Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

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Switching Price War! Get £40 crate of wine/cashback when switching.
Moving to the cheapest energy provider can save you £100s. Better still, there’s a cashback price war amongst the free comparison sites to get MoneySavers' business. My top-pick comparison site, due to reliability and feedback, is still Energyhelpline* which pays you £15 cashback per switch, though Moneysupermarket* beats it for cashback on dual fuel switches, paying £30. And now uSwitch* is offering a voucher for a £40 crate of wine. You'll only get the cashback/wine if these companies can actually switch you; plus for most, it only works if you use these specific links. The cashback is paid when your switch is completed, usually after around 60/90 days. For more details, and to increase the savings read the Updated Article: Switch Energy, Get Cashback Related Articles: Boiler Cover, Grant Grabbing, Home Phones

£10 DVD player. In-store and online from Argos, plus cheapest DivX player. Can you beat them?

Child Benefit Data Loss: Are you at risk? Protect yourself for free.
The staggering disappearance of two discs containing 25 million people's data has stoked ID fraud fear up to fever pitch, and whipped up a media storm. Yet is there really something to be afraid of in amongst all the hype? This brief Q&A article explains what's happened, and how to protect yourself for free. Read Article: ID Fraud Risk Related Articles: Protect yourself from ID Fraud, Check your Credit Rating for Free, What is Phishing?

URGENT: Ends 2 Dec. Free £10 Homebase loophole. Just grab its loyalty card. Spend & Save

Cut 33% off your Christmas grocery shop. Take the downshift challenge!
During the magic of Christmas shopping, the supermarkets' witchcraft is at its most spellbinding, targeting our impulses to make us spend on things we don't need. Yet there are myriad ways to fight back (online supermarket comparisons, timing your shopping, recipe planning, deal spotting and more). Most important is the Downshift Challenge, where you try dropping a brand level on everything and then if you can't notice the difference stick with it; dropping just one level's 33% cheaper! For more ways, read the Updated Article: Slash Supermarket Shopping Costs Related Articles: Loyalty Scheme Tricks, Cheapest Online Shopping

High Street Voucher Bonanza. Early Learning Centre (20%), Hamleys (10%), Debenhams (20%), Waterstones (15%), Borders (25%), Oasis (20%) and more. Click 'n' print

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

Beware Mobile Cashback Deals. Phoneboxdirect & Coolnewmobile in administration.
Massive mobile phone discounts are offered in the form of cashback which must be claimed from the retailer, yet the redemption conditions are designed to be difficult, time consuming and easy to miss out on; and disgracefully the business model’s designed on the fact many people won’t qualify. Yet as people learn the tricks, more’ve succeeded leaving two big retailers, Phoneboxdirect & Coolnewmobile, unable to afford to pay out and having to go into administration. Avoid the cashback trap on new mobiles: Cheapest Mobiles Already got one? Phoneboxdirect & Coolnewmobile help article.

Kids, get a free reply from Santa! Just write to Santa, Reindeerland, SAN TA1 and his friends at the Post Office will make sure he gets it and writes back. Full details in the 12 Saves Of Christmas

WARNING. Do you save with Halifax, Barclays, HSBC or Bradford & Bingley? SWITCH!
Over the last month Halifax, Barclays, HSBC and Bradford & Bingley have all dropped the interest rates on some of their savings accounts. Urgently check your rate and compare it to the top clean account ICICI's* 6.41% to see how much you're missing out on. For all the details and alternatives, read the Article: Top Savings Related Articles: Regular Savings, Are Your Savings Safe?

STOP PRESS: New record PPI reclaim, £25,000 back! It's our biggest reported reclaim so far; if you've got a loan or credit card, have you checked the insurance? Reclaim PPI, Other Reclaims

Want a TV debt makeover? I'm looking for case studies for ITV1 Tonight

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Always declare penalty points to your insurer. Car insurance costs could shoot up
One MoneySaver e-mailed me to say he'd not realised he had to declare his speeding cam points to his insurer. When he did, it charged him £900 back-dated as a retrospective rise in premium. Yet if he'd let them know at the time, he could've found out what the price was and ditched & switched; now he's got to fight. By not declaring you risk denying yourself access to a cheaper deal. Article: Cheapest Car Insurance

New cheque clearing regime starts this week. Should be a bit quicker?

CHEAP FLIGHTS SALES ALERT Airline: EasyJet. Price: c.£20 e/w. Ends: When it sells out.
My top pick budget airline sale this week is EasyJet’s sub-£20 inc. taxes & charges to about 25 European destinations from a range of UK airports. Tickets are at this price until they’re sold out but are only available on selected flights. 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 £20. 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

Bike & Van Insurance update. Sorry folks: at the end of the new Cheapest Car Insurance article last week, I said these’d be here this week; they’re not done yet, next week I hope.

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should Rhydian and Beverley ride together?
Rhydian and his new friend Beverley need to go west to London, as they've booked tickets to see Phantom Of The Opera. Upon boarding the train it becomes apparent there's nowhere to sit together in second class, and they don't want to sit apart, else they can't get the party started. The first class carriage on the other hand is totally empty, but they've only got second class tickets. Should they raise themselves up and sit in first class? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should Rhydian and Beverley ride together? Previous MMDs: Should Axl pay back his mates? and Should Victoria be there for Geri and share her bonus?

Great 'Energy Saving' Hunt
Sometimes going cheap can hurt the environment but equally, things that protect the planet can keep more cash in our pockets too. So I thought I'd tap MoneySavers knowledge to come up with ideas on how to save money at the same time as saving the environment. Add your ideas/read other peoples': Great Energy Saving Hunt Past Great Hunts: Store Returns Policy, What to buy on a day trip to France, Cheapest & Best Internet Dating

Board of the week: Scotland MoneySaving
St. Andrew's Day is coming up so I thought it time to focus on all things MoneySaving in Scotland. Discussions include St Andrews Day Celebrations, Wedding venue ideas and Join the Haggis Hunt this Friday

Great 'Christmas Day MoneySaving Dinner, Games, Booze and more' Hunt Result
Christmas day is conventionally a time of excess, yet this needn't mean excess spending. Last week I asked for your top suggestions on cutting the cost of Christmas day whilst keeping the cheer alive. There were some great suggestions including Make your own liqueurs, Are you game? and Freeze the veg

Ensure you don't miss out, get these tips e-mailed each week
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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 Thurs between 8.45-9.15 am. This week my regular slot switches to Thursday and I'll be talking about Gas & Elec and Boiler Cover

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: Can you find me a picture of a baboon's bum?
"A note of comfort for anyone getting older" and "January is starting to look really scary" Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

Who are you? This week's poll. Vote and Who are you? discussion.

Should squatters have rights? Not if you can help it! Last Week’s Vote. A full 59% of you were in favour of changing the law to prevent squatting entirely, whilst 22% thought squatting was okay as long as squatters could easily be moved out once a property was needed again. See the results in the heated Squatter's rights poll discussion.

Archna's Free Game of the Week! Shoot them to boot them. Bubble Shooter

Pillow Fight Club! That's it for this week, but you need to see this. I can't talk about it though as the first rule of pillow fight club is don't talk about Pillow Fight Club

I hope you save some money,

Martin

Explanation of * Links

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: energyhelpline.com, icicibank.com, alliance-leicester.co.uk, talktalk.com, moneysupermarket.com. Read more about this in how this site is financed.