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IN the past year most electricity and gas prices have risen, VAT has increased and other basics such as line rental have gone up too.

Some utility companies have teamed up with credit card providers and retail reward schemes to offer discounts on bills to customers but these are a decidedly mixed bag.

Read on to find the deals that could actually save you money on the basics and which offers are best avoided.

The good

Nectar points for British Gas

Nectar have teamed up with British Gas to offer this pleasingly broad little reward scheme.

Customers don't have to be on any specific tariff to collect points but pick them up just for being a customer (200 points for each fuel every year plus more for insurance products) or for doing eminently sensible things like setting up a direct debit or submitting a meter reading.

You can register your nectar card here (doesn't have to be the Nectar credit card) and you'll get 100 points just for doing that.

Note, however, that this deal is in no way a substitute for getting cheaper energy elsewhere. Switching to the cheapest deal will save far more than the points will make.

Find more information on Nectar here.

BT credit card for BT phone

Another good option, the BT credit card offers big potential savings for committed callers.

We like it because it takes money straight off the BT bill as cardholders spend - a penny for every £1.50 in purchases - and there's no upper limit on discounts.

BT line rental is now £14.60 a month so to clear that in full you'd need to spend just over £3,000 a month.

Of course, to get the benefit of the reward, cardholders also need to pay the card off in full to avoid any interest. The BT credit card has a 3-month 0% period on purchases but after that purchases accrue interest at 16.9% APR representative variable.

See BT's website for full details of the credit card and its cost of credit.

Note also that BT's pay upfront scheme can reduce line rental to the equivalent of £10 a month and sub-£14.60 line rental is also available with many broadband and phone bundles. If you're not a big spender that could save more than the rewards credit card.

For more information on lower line rental take a look at our cheapest line rental guide.

Tesco Clubcard points for Tesco Broadband

True to form, Tesco broadband is basic but it does the job and the chance to both earn and pay in Clubcard points doesn't hurt either.

There's a point for every £1 Clubcard holders spend on broadband: they just need to enter a Clubcard or e-Clubcard number into the account page to benefit.

In addition, Clubcard points can be used to pay for broadband (though not yet, unfortunately, Tesco line rental).

For those that also take Tesco line rental alongside broadband, £6 in Clubcard vouchers pays for a month of broadband and anytime calls and £4 in vouchers is enough for broadband with evening and weekend calls.

Click through to see a full Tesco broadband review in our Media section.

Bear in mind, however, that Tesco use the Cable & Wireless network so the service is only available in certain postcode areas.

Points for broadband can be collected with a normal, free Tesco Clubcard (1 point to £1 in Tesco) or with a Tesco Clubcard credit card [click through for cost of credit] (1 point to £4 everywhere).

Credit card rewards on petrol (and LPG)

Slightly hidden away down here are credit cards that reward specific spending on petrol.

These actually offer some of the best ways to save on everyday expenses, and whilst not a utility bill per say, they do amount to an often hefty chunk of a household budget.

Also, the 'petrol' descriptor is a bit misleading, these cards generally offer rewards on purchases at petrol stations, which includes buying LPG gas for example.

That said, as any regular LPG purchaser probably knows, petrol stations are by far the most expensive places to buy home heating fuel and larger discounts are much more likely to be found by shopping around for cheaper suppliers.

There are a few deals here, and so we've specifically covered this area of bill-saving credit cards in more depth in our guide to credit cards to save money on petrol.

Additionally, it's worth noting that some of these deals, particularly Santander 123 Cashback [click through for cost of credit] also offer generous rewards on supermarket shopping - another substantial budget denter.

Annual travel insurance with Sainsbury's credit card

The Sainsbury's premium Gold credit card [click through for cost of credit] offers its cardholders 'free' annual travel insurance.

The policy covers a family - 2 adults (16-65) and up to 6 children (younger than 16 or younger than 23 if in full-time education) worldwide and even includes winter sports cover.

The sting in the tail is a monthly fee for holding the card of £5 a month.

Even so, £60 a year is good value for this type of insurance and even more so for those who can use the credit card in other ways (it's one of the top credit cards for holiday use, for example).

Cardholders should always read through insurance policies before relying on them, however.

The bad

Earn Tesco Clubcard points with E.ON

£10 in Tesco Clubcard vouchers can be exchanged for £15 to pay cardholder's energy bills.

So what's the problem? Well, as of 1st November 2011, Clubcard points can't be used to pay for E.ON's cheapest tariffs: StayWarm, WarmAssist Fixed, Age UK, EnergyProtect and SaveOnline.

That means that Clubcard customers are likely to be able to save much more by switching package than they ever would with Clubcard.

More information is available on the Tesco Clubcard site here .

Barclaycard Freedom and npower

Barclaycard Freedom is a reward scheme available to all Barclaycard credit cardholders.

The scheme is well known for being a little restrictive and the npower link up is, unfortunately, characteristically disappointing.

For one thing, they're advertising a £15 per fuel direct debit bonus with a further £100 after the customer has paid by direct debit for a year. But that offer isn't exclusive to Barclaycard: it's available to most new customers.

We think that's a little disingenuous.

Second, like E.ON, the reward only applies when customers take the more expensive tariffs.

We tried signing up as an existing npower SignOnline customer (the cheapest rate) and were offered the Freedom from npower tariff at standard KWH unit rates, much more pricey and not worth £15 per fuel in Freedom cash back.

Moving to npower from a more expensive supplier might save a bit of cash but moving to an online tariff would save a lot more.

... and the ugly

Paying bills with a non-rewarding credit card

The only energy and utility suppliers we could find who don't offer a substantial discount for paying by direct debit are those that don't accept payment any other way.

So even while putting the necessary purchases on a cash back or rewards credit card can be a good way for very savvy cardholders to get a bit extra back, then, it's still rarely worth it when it comes to bills and most people would save more by simply switching to direct debit and finding the cheapest online tariff.

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