NOW that Britain’s digital switchover has finally started, families are being urged to give themselves a digital makeover and save hundreds of pounds a year.

We netted one family almost £700 by switching their digital TV, broadband, home phone and mobile services.

The digital switchover began last week when the analogue signal in Whitehaven in Cumbria was turned off.

Though the switchover is for TV services, many providers now offer “bundled” deals that include TV, landline, mobile phone and broadband, so the switchover is the perfect opportunity to check you are getting the best deal on all your other services. Even if you already have digital TV, it is worth giving yourself a makeover if you took out your deal several years ago.

BT, for example, charged £27 a month for 0.5Mb of broadband in 2003, but today charges £17.99 for up to 8Mb - a 24-fold reduction per megabyte.

Steve Weller of comparison firm Uswitch said: “This is the perfect time for people to reassess their home digital services. The competition in the market means there are some very good deals out there.”

Orange, Tiscali and O2 have all ventured out of their usual areas to offer additional services. Tiscali, traditionally a broadband service, now offers TV, and O2 and Orange offer broadband. Orange is planning to launch a TV service later this year.

Though bundled deals tend to be cheaper, it may be better to opt for separate products. A digital makeover by Uswitch found that it could save the Coe family from Ascot, Berkshire, almost £700 a year. Gordon Coe, 36, an IT manager said: “I couldn’t believe it when I was told I could save that much. It’s enough for a new digital TV.”

The Coes - Gordon, his wife Deanna, 36, and their children Lucas, one, and James, four - pay £55 a month for Sky TV, which includes the top sports and movies package, as well as Sky Multiroom.

Their monthly BT phone bill comes to about £30.95. They pay £13.95 for BT option 2 as well as about £12 a month on calls to Australia. An additional £5 a month is spent on premium and other calls. Their broadband is also with BT. They get an up-to-8Mb service for £25 a month.

The couple use Vodafone mobile; their monthly bill works out at £166, or £1,992 a year.

For their digital makeover, the couple switched their phone and broadband to Tiscali. This provides up to 2Mb broadband and free weekend and international calls to Australia. It costs them £19.99 a month, including the £5 a month for premium calls.

Though the broadband is technically only a quarter of the speed of BT, Thinkbroadband, a broadband analyst, said the average BT speed is only 2.7Mb.

Gordon switched his mobile to an £18-a-month package from Three, while Deanna switched to a T-Mobile Flext package costing £15 a month. This includes up to 170 free minutes a month rather than 200 minutes with Vodafone. The couple said the reduced cost makes up for the slightly lower bundled minutes.

For TV they stuck with Sky as they cannot get cable in their area. You can find out about services in your area at digital.co.uk.

After the switch their total monthly cost was £108 or £1,296 a year.

Nearly a quarter of people think that they will need to buy a new TV when analogue is switched off. Any set can receive a digital signal, although it may need an upgrade. Televisions with a Scart connection require no adaptation - look for the Scart socket at the back, into which you can plug a DVD player.

Then you will need to sign up for a Freeview digibox that costs from £40 to £160 and gives between 10 and 50 channels depending on your area. You must have a digibox for each TV in the house.

Some more modern televisions, such as the Samsung LCD TV, come with digiboxes built in. Older TVs that don’t have Scart sockets will need a special digibox with an “RS through loop”, which must also be connected to an analogue video recorder.

There are alternatives to digiboxes if you are in an area with poor Freeview coverage. Only about 73% of British households can receive the full spectrum of Freeview channels.

Some areas, including Peterborough, Northampton, Ipswich and Weymouth, receive a poor signal - or none.

You could subscribe to a satellite service such as Sky (part-owned by News Corp, the ultimate owner of The Sunday Times) or a cable connection from Virgin Media or Tiscali. Again if you have several TVs, you will have to pay for extra equipment to connect them to the service.

Before deciding, check which service is best in your area.