Fight the great price hike
Council tax UP 5%, Sky UP £72/yr, energy bills UP 9%, TV licence UP £1.50/yr, Netflix UP £24/yr, BT UP 4.5%, water bills UP 2.4%, Vodafone UP 4.5%, prescriptions UP to £9.35... and many more
You needn't accept 'em - act now, save £100s
 

Can you steal a March on April's price hikes? Normally at this time, edging towards the end of the financial year, we note down a rash of public sector price rises and list tricks to beat them. Yet here, sad to say, as with owt else in society, this year is not a normal year.

This year's price hikes aren't a rash, but an infestation. Many big private sector utilities are pumping up prices too. In combination, this is a sucker punch to those whose finances are teetering. However, my clarion call is simple - take these bills on and many could even end up paying less, not more. Let me take you through it...

Rises are rife at the month's end. Your options depend on whether the rise unlocks your contract or if you're already out of contract. In either case, big savings are possible, by ditching & switching or sticking & haggling.

• Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media. With the Sky 1 Apr, TalkTalk 1 Apr and Virgin Media 1 Mar price hikes, as the rises aren't contractual for some products (the links give details), you can leave your contract penalty-free within 30 days of it sending notification. And of course, there's always a right to leave any provider if, like many, your contract has lapsed.
  
  This is a perfect opportunity to challenge the cost. As Mark emailed us: "Thanks for the Sky price hikes heads-up. I got through to the retentions department, and managed to get a deal for £20/mth less. Very happy."
   
• BT, EE, O2, Plusnet, Three and Vodafone. With these firms, the rise is a contractual annual inflationary uplift (often with a little added on top), so you can't leave mid-contract penalty-free. However, as across the sectors up to 20 million people are out of contract, and many more are near their contract's end, plenty still have room to save by switching or haggling.
  
  We've put details on each firm's rises here: BT (31 Mar) | EE (31 Mar) | O2 (1 Apr) | Plusnet (1 Jun) | Three (1 Apr) | Vodafone (1 Apr)
  
  Jennie's email to us is testament: "I saved about £1,000/yr for my parents. First a mobile switch away from O2, saving £5/mth. Then leaving BT for line and broadband. They've switched to Plusnet [which is owned by BT anyway - ML], paying £85/mth less for faster broadband and line."

How to slash costs by £100s (even if you want to stay). The ability to ditch a firm gives you huge leverage. Your existing supplier will be desperate to keep you, others similarly lusty to steal your custom. If so, see a price hike as an incentive for action. First benchmark the best prices, and compare it to what you pay now.

• Broadband & phone line from '£14/mth'. Many are paying double this, so take two minutes on our Broadband Comparison tool to see what's available if you were to switch. This also includes TV deals.
   
• Cheap mobiles, eg, '£5/mth' for 8GB data. Prices here have plummeted recently, but two minutes on our Cheap Mobile Finder shows what's available. (If you're locked in to one network's signal, the tool includes other firms that use the same signal and may be cheaper.)

If those deals look good, and you're free to leave, then ditch & switch. If not, and you're happy with what you've got, ask your existing firm to price match, and start the 'I'll have to consider leaving' dance (and genuinely do). Full help in our Top 10 firms to haggle with and Mobile Phone Haggling guides.

While not all councils have announced their plans, 50%+ have already signalled they'll raise bills by the max 5% (6% in London) - adding a typical £90/yr for a band D property. While you can't stop this, there are many ways to check if you can reduce costs.

• Is your home one of 100,000s in too high a band? Back in 2007, I came up with the council tax check-and-challenge, and I'm delighted to say that since then it's helped possibly 100,000s get their bands lowered, and backdated reductions worth £1,000s. Eg, Roy & Sharon emailed after my recent show: "Just received a £7,000 refund . Before your programme we did not realise we could contest our band. Grateful, thanks."
   
• 25% reduction if you live alone (or just with under-18s / students). Those aged under 18 and full-time students are disregarded for council tax purposes, so a single parent would be entitled to the single person's discount.
   
• Those with a 'severe mental impairment' (SMI) may be due £1,000s. If someone has a diagnosed SMI - which includes some with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, strokes and more - they can be 'disregarded' for council tax purposes. So if they live alone they pay nowt, live with one other person and they get a 25% reduction.
  
  I'm chuffed MSE and I have helped 1,000s in this situation get reductions and often backdated payouts of up to £10,000. It's complex though, so do read our SMI discount help.
   
• On low incomes? Get pension credit? Full-time student? Have disabilities? Struggling due to Covid? Are you due a discount? Our full list of council tax discounts takes you through it - some get backdated discounts too. Mature student Patricia emailed: "Having watched Martin's TV show in Nov, I learnt students may be exempt. So  I claimed for my 3yrs of study. I wasn't expecting success, but the council cleared my remaining tax account for the year and reimbursed me £2,600+."

Normally competition drives prices down, but it seems the opposite's happening in the TV content provider market. Choice is up, as is price...

• TV licence fee UP £1.50 to £159/yr from 1 Apr, but do you need to pay? Depending on how you watch TV or your age, you may not need to pay for a licence. See Who needs (& who doesn't need) a TV licence?
   
• Netflix UP £24/yr - 18 hacks to cut costs. The roll-out of rises began in Feb, but continues this month for others. Our 18 Netflix Hacks may help mitigate this, as Holly tweeted: " @MartinSLewis I never even knew there were differing plans. Swapped from premium to basic, saving £8/mth. For what we watch, there's no change bar the price. Thank you."
   
• Disney+ subscriptions UP £24/yr. It's too late for existing custs to beat last week's hike, but newbies who plan to sign up (don't let this tempt you if not) can grab £10 off Disney+.

NHS prescriptions are free in Scot, Wales and N Ireland. In Eng, it rises on 1 Apr from £9.15 to £9.35 (check if you're eligible for free prescriptions, eg, pregnant / had baby in last year, or you receive the main element of pension credit).

If not, for regular prescription getters (ie, 12+ a year), check out an NHS prescription 'season ticket', where you pay a one-off fee for all prescriptions - 100,000s are wasting money by not using these. Their price is rising too (up 60p to £30.25 for 3mths, up £2.20 to £108.10 for a year), but get one before 1 Apr and you lock in today's price.

The big six energy firms are all hiking the price of standard tariffs (which 50%+ are on) to almost the max allowed under the new price cap, which rises in Apr. I won't write much here, as it's one of our main features below. So for how to beat this, jump down to our Big Switch 17 info.

In Eng and Wales, where you pay separately for water bills, thankfully on average prices are broadly flat this year. Yet there are huge regional variations, and six of the 20 water firms are raising prices by an avg 2.4%, or about £7 a year. If you pay a fixed bill, I've a simple rule of thumb...

As Amanda emailed: "My water bill was previously just under £500/yr, and now with a meter it's looking as though it's going to be £200/yr, a £300/yr saving. Thanks." Even some who aren't able to get meters may save with an 'assessed charge'. This and far more help in our Cut Water Bills guide.