Back in June I wrote about how energy prices were predicted to rise by as much as 40% this winter, with the prices set to be risen in August. True to form E-On this morning announced that they are set to raise gas prices by 26% and electricity prices by 16% tommorrow, the 22nd August.

Predictably the price hike was blamed on an increase in wholesale costs, which E-On said had risen by more than 51% since February, for the latest rise - the second in a year.

EDF Energy and British Gas raised their prices for domestic customers in July, and others are expected to follow suit. We advised back in June to shop around, and that advice still applies today.

- MoneySupermarket - Probably the largest utility comparison site out there, you earn 1,500 points for a completed comparison when you go via MutualPoints.

- USwitch - Not quite as well known as MoneySupermarket (and the reward isn’t as high either at just 750 points) but the moral of this particular story is to shop around, so it always pays to use a few sites to see which offers you can find.

Hopefully shopping around will enable you to soften the blow a little and approach winter with a little more confidence financially.

The monthly IMRG/Cap Gemini monthly report into the online spending habits of Britons follows a predictable trend from previous months with online spending on the increase yet again during July, totalling £4.8billion, or £79 per person.  That’s an increase of 23% over May’s figures, which themselves were up a whopping 30% on April’s numbers.

Arguably the most revealing comment was made by Mike Petevinos, Head of Consulting for Retail at Capgemini UK. He explained growth is rapid, even within the current gloomy economic climate. One reason he gave was “the increased choice, price transparency and convenience that online has to offer”.

Last month we reported that £17 of every £100 you spend is now spent online so it seems that the online shopping market is on an unstoppable charge, which is obviously good news for us, and hopefully good news for all of you MutualPoints members too.

It seems that fewer and fewer of you are happy waiting for the man, and are flocking to the Internet to get your pills and lotions. Twenty-five per cent of online shoppers in the UK either have or would be prepared to buy prescription drugs over the web, according to a survey by WebCredible.

The survey had some interesting findings, perhaps the most startling is that more people would buy prescription drugs online than would buy cars or garden sheds. The survey ranked the ten things surfers would most likely buy online, and drugs came in at #5.

The research polled more than 1,200 visitors to Webcredible’s site between June and August this year. Books (84%) and clothes (63%) were revealed as the items that most consumers are prepared to purchase or have purchased online while, perhaps unsurprisingly, diamond rings (11%) and pets (7%) proved the least likely online purchases.

Do you buy drugs online?

There have been many scare stories abound of people being scammed when shopping for medicine online and it’s a practice that has to be taken with care. Thankfully we have some respectable retailers on MutualPoints to help guide you in the right direction.

Pharmacy2U are one of the leading brands in the online healthcare market and stock a wide range of medicines, health and beauty products, fine fragrances and exclusive skincare ranges at reduced prices. You earn 4% cash back on each purchase.

Nature’s Best are a more natural alternative, stocking a range of vitamins, minerals and nutritional supplements. The 6% cash back you earn is a nice stirrup too and is sure to raise your spirits.

We have a few other retailers in our health & beauty section. As always it would be good to hear from you. Are you one of the 25% that shops for drugs online? Do you have any safety concerns about it?

DIY retailer Wickes has joined MutualPoints in a love of all things user generated since it launched consumer ratings and reviews a few months ago. The company revealed that during the four month trial of their reviews service they recieved more than 1,500 reviews covering almost 800 products on the Wickes site.

The retailer, which wanted to create customer conversation about products to enhance sales and harness word of mouth online, says it is happy with results of the trial and customer feedback will now become a permanent feature of its site.

The figures show similarities with the reviews section here at MutualPoints. Since launching a few months ago we’ve had nearly 500 reviews posted by you all. Rewards also help get you all typing. Here at MutualPoints we offer £100 each month for the best review each month, whilst at Wickes they’re offering £10 off of the next purchase for each review written.

Have you used the Wickes review section yet? Indeed have you used the MutualPoints review section? Always good to hear your views.

Two MutualPoints favourites, Play.com and Cineworld are teaming up to offer visitors to the Play.com website plus thousands of Cineworld ‘Unlimited’ members the chance to buy lots of great movie related clothing.

Members of Cineworld’s Unlimited club, who pay a monthly fee in return for unlimited admission to their local screens, will be offered a 20% discount on clothing — such as Batman and Star Wars t-shirts — and a chance to win computer hardware.

The offer is on for a limited period of one month, and includes things like Joker t-shirts and Top Gun hoodies.

Visit House of Fraser to find amazing prices on many of the world’s most famous brands, from Chanel and Prada to Hugo Boss and Max Mara. Now, House of Fraser have new brands on their site including the international renowned premium brand Armani and many many more - read on to find out more! Plus earn 3.00% back in points

Menswear
New Brand – “Old Glory” – t-shirts and shirts
New Range - “Calvin Klein 365 underwear”
New Range – Diesel AW08 range of jeans
New Range – Paul Smith AW08 stock now online
New Range - Lacoste AW08 stock now online

Home
Electrical – New Brand “Cuisinart”
Electrical – New “funky” Delonghi Icona Range – toasters/kettles
They now also sell contemporary canvas wall art priced at £30-£80

Womenswear
New Miss Sixty Range
Uttam – new high summer range now online
Lipsy – new summer range
Untold Satin Vintage Rose Print Dress
Ichi – new summer range
New Range - Max Mara and Max Mara Weekend
New Range - Episode

Fashion Accessories
DKNY handbags – New range
Cynthia Rowley handbags - EXCLUSIVE to House of Fraser
Designer Sunglasses 30% off until end of August
Hot Diamonds – strong diamond range

Childrenswear
New range – Boy & Girl for Pumpkin patch
Designer Babies – New Ralph Lauren & Ted Baker

Beauty
Givenchy launched (80 SKU’s – fragrance, make up and skincare)

Don’t forget you can view all brands on their full designer brand directory!

VOUCHER CODE
Enter FIRSTORDER08 at the checkout to receive £10 off* your first online purchase when you spend £50 of more. Offer ends 31st August 2008.
- Shop online for hundreds of brands and thousands of products ranging from designer clothes to luxurious home essentials
- FREE standard delivery* to any UK address when you spend £50 or more
- Enjoy a quick, easy and secure shopping experience

Enjoy!

With great fanfare we’re happy to announce that the MutualPoints coupon service has been relaunched, bigger and better before.  For those of you that tried to use the previous incarnation of the coupon service you will probably have encountered frustrations with downloading the coupons in various versions of Internet Explorer.

With the new coupon service all of these problems have been resolved and we’ve added more coupons with even bigger discounts.  I wrote last month about how coupon services are increasingly popular with the credit crunch encouraging people to seek out bargains like never before.

In the coupon section at the moment we have some great discounts from merchants such as:

- House of Fraser £10 off

- Body Shop 10% off

- Avon Free Delivery

- Expedia £50 discount

- La Redoute £15 off

Some great offers there to save some cash.  Get stuck in, and as usual let us know your views.

Glasses Direct have recently given their website a bit of a spring clean and is in the final stages of testing before launching some really nice features.  We managed to get a sneak preview of the site and it has some really nice features in the pipeline.  Our personal favourite is the ‘virtual mirror’ tool on the site.

Mirror, mirror on the wall…

The tool allows you to upload your picture to the Glasses Direct website, and then try on a wide range of glasses via the website to see which styles best suit your face without having to step foot inside a store.

Once you’ve found the style you want the tool makes it really easy to add the glasses to your shopping cart and purchase as normal.   The mirror had 50 styles uploaded when I tested it earlier but I believe the full range of glasses will be added to the final virtual mirror, so it should be a great help.  A quick straw poll of the glasses wearing members of the team here suggested it would be a great new tool when deciding which glasses to buy.

6% cashback

The new version of the site is going to be launched in the next few weeks and with 6% cashback on offer for buying a new pair of specs via MutualPoints now seems a great time to invest in a new pair or three.

What do you think of the virtual mirror?  Would it encourage you to buy glasses online?

If you’ve ever been on a group holiday (or indeed organised anything for a group of you), you’ll appreciate the thankless task that organising such a soiree represents. They’ll inevitably those friends amidst your group that seem hell bent on putting a spanner into your well laid plans, be it turning up late or not paying the full amount.

Thankfully help is at hand in the form of a new website called Wigadoo. The site allows groups of friends to sign up to an activity or holiday and pay their money into a central account. When enough people pay up the “group leader” – yes, you can still carry that clipboard with you – you can transfer the money to their bank account or pay direct with through a Mastercard system.

Heading Abroad

We blogged earlier today about the great deals currently on offer from Thomas Cook and there are many other great offers to be found in our travel section.

Of course you don’t have to use the service just for travel. You could use it for all manner of things, such as organising a trip to see your favourite band or comedian via Ticketmaster, or even a trip to the theatre with DiscountTheatre.com, both of which would earn you some nice cash back.

Has anyone used the Wigadoo service yet? What were your opinions of it?

We’ve got a few competition sites listed on MutualPoints and they always prove popular each month, but in 2008 they’ve seen a big jump in usage as people become a bit more frugal and look for all the free opportunities they can.

PlumPrizes is one of our most popular partners and they offer a wide range of free competitions for you all to enter, including a £15,000 main prize and lots of ‘lesser’ prizes such as a VW Golf, holidays around the world and more electronic equipment than you can shake a stick at.  What’s more you get 35 points from us just for registering on the site.

Take us to your freebies

With the economy in troubled waters you the humble MutualPoints member appear increasingly willing to trade in your time for the chance to make a bit of extra cash.  Our refer a friend feature has proven particularly popular (for those not familiar, you refer friends and earn points when they register).  Likewise you can win £100 a month for writing reviews.  We select the best review/reviewer each month and send out the cash.

Home of Research are another nice one as they reward you for each survey you take.  They offer up to £5 for each survey so you can soon rack up a decent sum of money.  What’s more you get 75 points from MutualPoints for registering via the site.

The Quick Rewards section has lots of other great free offers that seldom require anything but your time.  So if you’d like a bit of easy money, head on over there.