Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email
 |
||||||
|
||||||
Finally mortgages are getting cheaper… To the relief of stretched homeowners, the sun’s peeking through the mortgage clouds. In the last week Abbey, HSBC, RBS & Natwest amongst others joined Nationwide, Halifax, First Direct and C&G in offering new cheaper fixed deals. Some pretty decent rates are now around e.g. two years fixed at 5.6% with a £500 fee, substantially lower than a few months ago. Does your deal end in the next six months? It's possible to search now and reserve the best rate you find for a small fee. While some predict rates are going to keep dropping, if they do shoot back up, this means you're sorted, and if they fall ditch it for a better rate and you only lose the relatively small booking fee. Find the best deal, use the free broker-plus technique. First ensure you’re fully briefed on exactly what to look for, read the free 40 page Remortgage or Mortgage guides. After that find the best specific deal, use a whole-of-market mortgage broker, then check for any direct-only deals brokers can’t advise on (read the Free Mortgage Advice article for a full explanation). |
|
[[tip_box_in_tip]]
|
New! Daily Updated Supermarket Coupons list. Click & print to save £100s a year
In the US canny shoppers clip coupons out each week to save £10-£20. To help you do it here, we've a new daily updated list of instantly printable supermarket vouchers to help you save. Check every time before shopping to cut your trolley's cost. Current coupons include a freebie smoothie & a litre of milk. Use coupons like cash: Sometimes supermarkets accept the coupons even when you’re not buying the specific product; though never push it, use two or three at most. Full details in the New Deals List: Supermarket Coupons Other Daily Updated Deals Lists: 2for1 Restaurant Vouchers, Days Out Vouchers, Shopping Vouchers
New Cheapest Pay-As-You Go Sim & Phone. Asda’s new PAYG mobile (uses Vodafone's network) is just 8p/min for all calls and 4p a text, half the cost of some others. Full info in the Forum Note: Cheapest PAYG Related Article: Cheapest Mobiles
New Cheapest Balance Transfer. 14 months' 0% but importantly a lower 2.5% fee.
Barclaycard's OnePulse* card deal allows its new cardholders to shift other credit card debts to it at 0% for 14 mths plus a one-off 2.5% fee. It’s slightly shorter than Virgin's* and Capital One's* 15mth deals, but they’ve a higher 3%ish fee. Or get a long term lock-in: Alternatively, if it’ll take longer to repay and you aren’t the type to switch to another 0% deal, go for a life-of-balance card, where the cheap rate lasts until the entire balance’s repaid. The cheapest deals (new customers only) are another Barclaycard* at 6.3% or Citibank Platinum at 4.9% plus a 3% fee. A full explanation, more options and what to do if you can’t get new credit are in the Updated Article: Balance Transfers Related Articles: New Borrowing, Cheap Loans, Credit Rating
New 2for1 instant restaurant vouchers for HA! HA!, Tootsies & Dexters. Joins Pizza Hut, Burger King & Gourmet Burger Kitchen in the Daily Deals List: Eating Out Vouchers
BT price hike. Next Tue, every standard paid-for call will increase. Ditch, switch & save
Next Tue (16 Sept) BT’s increasing its call set-up fee from 6p to 7p (see details), this is charged on every standard paid-for call, on top of the cost per minute. To save get… More free calls at no cost: You can get unlimited weekend and evening calls without paying any additional fee via Primus Saver 2* (or on a special BT package, yet this is a year's contract and has shorter free calls). Use an override provider: For other calls sign up with no-frills provider 18185, then dial its prefix number to get daytime calls to landlines for 5p per CALL, cheaper than BT’s 7p connection fee alone never mind the 4p/min on top; it's cheaper for mobiles too. More info including the cheapest home phone & broadband together in the Updated Article: Cheapest Home Phones Related Articles: Cheapest Broadband, Calling Mobiles Cheaply, Cheapest Mobiles
Free blow drys or £3 haircut. Take advantage of haircut vouchers
STOP YOUR FRIENDS WASTING
CASH! PLS SUGGEST THEY GET THIS EMAIL
Speedy laptops from under £300. There’s a raft of powerful, and powerfully cheap laptop deals around, great for students heading to uni too. Deals Note: Cheap Laptops
New Top 6.56% Savings... though beware you’re likely to be better off at 6.55%.
Beware the best buy tables, while Alliance & Leicester's* new 6.56% account has the highest instant access rate, there’s a but to make J-Lo proud. First a big chunk’s a short-term bonus, so after 15 months whatever the rate is then, it’ll dive by 0.94%, and worse withdraw even a penny and you get NO interest on the rest of your savings for the month. So it's only for savings tarts looking for somewhere to lock cash away and willing to switch in Dec 2009. The Top Clean Player: The instant access account Kaupthing* pays 6.55% plus guarantees to pay at least 0.3% more than the UK base rate until Feb. 2012! Full details, more options, and best buys in the Updated Article: Top Savings Related Articles: Top Cash ISAs, Regular Savings, Are Your Savings Safe?
10,000 free copies of Moneywise mag, worth £4.25. Blagged for MoneySavers. Want one?
Your time’s worth £10/hour if banks/finance companies cause unfair problems
Hidden in its compensation guidelines, the Financial Ombudsman states, “we sometimes make allowance for the time the consumer needed to spend to put things right” and that it’s “around £50 to £100 a day, and not more than £10 per hour”. How to use this?: Think of it as another weapon in our consumer arsenal. Officially it only applies for complaints resolved by the ombudsman, yet when dealing with a bank or insurer causing unfair and unnecessary hassle, use it as a negotiation point to hurry it; ask for the cash on top if it's delaying. Full details in the Forum Note: £10/hour compensation Related Guides: Consumer Rights, What Shops Don't Want Us To Know
New music for free & get paid to listen. A few nifty websites give unlimited access to new music from a mass of genres, and one'll even pay you to review it (some earn up to £200/year). See the Deals note: Sites for sore ears
Teen’s Parent or Teacher? Free Teen Cash Class to help money management
Delightfully, some schools will for the first time this year teach basic money management, unfortunately it's only voluntary. Sadly in the UK we seem to educate our young into debt when they go to university but never about debt. If your child’s school doesn’t do lessons, the teen cash class is forty pages of fun MoneySaving lessons which should help. If your school does the lessons feel free to use it if it helps. Free Guide: Teen Cash Class and please feedback so we can improve it. Related Info: MSE Charity (debt & consumer education grants)
Canon printer, scanner & photocopier £22. Buy an all-in-one printer from Amazon for £37 then fill in a form at Canon’s website and get £15 back. Forum Note: All-in-one printer
[[tip_box_in_tip]]The Big & Easy Ways to Save Checklist |
|
|
Student Home Insurance. Don’t assume specialist insurers are the cheapest…
Home contents insurance to cover a student house isn’t always that easy to get; often as most policies like to cover the house not the person; not easy with flatmates. If your parents have home insurance, ask them to get a quote to cost an ‘all-risks’ section specifically to cover your things while out of their home, many policies allow this. Alternatively to get cover direct, don’t automatically think student policies are cheapest, you may well get much cheaper elsewhere. Ensure you follow the four steps in the Full Guide: Cheap Home Insurance Related Guides: Car Insurance, Motorcycle Insurance
Buying a musical instrument for your child? Don't pay VAT! Forum Note: Blow your own trumpet
Great 'Price Matching/Beating Deals' Hunt. Tricks to profit from price match policies
While "find it cheaper and we’ll beat the price" deals are just a way to give customers a false sense of security (who checks the price after they’ve bought something?) there are ways to use them to turn the tables on retailers. Firstly it’s an open invitation to haggle, but also some price match policies offer to refund you the difference plus more on top. So I want to tap MoneySavers' knowledge to collate a list of the best out there and any tips to make them work better for you. Add your ideas/read other peoples': Great Price Match/Beaters Hunt Past Great Hunts: Isn't it obvious? MoneySaving, Win on Hotel Bidding Sites, Best No-Contract Deals
MoneySavingExpert.com Job Opportunity: London based graduate job as Links/Marketing assistant
Students Read: The Great "What I wish I'd known before I was a student" Hunt Result
Last week I asked graduate MoneySavers to impart their wisdom for the benefit of future students. The resulting Great Hunt was fascinating and incredibly useful with tips including Be careful choosing your housemates,
Join a club and Don't buy books
MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Would you ask for the tenner back?
Whilst waiting in a fast food queue, you spot a £10 note on the floor. You ask the person in front if it’s theirs, they say no, and pick it up saying they’ll check with counter staff. Once there instead they simply pocket the money. Do you say something before they leave the queue or keep quiet? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Would you ask for the tenner back? Previous MMDs: Would you leave a small shop in the lurch? and Would you take the kids out of school for a holiday?
Quick Forum Tips
Warning! Bargains listed here tend to
sell out quickly
|
||
|
Board of the week: Charities
The Charities Board is a place where people post to help charities and there are some great fundraising ideas and discussions including Collecting bottle tops,
Raffles and Donate your old bra. Related Articles: Charity Giving, Feed the Starving at no cost to you
CHEAP FLIGHTS SALES ALERT Airline: Easyjet. Price: sub-£30 e/w. Ends: When tickets sell out.
My top pick budget airline sale this week is Easyjet's sub-£30 inc. most taxes & charges to various European destinations from a range of UK airports. Tickets are at this price on selected flights until they sell 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 £30. 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
Astral Skincare Club, Always Liner |
|
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 & LK Today, ITV1, Tuesday 16 September, all morning between 7:30 & 9am. Missold PPI? Incurred unfair Bank Charges? Hit with Credit Card Charges? Paying too much Council Tax? Join Martin's special Reclaim Cash Clinic and find out how to Reclaim your money back.
- It Pays To Watch, five, Wednesday 17 September from 7:30-8pm. The cost of everyday items is soaring, yet keep extra pounds in your pocket by following Martin's inflation busting techniques.
Watch/listen back to past appearances: Including Radio 1's Jo Whiley, Radio 2's Vine, Radio 4's MoneyBox and GMTV. Listen/watch here
Keep updated on appearances: Changes and updates go in the Updated appearances list
This week's Martin's Blog: Property Porn Experts… where are you?
"Mocked on Mock the Week" and "Breaking my ribs by not braking properly…". Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)
Should the tax and benefits system prioritise families? This week's poll. Vote and Tax priorities discussion.
Have high fuel costs changed the way you drive? Yep! Last Week’s Vote. By combining the figures, it's apparent that wallet-busting pump prices have indeed impacted driving habits. More than half (52%) of you claim to drive less aggressively now than you did two years ago, 41% of you claim to use the car less, and almost a quarter (23%) have decluttered to lower consumption. 17% profess to not changing their driving habits at all. See Fuelled to Change poll results.
Archna's Free Game of the Week! Avoid being lost to outer space and find the exit! Orbox
Fast footwork to pilot planes in. That’s it for this week, but a great clip to make you smile. We Brits know how to do things with style, just take a look at this RAF Guidance
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, homephonechoices.co.uk, icicibank.com, alliance-leicester.co.uk, kaupthingedge.co.uk, barclaycard.co.uk, virgin.com, capitalone.co.uk, american-express.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.
To change your E-mail or stop receiving Tips: Go to: www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips
Latest weekly email
Clever ways to calculate your finances
