three* - £10/mth, 4GB, unltd mins & texts.
   BT b'band cust? BT Mobile - '£7.84/mth', 5GB, unltd mins & texts.  
   - High: Three* - £15/mth, 12GB, unltd mins & texts. BT b'band cust? BT Mobile - '£14.17/mth', 20GB, unltd mins & texts.
   
   IMPORTANT: Don't overpay for data. 60%+ we surveyed need sub-3GB/mth, so check old bills for your use or try a free checker tool.
   
   See our Top Sims guide for more deals and help, incl how to unlock your phone easily to allow a new Sim, and how to keep your number.
   
   
4. Can you save £1,000s via our council tax check & challenge system? It's gone up by about £80/yr for the avg band D home in England. You can't do anything about that but many are in the wrong band or aren't claiming discounts.
    
   - Are you in too high a band? Up to 400k homes in Eng and Scot are in the wrong band, so may have overpaid for years. Our council tax system 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 or you have a severe mental impairment or live with someone who does. See council tax discounts.
   
   
5. Urgently check if you can slash mortgage costs by £1,000s. If you've a mortgage deal ending soon - or you pay your provider's potentially pricey standard variable rate (SVR), which most intro deals revert to - check NOW if you can save.
   
   There's urgency as it's the biggest monthly expense for many, but also as rates are creeping up, as lenders brace for a possible - but far from certain - May increase in the base rate (the Bank of England's official rate that influences mortgages). Yet broker L&C says "it's not too late to get a good deal despite rising rates".
   
   If borrowing £150k over 25yrs, if you switch from the avg 4.75% SVR to a best-buy 2yr fix at 1.39% you could save £4-5k over 2yrs, after typical fees. Full help in our Remortgage Guide 2018, plus use our Mortgage Best Buys tool to benchmark the top deals.
   
   
6. Ignore the 'own-brand stigma' & save £1,000s at the supermarket. Food and drink prices are up 3%, according to the latest inflation figures. What's more, supermarkets are geniuses at making us spend our hard-earned cash on stuff we don't need or by promoting expensive brands, and they don't always make discounts easy to find.
   
   To fight back, we've 34 Supermarket Tips incl how to max discounts and play the downshift challenge, which can save 30%, as forumite Metallica Fish did: "Saved £100s/yr losing the own-brand stigma." 
   
   
7. NEVER auto-renew home & car insurance - find dozens of quotes in mins. The most recent AA figures show home insurance costs were up 5% over the last year but millions overpay anyway by auto-renewing, and Dawn discovered that's a money-waster: "Our policy soared. Had a search and it dropped from £450 to £170. Thank you." See our Cheap Home Insurance guide to get the best deal, but in brief:
   
   (a) Use comparison sites to speedily find cheap quotes - they don't search identical insurers or give identical prices, so combine 'em. Our order's MoneySupermarket*, Compare The Market*, Confused*, Gocompare* (why? see full order).
   (b) Check biggies Aviva* and Direct Line* which aren't on comparisons.
   (c) Then check hot deals comparisons miss, incl a £60 Amazon vch.
   
   What about car insurance? It's a similar story and many of the same rules apply - see our car insurance cost-cutting tips below.
   
   
8. Check if you pay credit card interest - if so, use our 2-min tool to find YOUR best new 0% deal. Credit card debt is growing at its fastest rate in 12yrs, according to trade body UK Finance.
   
   Yet you can save £100s with a balance transfer card - which repays debt on old cards, so you owe it instead, at 0%. You can get up to 36mths 0% with a small fee, 28mths 0% NO fee. As you pay no interest, more of your payments eat into the debt, so you're debt-free quicker.
   
   But don't apply over and over. That adds a mark to your credit file, and if you're rejected and need to apply again, it makes it harder. Our Balance Transfer Eligibility Calculator shows which of the top cards you're most likely to get and doesn't harm your creditworthiness.

PS: For lots more ways to save on energy, childcare and other bills, see our Money Makeover guide.