• Plusnet £192/year broadband & line rent with £100 cashback. MSE Blagged. New customers to BT-owned Plusnet (72% rate its service as good) going via this specific unlimited broadband & phone* link by Sat 14 March, get a year's contract with...
  
  - Line rent: We suggest you opt to pay £155.88 upfront for the year (equiv to £12.99/mth) during the sign up process, or it's £15.95 a month.
  - Unlimited b'band: £2.50/mth so £30 for the year (it'll rise after). Avail to 90% of UK.
  - Calls included? None with the upfront line rent option. Weekend calls to landlines if you pay monthly. Call costs are roughly on a par with BT - see Plusnet call cost info and our call cost-cutting tips.
  - £100 cashback. This is the bit we've blagged - use the link above, and it'll send you a £100 cheque within 60 days of your broadband going live. Warning. If you use ad or cookie-blocking software, please turn it off or it may not track the cashback (if you don't know what it is, it's likely you're not using it. For more info see cookie blockers).
  - £5.99 router. Optional, but we've included it as most are likely to get one - it's 'free' but you pay p&p.
  - Need a new line? If you don't have a line (or only a cable one or, in a few cases, Sky custs), installation's £49.99.
  
  Cost analysis - how good is it? Pay for line rent upfront (excl calls), b'band and the router and it's £191.87 for the year (pay line rent monthly, £227.39), cheaper than BT standard line rent alone. Then there's the £100 cashback, bringing the net cost down to £91.87 for the yr, equiv to just £7.66/mth (pay mthly £127.39/yr; equiv £10.62/mth).
• Check your speed. First do a speed test*, then check neighbours' speeds* for different firms.
  
• Cheapest fibre-optic. Fibre-optic is super-fast broadband (best for gamers, downloaders, streamers & homes where many people use it at once). The cheapest is £293/year for fibre broadband & line rental.

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Don't be scared by cash ISAs, they're just savings accounts where your interest isn't taxed. You can put in £15,000 in the current tax year before it ends on 5 April, and once in an ISA, the money stays tax-free YEAR AFTER YEAR. If you've savings and not used your ISA this tax year (ie, since 6 Apr 14) consider it ASAP. Full help in Top Cash ISAs, here's the key info...

• Earn 1.5% & withdraw any time. Your money isn't locked away in a cash ISA. NS&I pays 1.5% for new cash and lets you withdraw any time. The Post Office is also 1.5% & unlike NS&I accepts transfers from existing ISAs too - it also allows unlimited withdrawals. This easy access means if rates improve you can ditch, switch & transfer.
• Top 2.25% fixed cash ISA and you can withdraw. Unless you'll definitely need the cash soon, fixed ISAs pay more and give assured rates. Better still, unlike fixed normal savings, by law fixed cash ISA providers must let you access your cash, but can charge interest penalties to do so. Coventry BS's 2.25% Nov 2018 fix lets you close it to withdraw with just a 120-day interest penalty. So close it after a year and you'd still effectively have got 1.51% - beating easy access accounts. After 2yrs it's 1.88%.
  
  If you'll definitely need access before, then fix for shorter to earn more. Top 1yr fix: United Bank UK 1.65%. 2yrs: Post Office 1.95%. 3yrs: State Bank of India 2.3%. However, you may pay a larger penalty to withdraw early.

• Does 3% bank account beat a cash ISA? The Santander 123* current account pays (a taxed) 3% if you've £3,000 to £20,000 in it - there is a £2/mth fee but that's usually easily covered & often more by the cashback it pays on bills. So if you'd switch bank does it beat cash ISAs? Sometimes... see Martin's Santander 123 vs ISA analysis.
• Am I better off with a stocks & shares ISA? In the long run, stocks & shares have historically outperformed cash. But there's no certainty they'll do so in future. Less than 5yrs to save, no cash savings or hate taking a risk? Then you should prob stick to cash. See our Stocks & Shares ISAs guide for more.

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If your flight was delayed 3hrs+ or cancelled since 2009, under EU reg 261/2004 you may be entitled to up to £440 per person. Many airlines play fair and pay out, a few don't, but again last week a court thwarted their avoidance tactics. Our Free Flight Delay Compensation guide has full help & template letters. Here's a quick briefing...

• Flight delay compensation - the basic rules....
  - You can claim for recent delays or dating back to 2009.
  - You must've arrived more than three hours late. See how to check past delay lengths.
  - Any flight from an EU airport counts, or to an EU airport but only if it's an EU airline.
  - Compensation's fixed, based solely on delay & journey length. See what am I due?
  - It must be the airline's fault - so bad weather doesn't count. See what counts as fault.
  - Some airlines offer vouchers as compensation. You're entitled to cash. Ask for it.
  - You DON'T need to pay to claim. We've free template letters in our guide, making it easy to do it yourself.
  - Is it fair to airlines? In some cases probably not, see Martin's 'is flight delay compensation fair? for pros & cons.
• "I got £900 for my delayed flight." Every day lots of people send us successes, eg, Cornel & Sue, by email on Monday: "Thrilled to receive £900+ cheque on Sat from Thomson for 17-hr delay five years ago. It had originally refused, but we didn't give up. Thank you, MSE." See airline-by-airline success rates & report yours.
• News: Court stops airlines putting 'technical fault' claims on hold. Last year the Court of Appeal ruled airlines must pay compensation for 'non-extraordinary' technical problems, then the Supreme Court said it wouldn't allow an appeal. That should've ended it, but a few airlines, esp Jet2, Ryanair & Wizz Air, still sat on claims arguing a case in Europe was pending. Last Thu Liverpool County Court (which specialises in this) ruled they had to deal with them. For full info and what to do if your case was on hold see flight delay Liverpool ruling.

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