Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

FIGHT BACK GUIDE! Been treated unfairly? You're entitled to compensation You've powerful rights when dealing with financial companies. Regulations say that they must “treat customers fairly”, and if not, there's a free way to fight back. The Financial Ombudsman Service has legal power to adjudicate. Go to it, and, when faced with legit complaints, often companies just roll over and pay out. You won't always win, but companies must take you seriously. Charge for your time! Hidden in its guidelines, the Ombudsman also says it can add up to £10/hour for the time the consumer spent putting things right. The Ombudsman can adjudicate on ... Bank accounts. As well as Bank Charges reclaiming, it includes incorrect Direct Debits, delayed payments, Setting Off or account admin mistakes. Credit cards. Things like unfair interest rate hikes, disputed transactions, credit file defaults, not paying Section 75 claims & Credit Card Charges reclaiming. Insurance. Car, Home, Travel, Pet, Roadside Assistance, income protection, critical illness & private medical are now all under the Ombudsman’s remit, covering rejected, delayed or unpaid claims & more. Plus, of course, Mis-sold Loan Insurance. Pensions & annuities. Wrong advice to transfer out of SERPS, the suitability of the pension or just unfair delays. Mortgages and loans. A vast array of issues with lenders or brokers, eg, how lenders handle arrears problems, plus Endowment Mis-selling (though time's running out for this). Savings & deposit accounts. Incorrectly processed Cash ISA applications or rates not changing as the terms state. More ... Frankly, if it's a financial company, even some investments, it's likely the Ombudsman is the place to complain if you're not getting anywhere.

Week of Tue 28 Apr - Mon 4 May '09 (Last week's position) 1. Top Cash ISAs (5) 2. Freebies (8) 3. Top Savings Accounts (7) 4. Income Tax Checker (New) 5. Cheap Train Deals (New) 6. State Pension Boosting (New) 7. Free & Cheap Flights (9) 8. Travelodge £9 sale (1) 9. Cheap Travel Money (New) 10. Cheap Broadband (3) The announcement of the forthcoming £5,100 cash ISA allowance boosted cash ISAs back to the top of the charts. Yet the new Income Tax Checker tool had a strong showing too. Interesting to note that the Travelodge £9 sale (now only £19 sales rooms left) was only linked to from this top ten section of the tip, showing that being No.1 here can put you in the top ten again. The question is will position 8 work the same magic? The above excludes daily deals notes

Making an effective complaint

First, you must complain directly to the company. If it won't help or takes over eight weeks, then go to the Ombudsman. All it takes is filling out an easy complaint form, and attaching evidence if you have it. Like all good writing, the essence of the complaint and the remedy you want should be in the first line.

Help us build a library of letters

If you've composed a good letter to the Ombudsman (or initial complaint to a company), please put your letter (minus personal details) in the forum for others' inspiration. See the Template Letter Library

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The Ones Not To Miss MSE

Check credit files for free & NEW secret fraud files. Boost your credit score
A minor error on your credit OR secret fraud files can kibosh mortgage, card, mobile phone applications and more. This is my fully updated guide to credit score boosting after major new research for a TV prog., inc. Free credit check. A simple sign up 'n' cancel trick lets you check instantly for free. New fraud checking: Pivotal, but little-known, fraud agency National Hunter daily scours 100,000 files for discrepancies between past and current applications; find out what it knows. Boost your acceptibility: Masses of techniques from the minor 'put a landline, not mobile down' to deleting defaults. Full info in the Updated Guide: Boost Your Credit Score Related: Best Balance Transfers, Cheap Loans, Remortgage Guide TV Credit-Boosting Clinic: ITV1 Tonight 8pm Fri 8 May

50% off Zizzi mains and 2for1s at Prezzo, Dim T & Cafe Rouge join Pizza Express. Plus £15 off Bertorelli and 2for1 at Caffe Uno. See the Daily Deals List: Restaurant Vouchers

Loophole! Dial freephone numbers for FREE on mobiles (usually up to 40p/min)
0800, 0808 and 0500 numbers may be free from home phones, but call via mobiles, and you can be charged up to 40p/min. Beat mobile freephone charges: With 0800buster, you call its normal phone number, so it's either a local call charge or part of your free minutes, then through its system dial the freephone number at no further cost. How it works: 0800Buster gets a tiny cut of your access call's cost, then routes you to the 0800 via a landline. Find the access number and full pros & cons in the Deals Note: 0800Buster Related: Cheap Home Phones, Cheap Overseas Calls

Two-month free Family & Friends Railcard, then 50% off code. It gives at least 1/3 off most tickets when up to four adults travel with kids. See the Deals Note: Cheap Train & Coach Deals

Cheapest annual travel insurance. £15 for singles, £28 for families. Updated Guide
Annual travel policies cover a year's trips away; go away twice or more in 12 months, and it's usually cheapest. Hidden deals: To be table-topping, some insurers offer cheaper prices via comparison site Moneysupermarket than direct. If so, the links here say (msm) & take you there. Annual Europe-only: For basic cover, InsureMe 4 (msm)* costs £15 for singles & £28 families, but with high excesses, and Direct Travel Silver* is £19 singles & £30 families, but doesn't inc. holiday cancellation. Annual worldwide cover: For singles, OUL Direct (msm)* costs £21, again with again a high excess, and for families it's £35. Warning! We've picked on price; always check the cover and excesses are suitable for you before paying. More info, options for over 65s and pre-exisitng conditions in the Updated Guide: Cheap Travel Insurance Related: Package Hols, Travel Money, Cheap Flights See Question of the Week below for swine flu issues

Free £3.45 coffee voucher for Starbucks regulars. Starbuckers, grab its pre-pay card avail. in-store, put £5 on it, register online for its reward scheme & get the voucher. See the Forum Note: Cafe-au-pay

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Free eye test plus 100 clubcard points. Ask for a free eye test at a Tesco optician, and currently you’ll get it free (usually £10) plus 100 clubcard points to boot. See the Forum Note: Free Eye Test

Great 'Improve Money Rules' Hunt. Suggest & vote on consumer manifesto to politicians
Politicians focus on big issues, but miss those little changes that could help us all. We want your under 50-word suggestions, so we can publish a selection, and send ‘em to politicians (Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg's already agreed to review). My examples: These include some we’ve already campaigned on. 1. A right to demand fair energy direct debits. 2. Force savings statements to list current interest rates. 3. A right to know the rate you’ll get before applications go on credit files. Add yours/read & vote on others': Great 'Improve Money Rules in 50 Words' Hunt. Related: Savers' rights, Fight Unfair Energy Direct Debits

2,000 European 3*/4* £10 hotel rooms. Starts 10am Thur 7 May. This is one of those super-cheap, website-crashing promos. Be there exactly on the dot to stand a chance. See the Deals Note: Hotel Sales

£40K PPI Reclaim Vid Of The Week. My evil loan seller twin Day-by-day, people tell us of massive loan insurance reclaim successes. One reported a mammoth £40,000, made up of cash and the amount knocked off future payments. If you've got a loan, secured loan, credit card or sometimes even a mortgage, you may've been mis-sold. Video of the Week: With my right banker of an evil twin, this new video shows how easy it was to mis-sell PPI, and tells the tale of one reclaimer who got £2,600 back. It's an easy watch to show you the basics. Video & Full Guide: PPI reclaiming Related: Cheap Loan Insurance, Bank Charges Hardship Urgent. Wed ONLY! 2for1 Domino's takeaway. On medium or large pizzas; just ask for it. See the Daily Deals List: Restaurant Vouchers

Back On! Free £100 with 0% overdraft, but don't bother with linked 7% savings
After stopping it a month ago, Alliance & Leicester's* reintroduced the £100 new customer online sign-up bonus for its Premier current account, which, as it has an 0% overdraft for the first year, makes it top payer both for those overdrawn and in-credit. Avoid linked 7% savings. From Wed apply in branch/by phone, and instead of the £100 you get a 7% Premier Regular Saver account. Yet this only lets you put in £250/mth and lasts just a year. EVERYONE can get 6% elsewhere anyway, so the benefit isn't close to £100-worth. Full details, pros, cons & alternatives in the Updated Guide: Top Bank Accounts Related: 6% Regular Savings

Days Out! 2for1 entry to UK gardens & free school hols footie. These join 2for1 theme park entry in the Daily Deals List: Cheap Days Out

Cheapest Home Phone change. TalkTalk ditches free intl calls for free local calls anytime
New customers joining TalkTalk's Essentials* package get line rental, broadband, a wireless router, free national evening & weekend calls, and now free local calls at all times for £17.74 a month, plus £30 set-up. So over the 18-mth contract, it avgs £19.41/mth all in. What counts as local? It's usually your area code, plus those immediately surrounding it. Existing Customer? You keep your current deal (ie, free intl. calls, not local ones) until the contract ends, though it will let you switch earlier if you want. For full info, pros, cons, tips & alternatives, see the Updated Guide: Cheapest Home Phones Related: Cheap Broadband, Cheap Mobiles

Premium Bonds: £40bn+ saved in 'em for first time. Yet you've the worst chance of winning EVER. Check your chances: Premium Bond Calculator (updated) Related: Premium Bonds

Reminder! Credit Card Freebies: BA Europe return, £30 high st. voucher, BMI biz class return. Some seriously hot current freebies. Full list in the Updated Guide: Credit Card Freebies

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The Big & Easy Ways to Save Checklist

Quick links or click the titles for full pros, cons, alternatives & more savings

0% Balance Transfers: Top pick: Virgin* 16 mths 0%, 2.98% fee (APR 18.6%) Car Insurance: Use both MoneySupermarket* & GoCompare* Also see: Van, Motorbike Cheap Gas & Elec + Cashback! Top comparison site: Energyhelpline* Free Budget Planner: Use the free planner or do a complete Money Makeover Top Cashback Credit Card: Top pick: Amex Plat* 5% for 3 mths. (APR 18.9%) Cut Home Bills: Read full guides on Cheap Home Ins, Cheap Boiler Cover, Grant Grabbing Reclaim £1,000s: Full Mortgage Fees, C'cil Tax, Endowments, Bank Charges, PPI guides Free New-Mortgage Guide: Order a copy now for free! Also see: Remortgage Guide Cheap Broadband: Plusnet* £6/mth up to 10 Gb download. Holiday Bargains: Cheap Flights, Travel Insurance, Hotels, Package Holidays, Travel Money Teen Cash Guide: Free 40 page PDF guide to teach your kids about money

More MoneySaving MSE

Money Saving News Beat the Virgin Media home phone & broadband price hikes. See the News Story: Virgin Hikes Related Guide: Cheap Home Phones "Competitions helped me pay off my debts." Compers' Comping Contest Winner! Thanks for all the great entries in our contest to find the best stories about entering competitions. And the winner is ... “Competitions helped me pay off my debts”, by MoneySaver schizometric. Thanks to all who entered. We're in the midst of writing a guide to comping, to help complement the Competitions Forum board, and all the top tips will be included. Winning Entries & More: Read them in the Compers’ Comping Contest Money Saving News Comping fans to get kitemark protection. See the News Story: Kitemark protection Related Forum Board: Competition Time Benefit payments shake-up correction. The max anyone will be without income is one week, not three. Many people's benefits payment dates are changing, moving from being paid in advance to in arrears. In a past tip we wrote that it could be up to three weeks without income for some, but the Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed the maximum is only one. See the updated Forum Post: Benefit payment changes Related Guides: Five-Minute Benefit Check-Up, Grant Grabbing Money Saving News Govt. mortgage rescue scheme's only helped one household. See the News Story: Mortgage Rescue Related guide: Mortgage Arrears Help CHEAP FLIGHTS SALES ALERT Airline: Ryanair. Price: sub. £30 e/w. Ends: Thurs 7 May.. Our top pick budget airline sale this week is Ryanair's sale, with flights to a host of European destinations from a range of UK airports for between £5.99 and £29.99 each way (including some taxes and charges). Tickets are at this price until Thurs 7 May, on selected flights travelling between now and Tues 30 June '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 MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. What to write about a friendly B&B with cockroaches? You’re a keen hotel review website contributor, often using them to plan holidays (see the Cheap Hotels guide). You stay at a lovely B&B, run by a sweet, friendly couple. They mention the recession has hit business, and how grateful they are for the custom from review sites. All’s going well, until you spot three cockroaches in your room, and are so grossed out you leave the next day. You’d normally write a stingingly negative review straightaway, but feel a bit cruel, knowing it might affect the nice owners’ business. Enter the Money Moral Maze: Would you write a bad review? Previous MMDs: View All

Q. I’m booking a holiday abroad, but can I get my money back if a country gets swine flu? Martin's A. The key is the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) advice. If it warns against non-essential travel to a destination (as it has to Mexico), first take the matter up with your tour operator or travel agent. It should offer an alternative holiday, or give you a full refund. And your travel insurer should cover you for the new destination. If the tour operator can’t/won’t help, next try your travel insurer. If you've a policy with cancellation cover, most have terms that should pay out if the country's been deemed unsafe by the FCO, though policies vary. If you’ve not booked via a travel agent, just booked a flight, go direct to the insurer. If there is no FCO warning about the country, you have very few rights. If the worst happens and you contract swine flu on holiday, you should be covered under the medical section of your insurance policy for repatriation, unless you're travelling against the government's recommendation. As you can probably tell, the real answer here is “it depends”, so always check with the travel company and insurer if you’re worried. Discuss: Swine flu & holiday booking 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

Top deal! £1 DVD rentals. Excl new releases. In-store at Blockbuster £25 M&S beach goodies package. Swimwear, bag, sunnies, towel & flip flops. Hot stuff! Up to 75% off Amazon sale. Inc books, DVDs, cameras & more. Huge stock clearance Cheap Tripp suitcases at Debenhams, inc £25 down from £120. Are you tripping? Men's suit £25 at Asda. Black jacket & trousers available online & in-store. Suits you! Free heart check for 14-35 year-olds. Limited charity funded appointments available Debt Free Wannabe chat of the week: The No Takeaway Challenge Old Style (Thrift) Board thread of the week: Thank you to whoever ...

New Board! Restaurants & Eating Out: Let others know the deals you've spotted
Requests for cheap restaurant and eating out tips abound across the MoneySavingExpert Forum, so we thought it time to gather them all in one easy to find place. The new Restaurants & Eating Out board's already filling with your ideas and suggestions. Discussions include Bournemouth/Poole Restaurants, The Printworks, Manchester and Nice Places to Eat in York

Great 'What to Buy at Costco & Makro' Hunt. Result
Last week, I asked MoneySavers for tips on the best value buys at warehouse clubs Costco & Makro. There were some great suggestions including Crocs & Uggs, Costco vs Makro and cheap tyres

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Andrea's Freebies Freebies, Freebies, Freebies

Liz Arden 8 Hour Cream, Gluten Free Rolls, Purifying Daily Facial Wash, Lil-Lets, Virtual Spanish Lessons

Odds and Ends MSE

Martin's Appearances ... Weds 6 May - Tues 12 May
These are scheduled appearances, though other ad hocs may happen. See the appearances list for updates.

• All this week, Countdown, Channel 4, 3:25-4:15pm. In Dictionary Corner (read Martin’s Countdown Blog).
• Fri, Jeremy Vine, Radio 2, 1-2pm. Subject tbc.
• Fri, Tonight, ITV1, 8-8:30pm. Credit Secrets Revealed.
• Tues, GMTV, ITV1, sometime between 7:20 & 9:30am. The topic's news reactive.

This week's Martin's Blog: Not everyone is in the mire
"How credit ratings work: coming full circle", "Uncle Terry wants a gin and tonic" and "A terrible slip". Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

Pick a car sticker slogan. This week's poll. Vote and Car Sticker discussion.

Moneysavers SPLIT on 50% tax rate. 12,383 voted last week. A big 49% of those who aren’t high earners still oppose the 50% tax for earnings over £150,000, though 41% say it's fine, and 10% think it should be higher. Unsurprisingly, of those saying they earn £150k or more, 58% oppose the tax. View Vote Result: 50% Tax

Archna's Free Game of the Week! Navigate your way around the Neon Maze

Specialist in women and other diseases! That’s from a sign spotted at a doctors in Rome; I just revisted an old thread full of these from 2005 and started to laugh ... enjoy. Silly Signs

We hope you save some money

Martin & the MSE team

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 0EH 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: direct-travel.co.uk, moneysupermarket.com, alliance-leicester.co.uk, talktalk.co.uk, uk.virginmoney.com, energyhelpline.com, love2recycle.com, halifax.co.uk, mopay.co.uk, americanexpress.com, gocompare.com, plus.net. 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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