Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

The following is the text of Martins Money Tips Email sent on 13 April 2005

Hiya. Special heads up for the mortgage note below. If you don't know when your mortgage special offer ends, check now. If it's within three months, act immediately or it'll cost you a fortune.

CHEAPEST DIAL-UP INTERNET PROVIDER. Plus Freebie. Just because your internet provider's free, doesn't mean it's cheap. Free usage often means expensive, 3p/min, access calls yet just 0.4p/min is possible. Plus there's a way to get a free 30 minute access card too. New article Cheapest Internet access Related Article. Cheapest Broadband.

NEW FREE 'CLICK TO GIVES'. Water-aid, help epilepsy and feed the starving. This is simple, you click and sponsors donate. It works well. They're all based on the logic of the Hungersite (read full explanation) which feeds the starving. Two new big UK ones have started: Aquaplastics Water-Aid and Easyjet's National Society for Epilepsy too.

IS YOUR TWO YEAR FIXED RATE MORTGAGE ABOUT TO END? Two years ago rates were very low and lots of people fixed. Now they're about to end and monthly repayments are going to rocket, roughly £160/month for someone on £100,000 mortgage. Act now! To help there's either a completely 30 page free printed/PDF MoneySavingExpert guide to remortgaging or visit the 'mortgage zone'.

NEW RANT RECORD Apologies for the muttering above. I got so worked up I needed oxygen.

REVENGE! Make free cash (£100s) from credit cards. Savvy on-the-ball (debt-free) MoneySavers can make £100s a year from taking on credit card companies. Put simply, if they're willing to lend at 0%, you can take it and save it at 5%, earning interest on money given for nothing. I've updated my step-by-step guide.

NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH? Not true. A MoneySaver's spotted a £15 voucher for Livebait, Chez Gerard, Cafe Fish & Bertorelli based in London, Cambridge, Manchester & Leeds. Have two croque-monsieurs and there you have it.

IMPROVED CURRENT ACCOUNT (AGAIN!) 5% interest, £25 bribe, free travel insurance & 0% overdraft. Alliance & Leicester's improved its current account offer again. Its 5% rate now lasts 14 months on top of everything else. (Apply/View*) or, better, read Best Current Account article. Note for past switchers. Due to, now sorted, technical issues A&L's had some problems switching people over. I've negotiated a special solution for MoneySavers.

FLIGHTCHECKER SALES WATCH Ryanair Half-price flight sale incl Sardinia 49p plus taxes. Use the free FlightChecker to find them.

O2 PAY-AS-YOU-GO USERS. Get yourself 10% cashback.

GREAT CHAMPAGNE 'HIGHEST APR' CREDIT CARD HUNT. OK not so much a what's best as a what's worst hunt. What's the highest APR you've seen on a credit card leaflet? Vanquis is 59.9% but there are higher. Champagne to the winner. Report your find or read others. Past Hunts Dab Radio, IPODish, Disguised own-brands.

Reminder. Home insurance cost-cutting
Reminder. Cut the cost of credit card interest Best Balance Transfers
Reminder. Prescription cost-cutting

TWO MORE ON THE CALLCHECKER - INT'NAL CALL COSTS DROP AGAIN. The free International CallChecker trawls the web every day to find the cheapest way to call any country. New providers Pennyphone and Cheapest Calls are now included dropping the price for some countries. International CallChecker.

NATIONAL EXPRESS COACH SEATS FOR A TENNER. A million seats generally available though it may be possible to find them even cheaper.

• Free 3 days' Vauxhall Car Hire (if you're lucky)
• Free Homebuilding & Renovating Show tickets worth £7 each
• 3 Boots razors & 3 body-firming lotions £4 or 18p if you're lucky
• Guarantee PC World's web price in-store
• Feminine hygiene MoneySaving alternative
• Boots goodie bag for expectant/ new mums
• Nominate Post of the Month for April

NEW CHAT FORUM A-Z HELP. MoneySaver Sra has put hours of his own time in to creating a special MSE A to Z. It's a great resource. Do check it out.

AT THE VERY LEAST SPOIL YOUR BALLOT! Consuming Politics. The Forums & my in-box are filled with peoples' desperate money/consumer problems. Politicians can solve these and occasionally do. MoneySaving is about being an active, savvy consumer. Voting's part of this, choosing which politics to consume. Vote! Choose! Even if you hate them all equally, be active. A real protest vote isn't sitting at home, it's scrawling a big X across the ballot so it's counted. Discuss.

PLEASE SAY THANK YOU! A new feature in the Chat Room is a little button to click to say 'thanks' if you like what someone's written - a nice gesture. You need to be registered to do it (all free of course, registration simply means we can stop spammers, there's no other reason). Registering for the chat forum isn't the same as receiving this email.

SUPERMARKET POLL. SUPERmarket or SuperMARKET? Vote or discuss. Also, see last week's Poll results.

MARTIN'S 'CHAMPAGNE' MONEY POSER. A Common Question. No-one got this last week. Clue now added. A bottle of champagne to the winner. What do the numbers 70.701 and 552.86 have in common? Answer or read others' answers.

That's it for this week. To finish, to celebrate the election I thought I'd ask 'how many politicians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?' (suggest an answer or read others here).

To help this site continue to thrive and help you save money, please do tell/email everyone you know about it. The more MoneySaving, the more MoneySavers have influence and the more companies quake.

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.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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