How to save money on broadband, phone & TV this summer

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Whether you're strapped for cash or feeling a bit flush right now, it's always a good time to examine the outgoings and identify areas where you could be saving money. And with such a competitive broadband, phone and TV market it's getting easier to cut down on these bills by shopping around for the best deals, or simply finding ways to replace some services by using that superfast broadband connection.

Here are five tips show you how to save money on your broadband, phone and TV...

Drop the premium channels

The bundles offered by premium TV providers entice us with promises of hundreds of channels of top-notch entertainment, but how much time do you really spend watching them? When even the basic offerings provide a huge amount of content it can be hard to justify the extra cost.A channel pack can add a fair amount to your monthly bill so knocking them on the head is a quick way to save some cash. There is typically no charge for doing this either, and you can reactive them again if you change your mind.

Switch to streaming

Leveraging that fast broadband link to stream premium content from online services can be a brilliant way to save on the monthly bill. The likes of Netflix or Lovefilm have a vast catalogue of content (both movies and TV shows) for less than the cost of one channel bundle. And they can be easily viewed on the big screen using a games console or a streaming player such as the Roku.Plugging in a laptop or buying a dedicated home theatre PC also opens up a world of possibilities by giving you easy access to everything the web has to offer.

Cancel your phone line

There's a good chance that many of us only have a phone line because it's required for home broadband, which adds around £15 in line rental to the monthly bill. If you can get rid of this and just use a mobile phone it adds up to significant saving. Unfortunately the only major ISP offering broadband without a phone line is Virgin Media, which has limited coverage throughout the UK. But it's well worth considering if cable is available in your area. And going forward this should become a more viable option. As fibre to the premises (FTTP) slowly spreads across the country there will be more full fibre providers like Hyperoptic who bypass the old phone lines entirely.

Sign up for a ‘triple play' broadband, TV and phone bundle

If you currently have a separate provider for broadband, TV and phone it is worthwhile investigating the many bundled packages now available. By getting all your services from the same company you not only simplify the billing and customer service with one point of contact for everything, but it can result in a tidy sum saved each month. Subscribing to one service usually gives you access to a reduced fee for other things (cheaper broadband to go with satellite TV, for example). There can be fringe benefits too, such as the free nationwide Wi-Fi access offered by BT, or the Sky Go service which allows you to stream Sky TV on a web browser or smartphone.

Use Freeview

Sky TV and Virgin Media are no longer the only game in town when it comes to great TV offerings. Digital Freeview offers an enormous amount of content, and with absolutely no cost beyond a Freeview receiver box (though that functionality is built into most TVs now). And Freeview can still offer more for those willing to pay extra. The TV packages sold by BT and TalkTalk alongside phone and broadband give customers an excellent ‘YouView' box, which not only receives Freeview but also acts as a digital video recorder and catch-up TV viewer. There are also optional premium TV add-ons, including Sky Movies and the new BT Sport channels.

Author Bio: Matt Powell is writing on behalf of the broadband comparison site Broadband Genie.Do you know how much you spend every month on phone calls and broadband? How about other utilities? It's really easy to work it out if you have a Money Dashboard free money manager account, just go to the Past Activity page and search for the Household tag group.

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