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Top 10 Ways You Can Save Money by Using the Internet

by Paul Freeman-Powell

One of the many ways in which the Internet has revolutionized the way we conduct our lives is that it has made it possible to get a lot of things done for a fraction of the cost when compared to the way we did things before the Internet took hold. With a little bit of cunning and a savvy mind, it's possible to use the Internet to your advantage to save a huge amount of money, very easily.

Read on for some top tips for how to make your pennies go further using our friend the World Wide Web.

Tip 1: Save Money and Reduce Your Phone Bills by using the Internet

Skype

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is the geeky terminology used to mean that your phone calls are sent over the internet as opposed to using more traditional (and costly) means. There are many players in this market, but one of the original and best has to be Skype. Skype is one of those great companies which provides a totally free service to the majority of its users, because it makes enough profit to survive from its paid-for services which are only used by a smaller proportion.

Skype-to-Skype calls are totally FREE and the sound quality is usually superb - often even better than calling on a phone! What's more, you can add video calling into the mix and there's still no charge. With the latest version of Skype for Windows, you can also video call multiple people at once so businesses can save lots of money by not requiring their staff to drive halfway up and down the country just for a meeting which could just as easily be done online.

As well as being available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems, Skype is also available as an add-on application for many mobile phones and is even built-in out-of-the-box on Nokia's N900 tablet phone.

You can also save lots of money by using Skype to call normal phones - it's not free, but it's very reasonably priced indeed, especially for calling Internationally. I lived in Madrid for a while and Skype saved me a huge amount of money, both using the free services and by paying a small amount to call my friends, family and girlfriend back in England. They offer a Pay-As-You-Go system as a starter, or if you're going to be using it a lot over an extended period, their subscriptions are really worth looking at. You can also save money sending text messages with Skype!

Avoiding high call charges to certain numbers

Many companies such as your bank, insurance company etc. use "non-geographic" numbers so that they can route proportions of calls to different call centres (hopefully still in the UK!) or route your calls to a different location depending on the time of day and so on. This is great functionality, but unfortunately they often use expensive numbers starting in 0845, 0870 or 0871. Or even worse they might use the dreaded 09 numbers which can easily cost up to £2.50 per minute!

Thankfully, a superb web site is out there which helps you swerve round these often excessive call charges. Head over to www.saynoto0870.com and despite the title, it lists alternatives for all types of numbers which these companies might use. You can either type in the company's number directly, or if you don't actually know the number you can search by name.

To get the most out of this site you have to know how to use it best. For instance, if a company's call centre is based in Manchester you'll be given an 0161 number to call instead of 0870-blah-blah-blah. But you might have to call a couple of "wrong department" numbers before you find the right one, but hopefully you'll be calling that for free (or very cheaply) with inclusive minutes on your mobile phone or landline package. Sometimes they helpfully even offer to give you the "correct" (but 08-) number so my advice is to politely pretend to write it down and then try the next number. Once you've found a number which gets you through to the right place, write it down (maybe on the top of your bank statement) so you'll have it to hand for next time.

Don't Use Directory Enquiries (unless you really have to!)

Do you call those 118 numbers? Do you? Or do you send texts to get information? All the person on the other end is doing is probably Googling your query and then charging you for the information. Look it up yourself for free! If you're out and about and have the internet on your mobile phone, then just fire up Google (other search engines are available...) and type something like {company name} phone number and 9 times out of 10 you'll find it in a flash.

Tip 2: Save Money by Not Paying for TV Subscriptions

Whilst Sky+ may be a great service, it's also an extra monthly cost to think about and unless you actually watch the extra channels it gives you, it's a waste of money too. Freeview and FreeSat give you all the channels most people would want without a monthly fee, and you can even get the "plus+" functionality (pause, record, rewind TV) with these boxes too for an extra one-off fee.

Or alternatively you can just watch catch-up TV for free at a time to suit you. All the main TV channels have a system: BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD, Demand Five. And you can also watch catchup TV on YouTube or SeeSaw. "But I don't want to have to sit in front of my computer!" you might say... well, if you have a Nintendo Wii then BBC iPlayer is available for that, and all the other services work like a dream on a PS3. So if you have one of those and it's hooked up to your home broadband then you're all set. Or if you have a laptop with an HDMI output and your TV has an HDMI input, you're good to go too (see later on for how to get HDMI cables much more cheaply than the high street rip-offs!)

Tip 3: Save Money by Streaming Music and Films

Despite coming down in price a lot in recent years, music still costs a lot to buy. Apple sell their shiny MP3 players and boast about how many tens of thousands of tracks they can fit on, but I seriously doubt they actually expect the average consumer to spend the tens of thousands of pounds it would take to fill it up with music from their iTunes store.

If you don't mind the odd advert (it's just like listening to the radio) then you can stream music for free using Spotify, or for a small monthly fee you can banish the adverts and listen to interruption-free music. Let's face it, if you listen to most of your music at home playing from your computer-which-is-always-connected-to-the-internet then why not stream it for free?

Rather than buying expensive DVDs as soon as they come out, why not give LOVEFiLM a try? (Click the link to get a 1 month free trial.) It starts at just £3.99 per month and it works like this: you build up a list of films you'd like to see on their web site, they post them to you, you watch it and post back in a pre-paid envelope when you're ready for the next one. You can also stream films from their web site to your computer screen (or living-room telly if you have a PS3). They also have Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 games available to rent. Give it a try now and get a 1 month free trial of LOVEFiLM.

Orange Wednesdays

For the times when you want to get the big-screen experience of the cinema, you can save money on this if you go on a Wednesday. Why? Because mobile network Orange have a promotion giving their customers 2-for-1 on cinema tickets every Wednesday. It works like this: you text the word FILM to 241 and they send you back a code which you show when buying your tickets to get the 2-for-1 deal. The text will cost you 35p so in effect the second person has got their ticket for only 35p which is a considerable saving when you consider cinema tickets can be around £8 these days! This works for Contract and Pay-as-You-Go customers. If you're not an orange customer, then it's worth getting a FREE Orange Pay-as-You-Go SIM specifically for getting the cheap cinema tickets. The SIMs are usually free from the Orange web site or in high street shops, so if you top it up with £10 then you can get the discount codes 28 times before needing to top up again! Just pop it into your phone each Wednesday and send off for the code!

Lastly, YouTube have recently launched a feature allowing you to watch films as well as TV shows on their web site. More are being added all the time, so take a look at www.youtube.com/movies

Tip 4: Get Free Stuff from the Internet, or Sell Your Stuff Online

If you want something, chances are someone somewhere might be willing to give you theirs for free. OK, maybe not expensive stuff like a car or a laptop but often things like furniture or old computers can be picked up by people who just want to get rid of them. The two best web sites for this are Freecycle and Gumtree (look for the "freebies" section) so have a look and you might be surprised at what you'll get totally free.

If you're not feeling as generous as the kind souls on the last two web sites, you could always sell your stuff. eBay is an obvious place to get started, or if you have an old mobile phone cluttering up your house have a look on sites like MazumaMobile (there are lots of others too) and you might be surprised how much they'll offer you.

Tip 5: Save Money by using Free Software

There's a wealth of free software available on the internet, and for almost every non-free programme there'll be a free alternative which is usually just as good or sometimes even better! Some great examples are:

• AntiVirus and Security software. Why pay lots of money for Norton or McAfee when Microsoft Security Essentials is free?
• Want to edit your photos and give them that "pro" look, but can't afford Photoshop? GIMP isn't quite as good, and has an awful name (don't announce your purchase by declaring "Mother, I have purchased a GIMP!"), but does most things that Photoshop can do such as red eye removal, adjusting colour and tones and airbrushing... all without a price tag.
• Microsoft Office might be great, what with Word, PowerPoint, Publisher and Excel - but have you tried OpenOffice? It's every bit as good as Microsoft's expensive software suite and it's also now 100% compatible so you don't need to worry about not being able to open files your colleagues send you. All that, and you don't need to spend a penny. I'd do that rather than spend nearly £500 for the business edition any day!

Tip 6: Use The Internet to Shop Around and Find The Best Prices!

The internet has a wealth of information, all you need to do is use it to your advantage. Web sites like Google Shopping allow you to compare prices in various online and high street retailers to find the best deal for your product. It's often much cheaper to purchase online, even with delivery costs, and because you've bought it online rather than in-store you've got more rights because you're covered by Distance Selling Regulations.

An example of how much you can save online is this: Imagine I want an HDMI cable to connect my PS3 to my HDTV. (I don't actually own an HDTV yet but that's another matter...) If I walk into PC World, I'd probably believe that £19.99 is a good price for this cable. It does produce stunning pictures, after all. Wrong! I can get an HDMI cable which will do the job just as well for... wait for it... £1.41 including free delivery from a seller on Play.com! (I've bought a total of 4 of these, and I can confirm they're brilliant.)

Tip 7: Save Even More Money Online with Discount Codes

Have you ever got to the final stage of an online purchase, about to put in your credit card number, and you notice a little box asking if you have a promotional code? Some sites do only use these for specific one-time customer service purposes but the majority of web sites will use a discount system where anyone is entitled to the discount as long as they have the code. Information travels like wildfire on the internet so just type in the retailer's name plus "discount code" (or words to that effect) into your search engine of choice and have a look through the results. You might not get lucky, but if you don't just have a go the next time you buy something online - it only takes a couple of minutes and could save you lots!

If you get really serious about using voucher codes, look at one of the dedicated web sites which has cropped up, eg. VoucherCodes.co.uk or MyVoucherCodes.co.uk - you get the idea.

Tip 8: Compare, Compare, Compare!

OK, we all hate the TV adverts but they work because they stick in our heads. Any time you're looking to renew any insurance, buy a new mobile phone contract, switch gas, electricity or internet provider, you should always use one of these sites to find the best deal. Ideally, use several of them pitted against each other, find the best one and then go directly to them for an even greater saving. That way the company can give you a better deal due to not having to pay the middle man any commission. Don't worry, they'll still be able to feed their families because of the countless people who do buy through them.

For insurance, try Confused.com, GoCompare or Compare The Market. Switching utility supplier? Head on to uSwitch.com and see what they advise. These web sites can save you a lot of money.

Tip 9: Cash... back? 

The Golden Rule is usually: "If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is." Well this is the exception to that rule! There are web sites out there which will actually pay you to buy stuff from other web sites! Why would they do that? They basically act as advertisers for those other web sites (even if you knew about them already!) so they get commission from the sale, a proportion of which they share with you. My wife has recently signed up to QuidCo and we've already got a decent amount of cashback in our account balance. They keep the first £5 you earn per year but then after that, it's all yours!

If you want to make it a double-whammy, why not apply for a cashback credit card? For instance, for all purchases you make you can earn back around 1% so if you use the card for EVERYTHING you buy (not just online) then you can be in for quite a substantial payout after any fees which they deduct.

I'm not going to recommend a specific card because we in no way pretend to be able to offer you financial advice - speak to your bank or do your own research on this one. It's very important that you use the credit card wisely and pay it off in full every single month without fail otherwise any benefit from the cashback will be negated by having to pay interest fees or even worse, penalties!

Tip 10: Save Money and Manage All Your Accounts Online

Follow this one and not only will your wallet love you, but the trees will be hugging you for a change! Why collect a huge pile of printouts of your credit card bill, phone bill, gas bill, electricity bill, etc. etc. on your coffee table when it can all be managed online? Not only will you save money by not paying an extra surcharge for paper billing, but you'll save the environment too as well as have a tidier living room for when the in-laws come round for tea. Bonus!

Summary

So there you have it, follow those ten top tips and you'll save lots and lots of money each year which you can then spend on more interesting things or put in a savings account for a rainy day.

For more money saving tips, I'd recommend Martin Lewis' excellent web site MoneySavingExpert.com where you can get lots of up-to-the-minute tips and tricks, chat with other money saving freaks in the forums and sign up to his weekly email.

If any of the tips in this article have helped you save money, or you've got any other tips to share then drop us a line in the comments box below - we'd love to hear your stories!

Let the money-saving commence...!

Paul Freeman-Powell is a technology, software and hardware enthusiast. He founded and owns caeus.com Ltd. and works as a web developer, IT consultant and computer repair technician. In his spare time, he speaks French and Spanish fluently and is also a keen drummer and photographer (but not at the same time). His personal web site can be found at www.paulfp.net.

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