According to the ft.com, UK household utility bills look set to double every five years until at least 2020. These huge hikes are predicted due to the vast amount that utility companies need to invest to meet both future demand and environmental obligations, such as the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target.

The reasons behind the rocketing prices are laudable and understandable, but many households will find the rise in costs a huge strain on already tight finances. So, how can consumers keep on top of rising bills if income isn’t climbing at the same rate?

To start with, it makes sense for people to take a closer look at their spending – are there any unnecessary expenses that could be cut out to save money? People can also ‘jam jar’ their money by putting cash aside for their critical everyday living expenses, such as paying utility bills.

A prepaid credit card is the way forward for many people. All the customer has to do is top up their card with the amount of money needed to cover their bills – straight after pay day usually tends to work best. Then whatever further calls on their money are made, they can rest easy because they know that they’ve reserved the cash needed to stay on top of those rising water bills and shocking power bills.

One of the leading prepaid cards in the UK is the Cashplus prepaid Gold MasterCard®.  Cardholders can choose the ultimate in bill paying convenience: they can set up as many as 20 standing orders to automatically take care of their bills and subscriptions. So as long as the customer keeps topping up their account with the relevant amount, they need never miss a bill again or be hit by unexpected penalties that would further bite into the household budget.

And of course, they can save themselves valuable time and money spent on travelling to pay a utility bill in person.

Most prepaid cards allow customers to keep track of their outgoings 24/7 via free transaction tracking online, and get balance updates by opting for a text service. The latter are especially handy when out and about without access to an online computer.

Cashplus has made sure that topping up the account is convenient too – there are over 13,000 locations right across the UK where customers can top up for free.

With the rise in the cost of living and the stall in wage increases, plus a reluctance to hand out mortgages, it wouldn’t be surprising if there was a trend towards more people getting to together to rent a place. Again, prepaid cards can help keep on top of bills, because they’re ideal for pooling money to share the running costs, which is helpful for house-shares in particular. In fact, with some prepaid cards you can add up to four additional cards to one account.

It’s ironic that the very people who would find a card a great budgeting tool, are often excluded from having one. But with a prepaid card, acceptance is guaranteed for anyone aged 18 or over that lives in the UK. So the prepaid sector can help practically any household to budget for the dramatically rising cost of utility bills.