SWITCHING suppliers of everything from insurance to electricity, current account, mortgage and internet can save households in Spain an average of 16.54% on their outgoings – a total of €2,201 per year.
Recent research by a price-comparing website shows a typical saving of between 14.83% and 28.57%, depending upon location in the country and total income.
A typical family in Spain – based upon a couple with between one and three children – spends €27,010 a year on the cost of living, of which on average 54.78% goes on household bills such as gas, electricity, water, rent or mortgage, insurance, mobile phones, landlines and internet, without taking into account transport such as car running costs, food, prescription medication, essential clothing and shoes, or children's school expenses like notebooks, pens and textbooks, nor pet care, or contingencies.
This amount of €27,010 has decreased since the start of the financial crisis at the end of 2007 by 14.55%.
Percentages of household income spent on basics required for day-to-day living are at their highest in the Canary Islands – 67.26% - followed by Extremadura at 65.58%, Andalucía at 61.1% and Castilla-La Mancha at 60.8%.
Studying the costs of the most expensive, cheapest and mid-range suppliers of utilities and other essentials, researchers found most people in the Canary Islands could save 10%, in Extremadura 9.7% and in Andalucía, 9%.
In the northern region of Asturias, this rises to 16% and in south-eastern Murcia, 16.54%, which is the national average.
The research, which looked into 13 different types of service – car, home, life, health and motorbike or moped insurance, plus internet, mobile phone, current accounts, personal loans, credit or debit cards, gas and electricity – said a total of 1.7 million households, or 9.3% of Spain's total admitted that they had been forced to pay bills late in the last year, either because these had bounced and needed to be settled via transfer or cash or that they had physically taken them to the bank late to pay.
This has increased by 55% since 2008, reaching its highest-ever figure in history in 2013.
Murcia residents are the most likely to have had their bills bounce or paid them late due to lack of funds, with an increase of 371.4% in seven years, or just under 105,000 households, followed by Asturias with a rise of 21,200 households or 254% being unable to pay bills on time, and Extremadura, where this has affected 33,200 homes extra per year since 2008, a hike of 250%.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com