Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

EVERYONE urgently review your savings! Sadly we must now consider the ‘risks’ of saving; once it only applied to investing. Yet for the first time we've seen the Financial Services Compensation Scheme activated (for Icesave). It’s crucial everyone checks their savings. This week we’ve added more sections to the Safe Saving and Top Savings guides, so even if you’ve read them before, please do again. New info includes... Keep spreading savings. While the govt's covered all Icesave savings, even beyond the £50,000, that isn’t binding for any future collapses. The only guarantee is the £50,000 per person per institution, so if you’ve more, spread it around. Spread savings even if you’ve UNDER £50,000. While your money's protected under £50,000, any compensation payouts aren't instant. By spreading money, if one went bust, you could still access some cash. Foreign Banks. Most, though not all, foreign banks are UK registered, so the £50,000 protection applies. Yet it’s worth carefully appraising; if you've money in non-European parent banks or banks using the 'passport scheme', review your risk. Icelandic Savings. Kaupthing Edge and Heritable are now part of ING Direct, and covered by the Dutch protection scheme. Icesave is in liquidation, but the UK govt is guaranteeing ALL savers' cash. Detailed guidance in the Iceland Banks note. Pay off debts/mortgage with savings. Paying off debts is a safe way to save, and makes financial sense, as the cost of debt is usually much higher than you can earn with savings. Full info in the Should I repay my debts and mortgage guides. Self employed? Get a tax certificate. For top safety, those who are self-employed can buy a tax certificate to pay tax early. You get interest on the advance payment, though at a lower rate than the top savings.

Get away from it all! Hidden hotel & flight loopholes Focusing on how to grab bargain cheap breaks and including special cheap hotel megabargains & cheap flights. And introducing the man behind the superhot priceline loophole and how he bagged 6 days in a 5* hotel in Times Square, New York for £330 rather than the expected £1,200. Plus, taking my nasty cash quiz are vocal coaches Carrie & David Grant. Got a question? questions@itpaystowatch.co.uk Free audience tickets (3 weeks left): Email: audience@itpaystowatch.co.uk (incl. phone no.) Watch It: Wed, 7.30pm on five Watch last week's Financial Self Defence

The Ones Not To Miss MSE

New online Downshift Challenge Tool. Slash £800/year off supermarket shopping costs.
The Downshift Challenge is simple, in a supermarket try everything one brand level lower. Most people only notice the difference on half the stuff, so only change those and on a £100 weekly shop you’d still save £800 a year. It’s explained in detail in the totally rewritten and re-researched Cheap Supermarket Shopping guide. This also includes the New Tool: supermarket comparison site mysupermarket’s added a tool to automatically give you downshifted alternatives. New Tricks: The guide also now includes menu planners and a new codes, vouchers and coupons section. Related Articles: Grocery Coupons, Loyalty Scheme Tricks, Cheapest Online Shopping

New ASK pizza 2for1 & last chance Pizza Express 2for1. An instant ASK pizza 2for1 voucher joins the Pizza Express 2for1 voucher (grab now, ends Sun). These and more in the Daily Deals List: Eating Out Deals

New longest 0% card to cut existing debts. 0% for 16 months with a 2.98% fee.
New cardholders can balance transfer other cards debts to Virgin* at 0% for 16 months (it was 15) for a one-off 2.98% fee. This is by far the longest deal available, yet if you can repay quickly Abbey Zero offers 0% for six months with no fee. Long term lock-ins. Take more than a couple of years to repay, and most people should go for life-of-balance cards, where the cheap rate lasts until the entire balance is repaid. New Barclaycard customers can get 6.3% through comparison site moneysupermarket, alternatively Capital One* is 6.5% until Jan 2011. Full details & more options including for poor credit scorers in the Updated Guide: Best Balance Transfers Related Guides: Cheap Loans, Credit Card Shuffle

£5 off ANY £6+ rail ticket, London-Mancs Trains £1 & UK-wide coach fares £1. These and more are in the new, weekly-updated Deals List: Cheap UK Travel

Gas & Electricity price rise now LESS likely in January. Is capping worth it?
Recession fears have driven down winter's wholesale gas & elec prices by 15-20% in the last few weeks. If this holds, next Jan's predicted 20% energy price hikes are more likely to be 0-10%. Should I cap? As the cheapest caps cost 15%ish more than the cheapest non-capped tariffs, savings are less likely. Yet if you’re near the financial brink, capping gives the security of a fixed price. Did you cap before? If you capped when I yelled “cap cap cap”, your rate's cheaper and you're likely to be saving money already, so even if prices don’t rise, you’re quids in. Much more, and how to compare and check in the Updated Guide: Gas & Electricity Related Articles: Home Phones, Grant Grabbing, Cheapest Boiler Cover

Free Sandwich & Coffee/500ml Coke with £1 paper. Every day this week the Independent’s got a filled baguette + drink voucher for Upper Crusts (at stations), plus on Friday there's a free Starbucks voucher in the 80p Guardian. Full info in the Daily Deals List: Newspaper Vouchers

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

£1 Spiderman 3, Nanny McPhee DVDs & more. Just buy a special pack of Nestle cereal, and get lots of kids DVDs for £1. More in the Forum Note: Films for quids

Bank Charges News: Court confirms past charges can be unfair too. Updated Article
Last April, the judge decided current bank charges must comply with fairness laws. Last Thursday, according to info from the OFT he also ruled that past bank charges must too, We’re waiting for written confirmation, but this is good news for reclaimers. There’s no immediate difference to claims, and the hold is still on, but its one step closer. It was also ruled, as expected, that past terms cannot usually be capable of being a penalty, which although a technical win for the banks, is only a minor loss to consumers. Full update and Latest Info: Bank Charges News Full Guide: Reclaim Bank Charges Other Reclaiming: Credit Card Fees, Loan Insurance, Mortgage Exit Fees

5% inflation boost to Pensioners.Next year’s state pension increase depends on September’s RPI inflation figure, that was just announced as 5%. More Info: Pension Increase

UK interest rates cut by 0.5%. What's the impact on your mortgage?
Part of the govt’s kiss of life to the banking industry was to cut the base rate from 5% to 4.5%. Tracker mortgages. Your rate will track down by 0.5%, cutting monthly payments by £40ish per £100,000 of outstanding mortgage. Discount/SVR rates. What you pay varies with the lender's standard rate, but they’re not obligated to follow base rate cuts e.g. Lloyds, First Direct, Natwest have, so you’ll save; HSBC's said it won't and there's no change so far from Abbey and Nationwide. Fixed rates. The rate’s fixed so no change. Need a new deal? Not many hot new deals so far. Fingers crossed the bank bailout will help, even then it’ll take time. Related Guides: Cheap Mortgage Finding & PDF Remortgage Guide

12mths unlimited music downloads with a £130 PAYG mobile. Sounds good... is it?

Got an Alliance & Leicester loan? It's been fined £7m for PPI misselling. Reclaim
Alliance and Leicester's just joined the list of companies fined by the regulator the FSA for loan insurance misselling. If you've got a loan with its insurance, particularly from telephone sales, it's possible you were part of systemic misselling. It'll be contacting 200,000 affected customers asking them to check their policy terms. If you get this, ensure you reply. Full details in the updated Guide & Free Template Letters: PPI Reclaiming Related Articles: Bank Charges, Council Tax, Mortgage Exit Fees

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The Big & Easy Ways to Save Checklist

Assess Your finances: Free Budget Planner to see if you spend more than you earn Give Yourself a Money Makeover: Special guide to overhauling your finances New Borrowing: Best Card For Spending or Cheapest Loans Mortgage Makeover: Read the free Remortgage Guide Motor Insurance: Read the Car, Van or Motorbike articles Reclaim £1,000s: on Mortgage Fees, Council Tax, Endowments, Bank Charges, PPI Home Phone & Broadband: Tiscali* or better still read the Home Phones article Cashback Credit Card: Amex Plat* or read Best Cashback Cards Get Quick Cash for Old Mobiles: Envirofone*, Mopay*. Recycle Mobiles article Teen Cash Guide: Free 40 page PDF guide to teach your kids about money Switch Gas & Elec and Get up to £30 Cashback! Energyhelpline* or Gas & Elec Article Cut Car & Home Insurance! Car Insurance/ Home Insurance Cost Cutting MoneySaving Books: The Money Diet, Thrifty Ways, Three Lessons Free MoneySavingExpert Car Sticker MoneySavingExpert.com/carsticker

More MoneySaving MSE

Are my investments safe? What’s the protection for Sipps, Pensions, & Unit Trusts, inc. cash funds.
The FSCS coverage and payouts for investments differ totally from savings. Crucially, if your underlying investments lose money or collapse, you’ve no cover as that risk is the essence of investing, but you can be covered if you lose out due to the investment provider going bust. Cover limits: Cover up to £48,000 can apply if you lose out due to the investment provider going bust, and it can be up to 90% of everything for pensions. Cash Funds: Cash within a SIPP usually counts as savings, but in other pensions and investments, cash funds are usually counted as investments. More Info: See the investment section of the safe savings guide

MoneySavingExpert.com job opportunity. Full-time London based Editorial Assistant wanted.

CHEAP FLIGHTS SALES ALERT Airline: Ryanair. Price: £10 e/w. Ends: Sunday 19 October.
My top pick budget airline sale this week is Ryanair's £10 flights promotion inc. most taxes & charges to various European destinations from a range of UK airports (around 250 different routes are available). Tickets are at this price on selected flights until midnight Sunday 19 Oct for travel between 4 Nov and 17 Dec. How to quickly find the sales flights: Don't go direct, instead use the Budget Airline FlightChecker and ask it to find all flights £10 and under. 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

Saved money and want to tell the world? If you've a top MoneySaving story please let us know

Home Insurance: Uswitch beats home insurance renewals by at least 10%.
Normally I think renewal-beating deals are a bit naff, but Uswitch* specifically promises to beat it by 10% plus as long as your renewal price is over £100. So it gives you a guaranteed drop in cost. Yet, as I’ve mentioned before many MoneySavers have been PAID to get out home insurance policies due to cashback, so always follow the full four step plan, which also includes lots of other deals. More info in the Updated Guide: Cheap Home Insurance Related Articles: Cheap Car Insurance, Boiler Cover, Mortgage Life Insurance

Ofgem questions the energy market. The gas & electricity regulator has published the results of its energy probe, read a summary in the Forum Note: Ofgem's recommendations

Great 'Loyalty point Xmas pressies' Hunt: What's the best use of each scheme?
Whether it's Nectar, Tesco, Boots or Airmiles, a point stash can be a cheap way of buying gifts for Christmas. I want to tap MoneySavers’ knowledge to compile a list of the best pressies you can buy with points. Add your ideas/read other peoples': Great 'Loyalty point Xmas pressies' Hunt Related Guides: Loyalty Schemes, Christmas MoneySaving

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA: Should Rebecca come clean about David's baguette?
Every day, personal assistant Rebecca dutifully picks up lunch for her boss. He gives her £25 a week to get his usual bacon baguette and bottle of coke. Yet MoneySaver Rebecca realises the meal’s covered by the Independent’s free Upper Crust lunch offer, and she can get it for just a quid. She’s temped to keep the extra few pounds, as David didn’t do any of the research and probably wouldn’t notice the difference. Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should Rebecca come clean about David's baguette? Previous MMDs: Would you shop your teenager? and Should you risk spreading the lurgy to colleagues?

Quick Forum Tips Warning! Bargains listed here tend to sell out quickly Daily Bargains Update Tips, Tricks & Treats

Top deal! £4 roast chicken dinner for 4. All ingredients from Morrisons. Credit munch! £8 party dresses. Boohoo.com clearance sale. Crashionista Got old gold jewellery you don’t want? Flog it and get some quick cash. Gold rush £15 ladies' quality winter coat at ASDA. Good feedback. Winter warmer 4GB retractable USB memory stick £5.99. Go quick! Flash deal 10% off everything day at Homebase 17 & 18 Oct. DIY Discounts Debt Free Wannabe chat of the week: Splitting debts when splitting up Old Style (Thrift) Board thread of the week: How to make my own clothes? Nominate Post Of The Month for October

Board of the week: MoneySaving Old Style: Thrifty tips & banter
With the crunch biting, there's never been a better time to school yourself on the awesome power of white vinegar, or the many cleaning applications of cheap cola, which'll do the job of expensive branded products for next to nothing. The MoneySaving Old Style board is chock-full of useful tips, passed through generations, for good living regardless of your budget. Recent discussions include 50p a day 'til Xmas challenge, Slow cooker quick questions and the ever-popular What value things have you tried and liked?

Great 'Cutting the cost of driving' Hunt Result
Last week I asked MoneySavers for tips on cutting the cost of driving, further to those included in the Cheap Fuel article. There were some great suggestions including Use liftshare, Avoid driving altogether and Some driving tips

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Andrea's Freebies Freebies, Freebies, Freebies

Cinema Trips for Schools, Drynites Sample, Roc Skin Cream Printable Greetings Cards, iTunes Festival Downloads

Odds and Ends MSE

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.

• It Pays To Watch, Five, Wednesday 15 October, 7:30pm. Holidays on the cheap! Save £1,000s using sneaky tricks and loopholes to bag Cheap Flights and Cheap Hotels, but remember to Protect Your Purchases.
  
• Jeremy Vine, Radio 2, Friday 17 October, 1pm. Savings crisis Q&A.
• Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show, 100% Absolute Radio, Monday 20 October, 8am. Find out if you can claw back £100s in Mortgage Exit Fee Reclaiming.
• GMTV & LK Today, ITV1, Tuesday 21 October between 7:30 & 9am. The subject for these shows is news reactive so you'll have to wait and see!
  

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: 'Is Santa hit by the credit crunch?'
"X-Factor: Go JLS - 100% effort", "Safe Savings beats Pizza Express" and "Mortgage Lenders sadly absorbing the rate cuts". Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

Bank Bailout Referendum. This week's poll. Vote and bailout discussion.

What class are you? Last Week’s Vote. More than half of you professed to be some level of middle class (6% upper, 30% middle, 18% lower), and 41% working class (inc. 2% lower working class, 18% upper). At either end, 1% voted themselves upper class, and the remaining 1% as underclass. See What class are you? poll results.

Archna's Free Game of the Week! An online version of the classic guessing game. Mastermind

How do you hide an elephant? Disguise it as a handbag of course! Take a look at this abstract elephant hiding photoshop contest.

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: virgin-money.co.uk, capitalone.co.uk, tiscali.co.uk, americanexpress.co.uk, envirofone.com, mopay.com, energyhelpline.com, uswitch.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.

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