Articles by Sophie Elsworth

Simply paying an insurance renewal without giving it much thought can end up leaving a big hole in your pocket.

A growing wave of travellers are bypassing taxis and opting to catch rides using controversial service Uber.

Almost 100,000 Australians have joined the fight to further push down the cost of fuel, which has continued to drop since October after a fall in world oil prices and declining demand.The Big Cost of Living Switch campaign has succeeded in unlocking another group-discounted fuel offer for motorists starting today.The deal will provide customers with a 5 per cent discount off BP fuel cards and is valid for 12 months.One Big Switch campaign director Joel Gibson said while petrol prices varied nationally, it was great for motorists to enjoy lower prices in the past few months."It's been so high for so long so people are finally getting some relief," he said."But grocery prices have gone up 6.8 per cent in the past year so it's swings and roundabouts. This deal is a good opportunity for people to save 5 per cent on petrol." Customers can purchase the prepaid fuel cards for either $100 or $500 credit and enjoy a 5 per cent discount.The cards can be used at BP service stations for all fuel and in-store products. Petrol prices in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide have continued to fall and remain just above $1 a litre.But Mr Gibson said in some regional areas of Australia, motorists were still paying around $1.50 a litre.The Australian Institute of Petroleum found the national average price of petrol fell by 2.3c in the week to January 4 and the national average petrol price is 121.9c a litre.This is the lowest in more than four years.Australian Automobile Association's acting chief executive officer James Goodwin said while petrol prices had come down, motorists should look around for the best price. 'Consumers should look around and visit the motoring club website in their state to see where the lowest prices are," he said.

One in two Australians who have bought new cars in the last few years are already looking to downsize their vehicle to save money. Latest data from retail research company Canstar Blue found new car owners who had purchased a vehicle in the past three years were already looking to replace it with a smaller vehicle. The survey of more than 1700 people found about 45 per cent of respondents said they had considered downsizing to a more efficient model. New car owners in Victoria were most likely to look at getting a smaller car (50 per cent), followed by NSW (47 per cent), Qld (43 per cent) and SA (36 per cent). Of the drivers looking to downsize, Generation-Y was most likely to look at doing it (53 per cent). Canstar Blue manager Rebecca Logan said the results found people often examined all the costs associated with their vehicle after buying it. "With petrol prices and generally everything going up at the moment, even if people bought a car in the last three years they're finding it's having a real impact on their hip pocket,'' she said. "Everybody is feeling the pinch at the moment so if downsizing a vehicle is going to save them some money then that's obviously something that's going to be taken into account.'' MyBudget director Tammy May said many of her clients had looked to downsize their car to reduce weekly expenses. "We've seen a trend in people willing to re-evaluate the car they are driving because of the expense associated with owning a car,'' she said. "It's such a big expense in people's budgets.'' Latest figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries found there was a nine per cent increase in new car sales in September. The Canstar Blue data also found 28 per cent of respondents found it quicker, easier and cheaper to leave their car at home with this most commonly felt in NSW (37 per cent), followed by Victoria (27 per cent), South Australia (20 per cent) and Queensland (19 per cent).