Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email
2for1 restaurant vouchers; £9 PAYG camera phone
6% savings with free ATM withdrawals
And much, much more MoneySaving...
WARNING! Never miss a credit card payment. More than five million people missed or were late on credit card repayments in the last year. This mightn’t seem a big deal, but it’s a nightmare; you’ll be fined and it slashes your credit rating (read How Credit Scoring Works) How to easily ensure you never miss one. Just set up a Direct Debit to pay the minimum repayment. You may be surprised by this, as I’m always warning against just paying the minimums (see Danger! Minimum Repayments article). Yet here you use the minimum repayment as a defensive strategy to ensure you never forget; then pay an additional amount by phone or cheque each month to clear the debt as quickly as possible. It’s also worth remembering you can Reclaim Credit Card Charges. Don’t let the banks win… spread the word. The more MoneySavers, the more collective consumer power. Please suggest friends/family/colleagues get this free weekly e-mail from moneysavingexpert.com/tips |
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New Top 6% Savings Account with cash machine access. Top Normal Savings 6.41%.
You may’ve seen Barclay's massive newspaper adverts saying “our day to day savings accounts allows you to withdraw money from a cash machine”, yet this pays a paltry 4% and it's dropping to 3.75% on Friday. If you like the idea of cash machine withdrawals, go for the 6% AER Yorkshire BS Internet Saver which allows unlimited free cash machine withdrawals from any Link ATM (all bank based cash machines) of up to £250 a day. Yet only get it if you’ll use that facility, alternatively ICICI at 6.41% AER* allows no-notice withdrawals to your bank account, plus has a strong rate guarantee lasting until 2011. More info in the Updated Article: Savings Accounts Related Articles: Top Cash ISAs, Best Bank Accounts
Voucher Festival! Eat out for half price. Includes Giraffe, Pizza Express, Chef’n’Brewer, Zizzi, Yo Sushi, Burger King & more Vouch-tastic
Cheapest Breakdown Cover. Full service £36/year, RAC £14 loophole. Updated Article
There’s no need to pay a fortune for roadside recovery policies. It's possible to get full service breakdown cover including onward travel and home start, for you and your spouse, for just £36. Or utilise Tesco Clubcard Deals to grab RAC membership for a quarter of the usual price. This is a fully re-researched article with all the best deals for 2008. Updated Article: Cheapest Breakdown Cover Related Articles: Cheapest Car Insurance, MOT Cost Cutting, Cheapest Petrol & Diesel
Free Optical Express eye test. Available nationwide until 30 March. Just print out a voucher
Need new borrowing for 2008? Get 0% for the year. January Debt Special
If you’re going to need to borrow in 2008, the cheapest way is with a credit card. The two top deals, both offering new cardholders 0% interest on any spending on them in the first year are HSBC* and Halifax*. Yet remember after that, on both, the rate shoots up to a big 15.9% APR, so always ensure you’ve either paid it off by then, or shifted to a cheap balance transfer offer. Warning 0% debt is still debt! Always plan and budget to minimise the borrowing and check it's affordable, and remember to make at least the minimum repayments. Full pros and cons in the Article: Top Card for Spending Related Articles: Cheap Loans, Best Balance Transfer
STOP YOUR FRIENDS WASTING CASH! PLS SUGGEST THEY GET THIS EMAIL
Valentine's Warning: Order Now and Perfume's Much Cheaper! Updated Article
The romantic season is closing in, and one route to appease a lover’s demands is a sensuous bottle of smelly stuff. Perfumes are often nearly half the price from the web than from the high street, but you must order now to get them in time for the 14th. Updated Article: Cheapest Perfumes Related Articles: Cheapest Online Shopping, Buy From The US Coming Next Week: The Cheapest Roses In store & Online
On Pension Credit, Income Support or Jobseekers Allowance? You may soon be eligible for a Free freeview box
House Prices Poll Result. Massive 30% sentiment swing toward house prices dropping!
There’s been a massive shift in what people think will happen to house prices over the next year, since since I ran this poll six months ago. Total Voters: 10,844 this time (9.811) Average Sentiment. House prices to drop 5.5% over the next year (drop of 0.6%). Voters predicting a rise: 17.5% of people predicted a rise (48%). Voters predicting a fall: 59% of people predicted a fall (30%). Does sentiment matter? Yes, when people think prices will drop they act differently, they’re far less willing to pay higher prices, and thus there’s the potential for a self-fulfilling prophecy. Related Articles: Free House Price Valuations, Remortgage Guide Full results: House Price Poll and Discussion
Activity sports for £2.23. Buy some £2.23 hand cream & go ice skating, wind surfing, horse riding, & more for free. Just post your receipt
Reminder: Make £150 from a credit card! Sneaky loophole to take revenge
Currently, for a small fee Virgin* and MBNA* credit cards let you move cash straight to your bank account at 0% interest, for 15 & 12 months respectively; save this cash in a top savings account at over 6% and you could make £150 in fifteen months. This is only for the debt-free and financially on-the-ball; please ensure you read the full instructions first; they're in the Full Article: Stoozing
Reminder! Sub £10 Virgin Manchester - London Train Tickets. Book before 15 Feb. Fare's fair Related Article: Cheap Train Tickets
Cheapest Car Insurance. Can you get it for under £100/year. It Pays To Watch Challenge
The current cheapest car insurance success by using the four step system is a year’s insurance for a total of £26. This week in It Pays To Watch, I’ll be taking three volunteers through the system to see how they do. Full Guide: Cheapest Car Insurance It Pays To Watch: Five 7.25pm Wednesday. Related Articles: Cheapest Home Insurance, Cheapest Breakdown, MOT Cost Cutting
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NEW YEAR SORT-IT CHECKLIST |
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MEAF Anniversary, celebrate with a free £150: It’s a year since the regulator slapped mortgage companies for overcharging on mortgage exit fees. It takes just five minutes to get your money back. Guide: Get mortgage fees back Related Articles: Remortgage Guide, Mortgage Guide, Cheapest Mortgages
WARNING: Ryanair increases its ‘extra fees’. Ryanair has slammed up the charges for booking, making its ‘free flights’ even less free! If you check in online and take no carry-on baggage there are no costs. Yet if you want carry-on baggage you’ll need to check in costing £3 (was £2), and then it's £6 (was £5) per pre-organised bag and £12 (was £10) for additional bags. Plus now you pay £3 (was £2) to pay by credit card, £1 by debit card (was 70p) and £1 for Visa Electron (was free). The FlightChecker has been updated with the new charges.
Bank Charges Test Case Update: The banks have finished their evidence, now it's the Office of Fair Trading's turn. Read a day in court blog. Related Articles: Bank Charges Reclaiming, Bank Charges News
MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should Angie share her MEAF money with Den?
Den and Angie’s were married for 17 years, until Den skipped off with their treasured poodle Roly. As they moved from pub to pub, they’ve had a lot of mortgages and Angie being a MoneySaver has been doing her MEAF Reclaiming. All in all she’s got £350 back… yet these were joint properties with Den and they ran the businesses together… should she give him half. Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should Angie share her MEAF money with Den? Previous MMDs: Should Bob get a lodger? and Should Ken 'save' Deidre's kids from being taken into care?
Great 'Planning for death' Hunt
One thing none of us can avoid is the prospect of dying and while some may prefer not to think about it and leave it up to our loved ones to fork out, many would rather have the peace of mind of knowing it's sorted out before the time comes. So I thought I'd tap MoneySavers' wealth of knowledge and ideas to collate a list of tips and suggestions on where MoneySavers can cut the cost of planning a funeral, making a will or even providing for childrens' and grandchildrens' futures. Add your ideas/read other peoples': Great Planning for death Hunt Past Great Hunts: Save Money and Turn Green, Cut the Cost of Moving Home, What To Do In The Event of Redundancy
CHEAP FLIGHTS SALES ALERT Airline: Ryanair. Price: £10 e/w. Destinations: Over 30
Cities. Ends: Midnight Thurs 31 Jan
Ryanair's selling 4 million seats from a range of UK airports to over 30 European destinations for £10 inc. taxes & charges. Tickets are at this price on selected flights travelling between 8 Feb and 31 March until midnight Thursday 31st Jan. Though do note the increased 'extras' above. 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 £10. 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
Quick Forum Tips
Warning! Bargains listed here tend to
sell out quickly
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Getting ready for gardening season? Board of the week: Greenfingered MoneySaving
Gardening and producing your own food go hand in hand with MoneySaving and now's the time when gardeners start thinking about what they'll be growing. The
Greenfingered MoneySaving board offers hints and tips on anything garden-related. Discussions include Water Butts, Home-made compost accelerator and Wilkinson's have seed potatoes
'Beat the Booze' book giveaway Did you blag one?
Great 'Make Money From Loyalty Points on eBay' Hunt Result
Last week I asked MoneySavers for their top tips on how to convert loyalty points to cold hard cash. There were some great suggestions including Boots Skincare vouchers,
Nescafe Beans Points and Yorkshire Tea Vouchers
Kids' Road Safety Pack, 3 Free Instant Digital Prints At Boots, Seasonal Food Recipes, |
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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.
- GMTV (between 7:30-8:15am) & LK Today (between 8:45-9:30am), ITV1 Wednesday - Friday. 'Ditch The Debt' special
- It Pays To Watch, five TV Wednesday between 7:25-8pm. Including the best tips to sever the cost of car insurance
- Jeremy Vine Show, Radio 2 Friday 12:15pm. General MoneySaving
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: Breaking the last taboo: Celebs talking money…
"The Bank Charges Court Case: What it's really like" and "Being Mr. Nasty: Why I’m avoiding Boots & Pitcher and Piano bars". Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)
Should banks to honour payments when you've no cash? This week's poll. Vote and Bank Charges discussion.
Archna's Free
Game of the Week! Can you make 5 in a row? Not as easy as it sounds. Colour Lines
Competitive Spaghetti! That's it for this week, however I thought you might like to try a little bit of Competitive Alphabety Spaghetti!
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: hsbc.co.uk, icicibank.co.uk, plus.net, o2.co.uk, virginmoney.com, mbna.co.uk, citibank.co.uk, alliance-leicester.co.uk, talktalk.co.uk, americanexpress.co.uk, envirofone.com, mopay.co.uk. Read more about this in how this site is financed.
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