2016

Every week it’s the same old, same old. First, a reader expresses shock (and even disgust) at the size of their insurance renewal quote. It sparks an angry phone call to an indifferent insurer which in turn triggers an urgent visit to a price comparison site. Big savings then emerge (£100s and even £1,000s) – often with...

Welcome to the new world of app-based banking. There’s been an explosion in recent months of new companies offering a challenge to traditional financial services. From prepaid cards to current accounts and mortgages, there’s little that this modern generation of providers isn’t tackling. And now there’s a ‘chatbot’ app that’ll automatically work out what you can afford...

Turn out those jam jars – your small change may be worth big money. Some rare 50ps can fetch up to £900 on eBay, though £40-£50 is more likely if you’re lucky – and £2, 20p and even 2p coins can be worth a mint too.

A MoneySaver recently wrote to us saying he’d done some credit card trickery to save some cash. In brief, he used a cash advance on a credit card and a balance transfer to save money over doing a money transfer, as balance transfer fees are lower. So, I thought I’d look at his method and see if...

In September, 52% of you were in favour of scrapping the 1p coin following our MSE poll. In fact, 24% of MoneySavers wanted to abolish the 2p and 5p coins too. It got me thinking – with most MoneySavers no longer fond of the penny, is it time it was scrapped? In a host of countries, the penny...

When it comes to MoneySaving, here at MSE Towers we know what we’re talking about. I’ve been here over five years, and the lengths some people go to bag a bargain still astound me. That’s not to say I don’t like to save money. It’s just a common preconception that because of where I work, I should...

Do you have a new plastic fiver stashed in your wallet? The smaller, polymer notes, which feature Sir Winston Churchill rather than Elizabeth Fry, were released last month. And while they’ll soon become commonplace, some collectors are forking out big time for rare new notes with special serial numbers. Now, it’s important to stress that recent headlines of...