Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email
Watch TV Online? Broadband fines warning;
Danger Direct Debits - Declare war on wasted cash
And much, much more MoneySaving...
| The
Full Truth About Council Tax…? I don’t think so. The official
Govt. council tax agency has spun back at my ITV1 Tonight: Council
Tax Cover Up programme from last Friday (watch
it online - click "Play" under the picture), which looked at whether
the Govt. covered up that 400,000 homes are in too high a band. The Valuation Office Agency’s published, "the truth about council tax". My favourite bit is "It’s a myth bandings were done solely on the basis of... second-gear valuations. Agents…were given details about the properties such as age, size, type, number of rooms & garages". In other words they valued by driving past, then cross-checked on a list; well that’s so much better isn’t it? Is your home one of the 400,000 overpayers? Reclaim £1,000s. Even the official Lyons enquiry into council tax mooted that 400,000 homes may be in the wrong band. To check, read my step-by-step Council Tax Rebanding Guide, the real proof of which is in the rebanding successes thread, where scores tell of successfully reclaiming £1,000s. |
|
Please tell friends and family about MoneySavingExpert.com
The best way is suggest they get this free weekly e-mail from moneysavingexpert.com/tips
[[NEW_IN_ARTICLE_TIP_BOX]]
|
Danger
Direct Debits! Stop wasting £100s. Beware recurring payments!
Are you paying for insurance on a now-dead mobile? Got a mag subscription
going to an old address? Potentially 10s of £millions regular payments
are being made for things no longer used. My new Direct Debit D-Day guide
checks and calculates how much you’re wasting and which regular payments
work for you... The Good: Incl. utility bill Direct Debits
as they save you £100+ a year The Bad: Incl. Car
/Home Insurance debits which add a huge whack. The Ugly:
Regular payments from debit or credit cards are uncancellable and dangerous.
Full New Guide/Calculator: Direct
Debit D-Day Related Articles: Money
Makeover, Budget
Planner, Cheapest
Gas & Elec, Cheap
Car Insurance, Cheap
Home Insurance
Freeview box £10. Get digital telly with no subscription. £10 in Sainsburys Reminder: Sky TV & Broadband £6/month
Watch TV online? Massive download charges risk. Cheapest unlimited broadband
The recent launch of BBC’s iPlayer & others means millions now
watch TV online. Sadly there's a risk of racking up vast bills after hugely
overshooting your broadband's inclusive download limit. A 1/2 hour programme
can use about 300Mb, roughly a third of some packages' quota. If this
affects you, ditch & switch broadband provider. The cheapest unlimited
download package is o2's*
£12.50/mth deal (£7.50 for its mobile customers). Full Info/Options: in the updated Cheap
Broadband article. Related Articles: Cheapest
Home Phones, Free
Wireless Internet
Play Pool/Snooker for an hour for free. Print a voucher for Riley's Live the life of Riley!
It's the perfect time to switch savings. Earn 6.5% with base rate guarantee.
UK interest rates have been dropping this year, making it tough to compare,
as you don’t know if the top account’s only top because it’s not reacted
yet. Yet as there was no rate move this month & all the high payers have
either followed suit or said they won't change, it's a good moment to
compare. Top Savings: Kaupthing
Edge* pays 6.5% AER if you’ve £1,000+ and guarantees to beat the base
rate by at least 0.3% until 2012, so you know you’ll have a decent, if
not table-topping, rate all that time. Full Details: Top
Savings article. Related Articles: Top
Cash ISAs, Pay
off Debts with Savings, Starting
Saving Next Week: How safe are your savings in the
credit crunch?
STOP YOUR FRIENDS WASTING CASH! PLS SUGGEST THEY GET THIS EMAIL
First Direct Customer? Massive Six Free Bottles of Wine Loophole. Apply & get its credit card and you’ll be sent it, you needn’t spend a thing! Full Details: Credit Card Freebies.
Don’t spread credit card repayments! Paying off one in full's better than two in half!
If you have a credit card debt, e.g. £1,000, and clear it in a month
you DON’T PAY interest. Yet repay £999.99 leaving just a penny,
and interest’s charged on the WHOLE AMOUNT, i.e. the £1,000 not
just the penny. Recently a cabbie told me “I pay quite a lot off my
cards each month” then I discovered he spread repayments evenly even
though he had enough to clear some of the cards. Instead, by paying off
one card in full, preferably the highest interest one, and at least the
minimums on the others he'll now save a big whack. Of course shifting
to cheaper debt works too. Top Balance Transfer Cards:
Virgin*
0% for 15 mth with a 2.98% fee or Citibank*
5.8% life of balance. Debt Switching Guide: Best
Balance Transfers Related Articles: Top
0% For Spending, Credit
Card Beginners' Guide, Reclaim
Credit Card Charges
Got an Amex card? Get £10 off EVERY £50 House of Fraser spend. Just send an email, there's no limit to how many it'll send. Remember Amex Plat* also pays 5% cashback for new customers so this is a cracking deal. Forum Note: £10 vouchers explanation Related Article: Top Cashback Card
Free claypigeon shooting, sailing & more. Activity lessons if you buy a £5 KitKat Easter Egg
Legal Services Comparison Site. Benchmark the price. Try it & Feedback
There's now a free online comparison for legal services. You tell it what you want, whether its personal accident or conveyancing, and it says it’ll go to 300 law firms & comes back with quotes within 48 hours. At the very least it should be a good benchmark to ensure you get a decent deal. I’d love your feedback on whether you think it’s worth using or not. More Details: Legal Comparison Site Related Articles: Reclaim Bank Charges, Mortgage Guide
[[NEW_IN_ARTICLE_TIP_BOX]]
The Big & Easy Ways to Save Checklist |
|
|
No Smoking Day 12 March. Quit the smoke, and fire up your finances
No Smoking Day is Wednesday 12 March. As well as helping your health, quitting smoking boosts your wealth too. It's not just saving on buying smokes, but many policies, including Life Insurance and Private Medical Insurance and others, are substantially cheaper (i.e., up to 30%) for non-smokers. You're classed as a ‘non-smoker‘ after a year without smoking, so once you hit that date, always get new quotes and save a fortune. Full Article: Stop Smoking Related Article: Cheaper Prescriptions & Medications
NEW MoneySaving Job Opportunities. MS Productions needs a Runner, experience not necessary, enthusiasm is. Runner Details. Also MSExpert needs a Junior IT technician & Web Developer
The
Great 'Unsigned /Up and coming bands' Hunt. The best freebie newbie music
Although I'm not a music fan, I know for many un-signed and up-and-coming musicians it can be a struggle to get heard and for many an important way of getting the word out there is to showcase it on their websites. So I thought I'd tap MoneySavers' knowledge to find the free new music available online. Add your ideas/read other peoples': The Great 'Unsigned / up and coming bands' Hunt Past Great Hunts: Blagging Hints and Tips, Save Money and Turn Green, Make Your House Safer
CHEAP FLIGHTS SALES ALERT Airline: Ryanair Price: c.£10 e/w. Ends: Midnight Thurs 13 Mar
Ryanair has five million seats from £10 incl. most taxes & charges from a range of UK airports. Tickets need to be purchased before midnight Thursday and at least 14 days in advance for travel on selected dates between 22 Mar and 30 Jun. 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
MONEY
MORAL DILEMMA. Should Howard and Marion replace Richie’s tenner?
Howard and Marion’s 11-year-old son, Richie, loses a £10 note after stuffing it into the back pocket of his jeans. He’s not actually sure whether it was lost or pick pocketed, but it wasn’t there when he got home. Dad Howard thinks they should reimburse Richie, because he’s only 11, and it would be cruel to deprive him of his pocket money. Yet mum Marion argues that they shouldn’t replace the cash as it’s a chance for Richie to learn an important lesson about life; sometimes bad stuff happens and no-one’s going to pick up the pieces for you. Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should Howard and Marion replace Richie's tenner? Previous
MMDs: Should Vinnie chase the robbers? and Should
Marge stop Lisa spending the glam cash?
Quick Forum Tips
Warning! Bargains listed here tend to
sell out quickly
|
||
|
Affected by this week's storms? Board of the week: Flood and Storms Board
If the storms earlier this week have caused you concern then the Flood and Storms Board offers a wealth of information from others who've been there. Discussions include Insurance renewal after flooding,
Tips for Emergencies and Useful Links
Great 'Top Sales Tactics' Hunt Result
Last week I asked those in the sales game to dish the dirt on the best tricks to help MoneySavers keep their money in the Great Top Sales Tactics Hunt. There were some great suggestions including The assumptive approach,
The big discount and The sales cuddle
[[NEW_IN_ARTICLE_TIP_BOX]]
Ecover Washing-up Liquid, L'Oreal Moisturiser, Nine Inch Nails Download, |
|
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 8.45-9.15am. Water providers are upping prices by an average 6% around the UK on 1 April. Find out all the top tips to slash the cost of Water Bills.
- It Pays To Watch. Not on this Wednesday due to the footie but will be shown on Sunday (see below).
- It Pays To Watch EXTRA, five, Sunday, 10-11am Need to Remortgage this year? Find out the pitfalls to avoid and all the tips needed to save £1,000s.
- GMTV, ITV1 Tuesday between 7.30 & 8am. The end of the financial year is looming so quickly make the most of your £3,000 tax free allowance! Find out the Top Cash ISAs
Watch/listen back from last week: Listen
to last week's Vine on Radio 2 or watch ITV Tonight. Listen
to/watch them here
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: Getting political about Council Tax
"Carol Barnes sadly missed", "My busiest media week ever" and "Why does no-one text me
anymore?" Read m'blogs
(or RSS
users access)
The MSE European Referendum. This week's poll. Vote and European Referendum discussion.
Would you steal somebody else’s post? Yup! Last Week’s Vote. The 56% majority of you would seize the opportunity to open and read a magazine delivered to your home's previous occupants, whilst a noble, law-abiding 35% say they'd return it to sender straight away. A green 9% claim they'd put it straight into the recycling. See Postage Theft poll results.
Archna's Free Game of the Week! A tricky one this week. Can you beat the slime? Slime Volleyball
American Lessons in the art of a Man Hug. That’s it for this week, but before I go, it seems everything these days needs a lesson to do it right…. The art of a man hug
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, o2.co.uk, virgin.co.uk,
citibank.com, alliance-leicester.co.uk, talktalk.co.uk, american-express.co.uk,
envirofone.com, mopay.co.uk, tesco.com, madasafish.com. Read more about this in How
This Site is Financed.
MoneySavingExpert.com is the free to use Consumer Revenge website focused on how to save you cash. It’s owned, and run by ultra-specialised journalist and bestselling author Martin Lewis. On TV amongst other things Martin has his own show It Pays To Watch on Five, is GMTV’s Money SavingExpert, presents money programmes for ITV1 Tonight. On Radio Martin has regular slots on Radio 2 Vine and Radio 1 Whiley. He’s also a columnist for the News of The World, Moneywise and the Sunday Post. Find out more: About the site and its funding.
Disclaimer: This e-mail is based on journalistic research. It does not constitute financial advice. Any information should be considered in regard to your
own specific circumstances. All tips are followed at your own risk and should be followed up with your own research Full Terms & Conditions.
Latest weekly email
Clever ways to calculate your finances
