Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

Interest rates cut by 0.25%. What should you do? Last week, the Bank of England cut rates to 5%. This is a checklist of what to do. Savings. There are some super-high rates out there; the credit crunch means banks are desperate to pull in new savings, in order to then lend that money out at high rates. Even so, gradually over the next month, most accounts will follow the rate cut. This makes finding the top payer difficult, as it's comparing pre-and-post drop accounts. To help, I've reintroduced the ‘rate-drop leveller’ tool in the Best Savings and Top Cash ISA articles, to show the real winners. Mortgages. If you’ve got a discount or variable rate mortgage, it should get around £20/month cheaper per £100,000 of mortgage. Yet if your current deal expires soon, don’t expect new mortgages to be getting any cheaper, as lenders aren’t passing the cuts on. It’s urgent you sort it out at speed, due to the credit crunch. Read the free New Mortgages or Remortgage guide for more info.

This Week... Save £1,000s on running a car We’ll be driving through petrol costs, breakdown, MOT and insurance. Plus Michael Fish claims to be a serious MoneySaver; I’ll be putting him to the test… Web exclusive programme: It Pays To Watch More Be in the audience: Details It Pays To Watch on five 7.30pm Weds

Mobile Unlocking: free your handset and unlock the savings!
When you get a mobile, it's usually locked to your network, meaning if you put another provider’s Sim in it, it won’t work. While the networks charge to unlock it, you can sometimes do it for free with a simple online code. This means you can then use other Sims, allowing you to access cheapest deals, roaming tariffs, special promotions (e.g. the 1,000 free text one below) or pass the phone on to others. This is a fully rewritten and reresearched New Guide: Unlock Your Mobile Virgin Mobiles Note: Virgin currently unlocks some of its customers phone for free, but that ends 12 May, so if you’re eligible do it quick. Related Articles: Make Cash From Old Mobiles, Cheap Mobiles

RUMOUR! Possible one-day 21% off everything IKEA sale. This Saturday, 19 April. Full info

Cheap 6.8% Loans. Top deals including for poor credit scorers.
The credit crunch means borrowing is more difficult and costly. To help I’ve completely rewritten my cheap loans guide to incorporate this, including a full Q&A. It includes when to borrow, how much to get, whether loans beat credit cards, and the cheapest deals, including those for people with poor credit scores. The cheapest possible rates (for top credit scorers) are 6.4%. Full New Guide: Cheap Loans Related Articles: Best Balance Transfers, How Credit Ratings Work, Debt Help Guide

Free £3.30 Olive magazine. For the cost of a phone call. Top freebie!

Cheapest broadband now includes free wireless router. £10/mth
The broadband price war’s heating up. Plusnet*, already the best-buy, both on price & recently topping comparison site Uswitch’s customer satisfaction survey, has added a free wireless router (wireless broadband kit) to its £9.99/mth package. Its speed is good, up to 8Mb, the only drawback is its 1GB download limit; fine for if you’re just web surfing & reading email, but not enough if you’re watching TV online or connecting multiple laptops. If that’s the case, then a special promotion until 21 April by Tiscali* is the cheapest unlimited download package at an average £11.37/mth. Full options, pros and cons in the Updated Article: Cheap Broadband Related Articles: Cheapest Home Phones, Free Wireless Internet

1,000 free texts messages on free mobile Sim. Grab an Orange Sim & get 1,000 free texts. SIMply save Related Articles: Free Texts, Mobile Unlocking

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

Sub £20 Sony 2GB (500 songs) mp3 music players. Can you beat it?

HSBC's matching ANYONE’s fixed rate mortgage deal before 30 June.
If your fixed rate mortgage deal ends before 30 June, HSBC’s new Ratematcher deal promises to match the current rate, down to a minimum 4.54%, for two more years. To do it, you need to meet its lending criteria, and be borrowing less than 80% of your home’s value on a sub-£250,000 mortgage. With the current mortgage crisis, this sounds super-cheap… the catch? You’ll need to pay a fee, which varies with the interest rate (check on HSBC's calculator) and in some cases it can be hefty. As HSBC mortgages can’t be set up through brokers, first find out what it’d cost you, then always go to a mortgage broker to compare its overall cost with the best deal it can find. Full details: Find a cheap mortgage Free printed guides: Remortgage Guide, Mortgage Guide

New 50% off Restaurant Vouchers: Wagamama, 500 London restaurants, pizzas and more. Restaurant Vouchers

Tesco 50% off Home Insurance. Everyone should grab a quote
The most important point about Tesco's* latest 50% off deal, which lasts until 30 April, is get a quote now and that lasts three months, even once the promotion's closed. Yet just because it's 50% off, doesn’t mean it’ll automatically be cheapest; for many people it won’t be, but it's worth safeguarding its best quote now, just in case. Never just sign up though, always check its price against my usual Cheap Home Insurance system, which includes using screenscraping websites Confused*, Moneysupermarket* & ComparetheMarket* to whizz your details through scores of insurers and brokers to find their cheapest. Updated Article: Cheap Home Insurance Related Articles: Cheap Car Insurance, Cheap Travel Insurance, Car Insurance Job Picker

Super-cheap Eurostar deals. Urgent £25 tickets via Tesco vouchers, Bluewater 2for1 and more. Ooh la la!

Charity auction. Own an armchair straight off the It Pays to Watch set. Pre-warmed by Celebrity bums!

Savings Safety Update. Offset mortgage holders important information
After many questions, I’ve added a more detailed explanation for offset mortgage holders to the Are Your Savings Safe? Q & A. While all savings are protected by the compensation scheme up to £35,000 per financial institution, if you’ve debts, these are subtracted from savings before the compensation kicks in. So in the unlikely event that a bank went bust, for an offset mortgage holder owing £150,000 but with £80,000 in savings, only the first £35,000 of the savings are protected. It would immediately be subtracted from the outstanding debt, but they'd lose the remaining £55,000. Meaning it's possible (and there are various interpretations) you'd still owe £115,000, the debt would probably be passed on, but you'd have no savings. More info: Are Your Savings Safe? Related Articles: Pay Off Debts With Savings, Top Savings, Best Cash ISAs

Sub £10 Manchester to London train tickets. Now extended until 16 May. Fare dos! Related Article: Cheap Trains

Possible cheaper train fares. New website cuts costs if you're paying by credit card
If you're buying train tickets by credit card, there’s now a cheaper way to do it. Follow the steps to get lower train fares in the Cheap Train Tickets guide, then use new booking website Raileasy*. It charges a percentage of what you spend as a booking fee, rather than a flat charge, so's cheaper than the Trainline for credit card bookings under £60. Yet it’s always worth checking both, as they may have different availability. Full details in the Updated Guide: Cheap Train Tickets Related Articles: Cheap Hotel Prices, Cheap Flights, Cheap Car Hire

Motoring MoneySaving. Petrol, Insurance, Breakdown, MOTs. It Pays To Watch Challenge
The cost of motoring has shot up, with petrol now well over £1 a litre. This week in It Pays To Watch my challenge is to save a motorist as much as I can on running costs during the course of the programme. It Pays To Watch: Five 7.30pm Wednesday Related Articles: Petrol/Diesel, Breakdown Cover, Car Insurance, MOT Cost Cutting

The Great 'How to Win on Hotel Bidding Websites' Hunt
Hotel bidding websites Priceline and the US website Hotwire allow you to make offers for bargain rooms. With these, you enter the price you’re willing to pay and they tell you whether you’ve won. I want to tap MoneySavers’ expertise to find out whether it's been worthwhile for you, and what kind of bids you’ve had accepted. What are the best bargains you’ve bagged? What experiences have you had? What are your top tips? Add your ideas/read other peoples': Great How to Win on Hotel Bidding Websites Hunt Past Great Hunts: Blagging Hints and Tips, Save Money and Turn Green, Make Your House Safer

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should you demand a last-minute discount?
Six months ago, your offer on a new pad was accepted. Now, everything’s in place and it’s just days until you pick up the keys. Yet since you agreed to buy, the local market's dropped by 10%. You know that if you demand a discount, the seller is likely to give in, as she’s desperate to get the deal done and dusted. Yet if you pulled out the chain would collapse and there’d be serious consequences for the five families involved. Should you haggle for some money off the purchase price? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should you demand a last-minute property discount? Previous MMDs: Should you give your mate a £1 pressie? and Should you save a stranger money?

CHEAP FLIGHTS SALES ALERT Airline: Ryanair. Price: £5 e/w. Ends: Midnight Thurs 17 April.
My top pick budget airline sale this week is Ryanair's £5 inc. most taxes & charges to all Irish destinations from a range of UK airports. Tickets are at this price until midnight Thurs but are only available on selected flights, between 1 May & 30 June, that are booked 14 days in advance. 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 £6. 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

Spring clean your junk. Board of the week: eBay and Online Auctions
If your house is long overdue a good spring clean, then why not make cash while you clear out the clutter? There's a section of the site's forum where MoneySavers help give tips on flogging your old stuff. The eBay, online auctions, car boot & jumble sales board offers a wealth of information and ideas. Discussions include Best ever second-hand buys, Sell 10 things for free on Play trade and April eBay challenge

Great 'Best No-Contract Deals' Hunt Result
For people in short-term accommodation, 12 month utility contracts can be a real pain in the backside. So I asked MoneySavers' to find the best no-contract deals. There were some great suggestions including No Contract Broadband, Pay-as-you-go car insurance and Orange Pay As You Go

MoneySavingExpert on the box/wireless
Over the next week you can catch Martin on the following broadcasts:

• It Pays To Watch, five, Wednesday from 7:30-8pm. Are you paying too much for your car? Find out how to cut the cost of Petrol and Breakdown Cover plus other car related MoneySaving tips.
  
  
• Jeremy Vine Show, Radio 2, Friday 1pm. "Shout at your bank!"
  
  
• GMTV, ITV1, Tuesday (between 7:30 & 8am). Discussing how to sever the cost of Hayfever Remedies and other Medications by ditching the notorious brands.

This week's Martin's Blog: MoneySavingExpert.com now officially the no. 1 money site!
"Starting to convert the family…" Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

Have you ever read the Ts and Cs? This week's poll. Vote and T&C discussion.

When were you last asked for ID? Never! Last Week’s Vote.
A surprising result this week, as it transpired that 32% of MoneySavers had never been asked for ID when buying alcohol! At the other end of the scale, 8% were asked between the age of 30-40. See Getting ID'd poll results.

Archna's Free Game of the Week! Stash enough cash to keep the sushi bar afloat! Sushi Go Round

And you think your commute is bad! That's it for this week, but however bad your commute is… just take a look at how it is in Japan… half ten on the underground

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: alliance-leicester.co.uk, americanexpress.co.uk, barclaycard.co.uk, comparethemarket.com, confused.com, energyhelpline.com, envirofone.com, kaupthingedge.co.uk, mopay.co.uk, moneysupermarket.com, plus.net, talktalk.co.uk, tescofinance.com, tiscali.co.uk, virginmoney.co.uk. 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.

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