Internet and phone costs drop for the first time in almost nine years, MSE Bills Tracker shows

Over the 12 months to February 2018, average prices for telecoms including broadband, line rental and mobile phone charges fell by 0.4%, the first annual drop since March 2009.

But despite the dip, many will still be paying over the odds, for example standard broadband prices can cost more than £40 a month but the best deals cost less than half of that. See our Broadband Unbundled tool and Cheap Mobiles guide for information on how to cut costs.

This month's MSE Bills Tracker also shows the average overall costs for household bills and expenses are up 1.5% over the same period, which is slightly down from January's 12-month figure of 1.7%. The headline CPIH inflation figure – more on which is below – was higher at 2.5% for February.

Our tracker, which launched in August 2017, uses data supplied by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to create a picture of the average price changes for household bills across the UK.

Inflation is usually measured by looking at the prices of hundreds of different items, but crucially our tracker cuts most of these out and focuses only on core expenses such as housing costs, energy and insurance - expenses which most households have and which typically make up the lion's share of outgoings.

Here are some of the main figures – you can see a more detailed breakdown below:

How does MSE's Bills Tracker work?

Inflation is the rate at which the cost of goods and services bought by households rises or falls. The ONS publishes different measures of inflation, and we've requested specific data to come up with a realistic figure for the average change in a typical household's core outgoings.

Our figure uses elements of CPIH, which stands for the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' Housing costs, the most comprehensive measure of inflation. CPIH looks at the prices of a 'basket' of 700 goods and services listed in the Consumer Prices Index inflation measure, such as clothes, food and furniture – and then adds costs associated with owning or renting a home.

Crucially, MSE's Bills Tracker cuts down the CPIH basket of goods and services to about 40 costs which many typical households are likely to face every month (see the list below).

We've focused on bills rather than expenses such as food, and stripped out items included in the CPIH that you're unlikely to buy often, if at all, such as rugs, door handles, a ten-pin bowling session and knitting wool. In other words, this is designed to be a real bills index reflecting typical household costs.

What does February's MSE Bills Tracker show?

The MSE Bills Tracker shows that overall household bills and expenses were up 1.5% over the 12 months to February, down from 1.7% in the same period to January.

The graph below shows how the Bills Tracker has compared with CPIH since September 2016:

How the cost of different bills changed in February

Here's a list of what's included in MSE's Bills Tracker, and how these costs have changed according to the most recent set of figures:

• Rent and 'owner occupier housing costs'. These are measures of rental costs and the costs associated with owning a home such as a mortgage, maintenance and buildings insurance. The ONS measures these using something called 'rental equivalence', which estimates the amount homeowners would pay to rent their own home. For the 12 months to February 2018,these increased by 0.3% and 1.2%.

• Water costs. These include water supply and sewerage collection charges. For the 12 months to February 2018, these increased by 1.8%.

• Energy costs. These include electricity and gas, and other fuels such as natural gas, kerosene and coal. For the 12 months to February 2018, these increased by 6.3%.

• Council tax. This is the average council tax bill in Great Britain and the average rates bill in Northern Ireland. For the 12 months to February 2018, this increased by 3.8%.

• Fuel. Including diesel and petrol. For the 12 months to February 2018, diesel increased by 1% and petrol by 0.6%.

• Phone and internet costs. These include landline, mobile phone (handset and charges) and internet. For the 12 months to February 2018, these decreased by 0.4%.

• TV licence and subscriptions. These include TV licence costs and digital TV subscriptions. For the 12 months to February 2018, these increased by 0.8%.

• Insurance. Including contents, health, travel and car insurance. For the 12 months to February 2018, contents insurance increased by 7.5%, car insurance by 5.6%, travel insurance by 6.2% and other insurance, eg, health insurance, by 5.1%. The overall increase for insurance was 6%.

• Other financial services costs. These include costs such as mortgage arrangement fees, bank charges such as overdraft fees, credit card fees and stockbrokers' fees. For the 12 months to February 2018, these decreased by 2.8%.

How can I use this info to save money?

The idea behind MSE's Bills Tracker is to give a more accurate picture of how most households' bills and expenses are changing. Our hope is that it will help MoneySavers in two ways.

• More accurate info to help you budget better. A detailed budget can help you plan ahead. Providing more realistic figures for how household bills and expenses are changing should help – see our Free Budget Planner.

• Showing where you can save. Our Bills Tracker also highlights price rises and falls in specific areas, which should give you a better idea of benchmark-prices, what may cost you more and what you can try to save on. MSE has a full range of guides showing how to save on the bills we look at, for example:

  • Save money on housing. See our 50+ Tips for Renters, or if you're a homeowner make sure you're getting the best mortgage deal.

  • Cut your water bills. You may be able to save with a water meter, or get free water-saving gadgets. See Cut Your Water Bills.

  • Switch your energy supplier. Sign up to our free Cheap Energy Club and we'll take the hard work out of switching. Just tell us what your current energy tariff is and we'll tell you if you're overpaying.

  • Check you're paying the right council tax.Thousands have overpaid as they're in the wrong band. Take a look at our Council Tax Bands guide to see if you can save.

  • Drive down petrol and diesel costs. Cut the cost at forecourts by reading our Cheap Petrol & Diesel guide.

  • Spend less to surf the net. There are plenty of ways to save – see our Broadband Unbundled tool and Cheap Mobile tips.

  • Do you need a TV licence? If you only watch catch-up, you may not need to pay. See our TV licence guide.

  • Get protected for less. See our Insurance section for tips on covering your home, car, holidays and more.