Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

11 April 2007: Get 10 quid free, switch gas & elec, new ISA year, free Ben & Jerry's, sub-£100 sat navs and much more MoneySaving...

This info may be out of date.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

Time to Switch Gas & Elec,
Free Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream,
Sub-£100 Sat Navs,
And much, much more MoneySaving...

Watch out for new credit card charges. RBS credit cards, which include Mint & NatWest, are introducing more charges. Gift vouchers bought on them will now be at the hefty 'cash withdrawal' interest rate (around 25%), plus from May 1, it'll charge £12 if you move house without informing (i.e. when it gets two returned statements). More info/discuss.

Help friends and family avoid the traps. The number of new charges credit card companies levy has been growing. Vigilance is the key, to help people avoid them, please suggest to friends/family add themselves to this e-mail's distribution list at
moneysavingexpert.com/tips

MARTIN'S MONEY MUTTERINGS
A video/audio commentary on this e-mail

THIS WEEK INCLUDES: A shout out to supermarket workers
Plus bish, bash, bosh: get a free tenner

VIDEO
Watch it now/ Podcast/ PSPCast (help)

AUDIO
Podcast / Listen: Hi/Lo / Download: Hi/Lo (help)

(Discuss this week's mutterings)

		The Ones Not To Miss	MSE

TIME TO SWITCH. Find the cheapest gas & elec provider and earn up to £30 cashback
Having said 'don't switch' for the last few months, my best guess is now 'SWITCH'! My informants (they're reliable but not infallible) reckon EDF and Scottish Power, the only two providers yet to announce price cuts, have expensive supply contracts and will take time to drop prices, which, even then, aren't likely to be too competitive. So there's no reason not to compare and save. My top pick comparison service, Energyhelpline*, pays £15 cashback if it can switch you (only via this special link); though other comparison services have different offers, including champagne. Full details in the Updated Article: Cheapest Gas & Elec (mini mutterings) Related Articles: Cut Water Bills, Switch Car Insurance

Free £10 for A&L, First Direct & HSBC customers Sign up for mobile banking (mini mutterings) Related Article: Best Bank Account + free £50

New ISA Year. Another £3,000 per person can be saved at 6.5% tax-free. Updated Article
Apologies to all who got fed up of me shouting 'use it before you lose it' for the close of the last ISA year on 5 April. But, now it's the 2007/8 tax year, everyone gets a brand new ISA allowance, so I'm at it again. If you've any savings, and don't have plans to invest in shares, you should be shoving it in a cash ISA; the current top payer is Barclays Taxbeater at 6.5% interest, but a raft of other choices are in the Updated Article: Best Cash ISAs Related Articles: ISA Guide, Savings Guide, Top Instant Access Savings

Sub-£100 Satellite Navigation System: Can you beat it?

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

Great 'supermarket staff, tell us your reduction policies' Hunt
The hottest supermarket reductions are on fresh goods that are going out of date, but what’s the best time to grab these goodies? I’d like any MoneySavers who work, or have worked, in supermarkets to dish the dirt on stores’ official reduction policies. What times of day do you reduce prices? How big are the discounts? How are they decided? Add your ideas/read others (mini mutterings) Past Great Hunts: Disguised Own Brand, How Much to Tip Overseas and Cut The Cost of Moving Home

Free Ben and Jerry's ice cream Next Tues, 17 April

Got an old bank account/investments? If you don't stake a claim, Mr. Brown may!
The Treasury’s announced it wants to take old bank accounts (untouched for over 15 years) and put them into a centralised good causes fund. Yet if this money is yours (or a deceased relatives’) you can get it back easily, alongside forgotten investments and pensions, without paying a penny. Updated Article: Reclaim Lost Assets (mini mutterings) Related Articles: Bank Charges Reclaiming, Council Tax Cashback, Reclaim Mortgage Fees

New cheapest personal loan 6.1%. Updated Article
The new cheapest uninsured loan is an exclusive deal price comparison website moneysupermarket has with the Bank of Scotland* (this link takes you directly there) charging 6.1% provided you're borrowing over £7,000. If you're borrowing less, then the cheapest rates have increased, for £4,000 to £7,000 it's 6.3% with Barclaycard loans* and for under £4,000 it's Northern Rock* at 6.4%. For more options including cheapest insured loans, and for those who struggle to get new credit read the Updated Article: Cheap Loans Related Articles: Best Lend for Spend, Credit Card Shuffle

The Don't Forgets

12 month 0% debt switching deal: HSBC*. Read Article
12 month 0% on new spending: Halifax*, Read Article
Cut Car & Home Insurance! Car Insurance/Home Insurance Cost Cutting
Cheap Personal Loan 6.1% Read Article
Ever Switched Mortgage? You may've overpaid £100s in fees. Mortgage Fee Reclaiming
Reclaim six years' unfair bank charges: Read the full Bank Charge Reclaiming Guide
Top Current Account plus £50 refer-a-friend cash: A&L* Read Article
Free CDs + DVDs, flights or £15 Read the article
MoneySaving Books: The Money Diet and Thrifty Ways, Read More
Free MoneySavingExpert car sticker Grab one

		More MoneySaving	MSE

Is your loan/credit card agreement legit? Some aren't. Should challenges be encouraged?

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should Sandy pay off Danny’s debts?
Danny and Sandy have just got engaged. Sandy's very careful with her cash and has got some savings, but Danny's systematically run up some electrifyingly large debts from suping up his car. While we all know Danny better shape up, should Sandy pay the debts of the one that she wants? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should Sandy pay off Danny's debts? Previous MMDs: Should Elizabeth tell Charles he can't go on the trip? and Should little sis get a holiday too?

FLIGHTCHECKER SALES WATCH Bratislava, Nîmes & Pisa c. £25 each way
Budget airline Ryanair currently has a range of destinations for 1p each way. When you add in its taxes and charges this becomes roughly £25 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

Quick Chat Tips

Warning! Bargains listed here tend to sell out quickly

Daily Bargains Update

Chat Tips Gold

£12 for 12 She Magazines, plus £50 Body Shop kit Beauty booty!
Free £5 Haha pub grub voucher Bar-my!
Four top Dan Brown books for £8.75 Opus yay!
Free Open University courses First class de-free
Free bag for life at Asda Bag amnesty
Debt Free Wannabe chat of the week: How much do you budget for fun?
Old Style (Thrift) Board thread of the week: It ain't haute cuisine but I like it!
Nominate post of the month for April

Great 'easy computer security and privacy' Hunt Result
Last week I asked MoneySavers for their top tips for keeping their PCs safe (aside from using crucial anti-virus software). Your ideas included Some tips for a techie, Be a savvy emailer, Keep your security updated

Travel, Trips & Holidays: Board of the week
The Easter holidays are almost over, so let the Travel, Trips and Holidays board come to your rescue. This board’s a mine of information to take you through the break, with MoneySavers sharing tips on everything to do with travel, holidays and days out. Discussions include What to buy on a day trip to France, Flying with a toddler for the first time and Doit4real kids' holidays

Andrea's Freebies
Freebies Gold

Estee Lauder Moisturiser, Stanley Blades, PC Cleaning Kit,

Organic Garden For Your School, Anti-Dandruff Shampoo, Dunhill Fragrance

		Odds and Ends	MSE

On the box this week: I'm not on LK Today this week due to Easter, but you can catch me on Classic Gold (Thurs 10:15 am). K eep updated on appearances

This week's Martin's Musings: We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo!
And ''Now even the ads say 'cut up your credit cards''. Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

This week's poll: Do you tip in restaurants? If you go out to eat, and there's no service charge added to the bill, what's your usual, personal tipping policy? Vote and Discuss

Last week's poll result: Over half of you would try to palm off a dodgy note. Of the 6000 who voted, surprisingly, 55% said if they found a fake note in their wallet they’d try to pass it off as real in a shop. See poll results

The bottom line. That's it for this week, however before I go, I just had to show you this website, dedicated to the world's weirdest lavs. Bog blog!

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, moneysupermarket.com, barclaycard.co.uk, northernrock.co.uk, hsbc.co.uk, halifax.co.uk, alliance-leicester.co.uk. Read more about this site and how it's financed.