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A new cost-of-living study conducted by market research firm Maru, which polled 40,000 UK adults at multiple touchpoints over three years to date, claims to have found that 53% of respondents thought it was “likely” that they would need to consider changing their home broadband in order to cut costs. A further 52% said the same for their mobile phone plan.
In addition, some 54% of Britons also say that they are considering cancelling at least one entertainment subscription, such as Netflix, Disney+, YouTube Premium, or Amazon Prime, in order to save money. All of this comes against the background of an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, which for many has become even more of a challenge following recent tax rises and fiscal drag in other areas.
According to Maru’s most recent polling, most Brits think that it is ‘likely’ that they will need to make further cuts to their spending in other areas, including holding off on big purchases and spending less on food, eating out, energy, insurance, and home appliances.
“Our cost-of-living research shows that Brits are increasingly looking for new ways to cut their spending as rising costs continue to squeeze household finances and reduce spending power – and one of the most common ways in which they are looking to doing this is by reducing the cost of their broadband and mobile phone bills,” said Stephen Brockway, Chief Research Officer at Maru.
The Most Common Ways in which Britons Plan to Save Money:
1. Eating in rather than eating out – 84%
2. Shop around for lower insurance costs – 81%
3. Buying more budget or own brand groceries – 78%
4. Holding off on big purchases (e.g. holidays, new car) – 76%
5. Spending less on clothes and shoes – 77%
6. Using the heating less or turning down the thermostat – 78%
7. Spend less on home appliances – 73%
8. Spend less on home improvements – 71%
9. Switch more of my food shopping to a lower prices supermarket – 68%
10. Cancel gym subscriptions or memberships – 66%
11. Spend less on food and groceries – 58%
12. Seek help/advice on lowering energy bills – 55%
13. Cancel entertainment subscriptions – 54%
14. Change home broadband to a lower cost – 53%
15. Change mobile phone plan to a lower cost – 52%
16. Improve insulation in my home – 51%
In the past, we’ve often been sceptical about the accuracy of consumer surveys like this, since real-world data doesn’t always reflect the snapshot of opinions collected by such studies. In terms of broadband, we can now actually see just how wide of the mark the situation between surveyed samples and reality really is, thanks in large part to the public data being released by the industry-led One Touch Switching Company (TOTSCo).
TOTSCo reflects the central messaging platform for implementing Ofcom’s recently launched (Sept 2024) solution for easier and quicker consumer switching between broadband and phone providers (aka – One Touch Switching). According to TOTSCo’s data (see live switching data), the Hub has delivered over 852,000 switches successfully completed since its launch in September 2024, which suggests that significantly fewer people are actually switching than those surveyed above may indicate.