Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

Cheap Hotel Prices. Get the best hotel & hostel deals here and abroad. New Article
Whether it's five star luxury or a cheap place to lay your head, knowing where to book can scorch down your costs; e.g. prices for a fortnight in one 4 star Marbella hotel varied from £1,420 to £2,200. My new article takes you through finding the right hotel or hostel, and then minimising the price you pay. Plus special tips include how to book UK hotels for a quarter of their cost. New Article: Cheap Hotel Finding Related Articles: Cheap Flights, Travel Money Maximiser, Cheap Travel Insurance, Package Holidays

QUICK! Free £1,000 Dental Accident Insurance. Everyone should get it (but it's limited) Related Article: Cheapest Dental Insurance

URGENT! Ditch & switch energy providers now or risk being locked in
The regulator Ofgem's just changed the rules so gas & elec providers can now lock us into year long contracts; it's responding to providers' claims that they can’t afford to dole out energy saving equipment unless they know customers will stay. They’re likely to start introducing lock-ins any time, so do a comparison now to see if you can switch & save, to beat it. My top pick comparison service is energyhelpline* which also pays cashback or better there are more options in the Article: Cheapest Gas & Elec plus cashback Related Article: Cheapest Home Phone

Free £3 USB memory stick. Just get a newspaper voucher next weekend

Home Insurance costs up 10%. Beat the price rise and get up to £75 cashback
Norwich Union's said it’ll raise home insurance costs by an average 10%; and other insurers look set to follow. To beat this, simply use my usual four-step home insurance cost cutting system; which includes using screenscrapers Moneysupermarket*, Confused.com* and Compare the Market*; between them they speedily provide quotes from 20 brokers and 26 direct insurers. If that doesn’t beat your price then currently Churchill*, Norwich Union* and Barclays* all promise something like “if we can’t beat your renewal we’ll give you cashback”. Full details in the Updated Article: Cheapest Home Insurance Related Articles: Cheapest Car Insurance, Cheapest Boiler Cover

Half price North America flights. If you're a mastercard customer. American Airlines Related Article: Cheap Flights

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

Kids DVDs 25p to rent at Blockbuster stores. All Summer long

Changed Mortgage In The Last 6 Years? Reclaim £150 in 5 minutes. Updated Article
Mortgage lenders have just had to justify to the regulator (the FSA) why the ‘exit fees’ they charge when you shift lender or repay a mortgage are so high. Thus many have scrapped their fees, though a few have just renamed them. More importantly, the FSA has reminded lenders to allow old customers to reclaim most of the exit fee they were charged. This is because while your contract probably said the fee’d be £50, you’d have been charged much more, possibly £200 and you can get the difference back. Even if you don’t know what you were charged, it's easy to do with a phone call. Updated Article: Mortgage Fee Reclaiming Related Articles: Cheapest Remortgage Guide, Cheapest Mortgage Guide, Bank Charges Reclaiming

British Airways & Virgin Fuel Duty Fines. Can you reclaim them? Read my blog

Interest Rates Unchanged. Perfect time to sort savings out. Earn 6.3%
The Bank of England's recent decision to leave interest rates unchanged at 5.75% makes it the perfect time to switch your savings products. When rates are increasing, some accounts respond instantly, others wait, so comparisons are muddled as it's not like with like. Yet currently the playing field is level. The top instant access savings account is ICICI* at 6.3%, or if you haven’t used this year's £3,000 tax-free cash ISA allowance. NS&I pays 6.3% too. Updated Articles: Top Savings Account, Top Cash ISA, Where To Start Saving

Wagamamas 2for1 voucher. Nationwide, every week, all Summer. Grab your local paper

Great 'What Can You Blag On Holiday' Hunt
You've found a Cheap Flight, you've booked a Cheap Hotel and you're about to touch down in your perfect holiday destination. What I want to know is what are the best things to blag from hotels or elsewhere on holiday. What are your top tips on getting the best rooms, bagging extra meals or free excursions? Add your ideas/read others Past Great Hunts: Medical Tourism, Disguised Own Brand, Airport Parking

Did you sign up for the e2save Virgin 6 month mobile deal? It was in this e-mail 4 months ago. Some have reported problems with the cashback. Don't worry there's a fix. Report problems here

MoneySavers say....No! To the BBC licence fee! Poll result
A massive 12,000 of you voted last week to have your say about the BBC's licence fee. And 68% think that the BBC licence fee isn't worth it; in other words more than twice as many are opposed than in favour. View Results: BBC Licence Fee Poll Discuss: BBC Licence Fee Discussion

Call Pakistan for 1p/min, this week only. See the Int CallChecker for details

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should Walter's mum pay for Dennis' temper tantrum?
Dennis, a rather unruly lad, is invited by his best friend Walter to play during the summer holidays. While all three are out in the garden playing mini-rounders, Dennis becomes frustrated by his lack of ability to catch, so snatches the ball from Walter and throws it straight through a neighbour’s window, smashing it. Walter ’s mum feels she supervised the kids as best as possible and couldn’t have prevented the malicious incident. Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should Walter's mum pay for Dennis' temper tantrum? Previous MMDs: Should Darth take money from his kids' accounts? and Grant's been overpaid, should he keep it?

MoneySavingExpert on the box/wireless
If you like to watch as well as read about MoneySaving, I’ll be appearing on the following programmes over the next week or so.

• Vine, Radio 2, Friday, between 1-1.40 pm. This week in my regular weekly slot I’ll be discussing Premium Bonds.
• The Jo Whiley Show, Radio 1, Tuesday 14 August, Midday.

Keep updated on appearances: Changes and updates go in the Updated appearances list
Feedback on appearances: Discuss or add your thoughts on MoneySaving in the Media

This week's Martin's Blog: 1,000,000 dinner. Thank you forumites and board guides
'British Airways & Virgin Reclaiming?' and 'Just Met Our Debt Dieter Champion'. Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

Is Global Warming Happening? This week's poll. Vote and Global Warming Discussion

Free Game of the Week. The Paperplane Challenge How far can you throw?

Disorder in court. That’s it for this week, but before I go, as sadly most Bank Charges cases don’t look likely to be heard for a while, a little court humour from the states to make you chuckle. Who cares if it’s true, they’re funny.

I hope you save some money

Martin

Explanation of * Links

FSA NOTE: Referring people to insurers or insurance intermediaries can in some circumstances require FSA authorisation. For this reason, Martin Lewis of Shepherd's Studios, Rockley Road, Shepherd's Bush, London W14 0DA is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

How this site is financed. 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, 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: icicibank.co.uk, moneysupermarket.com, confused.com, comparethemarket.com, barclays.co.uk, norwichunion.co.uk, barclaycard.co.uk, natwest.com, rbs.co.uk, icicibank.co.uk, talktalk.co.uk, norwichunion.com, churchill.com. Read more about this in how this site is financed.