Research has found that despite the cost of bundles dropping in the last 12 months – one of the only bills to be going down instead of up – more than two thirds of adults use separate providers for their TV, internet and home phone services.

Each household could potentially be wasting as much as £40 every month, which they could save if they switched to a bundle deal which includes all three, the survey revealed.

The survey also found that even those which do have a bundle deal have not reviewed the cost for at least a year to see if it is still competitive, with 32 per cent checking it a year ago and 23 per cent said they did so nine months ago.

Rob Barnes, head of broadband and mobile phones at moneysupermarket.com, said: “One of the advantages of bundled deals is the amount of money people can save. With providers fighting for new customers and dropping their prices, customers can easily swap onto a better deal.

“Dealing with different providers and organising various bills can be a nightmare. However, with bundled deals you’ll receive just one bill each month making it far easier to keep an eye on expenses. Also if something goes wrong you only need to ring one provider.”

To find the best deal, moneysupermarket.com also recommends checking if there is a download cap on the broadband, checking the connection speed available, and looking for deals that offer free phone calls to save more money.

Thinkbroadband.com has warned against being sucked in by the super fast broadband speeds that are advertised, when not all households have access to the service, depending on which region they live in.

The average download speed is faster in cities, it has found, with the Kbps (kilobytes per second) ranging from 4,460 in London to just 2,258 in Northern Ireland, which has the slowest average speed, followed by Wales, the Southwest, and Scotland. The UK average download speed based on Thinkbroadband.com’s data is 3,238Kbps.

Mr Barnes urges users to compare broadband deals before signing up to anything. The Carphone Warehouse, for example, is currently offering a free laptop with their mobile broadband package, but this could work out more costly due to the 18 month contract and high line rental.

“On face value, the offer of a free laptop appears to be almost unbeatable. However, once you start breaking it down and compare it to other deals on the market, you soon realise this is just another marketing ploy.” he said

“By simply comparing what deals are available on the market, people could save hundreds of pounds. In this case they could save £360 over the term of the contract, enough to buy a higher-spec laptop elsewhere.”

© Fair Investment Company Ltd