Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

2 Feb 2005: New Balance Transfers, Online Discount, 'Stop bleedin calling me', First Direct Loophole, Free £20, House Selling, Valentines Ideas, Competitions Board and is MoneySaving immoral?

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Hiya, The 200,000th person joined this email's distribution list on Monday. Amazing. The site isn't yet two years old, and it's only 6 months since it hit 100,000. Thanks to all who've recommended it to their family and friends. Please keep doing so. The more MoneySavers, the more companies will have to offer better deals.

NEW. MUST-READ IF YOU PAY INTEREST ON CREDIT CARDS. Best Balance Transfers Article. New recommendations, explanation and card-ranking method for how to shift debt to another card to get cheaper interest. The potential savings are enormous. New Article. For experienced credit card nerds, the new 'tart' winner is Virgin (Apply/View*) at 0% for 9 months with no BT fee. Alternatively the easy 'stable relationship' option is Texaco (Apply/View*) at 3.9% lasting until all the debt moved there is repaid. Next week: Best card for spending on.

STOP BLEEDIN' CALLING ME! How to stop junk mail, faxes and calls. A new special briefing on how to register to completely end all junk calls, faxes and mail (though actually, stopping junk mail isn't such a good idea). Read 'Stop Hassling Me!'

ONLINE DISCOUNT VOUCHERS. Many online stores promote discount offers via magazines or elsewhere. MoneySavers collect and share them. Here's the latest: £5 off £50 Tesco spend, £10 off Iceland spend, 12% off 'As seen on TV', £1 off Huggies nappies, £5 off Brewsters, 2 for 1 at Tussauds attractions (Alton Towers, Thorpe Park etc). Feel free to add your own but do read about what's legal first.

LOOPHOLE! EXISTING FIRST DIRECT NON-MORTGAGE CUSTOMERS POSSIBLE FREE £100. Many existing First Direct customers have been sent its 'if we can't beat your current mortgage we'll give you £100' challenge. Yet its mortgage offer isn't so good. If you've been sent it and have a flexible mortgage less than 1% above base rates (currently 5.75%) you should usually win. More info, including a list of mortgages which may beat it.

MONEYSAVING HOUSE SELLING. New Article. There's been a long-running Chat Forum discussion on the cheapest way to sell your home including insider info from estate agents so I've gathered it together into a brief article to help. House selling hints and tips

DAILY TOP BARGAIN UPDATE IS BACK. It's been away, but it's back, see the daily updated most popular Chat Forum bargains.

Reminder. Free £20 for signing up to market's leading current account Apply/View* or Read article
Reminder. Earn yourself an effective 14% interest when saving for Xmas
Reminder. Companies are increasingly using hideous 0845 and 0870 numbers. Say no to 0870

STUCK FOR A VALENTINES' DAY IDEA? Treat your loved-one and give to charity in one go Balloons for Valentines or Perfect prezzie for somone that has everything

NEW! COMPETITIONS BOARD. We restructured the Chat Forum this week and added lots of new MoneySaving boards. The most popular is Competition Time with pages of free contests. Other newbies are the Motoring, Debt-Free Wannabe and the England, Scotland, Wales (plus NI) specific boards.

MONEYSAVING IS IMMORAL!!!! According to Travel Agents. I'm an immoral scourge according to the letters page of the Travel Trade Gazette, because of my 'haggle for your holiday' programme. So are they right? For me this argument cuts to Consumer Revenge's core. What's it all about? My response. Add your view.

LATEST QUICK CHAT TIPS (also see Chat Tips GOLD)

Ultra-cheap Dell PC (officially for companies) £300 all-in
Massive IKEA bargains for those who live near Edmonton
Multiple MoneySaving on Boots skincare
Teaching kids the value of money
Multi-level cat activity centre £25
Mario Kart: Double Dash for Gamecube under £11 incl del.
See who won Post of the Month for January
Nominate Post of the Month winner for February

NEW POLL. Are your kids being influenced by debt ads on TV? I'm going to be campaigning on this and would like you to vote to help build data. Vote, Discuss. Last week's European Constitution Poll results.

CALL HOME FROM SPAIN FOR LESS. Plus expanded Call Checker. There's an easy way to call the UK from Spain from under 3p/min. Also, we've expanded the range of companies the Call Checker compares when finding the cheapest way to call overseas - Liquid Telecom and AlphaTel have been added.

SEVEN DEADLY SINS HEAVEN & EARTH SPECIAL Sun Feb 6th. BBC1 10.30am. They have six famous people (and me) championing each of the sins. And I shall be arguing the case for....... GREED! Who do you think the others will be?

Andrea's Freebies (also see Freebies GOLD)
Anti-colic teat, TV programme tickets, GHD shampoo/conditioner,
Flight simulator, Moisturiser, Coach Carter cinema tickets

DID YOU KNOW? Credit card companies give you one free hit. Miss a payment and go over your credit limit and card companies are quick to fine you. However, usually if you call up the first time this fine will be wiped. Give it a go. More info and report feedback.

GET THE TIP FIRST! This e-mail now takes up to 15 hrs to send. The earlier you join the earlier you get it. The demand it causes means sometimes deals linked to sell out so for those who want it first it's now published at the top left on the home page some time Wed pm.

THE GREAT 'HORLICKS TABLET' HUNT. (Just for me). Alright I admit it's a slight abuse of privilege, but I love Horlicks tablets. They were yummy malt sweets sold in Boots when I was growing up, yet they've disappeared. I can only find them mass imported from the US. Can anyone find them here? Mmmmmmm

MONEYSAVING POETRY. Seriously, read this

MARTIN'S MONEY POSER. Crack the Code II. No clues just the question. What is the missing number and why? 50, 40, 50, 50, ?, 50. Newbies to my posers may find these past ones indicate how it works I think.... Crack the code, Triple-x-special, A non-notable note.

That's it for this week. A quick hello to the nice lady I met in Boots last week. She was handing out freebie low-carb choccy bars, recognised me, told me she was a MoneySaver and loved the idea she was giving me a freebie back. If you know someone that's not heard about the site please do forward them this email and get them to sign up too. If you tell'em hopefully they'll be forever in your debt (ha ha)!

I hope you save some money

Martin

*Affiliated link: Click via this link and a contribution is made to MoneySavingExpert.com, which helps it stay ad-free, sponsorship-free and free to use. This in no way impacts any editorial decisions (what I write), costs you anything or changes the product. For an identical link which doesn’t help the site go to www.virginmoney.com, www.texacocard.co.uk, www.alliance-leicester.co.uk For more on how it works and the site’s non-profit driven ethical and financial policy read this.

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