Martin Lewis

Are your savings safe?: Full guide to protect your cash

safe
As 2008 is the year of financial contagion, it's crucial to ensure your cash is safe. This is a full savings safety check-up, including how the Financial Services Compensation Scheme really works, the different protection for UK and overseas banks, plus the safest place for savings.

URGENT MONEYSAVING: 7% savings, £5 European flights, Give 50p for free to Burma

TipFrontPage
This week’s MoneySaving e-mail contains over 50 new & urgent ways to save. Ensure you don’t miss out; the best thing to do is get it e-mailed, but if not you can read it here.
Free, ad Free and Spam Free!

Bank Charges: Reclaim them, they’re unlawful, includes free template letters

Bank charges for exceeding overdraft limits and bouncing payments are commonly believed to be unlawful. The major victory in the bank charges test case, means...

Free Anti-Virus & Other Safety Software: Legally protect your PC for nowt

It's possible to fully protect your PC from viruses, adware, spyware, worms, trojan horses and the rest, without paying a penny. This is a full guide of the...

Give 50p to Burma Cyclone appeal for free: Just get the weekly e-mail.

Following the devastating cyclone that’s hit Burma, with 15,000 dead and many 10,000s displaced or desperate for help, this site will donate 50p for every...

Mobile Roaming: Cheapest calls when you're abroad

Take your mobile on holiday and your network could charge £1/min to receive calls even if your phone is switched off! Luckily there are lots of easy ways to slice down roaming costs

Cheap Hayfever Tablets: Allergy cures for less

How to find the right remedy for the right price, plus preventative measures, free pollen count alerts, alternative therapies and more.

Savings Accounts: Earn 6.5% instant access plus rate guarantee, or 7% for a year.

This is a full best buy guide to maximizing your interest; including a unique calculator which will tell you how much, how long, or how big your savings should be.

Bank Charges Reclaiming News: Result in the High Court test case!

There’s a result in the high court test case; it's decided bank charges ARE covered by Unfair Contractual Terms rules. This is a major victory for bank charges reclaiming and a huge step. Find out all the latest whether you’ve started reclaiming, or plan to, this is a guide to what you should do.

Freebies, Freebies, Freebies: A guide to and directory of free stuff

Whether it's perfume, pants, gym passes, vouchers, face cream, games or books, there's masses available for free on the web with a simple click-and-grab. This a huge list of permanently available genuine freebies.

Gas & Electricity: TIME TO SWITCH! Find cheapest supplier & get £30 or crate of wine

It only takes five minutes to compare energy providers, find the cheapest and switch, possibly saving £100s. Plus the scale of MoneySavers consumer power has forced a price war; now switch through the comparison and they’ll pay up to £30 cashback or a crate of wine.

Cheap Car Insurance: Speedily compare 120 quotes + possible cashback

Its easy to sever car insurance costs, possibly to under £100, in around 10 minutes. The trick is harnessing every web comparison service in the correct order, massively increasing the number of quotes, and then sneakily get cashback on top.

Cheap Flights: Get the cheapest flights, whenever & wherever you go

Whether it's budget airline £1 flights, or luxury to New York, knowing which of the three types of cheap flight websites to use saves time and money. This is a speedy guide to it, and then uses niche tips to cut the cost even further.

Cheap Loans: How to get your lowest possible rate

Loan rates at just 6.4% are now possible. This article speedily shows you how to choose the right loan and then compares the cheapest standard, flexible, insured and low credit scorer personal loans

Council Tax Rebanding: Lower your band and save £1,000s

You may have overpaid £1,000s without knowing it and can get your money back at no cost. A full step by step guide on how to check ‘n’ challenge your council tax band for free.

PPI Reclaiming Guide: Free template letters to get £1,000s back on loan insurance

Anyone who’s got or had a loan, credit card or store card may be able to reclaim £1,000s. For years the insurance products sold alongside these have been missold. This is a full guide, including template letters on how to check if you were missold and get your money back.

Best Balance Transfers: Cut existing credit card debt costs

If you're paying interest on your credit cards, get up off your backside and sort it out. Savings in the thousands are possible and there's a special 'no-hassle' solution too

Credit Card for New Borrowing: How to borrow interest free for up to a year

If you need to borrow, done right credit cards are the cheapest way. The current top deals allow you to get a year’s borrowing at 0% or long term borrowing for 6.7%.

Credit Card Charges Reclaiming Guide: They're unlawful, get £100s back

Your credit card company owes you money; this free guide includes template letters on how to get back six years worth of late payment fees and other fines. And don’t worry, unlike bank charges reclaiming, it’s not on hold.

Cheap Home Insurance: Speedily compare over 50 quotes plus possible cashback

Slash the cost of buildings and/or contents in ten minutes by harnessing every web comparison in the right order; then find the web’s hidden cashback deals on top

Best Cashback Credit Cards: Earn a huge 5% cashback on all spending for three months

The best cashback card pays 5% back on all spending for the first three months. Simply buy everything you can on your card and make £100s

Best Bank Accounts: Get £100 for switching, or 8% interest & a 0% overdraft.

Moving to the best paying bank account can add £100s a year to your pocket; right now banks are fighting for current account business, so compare the best to yours, then ditch, switch and save.
Fun Stuff and the Site

Latest MoneySavingPoll:
House Prices: Would you prefer them to rise or fall?


Poll started 06 May 2008.

House Prices: Would you prefer them to rise or fall?

For the first time in many years it's been reported there’s an annual fall in house prices (by 1%). For most things, falling prices benefit consumers. In house prices they help first time buyers and upgraders, but are worrying for those with little equity in their homes or those planning to sell.

What’s your instinct? Which of these would you prefer?

A. Big house price rises.
B. House prices rising but slowly.
C. Stable house prices.
D. Gradual lowering of house prices.
E. Major crash in house prices.
Martins Weekly Money Tips
Two thirds of top tips close within a week!
The weekly e-mail ensures you don't miss out.

Get The Email »
View FAQ's          
It's Free, Ad-Free & Spam Free
  • £5 European flights: Bag a cheap summer break
  • Get 7% on savings: Is it time to fix?
  • 2 for 1 Burger King vouchers: More cheap food deals
  • Free Anti-Virus software: Protect your PC for nowt
Step-by-step guide to show you how to save £1000s
What's It All About
It's about cutting bills not cutting back and being a sassy consumer. Companies try to screw us for profits. MoneySaving shows you how to (legally) screw them back.
More on MoneySaving
More On MoneySaving

Corporate Britain isn't the enemy, but it is the opposition. A company's job is to make money, nothing wrong with that. A consumer's job is to keep as much of their cash for themselves as possible. The problem is that companies spend billions on marketing, advertising and teaching their staff to sell: yet consumers get no buyers' training.

This site aims to redress the balance, both with highly researched journalistic articles and forums that bring millions together to gradually build collective resources. MoneySaving is about finding best deals, legal loopholes and how to save money on everything and anything; on average following these will gain you the equivalent of a 25% payrise.

MoneySavingExpert.com was created in February 2003 for £100 by Martin Lewis, and all the site's analysis and recommendations still come directly from him. By January 2007 nearly 2.5 million users a month were reading the site, and the weekly email went to nearly a million people.

Read the full About the Site article
Who is Martin Lewis?
Who is Martin Lewis?

Who is Martin Lewis?

Money saving expert Martin Lewis is an award-winning 35-year-old ultra-specialised journalist, TV & radio presenter and bestselling author. He created this site, which has over 3,000,000 users a month, in Feb 2003 and all the analysis and recommendations still come directly from him.

  • TV and Radio MoneySaving: Martin has his own prime time It Pays To Watch show on five, is a regular presenter on ITV1's Tonight, is GMTV’s Money Saving Expert, with weekly slots on the main programme and LK Today and has regular slots on BBC Radio 1  & Radio 2 Vine. He's in constant demand on countless other programmes, such as Moneybox, This Morning & Titchmarsh, and, outside of talking money, is a regular panelist on five's The Wright Stuff.

  • Book and Print MoneySaving: Martin's has fortnightly columns in the News of the World in England and the Sunday Post in Scotland and syndicated columns in regional newspapers across the UK including the Manchester Evening News.  His books The Money Diet, Three Lessons & Thrifty Ways are bestsellers, The Money Diet even knocked Jamie Oliver & Sharon Osborne off the top of the Amazon bestsellers' list.  In the past he’s been a columist for the Sunday Times, Guardian and Sunday Express

Full Details:  Martin’s Biography, Martin’s Blog, It Pays To Watch, GMTV appearances

Where do I start?
Where Do I Start?

This site's huge and can be daunting for new MoneySavers; so take your time, you won't discover all its gems at once. For specific MoneySaving use the search box above, but in general:

For full details, read my Money Makeover article.

How's the site financed?
How's the site financed?
This site has a strict ethical financial stance; it has no adverts and is completely free to use. You can't pay to have anything put on the site. Things are only included if they're the best way to save money based on specialised journalistic research.

Income is generated from links that generate revenue when clicked. Once articles are finished, where possible 'affiliated links' to the top products are used and have a * by them. Yet if no affiliate link is available a non-paying link is used; i.e. if the top product doesn't pay, it remains the top product regardless; financial considerations don't play a role.

This stance means the top products detailed here often easily surpass those on the other money websites, because these sites are fully commercial. Yet thankfully the sheer scale of MoneySavingExpert.com means it's very healthily in profit and also donates a good chunk of cash to the MoneySavingExpert.com Charitable Fund.

Read full details about this site's ethical financial stance.

Watch the 'What's it all about?' video

As recommended by a parliamentary motion

MoneySavingExpert.com Stat Centre

The Site (find out about it)
  • There were 4.9m visitors in April (4.6m in March)
  • They made 10.2m separate visits (9.4m)
  • Resulting in 54m page impressions (52m)
  • There were 469m hits (477m)

The Weekly Email (read this week's)
  • 2,070,011 receive it
  • 8 new e-mail recipients so far today

The Forum (view the forum)
  • Currently has 2,152 people in there.
  • 17 new threads started so far today
  • 148 new posts today; equivalent to 0 books

Reclaiming Downloads (view reclaiming articles)
  • 5,006,104 bank charges template letters
  • 215,313 mortgage exit fees templates/calls
  • 260,519 PPI reclaiming template letters
  • 184,003 credit card reclaiming template letters

MoneySavingExpert.com, the official no.1 Business & Finance, Biz Info site since Sept 06
Updated Every Hour.
This website is based on journalistic research. It does not constitute financial advice. Any information should be considered in regard to specific circumstances. All tips are followed at your own risk and should be followed up with your own research . See Full Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy (last updated 19.12.06). © Martin Lewis and Martin S Lewis Ltd. 'Martin Lewis' and 'Money Saving Expert' are registered trademarks belonging to Martin Lewis.