Martin Lewis

Cheap Gas & Electricity: Warning, DON’T SWITCH! Save in other ways

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British Gas & EDF have hiked prices up to 35%. So compare now and one of the four other big suppliers will come out cheaper, yet their have imminent price rises due & could be even worse. So hold tight for now, instead save up to 20% just by tweaks to your existing tariff.

URGENT MONEYSAVING: Get a flight upgrade, New Bank Charges Success, Student Accounts 2008/9

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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.
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Top Student Accounts 2008/9: Slash borrowing costs

There's a huge difference between special student accounts; grab the best early and you could save £100s over the...

Flight Upgrades: Try for free or bag bargain bus. class

It’s possible to supercharge your chance of a free flight upgrade with a huge range of tricks. To guarantee business...

Travel Insurance: Protect yourself for a year from £25

Do you really need £20 million medical cover? No but they'll try to make you pay for it. Fight back with the cheapest...
 
 

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.

Savings Accounts: Earn 6.55% instant access

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

Cheap Travel Money: Get the best exchange rates and pick the right plastic

If you’re going abroad or spending on a foreign website, boost your spending power by £100s using specialist credit and prepaid cards and a free tool to find the best foreign currency rate for every country.

Home Phones: The UK's Cheapest Calls Provider

It's possible to get your home phone plus line rental, broadband and cheap calls to mobiles for under £17 a month, almost half of the cost of BT!

Best Bank Accounts: Get £100 for switching and a 0% overdraft

Switching bank account can add £100s a year to your pocket; banks are fighting for current account business, so ditch, switch and save.

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.

Give yourself a Money Makeover: How to completely overhaul your finances and save £1,000s

By shifting to the best products for everything you can easily give yourself as much extra cash as a 25% payrise. Better still you can do it all yourself, without paying anyone and it only takes a day.

Cheap Mortgage Finding: Use the ‘broker plus’ technique to slash costs

The right Mortgage broker can scan the market and give extra influence and protection. Sadly, more lenders have stopped allowing brokers to advise on their deals, so now use a broker and specific lenders on top.

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

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.

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.

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

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 Petrol & Diesel: Cut your fuel spend by a third

Find the cheapest petrol station, pay the right way, speedily make your car more efficient and learn the golden driving rule & you'll cut your fuel bill by a third.

Cheap Home Insurance: Speedily compare 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

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.

Cheap Loans: How to get your lowest possible rate

Loan rates at just 6.9% 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
Fun Stuff and the Site

Latest MoneySavingPoll:
Are you a voucherista or voucherhata?


Poll started 18 August 2008:

Are you a voucherista or voucherhata?

The growth of discount vouchers has seen the rise of Voucheristas; people who choose their restaurants, shops and days out based on whether there’s a voucher. Yet, sadly some are embarrassed or think it's uncouth to use them, especially when eating out.

Which is nearest your experience of using vouchers?

A. My friends and I are voucheristas.
B. I’m a voucherista but some friends get embarrassed by it.
C. I can’t be bothered with vouchers.
D. It’s embarrassing; I hate it when friends do it.
E. I’ve not tried vouchers yet.
F. I’ve too much money to care.
Highlights
Regulars
About the email
Martin's Money Tips: Week of 20 Aug 2008
GBK Burger 2for1
Plus new vouchers for Prezzo, join Zizzi, Strada & more



Flight Upgrades
Full guide to blag one for free, or buy bargain seats online



Student Accounts
Get huge £3,000 0% overdraft, or £100 cash



Cheap Petrol
New website finds cheapest fuel along any route



Beauty Loophole
Spend £5 at Boots, get 2x£5 discount vouchers



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 36-year-old ultra-specialised journalist, TV & radio presenter and bestselling author. He created this site, which has over 5,000,000 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

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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.