Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
New research from GoCompare has revealed the £41billion bill for modern goods and services -things that are sapping our finances now, but which most of us wouldn’t have been paying out for just 10 years ago.
The comparison site has identified 20 so-called ‘Nouveau Bills’ that are costing UK adults £66 a month or £788 a year on average, including mobile data, tattoos, streaming services, online casinos and bingo sites and online subscriptions.
In a short period of time, new technology has transformed the way we live – from the way we communicate and access information to the way we shop and entertain ourselves. While the obsession with self-improvement has also changed what we spend our money on.
| Rank | ‘Nouveau Bill’ | Cost | Percentage of people paying for | |
| Monthly | Yearly | |||
| 1 | Broadband | £20.36 | £244.32 | 72% |
| 2 | Smartphone contract | £13.59 | £163.08 | 57% |
| 3 | Tattoos | £3.68 | £44.16 | 6% |
| 4 | TV streaming service (e.g. Netflix) | £3.54 | £42.48 | 32% |
| 5 | Beauty treatments (e.g. eyebrow threading, manicures, false nails, spray tan) | £3.18 | £38.16 | 14% |
| 6 | Subscription delivery service (e.g. Amazon Prime) | £2.52 | £30.24 | 23% |
| 7 | Online casino/online bingo | £2.26 | £27.12 | 7% |
| 8 | Mobile data | £2.19 | £26.28 | 26% |
| 9 | Coffee pods (e.g. Tassimo, Nespresso) | £1.90 | £22.80 | 16% |
| 10 | Online newspaper and magazine subscriptions | £1.66 | £19.92 | 9% |
| 11 | Hand car wash/detailing | £1.57 | £18.84 | 13% |
| 12 | Playstation Plus or Xbox Live subscription | £1.38 | £16.56 | 9% |
| 13 | Self-storage (e.g. Big Yellow, SafeStore) | £1.20 | £14.40 | 2% |
| 14 | Gaming in app purchases for power-ups, etc | £1.05 | £12.60 | 11% |
| 15 | Teeth whitening or Botox injections | £1.05 | £12.60 | 3% |
| 15 | Music streaming service (e.g. Spotify) | £1.03 | £12.36 | 13% |
| 17 | Ready to cook meal delivery service (e.g. Mindful Chef, Hello Fresh) | £0.82 | £9.84 | 5% |
| 18 | Online subscription book service | £0.63 | £7.56 | 4% |
| 19 | Cloud storage | £0.45 | £5.40 | 9% |
| 20 | Paid for mobile phone apps | £0.41 | £4.92 | 7% |
| 21 | Other | £1.19 | £14.28 | 2% |
| Average total spend by UK adults | £65.66 | £787.92 | ||
The survey also asked participants which of the modern goods and services they couldn’t live without. Broadband (72%) headed the list followed by smartphones (52%), mobile data (26%), TV streaming services such as Netflix, Now and Amazon (23%) and subscription delivery services such as Amazon Prime (14%). Other modern-day essentially were music streaming services including Spotify and Deezer (10%), beauty treatments including eyebrow threading, manicures, etc. (8%), coffee pods (8%), cloud storage (8%) and online newspaper and magazine subscriptions (6%).
Commenting on the research, Georgie Frost, Consumer Advocate at GoCompare said “These figures just go to show the extent to which our budgets have been stretched in recent years. At a time when incomes have remained relatively unchanged, finding budget for up to 20 new bills in our lives is a big ask. It wasn’t so long ago that we just had to worry about the basic household bills and perhaps the cost of running a car. Now, most of us have also acquired a list of online subscriptions, contracts, treatments and services that we suddenly ‘can’t live without.”