Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

New tax year (09/10). The good and the bad The 2009/10 tax year began on Monday, and it's all change. Bizarrely though, this year’s Budget is after the start of the tax year, so changes then may be backdated (last year's figures in brackets). The boosts to income ... Personal allowance UP! Every man, woman and child can now earn £6,475 (£6,035) before paying income tax. For those aged 65-74, it’s £9,490 (£9,030), and for over-75s, £9,640 (£9,180). Basic rate tax threshold UP. You now pay 20% tax on the first £37,400 (£34,800) over the personal allowance, meaning under 65s hit the higher 40% rate at £43,875 (£40,835). National insurance start point UP. You now need to earn £110 per week (£105), before paying for NI, usually 11%. State pension UP. It's £95.25 (£90.70) a week for a single person. Pension credit UP. The minimum guaranteed income's now £130 for single pensioners (£124.05), and £198.45 for couples (£189.35). See the State Pension guide. New Health in Pregnancy Grant. All pregnant women will get a non-means-tested £190 in their 25th week. More in the Pregnancy Grant discussion. Inheritance tax threshold UP. You can leave £325,000 (£312,000) tax-free. See the Inheritance Tax guide.

Week of Tue 31 Mar - Mon 6 Apr '09 (Last week's position) 1. Top Cash ISAs (1) 2. Top Savings Accounts (3) 3. Freebies (2) 4. Pay No Tax Loophole (Fake) 5. Cheap Broadband (New) 6. Cheap Gas & Elec (5) 7. State Pension (10) 8. Premium Bonds Calc (7) 9. Cheap Train Deals (New) 10. Cheap & Free Flights (8) Top Cash ISAs was No. 1 again, as people rushed to meet the frantic final deadline, and it’s likely to be top next week too. The wild card though was the Pay No Tax Loophole; the key to that was it had to be done on the morning of 1 April, not an insignificant date. The above excludes daily deals notes

• Fiscal drag. This isn’t Alistair Darling in women’s clothes, it’s when increased allowances aren’t as generous as they seem. If wages and/or inflation increase by more than the allowances, effectively the government gets more tax revenue anyway, and the real value of the increase is less.
  
  
• National insurance upper earnings UP. You will pay 11% NI on earnings up to £43,888 a year (£40,040) and 1% above that.
  
  
• ISA limits. No change. Yet again, the amount savable tax-free hasn’t increased with inflation or earnings. See the Top Cash ISAs guide.
  
  
• Child Tax Credit family element. No change. Many families get this, and the freeze at £545 is an effective cut. Yet the means-tested element has increased to £2,235. See the Benefits Check-Up guide.
  

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New ISA Year! Save £3,600 tax-free. Top Cash ISAs: Instant-access 3.61%/reg saver 7%
Every UK adult (16+) can now save another £3,600 in a cash ISA, which is simply a tax-free savings account. Top Instant Access: Existing Barclays customers can get 3.61% AER (though 1% point is a year's bonus) in its Golden ISA by applying online. Everyone else needs to apply at a branch. Alternatively, the 3.51% Cash Plus ISAs at Natwest & RBS are clean and available online. Regular Savers: The headline rates are high, but you can only put in up to £300-ish a month, and your cash is locked away. Existing First Direct customers can earn 7%; everyone else 5% at Principality BS. For FULL info, options, pros & cons, read the Updated Guide: Top Cash ISA Transfers Related Guides: Top Cash ISAs, Top Savings, Safe Savings

New Easter w/end deals! GBK 2for1 & Pizza Hut delivery £10 off code. Plus click 'n' prints at La Tasca, All Bar One, Bella Italia and Las Iguanas, though some are midweek only. See the Daily Deals List: Restaurant Vouchers

Warning! DON'T bank where you've debts. They can use your cash to pay debts
The little known setting-off rules've been around for centuries, but now banks are using them. If you've got credit cards or other debt with the same bank as your current account or savings, it can automatically use your money to pay it off. Citizens Advice says this's up 25%, and many have been left cashless, unable to pay mortgages or other priority bills. Fight back: Setting-off primarily hits those who are struggling. The simplest solution's to open a new bank or savings account elsewhere. For this and more info on how to prepare and get justice, see the New Q&A Guide: Setting-Off Rules Move accounts: Best & Basic Banks Accounts, Top Savings

£10 off PER NIGHT code for 10,000s hotels UK & worldwide. A powerhouse code blagged for MoneySavers from Hotels.co.uk. There's NO min spend, you can stay up to 28 nights, but it must be 3* plus. See the Deals Note: Hotel Sales

Car & Home Ins Deals. 12 mths for cost of 10 & free contents cover. Good but take care
A raft of special offers are being advertised on TV, including 12 months for the price of 10 on Direct Line's Car* & Home* insurance, and free contents cover if you get buildings insurance with More than* or Norwich Union*. Plus almost 50% off when you buy Tesco* home insurance by 27 May 09. Warning! While often good, never assume they're automatically cheapest; always use at least two comparison sites to get a wider spread. Top Car Ins. Comparisons: GoCompare* & MoneySupermarket*. Top Home Ins. Comparisons: Confused* & ComparetheMarket*. To cut costs even further, with more deals, comparison tips, and hidden cashback, see the Updated Guides: Car Insurance, Home Insurance Related Guides: Breakdown Cover, Home Phones, Remortgage Guide

New! Free £15 Kurt Geiger shoes gift card, 20% off French Connection & more! Free with various magazines this week. Plus get an Argos £10 off voucher. See the Daily Deals List: Shopping Vouchers

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Hidden £70 cashback on Virgin's £25 for 3 deal in April. Sign up before 30 April to Virgin's £25/mth TV, broadband & phone line rental deal for a year, specifically via comparison site SimplifyDigital*, and you get an automatic £70 cashback. Full info in the Forum Note: Cheap Virgin

Easter Days Out! Theme park 2x 2for1s, free swimming, 1p bowling, kids go free at Legoland. Full details on these and more in the Daily Deals List: Cheap Days Out

Get the best travel money rates for every country in seconds. Perfect for Easter trips
The Travel Money Maximiser tool whizzes round online bureaux de change, to search 15 providers and find the best all-in holiday cash rates in seconds. With the pound so weak, this sometimes adds 5-10% extra on your spending power. Free Tool: Travel Money Maximiser Plastic's Better : Remember, the best credit cards always beat foreign cash. For more, read the Full Guide: Cheap Travel Money More Holiday MoneySaving: Flights, Package Holidays, Travel Insurance, Mobile Roaming

The 99p two-piece bikini! Get the Cheryl Cole look for a quid. See Forum Note: Itsy-Bitsy Price

Bank Charges News! House of Lords allows banks' appeal & OFT to investigate 3 banks
Twice, the banks have been defeated in the bank charges reclaiming test case; the Court of Appeal even said "no" to allowing them to appeal at the House of Lords.. Yet the banks sidestepped this and asked the House of Lords directly and, sadly, it's just said "yes", annoyingly delaying everything even longer. OFT: On Friday the OFT announced an investigation into the fairness of charges, specifically HSBC, Lloyds TSB & Clydesdale Bank. This doesn't mean the other banks are off the hook, it's using these as an example. More info in the MoneySaving News: Banks Appeal, OFT Investigation. Full Guide: Bank Charges, Bank Charges News

Sales Diary! Deb'hams 70% ltd stock, Asda clothes 50%, Sainsburys 25% Tu clothes, Tesco Direct 15%. See the full Deals List: High Street Sales Diary

Great 'Easter Egg' Hunt. Can you find a cracking deal?
Now, of course, part of the reason for doing this is the sheer joy of the title, after all Easter and 'cheap' go together. Shops are hotly competing to smash each others' egg prices, so we want to collate the most egg-cellant choccy bargains. For starters, if under 12's say "Happy Easter" to Sainsbury's customer service staff while stocks last, they'll get a free Creme Egg. Plus there are small Cadbury kiddies' eggs are 68p at Asda and large eggs at Tesco are BOGOF for £4.99. I’d like all the other cheap, big, good eggs MoneySavers can find. Add your finds/read other people's: Great 'Easter Egg' Hunt Past Great Hunts: Crucial Phone Numbers, Cheap Dates, Working For Yourself

Last chance! Extra £5 when flogging old mobiles. Competitive mobile selling company Love2recycle* has extended its free £5 shopping voucher when you sell a phone worth £15+ until 14 April. Use the Mobile Selling Checker and see other deals, in the Updated Guide: Sell Old Mobiles

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State Pension Boosting. Govt's website crash means you can still boost at pre-50% price hike rates
Last week, I was yelling it was the last chance for people who need to top up their state pension to buy cheap extra years. On Mon, the price was due to jump from £420 a year to £630. Govt site crash: Huge traffic meant the pension service was unable to give forecasts, so if you asked, or even tried to access one (it had no way of recording this), request to get the cheaper old rate. Updated Guide: Use the unique State Pension Calculator to work out if it's worth boosting. News Story: Pension Service Web Crash Related Guide: Pension Boosting

Upgrading to the Nintendo DSi console? Trade in to get it half price. It's available for £75 if you trade in your old one, or check out our cheapest finds in the Forum Note: Consoled!

Another new cheapest online gas & electricity tariff. BG drops Websaver 2 again The energy providers are now trading blows to be cheapest. British Gas has again cut its online Websaver 2 tariff, for new AND existing customers, to beat last week's new E.ON fixed price tariff, making it cheapest for most. Of course, don't switch to it without doing a comparison, as it's not cheapest for everyone. Compare, 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 switching info in the Updated Guide: Switch Gas & Elec Related Guides: Cheap Boiler Cover, Grant Grabbing MSE Virtual Easter Egg Spotting Champagne Contest. For a bit of Easter fun, we're hiding seven virtual Eggs around the site from 5pm on Thursday. The first one to find them all wins a bottle of champers. Full details in the Forum Note: The MSE Easter Egg Hunt Looking for work? Grants of up to £300 now available to help. Updated Guide Each Job Centre Plus has a Advisor Discretion Fund, which can provide jobseekers with a grant of up to £300 to cover the cost of transport, childcare, work clothes and more, if the advisor thinks it'll help you get back to work. Previously, the money was only for people unemployed for six months or more. Now anyone claiming jobseeker's allowance is eligible. Full details in the Updated Guide: Grant Grabbing Related Guide: Five-Mins Benefits Check-Up New! MoneySaving News Service. We've started a trial new service to keep you up to date with all meaningful MoneySaving goings-on. Updated daily, it'll include all the latest best buys, loopholes and info, to help keep more cash in your pocket. RSS and better navigation to come, but for now see the Daily updated: MoneySavingNews Struggling with debt? MORE free advice now available Saturdays and evenings If you're concerned about your debts, the amount of free help available from non-profit agencies outside office hours has increased. Saturdays: National Debtline (9.30am-1pm) and for legal/repossessions Community Legal Advice (9am-12.30pm). Weekdays evenings: CCCS (to 8pm) and National Debtline (to 9pm). Week daytimes: All of the above, as well as Citizens Advice Bureau and Christians Against Poverty. Some local CAB may also be open during evenings and weekends. See full details and online advice options in the Updated Guide: Debt Problems Related Guides: Budget Planner, Money Makeover Utility Warehouse cuts gas prices 2.3%, elec 2.6%. One of the more popular smaller energy suppliers, Utility Warehouse, has announced price cuts with immediate effect. To see how it compares, use the comparison sites in the Updated Guide: Cheap Gas & Elec MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should rich divorcee Peggy give money back to struggling ex? Two years ago, housewife Peggy split up with her husband, Archie. At the time, he was running a thriving property business, and she got half his fortune, all in cash, as part of a huge divorce payout. He was left primarily with shares. Now Archie's business is in ruins, and he's facing bankruptcy. Should Peggy give some of the cash back? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should Peggy pay back Archie's fortune? Previous MMDs: View All

Q. I signed up to an adult entertainment website, via a monthly payment on my credit card. It won't reply or let me cancel and nor will my card company. How do I stop it? A. This is the recurring payment trap, and it doesn't just happen for adult sites. If you set up, specifically a regular payment, by giving your credit or debit card details (ie not your bank accounts) it shockingly means you CAN'T cancel it, you need to ask the company to do it for you. It's very different from Direct Debits where you have a right to cancel. Recurring payments are common for online subscriptions, and with a reputable company you can be ok, but adult sites mean you're taking a risk. The cancellation difficulty and embarrassment factor means rich pickings for unscrupulous operators. Sadly, even cancelling the credit card won't always work. To stop it, first warn the website you'll be disputing the transaction. Next, tell the credit card company it's an 'unauthorised transaction' and it has to sort it. The last resort's complaining to the free Financial Ombudsman. Full Guide & Info: Regular Payments Discuss: Recurring Payments Suggest: A question of the week (big general issues not personal q's pls)

MoneySaving News. Barclays appeals the ban on PPI sales. See the News story: Barclays Appeal Related Guide: Reclaim Missold PPI

Board of the week: eBay, auctions, car boot sales & jumbles
Flogging your old gear is a quick way to raise cash, but it can be hard to know where to start. The eBay, auctions, car boot & jumbles board's full to bursting with top tips on buying cheap and selling dear. Discussions include best boot sale & charity buys, best time to end auctions and are car boot sales worth it?

CHEAP FLIGHTS SALES ALERT Airline: Easy Jet. Price: sub. £30 e/w. Ends: When seats sell out.
Our top pick budget airline sale this week is EasyJets's sale, with flights to a host of European destinations from a range of UK airports for between £23.99 and £29.99 each way (including most taxes and charges). Tickets are at this price until they sell out, on selected flights travelling to Turin, Paris and Barcelona from 15 April - 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 £30. 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

Great ''Slash the Cost of Dry Cleaning' Hunt' Hunt Result
Last week I asked for people's top tips to cut the cost of dry cleaning, without losing quality. There were some great suggestions including Tips from a pro, Febreze and £20 curtain cleaning

Martin's Appearances ... Weds 8 - Tues 14 April
These are scheduled appearances, though other ad hocs may happen. See the appearances list for updates.

• Tues, GMTV, sometime between 7:20 & 9:30am on ITV1. The topic's news reactive.

This week's Martin's Blog: Martin made me go and buy shoes for work!
"Should I train bank staff?" and "The Forum Top 50! What’s best read?". Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

What'll happen to house prices? This week's poll. Vote and Apr 09 Property Prices discussion.

MoneySavers say assisted suicide SHOULD be allowed. Last week’s vote. Last week, in a slight departure from the usual money polls, we asked for MoneySavers' views on assisted suicide. The vast majority, 68%, thought it should be based on individual choice for sound of mind patients, 28% thought it should only be allowed in extreme cases, and just 8% considered it wrong full stop. See Assisted Suicide poll results.

Archna's Free Game of the Week! Rescue the cute panda from the maze. Panda Hates Maze

Albert & Marilyn. That's it for this week, but if, like me, you love optical illusions, this collection of fifty is phenomenal. Especially the 49th, where what you see depends on how far from your screen you are. Optical illusions

I hope you save some money

Martin

PS Happy Easter and Happy Passover.

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, comparethemarket.com, confused.com, directline.com, energyhelpline.com, envirofone.com, gocompare.com, halifax.co.uk, lloydstsb.co.uk, love2recycle.com, tescofinance.com, moneysupermarket.com, mopay.co.uk, morethan.com, norwichunion.com, simplyswitch.com, uswitch.com, uk.virginmoney.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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