Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

MAJOR Bank Charges Reclaiming Result This Week! This Thurs (26 Feb), the Court of Appeal's scheduled to announce the latest result in the test case between the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) & the banks. It could be a big leap towards reopening the reclaiming doors for millions. It's about whether bank charges MUST be fair. In Apr last year, there was a huge victory for reclaimers when the court ruled bank charges ARE subject to 'unfair contractual terms' laws. The banks appealed this and Thurs is that result. Yet, either way, it could be appealed again, up to the House of Lords. It's NOT whether they ARE unfair. The result won't say if the charges are unfair; just whether they're covered by the law. The OFT is looking at that separately, and it's thought likely it'll say they're unfair then try & agree a remedy with the banks. If they can't agree, it could be back to court. It probably won't impact the hold. Separate again is the hold, which prevents most people reclaiming, that's imposed by the regulator, the FSA. My view is it should've been lifted after the first court victory, but now it's likely that, until there's a firm answer on whether charges are unfair, the FSA will continue to protect the banks. What should you do? If you've already put a claim in, it's a question of twiddling thumbs, unless you're in financial hardship, as then you can reclaim. If you've not put in your claim then there are already 100,000s queuing, so the sooner you get it in, the better. Full Guide & Letters: Bank Charges Hardship Info: Bank Charges News Reclaims NOT on hold: Credit Card Charges, PPI, Mortgage Fees. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MoneySavingExpert.com. MSE was born 6 years ago last Sunday for just £100 (to an Uzbekistani web developer), but it's grown. This Jan, 8m people read 76m pages; the main site alone is in the UK’s top 100 websites; & the forum’s in the UK's top ten social networking sites. Huge thanks to all who’ve recommended it, the 100,000s who post in the forums and the 23 full time members of the team! Discuss: MSE Birthday Related: MSE History, How The Site's Financed

Week of Tue 17 - Mon 23 Feb '09 (Last week's position) 1. Freebies, Freebies, Freebies (1) 2. Top Savings Accounts (2) 3. Top Cash ISA (3) 4. Cheap Flights (New) 5. Premium Bonds Calculator (8) 6. Cheap Broadband (New) 7. Best Balance Transfers (New) 8. Cheap Gas & Elec (New) 9. Best Regular Savings (6) 10. Cheap Car Insurance (New) Cheap Flights took off last week as top newcomer, with everyone reading to find out the way to discover the full details on Lastminute.com's 'top secret flights'. Followed closely by cheap broadband with two seriously wired deals at under seven quid each. The above excludes daily deals notes

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The Ones Not To Miss MSE

New Top Cash ISA. Pays 7% fixed & tax-free, IF you can pay in every month.
A Cash ISA's simply a tax-free savings account that lets you save up to £3,600 per tax year (April to April). New Top Rate: Saffron BS's postal Regular Saver Cash ISA pays 7% AER, fixed for 12 mths, yet it's not for lump sums, you must pay in £25-£300/mth and can't make withdrawals. WARNING: Open it now and you'll automatically be using this year's & NEXT year's cash ISA allowance. Though there is a way to apply now to safeguard the deal for next tax year. Alternatives: First Direct's Regular Saver ISA is similar, but only for its existing current account customers. And if you've already used this year's cash ISA, there's Barclays Monthly Saver at 6%. Important: Please read the FULL rules, alternatives, pros & cons in the Updated Guides: Cash ISAs, Regular Savings

New 50% off Pizza Hut Delivery, GBK & HA!HA! 2for1s. Plus last chance 2for1s at Pizza Express, Prezzo & Strada. See the Daily Deals List: Restaurant Vouchers

Cheapest Theatre, Sports & Gig tickets. Beat booking fees, bag 2for1s, cut out touts.
There are a host of ways to slash the cost of tickets to the theatre, gigs or even to cheer on your favourite team. It's about avoiding extra ticket booking costs, utilising ticket exchange sites, and knowing where the special 2for1 prices are. This is a fully rewritten, re-researched and expanded guide to cutting the costs. New Guide: Cheap Tickets Related Guides: Days Out Vouchers, Restaurant Deals

£5 off £20+ train tickets. Get this one-off discount from thetrainline.com. See the Deals Note: Cheap Train & Coach Deals

Govt Mortgage Help. Details AT LAST. Starts April, but only 70% of interest's covered.
Last Dec. the govt announced a new scheme to help those struggling with mortgage repayments. The plans had as many details as a swimwear model has clothes on a Caribbean beach. Thankfully, this week, more info's been released. The Good News: The Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme kicks-in in April, letting borrowers with 11 major banks defer interest (to a max 8% rate) for up to two years, and preventing lenders unfairly hiking rates. The Bad News: It WON'T let you defer all the interest repayment, you'll need to pay a min. 30% of it. Plus it's only deferring, you have to repay the rest back at some point. Eligibility Checker: This is just one of three state schemes, the eligibility checker shows which you can access. Step-by-step info in the Updated Guide: Mortgage Arrears Help Related Guides: Cheap Mortgage Insurance, Remortgage Guide

Ends Sat: Lock-in a 50% off Direct Line contents insurance quote for 90 days. Until Sat 28 Feb Direct Line's* contents policy is 50% off & the quote's valid for 90 days. Don't assume this makes it cheapest though; always compare to the full Cheap Home Insurance system. Related Guide: Cheap Car Insurance

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20% off ASOS code & Uniqlo voucher. These join free £10 face cream with £3.50 mag & free lightbulbs. See the Deals Note: Shopping Vouchers

Free Cash Loophole for ALL Egg cardholders. You can bag up to £50. Ends THIS Friday
All Egg or Egg Money cardholders who earn £20,000+ can make free cash. How it works. Open a Citibank Euro or Dollar current account by 27 Feb and spend up to $75 or €50 from it by 15 April and the amount spent will be credited back into your account within 28 days. How to spend: Online purchases qualify, so find something you need/want on a website allowing you to spend in $ or € or spend while overseas. Picking $ or €: At 6pm on Tues. 24 Feb, the dollar option worked out a tad better, with $75 equating to just over £52. Full info, pros & cons in the Forum Note: Free £50ish Related Guides: Buying From The US, Credit Card Freebies

Last chance. £6.75/mth unlimited broadband. Until Sun 1 Mar. enter code broadbandchoices into Bethere* & you get unlimited download broadband for an avg. £6.75/mth (free for 6mths then £13.50/mth). Full info & alternatives in the Guide: Cheap Broadband Related Guide: Cheap Home Phones

Council Tax Bills rising 3.9%. Video of the Week. In the wrong band? On 1 April council tax bands across England are expected to increase on average 4% but there's big variety; some will drop by 3% others rise 5%. Yet it’s possible you’re in the wrong band, and may be able to reclaim £1,000s. This week’s new video tells the story of a street in England that followed this site’s check 'n' challenge system and got over £10,000 back between them. Full Guide: Council Tax Rebanding Related Guides: Cheap Energy, Mortgage Guide Free Starbucks coffee (£2) everyday after 2pm! Use a voucher from The Guardian (90p) everyday till Thurs 5 March for a free tall Americano. See the Daily Deals List: Restaurant Vouchers

Improved! MegaShopbot bargain finder tool. One click searches top comparisons
Before Xmas, we unleashed a prototype of our new ultimate shopping robot comparison tool to find the cheapest price on anything. Now we've revamped and improved it, with a much more user-friendly results section, so we're launching the 'Beta 2' version (in layman's terms, it's nearly there!). What does it do? Shopbots search a range of retailers to find the cheapest price, yet they all cover different stores. With one click the Mega Shopbot searches all the main ones to give a much wider comparison, whether it's books, CDs, DVDs, electronics or owt else. Free Tool: Mega Shopbot Related Guides: Cheap Online Shopping, Cashback Sites, Consumer Rights

Last Chance? Extra £5 for old mobiles with special code. Enter MSM242 into Love2recycle*, one of the top paying old-mobile-buying firms, and it adds a fiver on top. It's due to end Sat 28 Feb. Full info in the Updated Guide: Mobile Recycling

Warning! Free Sky Broadband ENDS 1 March, unless you take its home phone package
Sky will charge an extra £5/month for its broadband packages, including the base package that's currently free, unless you take its home phone package. Yet SkyTalk isn't amongst the most competitive for call charges and crucially, doesn't allow you to use super-cheap override providers on its lines. You need to weigh up the extra call costs versus the broadband fee. Then again £5/mth is still cheap. Full details and alternatives in the Updated Guide: Cheap Broadband Discuss: Sky Changes Related Guides: Cheap Home Phones, 3G Broadband

Irish Banks Update. This week Anglo-Irish was raided by police investigating fraud. Updated Blog: Are Irish Banks Safe? Related Guide: How Safe Are Your Savings?

Sky TV Customer? 2for1 for Sealifes, Madame Tussauds, the Dungeons & more. Click n print voucher. See the Daily Deals Note: Days out vouchers

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The Big & Easy Ways to Save Checklist

Shift Existing Debts: Virgin* 15 mths 0%, 2.98% fee or read Balance Transfers Top Bank Account: £100, 0% overdraft, free travel ins A&L* or see Best Bank Accounts Motor Insurance:  Top two Comparison Sites (use both) MoneySupermarket*, GoCompare* then grab cashback see full Car, Van or Motorbike guides Cashback Credit Card: Amex Plat* or read Best Cashback Cards Switch Gas & Elec and Get up to £30 Cashback! Energyhelpline* or Gas & Elec guide Mortgage Makeover: Read the free Remortgage Guide Give Yourself a Money Makeover: Special guide to overhauling your finances Assess Your finances: Free Budget Planner to see if you spend more than you earn New Borrowing: Best Card For Spending or Cheapest Loans Reclaim £1,000s: on Mortgage Fees, Council Tax, Endowments, Bank Charges, PPI Home Phone & Broadband: TalkTalk or better still read the Home Phones guide Teen Cash Guide: Free 40 page PDF guide to teach your kids about money MoneySaving Books: The Money Diet, Thrifty Ways, Three Lessons

More MoneySaving MSE

Water bills rising by 4.1%. Can you save with a water meter? Ofwat, the water regulator, has announced that bills will rise an average 4.1% from 1 April. While you can't switch supplier as you can with gas & elec, it is still possible to save. The simple rule of thumb is if there are the same or more bedrooms in your house than people, check out getting a water meter. More info in the Full Guide: Cheap Water Bills Related Guides: Cheapest Home Phones, Cheap Boiler Cover Free MoneySaving Live DVD Update. If you haven’t got it yet, it should arrive this week. Discuss: MoneySaving Live DVD Workplace Learning: Free and subsidised courses for employees. Help is available for businesses to train their staff, from free literacy and numeracy courses to subsidised apprenticeship programmes. Employers find out more, and employees get info to pass on to your boss. See the Updated Guide: Grant Grabbing 30,000 MoneySavers going to the Ideal Home Show.  Just for info, last week’s tip contained details about 10,000 free Ideal Home Show tickets for MoneySavers, there was massive demand & the show agreed to increase the offer. Great ‘Best value restaurant food’ Hunt: Where restaurants don't charge more than the cost... Buy a pizza for a tenner and the raw ingredients may have only cost 50p. So to turn the tables, we wanted to tap MoneySavers' views on where you can eat in a restaurant for not much more than if you cooked it yourself. Add your ideas/read other people's: Great 'best value restaurant food' Hunt Past Great Hunts: Cheapest ways to go fairtrade, Train split ticket routes, How to haggle down rent Related Deals Note: Cheap Restaurant Vouchers Islamic insurer Salaam Halal: £30 fuel voucher with car insurance New Islamic insurance company, Salaam Halal, is giving £30 off fuel on new policies until 31 Mar 09. It's included on MoneySupermarket* allowing you to compare with other insurers, yet UK based Muslims or ethical shoppers may prefer its principles. See the Cheap Car Insurance guide. CHEAP FLIGHTS SALES ALERT Airline: Easy Jet. Price: sub. £35 e/w. Ends: When seats sell out. Our top pick budget airline sale this week is EasyJet, with flights to a host of European destinations from a range of UK airports for between £24.99 and £34.99 each way (including most taxes and charges). Tickets are at this price until they sell out, on selected flights travelling between now and 31 March '09. 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 £35. Non-Budget Airline Tools: These are listed in the Cheap Flights guide. Related Travel MoneySaving: Cheap Hotels, Spending Abroad, Cheap Currency, Travel Insurance, Mobile Roaming

Q. Is it true unpaid debts get wiped after six years? A. Yes and no. It's very complex, and it's rare to have a debt completely wiped... here's a broad brush answer. What's commonly called the 'statute of limitations' means you can't be pursued in court for civil issues six years after the event (five in Scotland). So for a personal loan, credit/store card or bank a/c where there's been no contact for 6+ years a lender usually can't get a court action against you. This is increased to 12 years for mortgages/secured loans and indefinite for most tax debts. Yet contact can mean anything, including making a payment, and that restarts the clock; courts may also extend the time e.g. if lenders have taken reasonable steps to contact you. Plus some lenders still chase for the money after that period, but only a court can force you to pay. If that's happening, National Debtline has a good template letter, or get help before speaking to the creditor.   Discuss: Wiping Debts Suggest: A question of the week (big general issues not personal q’s pls)

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

Urgent! Flights to Australia & New Zealand from £529. Book by Wed 25 Feb £1 Prague hotel room sale. For stays in March & April. 10am Thursday Cheap walking boots. Inc half price ladies Karrimor boots. Limited sizes Pepsi six-pack for £1. In store at Morrisons. Tango, Orange & 7up too Ends 8 March Be thrifty with your gifties. Join in the organised challenge 1,000 free texts. When you top-up by £5. Free T-mobile PAYG sim Debt Free Wannabe chat of the week: Going a month without spending anything Old Style (Thrift) Board thread of the week: Your Five Old Style Daily Pleasures

 

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Who should pay for the lost iPod?
You’re hard up and in desperate need of some quick cash. Your mate offers to sell your ipod on eBay for you as you don’t know how it works.  (S)he sells it and gives you the money, which you quickly spend. The buyer then declares they’ve not received the item and it turns out your mate didn’t pay for recorded delivery or get proof of postage. Who should stump up the cash for the lost iPod? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Who should pay for the lost ipod? Previous MMDs: View All

Board of the week: Motoring & Public Transport
Previously a sub-board of Travel & Holidays, someone suggested I make it a main discussion area on the forum, and I agreed. The Motoring & Public Transport board has a wealth of info and ideas including Halfords Trade Card, Empty your car before MOT and Car Maintenance Tips. Plus read Train & Coach Deals Note

Great 'Cheapest Way To Go Fairtrade' Hunt Result
Last week we asked MoneySavers to share their best bargain Fairtrade finds. There were some great suggestions including Sainsbury's Fairtrade teabags; 28p for 80, 20% off Fairtrade at Co-op and Fairtrade t-shirts

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Andrea's Freebies Freebies, Freebies, Freebies

Pdf Calendar Generator, Hugh Cornwell (ex Stranglers) Download, Glutafin Products Marillion Downloads, Fairtrade bananas & chocolate (Durham)

Odds and Ends MSE

Martin's Appearances...Wed 25 Feb - Tue 3 March
These are the scheduled appearances, other ad hocs may happen, see the appearances list for updates.

• Thurs, GMTV, sometime between 8:30 & 9:30am. Deals of the Week
• Fri, Jeremy Vine, Radio 2, 1pm. Relationships & money.
• Tues, GMTV sometime between 7:30 & 9:30am. It's news reactive.

This week's Martin's Blog: MoneySaving Christmas Quiz: Where the real knowledge lies
"Ponzis and pyramids… what’s the difference?" and "More searched than Obama… how do you react?". Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

Would you help a fellow consumer? This week's poll. Vote and Help or interfere? discussion.

Do you buy brand-name medicine? No siree! Last Week’s Vote. The 55% majority of you always opt for chemist & supermarket own-brand medicines, and 17% plump for even cheaper unbranded versions. Just 13% go for brand names, and while a further 8% voted 'own brand for me, name brand for the kids', many noted it's only because their kids won't abide the flavour of the cheaper option. See Generic vs. Branded poll results.

Archna's Free Game of the Week! Online futuristic draughts Quad Radius

Twenty Questions! That's all for this week but before I go, I thought I'd tell you about an online '20 Questions' where the internet asks to try and guess what you're thinking. Sadly, when I played, it was miles away, I was thinking Superman II, it guessed Superman... pah! Twenty Questions

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: directline.com, bethere.co.uk, moneysupermarket.com, uk.virginmoney.com, alliance-leicester.co.uk, gocompare.com, americanexpress.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 is GMTV's Money SavingExpert and 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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