7 ways you can reduce your electricity, phone, and internet bills in Malaysia

[This is a sponsored article with Maybank.]

Through adulthood, it’s common for us to lament about how high our bills can be. While we can’t run away from paying them, what we tend to forget is that lowering their cost is within our control, so long as we proactively try to do so.

Here are some things we as consumers can do to consciously lower the cost for the upcoming 2023. These tips aren’t revolutionary, but they are mindful habits we can start practising to lower that number on your bill.

A word from our sponsor: Maybank is offering to pay your bills for a year, or give you 50% off your bills. This is part of their “Let Us Pay Your Bills” offer that’s taking entries from now to December 31, 2022. 

To stand a chance to win, users must use JomPAY to pay a minimum of RM10 for their electricity, phone, internet, water bills and more. JomPAY is on the MAE app, M2U MY app, or Maybank2u site.

More details below.

Electricity

Confession: “I leave the lights on in various rooms although it’s bright outside.” 

– Sarah, Managing Director

Look around your room right now. Are your curtains drawn even though it’s bright outside and your room lights are on?

It’s muscle memory for us to switch on the lights to brighten the space. But if there’s already natural sunlight shining from your windows (supposedly better for the eyes and productivity), you don’t need additional lighting.

Additionally, you could switch your lighting system to LEDs, as they’re known to be more durable, and energy efficient. After all, lighting your home contributes a rough 20% of your energy cost.

Confession: “I leave the AC on even when I’m shivering in my room.”

– Joyce, Sponsored Content Writer

I tend to shiver in my room with my AC blowing at 16°C. Then, I’d increase the temperature to as high as 27°C, so my AC becomes an expensive fan of sorts.

Obviously, the better, cost-efficient fix would be to switch off the AC, and rely on a fan instead.

Keeping your AC filter clean, maintained regularly, and at temperatures between 23°C to 25°C can also maximise its energy efficiency. 

Furthermore, choosing energy-saving appliances can save you on hefty electricity costs in the long term. When shopping for electrical appliances, pay attention to their energy efficiency labels.

They indicate how much electricity (kWH) an appliance consumes. The more stars (out of five) an appliance receives, the more efficient it is.

Confession: “I leave my PC on for the whole day even though I’m not even using it.”

– Claudia, Writer

We shouldn’t be leaving electronics or appliances turned on if they aren’t in use. But also, look around your home and consider how many plugs are left on right now, but are unused.

Even when you put your PC into sleep mode, it could still be burning phantom power between 0.1W to 2W.

The amount of electricity may sound negligible, but they can rack up your bill without you even noticing it. Switching off your devices from the plug point itself will cut off the use of phantom power.

Confession: “I don’t wait for a full load of laundry before using the washing machine.”

– Rikco, Business Development Executive

Take a guess, how many shirts should be in a full load for an 8kg washing machine?

Answer: 40!

Washing machines can consume lots of power, so collecting closer to a full load before washing would save on electricity costs.

Phone & internet

Confession: “I’m paying way over RM100 for my mobile plan but I don’t actually fully utilise the data plan.” 

– Sade, Managing Editor

Do you really need to be paying between RM110-RM150 a month for 70GB of internet data, with unlimited calls and SMS?

With office and home WiFi, apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, or social media are mainly used to stay in touch, and SMS are only sent once in a blue moon.

Sharing a postpaid plan with some friends is an option to bring your monthly mobile cost down. Some even let you split the bill among five to eight individual mobile lines.

Switching to a prepaid plan is another method, and you could spend as little as RM20-RM30/month for unlimited calls and 4G mobile data.

Confession: “I pay for lightning-fast internet speeds but am barely at home to use it.”

– Fadhilah, Video Editor

Modern Malaysian households are reliant on WiFi, which became essential when working from home.But for those who’ve returned to office life, lightning-fast internet speeds aren’t too necessary for standard web browsing, social networking, and video streaming.

For our writer, Claudia who mainly goes online to browse the internet or watch YouTube videos, she finds 30Mbps sufficient, which costs her as low as RM90/month.

Hence, choose a plan that suits your needs.

Confession: “I forget to pay my bills and wish someone could help me do it.”

– Everyone in the office

This sounds like a no-brainer, but forgetting to do so has caused our Managing Editor, Sade, to get her water supply cut off upon returning from a vacation.

It’s easy to overlook your bill payment deadlines, but keeping track of them is now made more convenient with a service like JomPAY, which allows you to:

Maybank is offering to pay your bills for a year as its grand prize, or give you 50% off your bills. The “Let Us Pay Your Bills” offer by Maybank is taking entries from now until December 31, 2022. 

Maybank is selecting up to 100 winners to sponsor a year’s worth of bills. 

There’s also a monthly prize for December 2022 where 2,000 winners will be selected to get 50% off their bills from their monthly bill. 

To win any of these discounts from Maybank, users must pay a minimum of RM10 for their electricity, phone, internet, water bills and more. Users can earn chances at this discount by paying bills using JomPAY, which can be found on the Maybank2u site, M2U MY, or MAE app.

Using JomPAY to pay your bills is quite simple, and the whole process can be done all through your phone.

For existing users of the MAE app, simply select JomPAY as your payment option when settling your bills, and enter your biller code, reference information, and the amount you’re paying.

When using the Maybank2u website, you can access JomPAY by choosing the “Pay & Transfer” tab. This will automatically lead you to use JomPAY after you’ve selected your bank account to pay your billers. 

From there, you’ll just have to enter the billing amount and proceed with the payment.

Featured Image Credit: Vulcan Post