Your money: Selection of Top Direct Debit discounts

Electricity

Eastern gives a 5 per cent discount on monthly bills.

Yorkshire gives a pounds 12 annual rebate.

Almost all the electricity companies give discounts for monthly Direct Debit payers.

Gas

British Gas gives a 21 per cent discount to customers in Devon, Cornwall, Sussex and Kent, and 15 per cent elsewhere.

Amerada Hess Gas in Plymouth gives pounds 15 off its quarterly charge.

Telephone

British Telecom gives a quarterly discount of pounds 1 on bills outside its budget schemes.

Store Cards

Marks & Spencer cuts its card's APR from 27.3 to 25.8 per cent.

Sears cuts its card's APR from 29.9 to 26.3 per cent.

Burton Group cuts its card's APR from 29.8 to 25.8 per cent.

Health Insurance

Bupa and Norwich Union Healthcare both cut premiums by 5 per cent a year.

Cable and Satellite Television

Nynex and Videotron both cut their installation charge from pounds 25 to pounds 15.

BSkyB and Granada cut their administrative charges by pounds 1 a month.

Breakdown Services

The AA cuts its first-year membership charges from pounds 106 to pounds 96 for its Relay plan, and from pounds 134 to pounds 119 for Relay Plus.