Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email
Grab £100 in time for Christmas,
5% off stamps, Cheaper car insurance
And much, much more MoneySaving...
'Give 50p for Free to Children in Need' raised £8,203! It was huge. Last week the site pledged to give 50p to each new recipient of the e-mail before last Sunday, and staggeringly there were over 16,000 newbies (see details). Thanks so much to all who suggested friends and family get this free e-mail. The money's been donated
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Buy from the US. With the pound super-strong, massive savings can be available
As £1 buys over $2, the pound's at its strongest against the dollar for around 25 years. Thus buy from US websites or go there in person and massive
savings are possible e.g. the Heroes boxset is over £40 here and £20 there. Yet add in customs duty, VAT and delivery charges and these can rapidly eat away at any savings. This brand new article explores buying from the US whether in person or on the web and how to maximize your savings if you do. New Article: How To Buy From The US Related Articles:
Cheap Flights, Cheap Hotels, Cheapest Online Shopping
Major Booze Discount. 25% off Tesco online & in-store, 33% off Morrisons & Thresher 40% off voucher Bottoms Up!
Cheapest Car Insurance. Save £100s now, even if you’re not at renewal. New Article
Car insurance prices drop at the end of the year, as there’s little demand. Even if you’re not at your renewal, provided you’ve not claimed, many insurers will give a pro-rata refund if you cancel; so you can still switch and save. As the comparison services
all cover different insurers, this new analysis devises the perfect combination, giving the widest comparison in the shortest time. Follow this order, and do as many as you can, Moneys’market*, Confused*, compareTM*, Tesco Comp, Uswitch*
and Gocompare*; even doing them all shouldn’t take more than 20 mins. Yet, you can go further, using additional techniques in the article, some get insurance for under £100/year. Read the New Article: Cheapest Car Insurance Related Insurance MoneySaving:
Home, Travel, Medical,
Breakdown, Boiler Coming next week: Van and Bike Insurance
Eurostar tickets from £25 (in clubcard points). Hints, tips & tricks to cutting the cost. Channel the savings
Need Quick Cash For Christmas? Grab £100 of Mortgage Exit Fees with a 5 min call
It may sound an odd Christmas reminder, yet anyone who’s shifted to a new mortgage deal or paid off their mortgage in their last six years, can get quick cash with ease. It’s very likely your old mortgage lender charged too much for its Mortgage Exit Fee when you left, and if so it's been told by
the regulator it must give you back the amount it overcharged, usually around £100. This only takes a five minute call to do and you should have the cash in time for winter festivities. Article: Mortgage Fee Reclaiming also see
Success Reports Other Reclaiming: PPI/loan insurance, Endowments,
Credit Card Charges, Bank Charges, Lost Assets
5% off first class postage stamps. Bulk buy quickly from Superdrug. Stamp down costs
STOP YOUR FRIENDS WASTING CASH! PLS SUGGEST THEY GET THIS EMAIL
Feed the starving by playing a game Free charity giving
WARNING! Got outstanding credit card debts? Credit crunch will hit balance transfers!
If you've got existing credit card debts, it's time to consider your strategy. It's now more difficult to be accepted for new 0% deals and get decent credit limits, unless you've a top credit score.
For safety there are two options to help. 1. Get longer term deals: when your current deal ends, shift debts to cheap long term balance transfer deals e.g.Goldfish* 3.9% for 3 years (with 3% fee) or Citi Plat* 5.8% 'life of balance'.
This way there's no chance of being in the lurch in future; full info in Best Balance Transfers 2. Get cheaper debt without new credit: You can use your existing cards more efficiently, saving money and protecting your credit rating, read the
Credit Card Shuffle Related Article: Problem Debt Help
2for1 meals in Cafe Rouge Get a voucher from The Independent (80p) until Friday Oo La La
New Top Savings Accounts. 6.5% sounds good, but it isn’t for most
There’s a new top sounding rate offered by Alliance & Leicester* eSaver; it's paying 6.5%, which sounds like a market leader; yet like a baboon, there’s a seriously big but(t). First of all, 0.35% of this is a bonus, and drops after fourteen months,
plus if you withdraw money, you lose all the interest for that month. After number crunching, for almost everyone, the ICICI* clean savings account at 6.41% with a good rate guarantee until Dec 2011 is much better. Updated Article:
Top Savings Account Related Articles: Regular Savings, Are Your Savings Safe?
Reminder. Free £55 2GB mp3 player & free £25 cash loopholes. Just spend on a credit card
Free Video guide to student living, funding
& borrowing
No-one in the UK should be put off studying because of the potential debt.
While the system of student finance has changed, public understanding hasn't
caught up. I was recently fortunate enough to be asked to give a talk to 500 students and parents in a West End theatre at my old uni, the LSE. It was all about financially surviving student life; and it's now up on the site as a free video guide. Full Guide
& Video: Student
Finance Guide Related Articles: Top
Student Accounts, Student
Loans & Grants, Should
I Pay Off My Student Loan?
Reminder! If your mortgage deal ends in the next three months start remortgaging now! Free Remortgage Guide: Instant Pdf or Printed
Ensure you don't miss out, get these tips e-mailed each week
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WARNING!
Amazon Prime ain't so fine!
Amazon's pushing its new, free one-day delivery service costing £49 annually;
yet spend over £15 in one go and you get free super saver delivery anyway.
You'd need to buy 34 DVDs or CDs, or 18 books from Amazon
in a year without exceeding the £15 threshold for it to be worthwhile.
Full details on the best way to shop at Amazon are in the Article: Cheap
Online Shopping Related Articles: Supermarket
Shopping, Stop
Spending, Top
Cashback Sites
Reminder! 25% off Debenhams pre-Christmas sale! Wed 21 to Fri 23 Sale away!
Free travel for footy fans; save fuel and the environment
Whether you're a fan of Man U (pah!) or Man City (hurrah!) if you regularly travel to watch your team play football then there's a nifty little site that puts you in touch with other fans to car share, and sometimes provides free coach travel to matches Carbon Footy
Call Bangladesh for 1p/min. Special post cyclone reduction. Related Article: Cheap Int'l Calls
You’ve
had the Teen Cash Guide, now play the ‘Serious Policy’ Game with your kids
The free Teen
Cash Guide from this site’s been hugely successful with over 50,000 downloaded
in the last month. So I thought you’d like to know about Serious Policy, a free game that’s been brought out by Playgen the educational
software maker to show kids about politics.
CHEAP FLIGHTS SALES ALERT
Airline: Ryanair.
Price: £10 e/w. Ends: Midnight Thurs 22 Nov
Ryanair's selling 4 million seats from a range of UK airports to over 90 European destinations for £10 inc. taxes & charges. Tickets are at this price on selected flights travelling between 1 Dec and 12 March '08 until midnight Thursday 22nd Nov. How to
quickly find the sales flights: Don’t go direct, instead use
the Budget Airline
FlightChecker and ask it to find all flights under £11. Non-Budget Airline Tools: These are listed
in the Cheap
Flights article. Related Travel
MoneySaving: Cheap
Hotels, Spending
Abroad, Cheap Currency, Travel
Insurance, Mobile Roaming
MONEY
MORAL DILEMMA. Should Axl pay back his mates?
Axl goes out for a slap up dinner with four chums at the Jungle restaurant in Paradise City. Afterwards his friend Slash, an accountancy student, works out how much everyone owes. The rest leave the cash on the table and dash off to get a train, leaving Axl to actually pay. When he does, he realises that together they’ve left £20 too much; as Slash added a tip to the total, when service was included. Thus each is owed £4, and it’ll be a hassle to get it all to them, should he keep quiet or hand them back the cash?
Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should Axl pay back his mates? Previous MMDs: Is it time to cut Tracey off? and Should Sharon pay to clean Tracey up?
Great
'Christmas Day MoneySaving Dinner, Games, Booze and more' Hunt
Whether you're looking for a cheaper alternative to turkey this Christmas, hunting for deals on booze or on the look-out for something to do after dinner other than watch the Queen's speech, I'd like to tap MoneySavers' huge collective research powers to find
the cheapest sources of Christmas dinner, booze games and more Add your ideas/read other peoples':
Great Christmas Day MoneySaving Dinner, Games, Booze & More Hunt Past
Great Hunts: Join Up & Save, Airport Parking, Double Use
Quick
Forum Tips
Warning! Bargains listed here tend to
sell out quickly
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Board of the week: Health & Beauty MoneySaving
Looking good and feeling great always puts a spring in your step, although many don't realise a little pampering needn't cost the earth. The Health & Beauty board offers a wealth of information and ideas. Discussions include Are sonic toothbrushes worth the money?, Dental work in Eastern Europe and Boots vitamin bargains
Great 'Make it last longer'
Hunt Result
Nobody enjoys spending money on consumables; after all, you're only going to have to buy more. So, last week I asked for top tips on extending products' lives so you needn't buy so many. The response was excellent, and there were some great suggestions, including
Extend soap life, A few ideas and Pump action hair cleaning
Babysafe Seminars, Scottish Attractions, Possible 500 Nectar Points, |
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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.
- LK Today, ITV1 Wednesday between 8.45-9.15 am. Watch me on my regular slot each week
- The Vine Show, Radio 2, Friday, 1pm. Talking aboout Building Societies vs Banks.
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: Delicious Irony: Getting a ‘Great Briton Award’ from a bank
"Downshift Challenge Failure" and "A personal brand money site… it’ll never work!". Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)
Should squatters have rights? This week's poll. Vote and Squatters' rights discussion
Should the clocks have gone back? No! Last Week's Vote. It seems the vast majority would prefer an extra hour of sunshine (well, light at least) in the afternoon. Overall, 82% of voters opposed the clock change, including the majority of Scots. See Clock change poll results
Archna's Free
Game of the Week! Whack the haggis!
Sometimes TV can be sick. That’s it for this week, but before I go, there’s a video doing the rounds of m’fellow on-air TV folk at the moment, about a Swedish presenter who had a very unfortunate time, though you do have to admire her guts
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: moneysupermarket.com, confused.com, comparethemarket.com, gocompare.com, tescocompare.com, goldfish.com, plusnet.com, alliance-leicester.co.uk, uswitch.co.uk, icicibank.com. Read more about this in how this site is financed.
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