YOUR BANK OWES YOU MONEY! Reclaim six years of unfair charges. New Step-by-Step guide
If during the last six years, you've received bank or credit card penalty charges for going beyond your overdraft limit or bouncing cheques or Direct Debits, there's growing belief these charges are unlawful and you can force your bank to give you £100s or £1,000s back. I've been banging on about this for a year, yet previously the article was a higgledy piggle of sources. So now I've written an all encompassing, totally 'do-it-all' guide; with free template letters, and a "charge 'em interest" calculator on top. Go on, have a read, get your cash back. New Article: Reclaim Unfair Bank Charges (mini-mutterings) Related Articles: Endowment Mis-selling Compensation, Top Current Account. Also new: Reclaim Bank Charges Board
Please tell everyone you know or forward this to them, let's give banks a bloody nose! UK Hotel Rooms £15/night over Xmas hols. There's a massive Travelodge sale 17 Dec to 21 Jan
Earn 5.45% on Savings. Massive new best buy. Updated Article
On Thursday the Bank of England increased UK interest rates by 0.25%, causing an instant shuffle in the savings world and giving us a new top player. ICICI* is back to the number one spot, paying a huge 5.45% and you only need £1 to open it and it's a clean account with no tricks. Loads of other rates have shifted too, so do read the Updated Article: Top Instant Access Savings Account Related Articles: Where To Start With Savings, Regular Savings Accounts, Top Cash ISAs26" HD Ready LCD TV - £320 all in Hi-tech telly from Amazon Can you find it cheaper? New cheapest ever personal loan: 5.5% APR. Act Quick
Despite the base rate rising last week, a new loan, equalling the all-time lowest uninsured rate, has hit the market. Barclaycard*, through an short term exclusive deal with commercial price comparison Moneysupermarket (the link takes you there), is offering a rock bottom 5.5% if you're borrowing £4,000 and over. This rate is fixed for the life of the loan, meaning that not only will you have beaten this Bank of England rate rise, but you won't be affected by future hikes either. So, if you need a new loan, act now. Better still read the pros & cons and other options in the Cheapest Personal Loans article (mini-mutterings). Related Articles: Top Balance Transfers, Best Lend For Spend STOP YOUR FRIENDS WASTING CASH! PLS SUGGEST THEY GET THIS EMAIL How do you turn £120 into £480 in MFI? Don't save Tesco Clubcard vouchers for Xmas shopping!
Regular MoneySavers will already have this etched on their brains, but for newbies, a reminder; never, ever, ever spend Tesco Clubcard vouchers in-store. Instead quadruple their value by redeeming them from Tesco's special Clubcards Deals brochure. It includes shopping vouchers, magazine subscriptions, gifts and days out. I included this in my 12 Saves Of Christmas article and one MoneySaver's replied, "Thank you! I've converted £120 Club Card points into £480 MFI vouchers and ordered my new bedroom furniture. I was saving them for my Christmas food shopping!" Full Details: Boost Your Loyalty Points Related Article: Cutting Edge Internet Shopping Techniques Free mascara, 20% off Warehouse and other magazine freebies MoneySaver MBN has kindly compiled a list of all the freebies in magazines this month. It's in the mag Loophole! Free £20 John Lewis voucher; just open an HSBC online saver
HSBC is offering a £20 John Lewis voucher when you open its Online Saver account which pays a decent but not table topping 4.75%, so simply open the account, dunk £500 in it and grab the voucher. Loophole info BASE RATES UP 0.25% What to do with your mortgage
If you've a discount, variable, capped or standard deal, your repayments will increase by roughly £20 per month for each £100K outstanding. There are two ways to reduce this: where possible use any savings to pay off a lump sum so you owe less and/or if you're not tied into your current deal switch to a better rate. This is called remortgaging and the savings from doing this can easily outweigh any increase in base rates. If you've a fixed rate , then your rate won't change... as it's fixed! Full, free printed Remortgage guide: either instantly download a PDF or order a printed version, more info. Also see The Mortgage Guide: PDF, free printed version, more info Grab a free new MoneySavingExpert.com 'Legally Rob A Bank' car sticker Just send an SAE |
Lloyds TSB or HBOS customer that lost out to Farepak? Good news!
Good news for Lloyds TSB and HBOS customers that bought and paid for stuff using their debit or credit cards. Both have offered to reimburse those that lost out to Farepak. Simply write a letter to the bank including details of your Farepak purchases. For full details see the updated note Farepak: what to do now
Didn't get last week's free £50 voucher? Don't worry there's still a free MP3 player and flights!
In last week's e-mail, my top tip was how to get a free £50 voucher for Christmas, by grabbing the freebie on a Citibank credit card. Sadly within 24 hours of sending the email Citibank pulled the deal as it was oversubscribed, after it'd previously confirmed it'd be available until December. Hence why I send the email, to make sure you don't miss out. Luckily all the other freebies are still running, and if you did apply for the voucher card on time, it will honour the applications. Updated Article: Credit Card Freebies Related Articles: Earn 3% Cashback On All Spending MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Would you give Santa the sack to save cash?
A family is struggling to make ends meet this Christmas, but their two children aged 6 and 8 are looking forward to Santa's presents, especially because 'Santa is giving their friends a playstation/TV/expensive gifts' and as they've been 'good this year' they're expecting them too. So should they explain Santa doesn't exist and they can't afford the toy or go into debt to keep the myth alive? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Give santa the sack? Previous MMDs: Can kids buy anything they want?, Would you get them sacked?
Great Cheap 'Christmas Booze' Hunt
Now's the time to start getting into the Christmas spirit as supermarkets and shops offer cheap deals and discounts on Christmas booze. So I thought I'd tap MoneySavers' collective knowledge to find the top deals on Christmas tipple. Add your ideas/read others Past Great Hunts: Cheap Fake Tan, Cheap But Romantic Gifts and and Pricebeaters Plus Quick Chat Tips Warning! Bargains listed here tend to sell out quickly | | |
Double your charity donations at no cost... ends soon. For every tenner you give it'll be matched
There's currently an added twist to the Gift Aid scheme, which allows charities to reclaim tax on your donations, but it only applies in specific circumstances. If you work for a company of under 500 employees, that sets up a 'payroll giving scheme' before the end of Dec. (or has set it up since April 2004) it will get cash for doing so and for the first £10 you donate a month, between now and March the Govt. will match it. So overall you could give £100 at an after tax cost to you of just £39. Full details in the Updated Article: Give To Charity For Less Related Articles: Ditch Charity Cards, Feed The Starving At No Cost, MoneySavingExpert.com Charity Fund FLIGHTCHECKER SALES WATCH Pisa, Oslo, & Brussels c. £15 each way
Budget airline Ryanair currently has a range of destinations at 1p each way. When you add in its taxes and charges this becomes roughly £15 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 The Great 'Games Console' Hunt. Results
Last week I asked MoneySavers to scout out cheap games console packages in preparation for Christmas gifts. Suggestions included XBox 360 premium at Boots.com, exchanging old for new consoles and ultimate MoneySaving: IOUs Board of the week: Silver Savers
There's a host of discounts and deals exclusively for the more mature MoneySaver. The Silver Saver's board is a mine of information for the over 50's. Discussions include Grants for new boilers, Discounts for the over 50's and Grow old disgracefully
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Site users terms and conditions tweak Just a quick heads up that the site's terms and conditions have been tweaked slightly along lines of the FSA guidelines about discussions of investments in the chat forum. Read the Terms & Conditions and/or the privacy statement and more about these changes On the box this week: Catch my regular slot on LK Today (Wed between 8.45am and 9.15am) Keep updated on appearances This week's Martin's Musings: Grrrr….. If I hear ‘renting is just throwing money away' again
'750,000 thank yous and a tiny tiny wee confession' and ''Gu puds squashed". Read m'blogs (or RSS users access) A billion pounds or your dream? Vote and Discuss. Last week's vote result: Is it nicer in an ISA? Almost half of you mainly use mini cash ISAs to stash your savings. For the 17% that don't know what an ISA is or don't have one read Where To Start With Savings or if you've got debts read Pay Off Debts With Savings. See poll results
Pimpmybin Old-Stylers and I'll give you £50. That's it for this week, but before I go, check this out. There's a new website offering to 'pimpmybin' for £12, ie they decorate your wheelie bin so it's less likely to be stolen. Now I know thrifty MoneySavers on the Old-Style board like to DIY everything, so I'm going to offer £50 for the best Pimpmybin
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: energyhelpline.com, uswitch.com, american-express.co.uk, morganstanley.com, alliance-leicester.co.uk, mbloan.co.uk, icicibank.co.uk, amazon.co.uk, icicibank.co.uk, barclaycard.co.uk. Read more about this site and how it's financed. |
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