Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

eBay Golden Rules: Cut the price, stay protected or even get it free. New Article
Many believe ‘if it's on eBay it must be cheap,' yet while it's easy to snap up a scorcher, it's just as easy to get burnt. This new article runs through how to protect yourself, slash the price of your purchases, and even get things at no cost by using alternative sites such as Freecycle. New Article: eBay Buying. (mini-mutterings) Related Articles: Internet Shopping Cutting Edge Techniques, Free Safer Online Spending System, Consumer Rights

Council tax, are you paying over the odds? A simple way to check

£100 Free Cash Bank Account Loophole. Team up to gain!
Alliance & Leicester's rekindled its '£50 refer a friend' offer on its current account. This means existing customers who recommend it get £50 as does the new joiner. Better still, switching to it is good, as its also the table-topper; with a 0% overdraft for the first year and 5% interest if you're in-credit. Even if you don't have an account, team up with a mate (or spouse!); one joins and then recommends the other so you both get the cash. View/apply: The link's on the right of the A&L Current Account* page. Full Details: Recommend a Friend Article (mini-mutterings) Full Account Review: Best Current Account Related Article: Credit Card Freebies

Free tenner loophole and you get 5 DVD rentals too Read this top chat forum spot

FlightChecker Upgrade. Finds budget airlines' promotional fares... now for one-way flights too
The FlightChecker's a free, non-commercial tool I had developed to actually find the cheap flights when budget airlines promote "a million seats for £1". It trawls databases to find all flights for under the price you set (e.g. £5). Now it does one-way as well as return flights, whether from the UK or overseas. Related link: FlightChecker. Yet if you know exactly when & where you want to go, instead read the Cheap Flight Finding article. Related Articles: Travel Insurance Cost Cutting, Cheapest Way To Spend Overseas

STOP YOUR FRIENDS WASTING CASH! PLS SUGGEST THEY GET THIS EMAIL

Best Balance Transfer: There's a new top life-of-balance card
Barclaycard's launched a new Flexi-Rate card* offering a 4.9% 'life of balance deal', the cheapest on the market. A balance transfer is when you shift debt to a new card so its cheaper; in this case the cheap rate lasts until all the shifted debt is repaid. The timing couldn't be better, as the longest 0% fees-free balance transfer offer has just dropped from 10 to 6 months (with the Post Office* and M&S to name a couple). While that's still OK for card tarts or those who can pay off quickly, it makes Barclaycard's deal even more attractive. Full pros and cons in the Updated Article: Best Balance Transfers (mini-mutterings) Related Articles: Best Card for Purchases, Best Cashback Cards, Credit Card Freebies, Credit Card Freebies

Great 'Buy now from the US' Hunt. Dollar at its weakest for years!
The US dollar is at its lowest rate against the pound for years with £1 buying $1.90. This gives UK consumers massive purchasing power in the States especially for electronic and branded goods, whether it's being physically there or just ordering from US websites which deliver to the UK (though beware of customs charges). Thus I wanted to tap MoneySavers' collective knowledge to find what and where to find bargains. Add your thoughts or read others Related Article: The Cheapest Way To Spend Overseas (or on overseas websites) (mini-mutterings) Past Great Hunts: Pricebeaters Plus, Use Less Water and Free Info

Watch and Listen to this e-mail! Audio, Video, Podcast and more
Each week I record a 'muttering' commentary on the top tips in this email. You can now watch a video podcast or listen to an audio version on Itunes sites. There's also a P SPcast or you can download a windows media player version. Read an explanation and feel free to discuss it

Free credit information now expanded to London, but there's a sneaky route for all
A new company offering a free Annual Credit Report for all, is launching region by region. London has just been added to Devon, Cornwall, Wales and the West Country. If you're not in one of the areas covered yet though don't worry; anyone can get a free credit report by exploiting a loophole; simply sign up for a free 30 day trial of either (or both) Experian's Credit Expert* or Equifax's Credit Watch*, get your report, then cancel the service. For more information read the Updated Articles: Your Credit Rating, How It Works and Check And Improve Your Credit Score Related Articles: Cheapest Personal Loans, Best Lend for Spend

Nectar Double Rewards Watch This week 2 for 1 movie and game rentals

Need a loan? Act Quick! Existing loans and credit cardholders - no worries
If you already have a loan, no problem, the vast majority of loan rates are fixed at outset, so this rise means nothing to you. If you have a credit card, again standard rates aren't impacted heavily by base rate moves, and most regular MoneySavers should be on regular, low fixed rates. However if you need a new loan, now's the time to act; loans have been at near historic low rates recently and it's possible this rise will increase their rate. Top uninsured loans: Moneyback* 5.6%, Barclaycard* 5.7% - top credit scorers may also try the Zopa* loan brokerage. Better still read the pros & cons in the Cheapest Personal Loans article. Related Articles: Credit Card Balance Transfers, Cheapest Credit Cards for Purchases

Savers - what you should do
If you have savings then the rate rise means you should get paid more (hoorah). Sadly the benefits are never as quick to come through for savers as the costs are to be added to mortgages. Some providers have already increased rates, but not all. These will trickle through over the next month, and then it'll be possible to take a judgement on the new best providers. One thought; when rates increase the cost of debts tends to increase higher than the benefit of savings. If you've both it's a really good time to consider paying off debts with savings. Related Articles: Where To Start With Saving, Instant Access Savings, Best Mini Cash ISAs, Cash ISA Transfers, Regular Savings

Northern Ireland MoneySaving: Board of the Week
The first time I went to N. Ireland was to do a programme called The Kelly Show. While researching beforehand I was shocked at how sub-served NI is compared to the rest of the UK for banks, insurance retailers and other companies. There's less choice and more charges. Afterwards I set up the Northern Ireland MoneySaving board to try and help (and after it thrived added the England, Scotland and Wales boards too). Discussions include Cheap buildings & contents insurers, Belfast car boot sales and Cheap parking at Belfast International Airport

FLIGHTCHECKER SALES WATCH  Alicante, Faro & Malaga c. £20 each way
Budget airline Thomsonfly currently has destinations from Bournemouth at £1.99 each way. When you add in its taxes and charges this becomes roughly £20 in total. For a full briefing read the How To Find a Cheap Flight article or go straight to the special free FlightChecker to find the seats in seconds

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare: Great 'What I Wish I'd Known Before I Retired' Hunt Result
Last week I asked Retired MoneySavers to give others suggestions on things to do before they finish work. What I Wish I'd Known Before I Retired. Tips you had include Got a final salary scheme?, Keeping your house deeds and Do a 10 year plan

This week's Martin's Musings: A suicidal call is hard to ignore
'One way to get grandma to see my house' and 'Is debt bad?' Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

One Show heads up and Jeremy Vine note:  The first of my pieces on the new BBC1 One Show starts next Wed, 16 August, 7pm, BBC1. Plus, if you joined the email list after my Radio 2 Jeremy Vine slot on Friday and want more info read these: Sneakily Get Free Mortgage Advice, International CallChecker, Credit Card Minimum Repayments, Nappy MoneySaving

How risky are you? poll: If offered a wager on a month's salary on the single toss of a (fair) coin, what's the lowest odds at which you'd take the bet? Vote or Discuss. Vote result: MoneySpending Expert .... I asked you to pick the item you thought the most extravagant. 36% of you said it was the diamond encrusted tea bag. See poll results

Bunny-tastic, Bunny-marvellous, BunnySaving. That's it for this week, however I have to show you this before I go. A group of cartoon bunny actors has teamed together to recreate some of the greatest films of all time. Bunny Wars anyone?

I hope you save some money

Martin

*links: Any links with a * by them are affiliated. That means go via this link and a contribution may be made to MoneySavingExpert.com, which helps it stay ad-free and free to use. You shouldn't notice any difference, the links don't impact the product at all and the editorial line (the things I write) is NEVER impacted by it. If it isn't possible to get an affiliate link for the best product, nothing changes, it's still included in exactly the same way. As I believe transparency is important, I'm including the following 'un-affiliated' web-addresses for the same things: postoffice.co.uk, energyhelpline.com, uswitch.com, amazon.co.uk, american-express.co.uk, alliance-leicester.co.uk, experian.co.uk, equifax.co.uk, conran.com, mbloan.co.uk, barclayloan.co.uk, zopa.com, barclaycard.co.uk. Read more about this site and how it's financed.