Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

NEW LOOPHOLE. Make £150 of free cash. Legal credit card stoozing trick
Both the Virgin* and MBNA Platinum* credit cards currently have introductory 0% balance transfer deals lasting over a year. Plus, uniquely, for a small fee they allow you to simply pay the money directly into your bank account at the 0% rate. Therefore, get one of these cards, pay your full credit limit in and then put that cash in high rate savings and you’ll be earning interest on money they’ve lent you for free. A £5,000 credit limit can mean over £150 profit. WARNING: this should only be done by those who are debt free and financially competent, please ensure you read the full instructions first; they're in the Updated Article: Stoozing: Make Free Cash Related Articles: Best Balance Transfers, Top Savings Accounts, Top Cashback Cards If you're confused, watch the video muttering on this for help

Free £21 Biotherm (posh) body lotion if you buy a £3 magazine Bargain Christmas pressie

Festive Fivers Winners. The best sub-£5 gift ideas for adults & kids. New Article
A couple of weeks ago we ran a Festive Fivers competition to find the best Christmas presents for under £5. Thanks to all the MoneySavers who supplied hundreds of brilliant entries, and the site regulars who short listed them. The top picks include get a cartoon of yourself, an away day for £1, a personal football programme, make your own slime and many, many more. Read the New Article: Festive Fivers: Top Xmas Pressies Under A Fiver Related Articles: The 12 Saves Of Christmas, Xmas Savings Stamps

Free 350ml bottle of Diet Coke. Go into Boots, get its free Nov/Dec magazine and there's a voucher

Last Chance. 50% off home insurance. Get a quote even if you're not at renewal
Until Tuesday 11 Dec, Tesco* is offering 50% off its home insurance if you get it online. Better still, the quote holds for 90 days, so even if you're not at renewal, get a quote now and if it's cheapest buy later. Yet it won't definitely be cheapest, so before grabbing it, check its price against my usual plan to compare the market including using screenscraping websites Moneysupermarket*, Confused* & Compare the Market* which whizz details through scores of insurers and brokers to find the cheapest. Full details in the Article: Cheapest Home Insurance Related Articles: Cheapest Car Insurance, Boiler Insurance, Mortgage Life Insurance

Chart and other top CDs at £6. Can you beat it? Related Article: Cheapest Online Shopping

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

High Street Voucher Bonanza Update... Even more discounts this week! H&M (25%), Karen Millen (20%), Faith (20%), All Saints (20%) Cotswold Company (20%), Bargain Crazy (17.5%) and many, many more. Thou shalt not pay full price!

WARNING! Mortgage deal ending in next few months? Don't leave it till the new year
The credit crunch means it's getting more difficult to get a cheap mortgage and rates are flying up. According to economists quoted in the Sunday Times, even if the Bank of England drops rates it mightn't help. Thus if your mortgage deal's ending in the new year, sort it now. It's often possible to bag a deal now to start in a few months. More info in the MoneySaving Remortgage Guide: Instant Pdf Download, 30 page printed version Related Info: New Mortgage Guide, Free House Prices Info, Mortgages & Home

Free £10 for signing up to mobile banking. Now includes Alliance & Leicester
Mobile banking services operator, Monilink, is offering a free £10 to all new users that sign up to its service before the 31 December. Simply sign up, use the service once and wait for the £10 to appear in your bank account. The offer's valid for NatWest, RBS, HSBC, First Direct, Ulster Bank and now Alliance & Leicester customers too. Forum note: Free £10 banking Related Articles: Best Bank Accounts, Bank Charges Reclaiming

Wii-location, Wii-location, Wii-location. Read the top tips on finding one, as well as the cheapest games & accessories Wii, wii, wii all the way home

Cheapest motorbike/moped/scooter insurance & cheapest van Insurance. Save £100s
While MoneySavers have been saving a huge wad for ages with the cheapest car insurance, those driving vans or riding motorbikes have been left out in the cold. So now the same techniques have been applied to these areas to enable you to make huge savings. 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. Read the totally New Articles: Cheapest Van Insurance, Cheapest Motorbike Insurance Related Articles: Cheapest Car Insurance, Cheapest Petrol and Diesel, MOT Cost Cutting

£10 mobile phone Very cheap pay-as-you-go phone on the Orange network. Go quick! Related Article: Cheapest Mobiles

Premium bonds update. The December odds are now in the Premium Bond Probability Calculator

GNER losing its franchise this Sunday. Grab 10% off while you can
Rail company GNER passes the franchise over to National Express East Coast on Sunday, yet tickets can still be bought on the GNER website for travel with the new company. It currently offers 10% off all tickets, and there's no guarantee that'll continue with the new company, so for safety, you may want to buy now. Related Articles: Cheap Train Tickets, Cheap Hotel Prices

Tell Gordon Brown to sort out dodgy mobile cashback deals. Sign the No 10 Petition Related Articles: Cashback Companies Crash, Best Mobile Deals

CHEAP FLIGHTS SALES ALERT Airline: BMI Baby . Price: c.£20 e/w. Ends: When it sells out.
My top pick budget airline sale this week is BMI Baby’s sub-£25 inc. taxes & charges flights to about 20 European destinations from Birmingham, Cardiff, East Midlands, Manchester and Glasgow (International) airports. Tickets are at this price on selected flights until they’re sold out. 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 £25. 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

Do you have a sub-prime mortgage? New consumer research needs your help. Were you treated fairly?

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Is Del a plonker for flogging Wiis on eBay?
Del's a MoneySaver who often frequents this site's forum, looking for bargains. He watches the Nintendo Wii-hunting thread, where people let each other know when and where the sought-after consoles become available. As soon as MoneySavers post, Del buys up the Wiis, flogging them on eBay for a cushty profit. Del’s brother, Rodney, says he’s a plonker for profiteering from Christmas and depriving kids of pressies. But Del argues if people are willing to pay that price, then it’s fair enough; he’s offering a service to people who’d rather pay extra than spend hours searching. Enter the Money Moral Maze: Is Del a plonker for flogging Wiis on eBay? Previous MMDs: Should Rhydian and Beverley ride together? and Should Axl pay back his mates?

5% off all shopping at 126 high street retailers for Egg credit card holders Voucher loophole

Great 'Christmas Decorate Your House for Under £20' Hunt Revisited
If you're on a limited budget but want to glam up your house for Christmas, there are tons of ways to do it for cheap or free. A year ago I asked you for ways to create that special Christmas magic for the whole house, without spending over £20; there were scores of great tips, so I thought it time to revisit it. Add your ideas/read other peoples': Great 'Christmas Decorate Your House for Under £20' Hunt Past Great Hunts: How Much to Tip Overseas, Cut The Cost of Moving Home and Free Info

Board of the week: How much have you saved?
The How much have you saved? board’s where people record the savings they’ve bagged using the site and MoneySaving techniques. It’s an inspiring read: often the savings run into thousands and thousands, all grabbed back from big companies. Discussions include Have saved enough to pay for my wedding!, Skint first time buyer savings and Saved thanks to quitting smoking

Great 'Energy & MoneySaving' Hunt Result
Last week I tapped MoneySavers' knowledge to come up with ideas on how to save money at the same time as saving the environment. There were some great suggestions including Drive at a sensible speed, Buy a steamer and Wear more clothes

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, 1pm. 12 Saves of Christmas
• LK Today, ITV1 Wednesday between 8.45-9.15 am. I'll be talking store cards
• Tonight with Trevor McDonald: Christmas MoneySaving Party! ITV1 Friday 8pm

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: Save an extra pound in Cahoot and you lose £7,000
"It Pays To Watch. My new series starting on Five in January" and "A MoneySaving Dermatologist". Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

How do your savings compare to your earnings? This week's poll. Vote and Savings vs earnings discussion.

Who are you? A 39 year old man, apparently! Last Week's Vote. We asked your age and gender to see who uses the site; it turns out 53% of MoneySavers are male, while 69% of you are under 45. The average MoneySaving age is 39. See the results in the Who are you? poll discussion

Archna's Free Game of the Week! Double trouble this week. First get the grey cells working and see if you can connect the wires to light up the Xmas tree, plus save your dinner from the attack of the sprouts! Christmas Fun

Spiders on drugs! It's a video that does what it says on the tin. Spiders on drugs Quite bizarre!

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: energyhelpline.com, mbna.co.uk, alliance-leicester.co.uk, talktalk.co.uk, barclaycard.co.uk, icicibank.com, moneysupermarket.com, uswitch.com, virginmoney.com, tesco.com, confused.com, comparethemarket.com. Read more about this in how this site is financed.