Oli Townsend

Assistant Editor – Deals

Oli has worked across MSE's Deals & Features team since November 2015 and assists with planning and editing the team's content. He also writes our cinema deals & tips guide, supermarket coupons round-up, Disney+ deals guide, and our Amazon Prime Day coverage.

As an MSE spokesperson, Oli has appeared on national and regional radio stations covering a variety of topics, including supermarket savings, motoring, online shopping tricks, saving while on holiday, cheap days out, TV streaming tricks and more. He previously joined the TalkRadio Breakfast Show for a weekly deals slot from December 2017 to March 2020.

He has provided comments for numerous publications, including the Daily Telegraph, The Sun, the Daily Mirror, Grazia magazine, and the Belfast Telegraph. His TV credits include contributing to two episodes of Channel 4's Tricks of the Restaurant Trade and ITV's Martin Lewis Money Show.

Before MSE, Oli worked as a presenter for a group of commercial radio stations (now known as More Radio) in Sussex, and wrote a monthly music column for a regional magazine.

In his spare time, Oli enjoys hiking and visiting new places. He's attempting to learn Spanish on Duolingo (the free version, of course).

Latest from Oli Townsend

Student loan interest rates are set to rise from 4.5% to 7.3% for many from September, the Government has announced. The change will affect current students in England and Wales, as well as former students with outstanding loans who started university in/after 2012.

10 June 2022

We may be stuck indoors for the time being but that doesn't mean we can't broaden our horizons beyond our living room walls, because let's face it, there's only so many thousand-piece jigsaws you can do, and Netflix series you can watch. While we aren’t able to physically travel the globe at the moment, there are ways to do it virtually – and for free.

2 November 2020

Sports streaming re-runs that are FREE for a limited time, eg, World Cup and Euro footy, NBA, NFL & more

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has put a halt to most live sport across the world, but thankfully some leagues have made their sporting archives completely free to stream for a limited time including FIFA World Cup matches, the Euro '96 tournament, NBA basketball, and NFL American football – plus watch other sport, such as Premier League football, tennis, and WWE.

5 June 2020

Okay, so it's 2019 and we don't exactly have hoverboards or flying cars, but what we do have is an artificially intelligent companion known as 'Alexa'. In this guide I'll show you how to get an Alexa device such as an Echo cheaply, or if you have one already, how Alexa can bag you some freebies.

13 August 2019

Going to the gym to get fitter, healthier and in shape is great, but it comes at a price (and we don’t just mean giving up doughnuts). Before locking yourself into a costly gym membership – typically £120-£720 a year – or if you can’t afford it, consider giving free outdoor gyms a try.

7 May 2019

Pizza Express unveiled its new app today, whetting users' appetite with the promise of a totally free pizza. But unfortunately the launch has proved sloppier than a Sloppy Giuseppe, with disappointed customers left sitting in restaurants unable to get the deal.

27 March 2018

Plastics and waste are big news with the Government proposing plastic-free supermarket aisles. But outrageously we’ve found that many of the plastic-packaged fruit and veg sold at major supermarkets are actually cheaper than buying the exact same produce loose.

11 January 2018

13 November 2017

Chocolate is out the window as 2017 is seeing a quirky advent calendar craze – everything from wine to cheese, to Baileys and crisps.

31 October 2017

Does size matter? Discount supermarket Aldi thinks so. It’s offering a pack of two foot-long sausages for £1.89 in all stores from Thu 2 Nov.

27 October 2017

Hundreds of outraged sons and daughters have vented their anger on social media at online flower retailers after bouquets they'd ordered for their mum failed to arrive on Mothering Sunday. If you've been affected, here's what your rights are and what you can do.

7 March 2016