Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

23 Feb 2005: Child Trust Fund, Free £25, £1.50 Eurostar, 15,000 more remortgage guides, 5.7% loan, 4% off PAYG and much much more MoneySaving PLUS SPECIAL FLIGHTCHECKER EXTRA TIP

This info may be out of date. Read this week's emails

Scroll to the end for the text of the additional tip sent on the 27th

The following is the text of Martins Money Tips Email sent on 23 February 2005

Hiya. The site celebrated its 2nd birthday this week and staggeringly it's likely it'll be visited over 1 million times during Feb. Thought you may enjoy reading the full story of how it started. Huge thanks to all who've spread the word. I'd really appreciate it if you keep forwarding and recommending it.

NEW! TOP CHILD TRUST FUNDS. Those with vouchers for the new scheme've been gagging to know where to put the cash and asking "should I add my cash to it?" (My view is 'not much', today's babies are tomorrow's rebellious eighteens, with the CTF they gain absolute control over the cash, potentially leaving your scholarly savings suddenly frittered). New Article: Child Trust Funds

LISTEN TO THIS TIP'S MARTIN'S MONEY MUTTERINGS

A Broadband or Dial-Up raw commentary on the tip (discuss). Streams via Media or RealPlayer, for help read this

EASY FREE £25 LOOPHOLE. Silly First Direct, about 6 months ago I spotted a loophole like this, thousands took advantage, so much so it had to close it. Now it's done it again. Open an account with a special code, put £100 in and it'll give you £25 in cash. Then close the account. Pure adversarial consumerism at its best. Full article including pro's and cons.

FREE RETURN TRAIN/PLANE TO PARIS FOR £1.80. Full details

NEW CHEAPEST PERSONAL LOAN 5.7%. Barclaycard's new loan is 5.7% above £4K. (Apply/View*) or better still read UK's cheapest personal loan article.

4% OFF PAY-AS-YOU-GO MOBILE TOP-UPS. Top up at Boots (when there are no special offers elsewhere) and it pays Advantage points worth 4% off your spend. Do it during a triple points promotion and that ups to 12%. Can you find better? Discuss. Also check out last week's Boots Bargains Hunt.

15,000 MORE TOTALLY FREE PRINTED REMORTGAGE GUIDES. In Jan I launched m'first ever MoneySavingExpert.com 'non-web' publication, a 30-page guide to ensuring you've the best mortgage deal. All 10,000 went before the tip was half sent, so the reprint's joined by a downloadable PDF option. To make it fair I'm not putting a link in the tip; just warning you it'll be available on the site from early Monday afternoon. Those who got one the first time or aren't remortgaging please let those who need it get it first.

GREAT CROSSCUT SHREDDER HUNT. You must shred your financial documents; it's the best way to stop someone stealing your identity (see how to get free ID fraud prevention article). Cross-cut shredders are best as they mash it up more. Can you beat the current £13 cheapest find? Report your find or read others. Past Great Hunts: Wap Sites, Disguised Own Brands

Reminder. Get a free text/email reminder that your 0% rate's ending tart alert
Reminder. Earn 14% interest if you save for Christmas
Reminder. Cut the cost of existing credit card debts; read best balance transfers

FIRST DEBIT CARD CASHBACK, CLEVER BUT BEATABLE! Halifax's new Moneyback 0.5% interest current account pays 1% cashback on yearly spending up to £10k. It's a convenient system, but can be beaten. Use Amex Plat credit card which pays up to 2% cashback with a direct debit to pay off in full from Alliance & Leicester's 5% interest paying current account. Apply/View: Halifax acc*, Amex Plat*, A&L acc*, or read more analysis. Related Articles: Best cashback card, Top current account (being fully updated next week).

HSBC LAUNCHES 8% REGULAR SAVING ACCOUNT. But don't bother. It looks great, but you'll need an HSBC current account to get it, and those are pants. Next best is Halifax's Regular Saver at 7%, which anyone can open. Apply/View: HSBC*, Halifax Regular Saver* (click on regular saver on the left-hand side). For more analysis read Top Regular Saver. Related article: Top Current Accounts

SPECIAL NOTE FOR CALL18866 and CALL1899 USERS. As 'no-frills' providers they're notoriously difficult to contact, so I put some questions people've emailed me to it, read its answers. Related article. Cheapest UK calls provider

LATEST QUICK CHAT TIPS (Warning! Bargains here tend to sell out quickly)

(Also see Daily Bargains Updates and Chat Tips GOLD)

Cheap glasses made to order
Smart media card reader 99p incl P&P
Need a rest? Bed prices going (eider)down
PC DVD recorders Can you find cheaper?
Years' supply of multivitamins for a fiver
Nominate Post of the Month winner for February.

SNEAK PREVIEW OF REDESIGN. Rather than the current subject link just listing articles here's an example of the new design: new banking and loans page (current page to compare). Please let me know what you think. Is it an improvement? Any other suggestions?

WINTER FUEL DEADLINE APPROACHES. The deadline for claiming the £100 - £300 payment for over 60s is March 30th. More Winter Fuel Info.

BOARD OF THE WEEK. MoneySaving Where You Are. This is to allow specific local MoneySaving discussions. New England, Scotland and Wales boards have joined the established N.Ireland board. Current discussions include Eating out in Edinburgh and Free Student Tony & Guy haircuts in London.

Andrea's Freebies (also see Freebies GOLD)
Hot chocolate sachets, 1kg Iams (Central TV viewers), Polofruits,
Total Car Wash, Free Lush bars with catalogue, Frisbee

MARTIN'S NOW CHAMPAGNE BLACK AND WHITE MONEY POSER. No-one's worked out last week's so I've turned it into a champagne poser. The question again is "Whats missing from 00110001 00110100 00110001 00110011 00110100 00110010 00110100 00110000 00110010 00110001 00111000 00110001 00110011 00110110 00110010 0011001100110001 00110101 00110100 00110001 00110111 00110001 00111001?" To answer or read other people's guesses see 'black and white poser'. If no-one gets it soon, I'll start posting clues. Past Money Posers: Crack the Code II, a non noteable note.

NEW POLL. Should there be a top rate of income tax? Vote or discuss. Also, see last week's Too much charity cash? poll results.

That's it for this week. Someone suggested to me recently that I should set up a time saving expert site, but I never seem to get round to doing it.

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.americanexpress.co.uk, www.alliance-leicester.co.uk, www.halifax.co.uk, www.barclaycard.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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ADDITIONAL TIP SENT ON 27th FEB

Not just the cheapest price, but tells you WHEN to go to get the top bargains
FlightChecker. New, Unique, Free, Non-Commercial

The new multi-airline FlightChecker is now on the site, and I'm so excited by it I wanted to e-mail straight away (i hope the servers can take it, they're untested for this, so if it seems to struggle, pls come back later!)

It's power is it finds exactly when to go get a rock bottom price (possibly £2+ taxes return) rather than just the cheapest journey. For regulars who know about the old Ryanair FlightChecker, this now includes three more budget airlines and a host of new options.

How it works? Tell it where and when you want to go and the max price you want to pay. E.g. Find all flights from Manchester to Majorca, between 1st April and 1st May under £20.

Or search 'all destinations'. Tell it the max price you'll pay e.g. £5, and it'll find every flight under £5.

THE FLIGHTCHECKER IS LOCATED AT: www.moneysavingexpert.com/flightchecker

Please make sure your friends and family know about this (you could forward this e-mail?). It's only by growing the site that I can afford to invest in technology like this which takes companies on. Also from now on I will include details of the Budget Airline's sales in the Money Tip e-mail, so the FlightChecker can then be used to find the top deals, so also please suggest they join the free distribution list for this at www.moneysavingexpert.com/tip

I hope you save some money.

Martin

PS. This week's Martin's Money Tip will come Wed/Thur as normal. In the meantime, don't forget to take advantage of the First Direct Loophole I spotted and grab the Easy, Free £25.