Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

Does your savings account HIDE the interest rate? Why don't savings accounts statements tell us the exact interest rate we're earning? Even online accounts seem incapable; at best, clicking check current rates provides a list of scores of accounts, not your specific interest rate, leaving many mistakenly thinking they get more than they do. With rates changing so rapidly, knowing your current interest is crucial. There's no technology barrier to doing this, so it must be deliberate obfuscation, to keep people in poor paying accounts. Time for a Savings Summary Box. Credit cards must provide a summary box, listing all the key info. With base rates nearing 0%, it's time the regulator, the FSA, gave savers similar protection. It should list the current interest rate, any bonuses, withdrawal penalties, the savings safety situation & more. So I'm starting a campaign; this is a small change, so there's no obstacle. Sign the Savers' Rights Petition at No.10 And please tell others about it too. Name & Shame (or praise). How easy is it to find the current interest rate on your account? Please report honest dealers and worst offenders in the Hidden Rates Name & Shame forum note. Top Savings Guides: Instant Access Savings (3.46%), Cash ISAs (3.61%), Regular Savers (6%), Savings Safety PS £10,000 to Comic Relief. Huge thanks to the 19,555 newbies who joined the email distribution list during the free 50p to Comic Relief appeal. We've rounded it up, and £10,000 will be donated.

Week of Tue 10 - Mon 16 March '09 (Last week's position) 1. Top Cash ISA (1) 2. Freebies, Freebies, Freebies (2) 3. Top Savings Accounts (4) 4. Ditch My Mortgage Fix? (New) 5. Grant Grabbing (New) 6. Supermarket Coupons(New) 7. Cheap Flights (7) 8. Switch Gas & Elec (6) 9. Bank Charges News (8) 10. Premium Bonds Calculator (New) No surprise "Ditch My Mortgage Fix?", with the special calculator was top new entry, the week after interest rates plummeted to 0.5% Plus Supermarket Coupons nosed itself back into the list, with lots of little freebies adding up to one good bargain. The above excludes daily deals notes

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The Ones Not To Miss MSE

Urgent! State pension boost. Possibly £10,000s more in retirement for £420 spend.
Not everyone gets the full state pension; some get just a fraction and, a few, nothing at all. Both current claimants AND those years from retiring could boost it though. Boost it: There're three ways: buy extra national insurance years, delay taking it or claim the full Pension Credit. Why urgent? The price of national insurance years JUMPS 50% on 6 April, adding £100s to costs. Pension Boosting Calculator: We've built a unique new calc to help you decide whether it's worth buying extra contributions. Full info in this Major New Q&A Guide & Calc: Boost your State Pension Related Guide: 5 min Benefits Check Up

New 2for1s. Wagamama, GBK (most expensive free), Zizzi & Cafe Rouge. These click 'n' print vouchers join £15 M&S dine in roast for four & more in the Daily Deals List: Restaurant Vouchers

Top Children's Savings. Earn 8% fixed with the Halifax Children's Regular Saver.
While adults savings have plunged, children can still get a whopping 8% AER fixed for a year with the Halifax's Children's Regular Saver. How it works: The drawback is you can't put a lump sum in, and MUST pay £10 to £100 every month for 12 months; withdraw money or miss a payment and the account is closed. Any adult can open an account for any child, not just parents. Don’t pay tax: As the account's for a child, unless they earn over £6,035 a year (child stars etc.) ensure you tell the bank and the interest won't be taxed. Full info in the Updated Guide: Best Child Savings Related Guides: Regular Savings, Childcare Vouchers

New shopping vouchers. 25% off Warehouse, Mango, Coast, Oli etc in magazines. Simply grab a copy of this week's Grazia (£1.90), and shop before 25 March. Full details in the Daily Deals List: Shopping Vouchers

Shift overdrafts & loans to 0% for 15 months for 4% fee. Special credit card technique.
The top Virgin* credit card balance transfer deal, 0% for 15 mths, has a unique property for cutting overdrafts or loan costs for new cardholders. How it works: Usually you can only shift debts from other cards, but specifically ask to balance transfer debt from your bank account, and it pays the cash in there instead; but with a slightly higher fee of 4% of the amount shifted. Overdrafts: This effectively shifts the overdraft to the card, so it's now at 0%. Loans: Use the bank account cash to pay the loan off, checking there are no penalties. Warning: Always make the min. monthly repayments & clear the debt or re-balance transfer before 15 mths or the rate JUMPS to 18.6% APR. Full how-to in the Updated Guide: Super Balance Transfers Related Guide: Best Balance Transfers

New Tesco Deals loophole for o2 customers, eg, Spend £1.37, get £4 worth of clubcard deals. £100s of Clubcard deals are available via a special bonus points deal for o2 and Tesco mobile customers. Admittedly it's fiddly, but the rewards can be big. Full info in the Forum Note: Tesco Clubcard Loophole

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Get your age in % off posh Malmaison hotel price for Mother's Day. Book a Malmaison room this Sun night & you get a discount equal to the age of the oldest person staying, eg, age 97 pays 3%. And it applies to men as well as women. See the Deals Note: Hotel Sales

The last gas & elec supplier's announced price cuts. Perfect Time to switch!
On Monday, energy supplier npower said it's dropping its electricity tariff by an average 8% on 31 March, but not cutting gas prices. It is the sixth of the big companies to announce cuts, meaning this round of major supplier price moves is now over. PERFECT time to switch! Compare now, and as comparisons are truly like for like it's the perfect time. Switch & Get Cashback: (via these special links) Top Pick Comparison: Energyhelpline* pays £15 cashback per switch. Dual Fuel: Moneysupermarket* gives £30 cashback, Uswitch* a free case of wine & SimplySwitch* £35 in Amazon vouchers. FULL info on price cuts and info for those who've CAPPED in the Updated Guide: Switch Gas & Elec Related Guides: Grant Grabbing, Boiler Cover

Stop Press! Premium Bond interest to DROP from 1.8% to 1% in April & new £25 prize. This makes PBs an even worse buy, though the new £25 prize level means more will win small prizes. Discuss: Premium Bond Changes Related Guide: Premium Bonds: Any Good? Calculator: Prem Bond Probability (will update in April)

Cheap Flights. Video of the week: The 12p trip to Barcelona (for five) While hefty fuel costs meant flights were looking super-costly before Christmas, they've dropped again now, and it's easily possible to bag bargain flights in Europe and beyond. Video of the week: It's packed with info on how to find the cheapest deals, and a film about a man who took five people to Barcelona for less than the cost of a packet of crisps. Watch it as part of the Full Guide: Cheap & Free Flights Related Guides: Cheap Package Holidays, Cheap Hotels, Cheap Travel Insurance Last Chance! Instant £5 off train tickets over £20. The offer's been extended to bookings until midnight Mon 23 Mar for the next 3 months travel. Click this thetrainline* link to automatically get the discount (shown on the final page). More in the Daily Deals List: Cheap Trains & Coaches Related Guide: Cheap Train Tickets

New PPI Reclaiming SCAM. Lenders deliberately reject valid claims to put people off!
It's come to light that the Financial Ombudsman formally complained to the regulator that some lenders are "deliberately trying to obstruct the Ombudsman process". They've been rejecting ALL consumers' initial requests to reclaim, even when they know if they get to the ombudsman 90%-100% of cases are adjudicated in the consumer's favour. What this means? If you're one of the millions who've been missold loan insurance, ASSUME when you write you'll be rejected, but don't bat an eye, just keep going to the Ombudsman. Reclaim £1,000s: If you've had a loan/credit card in the last six years, check whether you've got this costly insurance, and if it was sold fairly. See the Updated Guide: PPI Reclaiming Related Reclaiming Guides: Mortgage Fees, Bank Charges, Council Tax

Urgent! Beat 1 April major stamp price rise & get further 5% off. 1st class go up to 39p (currently 36p) and 2nd to 30p (27p). Yet stamps bought now which say 1st or 2nd not the price are still valid. Better still, Superdrug's got a 5% off 1st class sale until 24 March. See the News Story: Stamp down costs

Want a 3G Apple iPhone? Rumours are wait until May and save c. £100!
Strong industry rumours suggest O2 will slash the cost of the 3G Apple iPhone in May. The ultra-secretive company's expected to release a new and improved one this summer (most likely mid-July). Price Changes: Currently you pay £97 for the 8GB version on the £35/month tariff; it'll likely be free, as will the 16 GB version (also currently £57) on the £44/mth tariff. More info in the Forum Note: iRumour

More Hotel Sales: £19 De Vere Rooms, Hilton Rooms £39/£40. De Vere £19: UK rooms (usually c.£29-£59) for May. Birmingham £10 rooms: NiteNite's giving away 100 hotel rooms for August stays. Hilton £39/£49: UK rooms inc Brekkie (usually c.£100-£150) for stays till June. See the Deals Note: Hotel Sales

Student loan interest rate cut to 1.5%. The latest base rate cut means rates (for post-1998 loans) have dropped, from 2% to 1.5%. Full info in the Updated Guide: Should I Repay My Student Loan? Related Guides: Student Loans, Student MoneySaving

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The Big & Easy Ways to Save Checklist

Motor Insurance:  Top two Comparison Sites (use both) MoneySupermarket*, GoCompare* then grab cashback see full Car, Van or Motorbike guides Top Bank Account: £100, 0% overdraft, free travel ins, A&L* or see Bank Accounts Shift Existing Debts: Virgin* 15 mths 0%, 2.98% fee or read Balance Transfers Reclaim £1,000s: on Mortgage Fees, Council Tax, Endowments, Bank Charges, PPI Cashback Credit Card: Amex Plat* or read Best Cashback Cards New Borrowing: Best Card For Spending or Cheapest Loans Mortgage Makeover: Read the free Remortgage Guide Home Phone & Broadband: TalkTalk or better still read the Home Phones guide Quick Cash for Old Mobiles: Love2Recycle*, Envirofone*, Mopay*. Recycle Mobiles guide Teen Cash Guide: Free 40 page PDF guide to teach your kids about money Cut Car & Home Insurance! Car Insurance/ Home Insurance Cost Cutting MoneySaving Books: The Money Diet, Thrifty Ways, Three Lessons

More MoneySaving MSE

Did you get one of the 30,000 free ideal home show tickets for MoneySavers? While you can use it any night, I'll be there this Fri, 20 March at 7pm giving a talk at the The Smarter Living Theatre, do pop along. Plus you can still get £3 off tickets for Fri or a free ticket for 23 March - 1 April when you buy the Ideal Home mag. Full details in the Deals List: Days Out NS&I and Post Office Savings are NOT the same. NS&I is UK govt, Post Office Irish Govt. A large no. of people have e-mailed in panic asking if NS&I is no longer part of the UK govt.  It seems some TV programme (no one’s said which) was saying (correctly) how the Post Office savings were really part of Bank of Ireland and thus, a little worryingly, only protected by the Irish compensation scheme. While that's true, it's only for “Post Office” branded savings. If you’ve any NS&I product bought from the Post Office, it is still the 100% safe UK govt owned financial institution; nothing has changed. More info: Safe Savings, Are Irish Savings safe? Mums go free at Legoland on Mother's Day. Buy a full price child ticket on the day (£27), and bring a voucher to get free adult entry (worth £36). It's valid for a mum, grandmother or female guardian. Find more info in the Daily Deals List: Cheap days out 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's sale, with flights to a host of European destinations from a range of UK airports for between £25.99 and £34.99 each way (including most taxes and charges). Destinations include London Stansted to Lyon on 28 March for £27.99 one way and Edinburgh to Milan on 25 March for £34.99. Tickets are at this price until they sell out, on selected flights travelling between now and 15 July '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. Do I have to pay tax on my eBay sales? A. Selling your own stuff that you don't need anymore, such as cast-off clothing or second-hand stereos, is fine. However, online earnings become taxable when you become a trader, someone who sells goods bought with the intention of selling them, or makes items and sells them for profit.     As a rule of thumb ask, ‘would a reasonable person, who knew the score, say you were trading or just selling your own stuff?’ There’s an HMRC guide to help you work out if you need to notify it about income made from online sales. The difficulty here is when it’s a grey area. If you’re not sure, you may need to take advice from an accountant. One thing not to do is lie to the taxman; it has serious powers to investigate and if they do, the stories are nightmares. Discuss: Tax & eBay Suggest: A question of the week (big general issues not personal q’s pls)

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should Artie take cash from his dodgy cousin Tony?
Artie’s cousin Tony and his wife, Carmella, have always been a bit dodgy, and live off ill-gotten gains. Artie’s not sure exactly what they’re into, but knows they’ve got their fingers in a few unsavoury pies. Yet Artie’s restaurant has run into trouble, and he badly needs some extra cash. Cousin Tony has offered him £500 as a gift, no strings attached. Should he take it? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should Artie accept dodgy cash from cousin Tony? Previous MMDs: View All

Great 'Free Genealogy Hunt'. Cheap ways to trace your tree
There’s a raft of resources out there to help you delve into your family history, and find out about your ancestors. Some are free, yet others charge a hefty whack to track down your roots. So we want to tap MoneySavers for the best free ways to trace your tree. Add your ideas/read other peoples': Great 'Genealogy' Hunt Past Great Hunts: Large Families, Letters That Work, Home Brewing

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

Top Deal! Free eBay listings starting at under 99p. Free-bay! Threadless t-shirt sale Funky T-shirts £3.50. Tee party! Free juice for Londoners. Just hand over a free London paper. Credit Crush! Cashmere sweaters £10 at Uniqlo. Knitty but nice! Decent luggage 80% off. Suitcases down to £20, from £100. Are you tripping? Trade in your old bag for £40 off a £120+ Radley handbag spend. Handbags & old rags Debt Free Wannabe chat of the week: The Complete Your Challenge Challenge! Old Style (Thrift) Board thread of the week: The 2009 Old Style Calendar

 

Board of the week: Student Money Saving
It's a student's lot to always need extra cash. The Student Money Saving board is full of wonderful ways to save and get support from other students. Recent discussions include Not having a life in the third year, Working at Glastonbury and Unsure about deferring

Great 'Best Travelodge Holidays' Hunt Result
Budget hotel chain Travelodge's often runs super cheap £9 or £19 room deals (see Travelodge Sales deals note). So last week I asked MoneySavers for the best lodge locations for a quick break, whether town or country. There were some great suggestions including London's West End, Seaside Eastbourne and Edinburgh City Break

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Andrea's Freebies Freebies, Freebies, Freebies

Beehive Inspection, Tatton Park (Cheshire) Entry, Nivea Creme, Asthma Attack Pack, Tea & Coffee

Odds and Ends MSE

Martin's Appearances...Wed 18 - Tues 24 March
These are scheduled appearances, though other ad hocs may happen. See the appearances list for updates.

• Thurs, GMTV with Lorraine, sometime between 8:30 & 9:30am on ITV1. Deals of the Week.
• Fri, Jeremy Vine, at 12pm on Radio 2. The topic's yet to be decided.
• Tues, GMTV, sometime between 7:30 & 9:30am on ITV1. The subject's news reactive.

This week's Martin's Blog. Why so many pizza 2for1s?
"Mortgage brokers in trouble" and "Double Downshift through the eyes of a 12 year old". Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

Would you holiday in the UK? This week's poll. Vote and Close To Home discussion.

A £2.75 pint to say thanks for a £20 loan isn't 13.7% APR. Actually, it's 82,000%! Last week's vote. A staggering 93% of MoneySavers got this wrong, with 31% saying that buying a pint after a £20 loan for a week was just 13.7% APR. Why's it so much? The A in APR stands for annual, and this is 13.7% a WEEK, as the question said, so we assume it's compounded over a year. This means the amount speedily grows, so you owe a fortune. Full Explanation: APR poll result.

Archna's Free Game of the Week! Destroy the blocks. Breaking Brick 2

Help classify the universe. That's it for this week, but Oxford University boffins are looking for help with a massive online galaxy-classification project, and everyone can take part. Spot Star Potential

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: virginmoney.com, energyhelpline.com, moneysupermarket.com, uswitch.com, simplyswitch.com, thetrainline.com, gocompare.com, alliance-leicester.co.uk, americanexpress.co.uk, love2recycle.com, envirofone.com, mopay.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 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.

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