Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

Cutting edge internet shopping: Quickly find the cheapest & get cashback
This is my fully re-researched speedy system to save up to 30% on anything - books, games, CDs, flowers or washing machines online. Use a shopbot (shopping robot), to find the cheapest price. Then up the gain - buy it via the best cashback site (full comparison of over 15 cashback sites). Those willing to play, can also make over £20 a month free cash too. New Article: Best Cashback Site Comparisons. (Special mini-mutterings)

Urgent! South-East Asian Earthquake Appeal: 50p donated per new person receiving this email
I've worked out I can afford to donate 50p per genuine new person joining this free email's distribution list (join here) by midnight Sunday. Please tell everyone, this way they gain by learning about MoneySaving, the site gets bigger and most importantly we help those in desperate need. More Info about this and other ways to help.

1.5 million 'Gromit' mugs available free with PG Tips! Cracking Tip Gromit! The nose turns red!

Check if you're paying your credit card for protection - if you are STOP!
Many people unknowingly pay for credit card companies' payment protection insurance. Yet it's hugely costly. A new product's launched that does the same thing much cheaper. Unless you're claiming soon ditch and switch! New Article: Cheapest Credit Card PPI (Special mini-mutterings)

Apparently decent wine £1.60/bottle in Asda Good Chat Forum spot if you can find it

Home insurance cost cutting; save 50% on contents cover
Norwich Union's 50% contents insurance discount when you also get buildings cover has been extended till 30 Nov. Officially it's for new customers only but existing customers can grab it too, just reapply rather than accepting a renewal quote. However even with the discount it isn't automatically cheapest so use my Home Insurance Cost Cutting Plan to check if it wins for you. Related Article: Car Insurance Cost Cutting

Like the Chat Tips and Freebies? There's a full library of them always available
Some chat tips date quickly, others last and last. Just a reminder that once it goes in this email if they're 'lasters' they're automatically placed in the categorised Chat Tips Gold and Freebies Gold. Well worth a look. Libraries: Freebies Gold, Chat Tips Gold

Beat Stockmarket returns at no risk
It's possible to get 25% more than stockmarket growth, but with a guarantee if it crashes you get all your money back. The Post Office has now overtaken the government as my top pick. Updated Article. Beat Stock Market Returns at No Risk

Great Cheap Spectacles Hunt
The price of specs on the high street can make you go goggle-eyed so I'm tapping MoneySavers' wealth of knowledge to find the cheapest and best places to get specs.  Add your ideas/read others Past Great Hunts:  Laser Eye Surgery, Local Sim and Double Use Plus suggest new Great Hunt ideas

Why hire Halloween Costumes when you can buy much cheaper?
Last week I called for MoneySavers to post their top Halloween costume finds. Halloween costume hunt Ideas included Poundland, Aldi and Jtf-wholesale

Halifax and Abbey Regular Saver 7% account warning
It's nearly a year since these accounts first launched so if you opened one your time limit's nearly up. Your money'll be plunged into a poorer-paying account. Yet nothing's stopping you setting up a new one and drip-feeding the cash in over again. Time to act. Articles: Regular Savings, Where To Start With Savings, Instant Access Accounts

More gas and elec companies raise prices
The Utility Warehouse and Basic Power have just raised prices by over 20% according to energyhelpline. More are likely to follow soon hence my "DON'T SWITCH yet, as it's not a level playing field" still stands. More Info: Don't switch!

Warning! Onetel to start charging for Directory Enquiries
Any Onetel customers using its free DQ service beware. From 31 Oct enquiries will cost 20p connection plus 10p per min. You can do much better with 188848 which is 27p for 3 enquiries - regardless of call length. Article: Cheapest Directory Enquiries

MBNA introducing annual fee for some customers
If it does for you - ditch it. More Details

Man United kids kit £2.99, save money by not buying them
A Chat Forum spot shows cheap Manchester United childrens' kits. As a Man City fan I believe the correct MoneySaving tactic is don't buy such hideous things and save yourself more!

Warning! T-mobile stops the free international calls loophole (Orange, O2, Vodafone still can)
T-mobile's confirmed that calls to numbers beginning 07744 and 07755 will no longer be included in free minutes allowances; meaning they'll be charged at astronomical rates. It puts the kibosh on T-mbile customers using m'Free International Mobile Calls System but it's still usable for Orange, O2 and most Vodafone customers. Related Article: Free International Calls From Your Mobile

Endowment Misselling. I've said it before but this one needs saying again
A couple of weeks ago I put this in the tip and my inbox has been jammed with emails saying "thanks so much for pushing me to do it - I wrote a letter and received x thousands" so pls don't miss this. If you think you may've been missold write the letter now. Time's running out. Get up off your backside and sort it! Details: Easy, quick, free endowment misselling complaints

FLIGHTCHECKER SALES WATCH  7p (plus charges) flights to Dublin, Gothenberg & Dinard. Ryanair is offering these 7p each way flights but of course you need to pay its £20 charges on top . Use the free FlightChecker to find the seats in seconds.

DON'T BE FOOLED BY IMITATORS: MONEYSAVINGEXPERT IS THE KEY
You may've seen ads on satellite TV for a website called Moneyexpert. This isn't MoneySavingExpert.com, but yet another commercially-driven price comparison site using tables with links to providers (and personally I think this is one of the worst). It's a very different site to this one. Be careful!

Board of the week: Ebay (and other auction sites)
This board's a mine of info for auction site users. Discussions include Selling books on Amazon, How long before sending a reminder? and Spoof ebay emails

TONIGHT WITH TREVOR McD. NOTE: Friday, 8pm ITV1. I'm only on for a couple of mins, but this one's on loyalty cards so should be interesting for MoneySavers

This week's Martin's Musings: I'm not an early riser...
'Blast from the past... Thanks Patrick Bartlett' and 'Make Me Rich 11: By far the toughest yet' Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

MONEYSAVING LOONY VOTE: When it comes to loopholes are you a tiger or a mouse? Vote or Discuss. Also, see last week's How did you find this site? Poll results

That's it for this week.  However, I found this amazing new, free financial analysis tool. It operates by examining your keystrokes to determine your financial priorities. Normally I think these are a load of bunkum but staggeringly it works!  Keystroke analysis tool.

I hope you save some money

Martin