Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

£1,000s of missold insurance reclaimed! Check NOW if you've had loans or credit cards in last six years Misselling of expensive Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) has long been rife. It's designed to meet debt repayments if you're unable to, yet unscrupulous lenders sold it with financial products without customers realising, or to those who don't need it. You can reclaim, for free, and possibly get £1,000s back. Nine out of 10 PPI reclaimers WIN. A Financial Ombudsman report says complaints to it TREBLED in the past year, with over 30,000 new cases. Brilliantly, a whopping 89% were ultimately decided in consumers’ favour, meaning reclaiming's working, and people are getting £10,000s back. Carry on reclaiming, FREE! Despite a ban on all single-premium PPI last Friday, there's still thousands to reclaim. EVERYONE with a loan, credit or store card needs to urgently check if it includes insurance. Unknowingly, you could be paying £1,000s for potentially worthless cover. Read the full step-by-step PPI Reclaiming Guide inc. template letters. But half needlessly pay to reclaim! The Ombudsman reported the number of complaints via claims handlers is rising – almost half of PPI cases. These grab 25% or more of your compensation, and don't increase your chances of winning, so do it for free instead! Over half of ALL complaints won by consumers. The Ombudsman resolves disputes about any financial service provided by a financial company; credit cards, home insurance, investments & more. Of the cases in the past year, a big 57% were won. If you've a complaint, fight back now! Full details of what you can complain about and how to do it, in the Financial Complaints note.

Week of Tue 26 May - Mon 1 June '09 (Last week's position) 1. Council Tax Rebanding (New) 2. Boost Your Loyalty Points (New) 3. Cheap LCD TVs (New) 4. Top Savings Accounts (1) 5. Freebies, Freebies, Freebies (2) 6. Top Cash ISAs (4) 7. Cheap Travel Money (5) 8. Cheap & Free Flights (6) 9. Top Regular Savings (New) 10. Cheap Car Insurance (New) The top 10's awash with new articles this week with council tax topping the charts; no surprise as last week govt figures revealed 130,000 homes are in the wrong council tax band. Savings has been knocked off its perch for the first time in weeks New entry loyalty points also proved popular with those wanting to boost points up to eight times. The above excludes daily deals notes

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PS from Martin. I’m on honeymoon, so this week’s e-mail is in the capable hands of the brilliant team at MSE Towers (read about them in the MSE team biog).

The Ones Not To Miss MSE

Cover NHS & private healthcare costs inc. dental for £9/mth. Healthcare Cashplans.
Singles & families can cover some medical AND alternative treatment (eg osteopathy) costs for just a few pounds a month. How cashplans work: Unlike private medical insurance, here, whenever you pay for treatment simply send in your receipt & it pays back some or all the cash. How good are they? Get your teeth & eyes checked annually and it'll often cover the policy cost. Have more treatment and you can get back 5x its cost. Hidden Best Buys: Most people have only heard of big providers like HSA, yet in this full new guide we've compared 25 plans to discover hidden gems. FULL info & best buys in the Updated Guide: Top Healthcare Cashplans Related: Private Medical Insurance

£10 off groceries at Tesco online & Waitrose in-store. New customers can get £10 off £50+ food shops at Tesco.com using a special legit code. Or for £10 off £60+ in-store at Waitrose grab the Sunday Times (£2) on 7 June. See the Daily Deals List: Shopping Vouchers

New top 3.26% cash ISA. Boost interest on new AND past years' tax-free savings.
A cash ISA's a tax-free savings account that lets UK adults stash £3,600/year tax free (it's increasing to £5,100). Top New ISAs: There's a new top rate; National Counties BS pays 3.26% from £1. This doesn't allow transfers in from old ISAs, which often pay a pittance, eg. 2007's top pick Barclays is now just 0.56%. Top ISA for Transfers: Many top payers let you move money in, boosting the rate. M&S's highest at 3.1% from £100, inc. a 1% bonus til Apr 2010. If you've £9,000+, Abbey* pays 3%, or Standard Life* is a clean 2.65% from £1. WARNING: Never withdraw ISA cash to transfer! Just contact the new provider and ask it to move the money from your existing ISA. Never withdraw; you'd lose all tax benefits. Full details and options in the Updated Guides: Cash ISAs, Transfer Cash ISAs

All New! Pizza Express £10 meal + wine/beer, 50% off La Tasca, 2for1s at ASK, Prezzo. Plus loads more new 2for1s at Zizzi, GBK, Caffe Uno, Tootsies & Dexters, Slug & Lettuce, Bella Italia and Dim T in the Daily Deals List: Restaurant Vouchers

50% off Contents Insurance. Grab quote, lock in price for 90 days, then try to beat it!
One of the cheaper home insurers, Direct Line*, is giving 50% off contents insurance. The quote lasts 90 days, so even if you're not at renewal, grab one now to lock in the price, whether you use it or not. Don't assume it's cheapest: For some it'll be best for contents cover, but never just assume it's good for you. Try to beat it by using the right combination of comparison sites. Top Comparisons: Confused* , ComparetheMarket* & MSupermarket* (Direct Line's not included on any). Get paid for cover! Some Moneysavers have following this system got PAID up to £67, using hidden cashback sites. For the step-by-step cost cutting system, read the Updated Guide: Cheap Home Insurance Related Guides: Cheap Car Insurance, Cheap Travel Insurance

Free Benefit mascara (worth £10) & Sanctuary scrub (£9) with £2 mags. Plus St Tropez spray tan for £10, £59 facial for £20, 25% off Essensuals and 10% off Superdrug online. Full info on all these, plus more offers in the NEW Deals List: Beauty Deals

Got friends who'd like to save? Please tell them about this email

Urgent! Ends Fri. £120 off Virgin TV, line rental & broadband. Sign up via a cashback site and get £120 off (usually £60), until 5 June. This avgs £13.33/mth for basic package, just £2.07 more than standard BT line rental! Full info in the Forum Note: Virgin Bundle

IMPORTANT new rights. Use help agencies & get 30 day's protection from collectors.
Anyone with serious debt problems must seek proper help, available free from debt counselling agencies like Citizens Advice or the CCCS. 30 day rule: New rules guarantee debt collectiors won't contact borrowers for at least 30 days, once you've sought debt help and they've been notified. Do you need help? If you can't meet minimum monthly debt repayments or pay for basic needs, you're in debt crisis. It's vital you use the agencies; they help, and don't judge. Full info on assessing how serious your debts are, getting help and a debt problems checklist in the Updated Guide: Debt Help Related: Mortgage Arrears Help, Setting Off, Five-Mins Benefits Check

Free personalised Fathers' Day card (50p postage). Simply upload your photos & message and order before Tues 9 June for Father's Day (21 June). Full details in the Forum Note: Free Father's Day Card

Earn 5% cashback on EVERYTHING. Make £100s. Top credit card changes eligibilty rules
Cashback cards pay you every time you spend. Repay it in full each month so there's no interest & you can make £100s a year. Top card: Biggest payer, Amex Platinum*, gives 5% cashback, ie £5 per £100, for 3 months on first £2,000 spent (perfect for big one-offs), then up to 1.5%. Eligibility Changes: It previously said min. £20,000 salary required, but now it's changed to £30,000 household income even though you needn't get a joint card. So it's potentially worse for singles, better for some couples. Not eligible? Halifax or Bank of Scotland cards give 1% on spending on groceries & fuel and 0.5% on everything else. FULL info pros and cons in the Updated Guide: Cashback Credit Cards. Related: Credit Card Freebies, 0% Credit Cards

Free tastelondon annual discount cards (usually £70), 2,000 available. Special card that gets 2for1 at over 500 London restaurants blagged for MoneySavers. See the Forum Note: tastelondon

Abbey, A&L, B&B to re-brand as Santander. Savings safety could be merged too
Spanish bank Santander, which owns Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley, is rebranding them by the end of 2010. Savings safety impact? Nothing for now... If a UK bank goes bust, the govt-backed FSCS protection covers up to £50,000 per person per institution. Existing A&L savers get £50k protection, while Abbey, B&B and Cahoot (which won't re-brand) fall under a second shared £50k. Will it change? After re-branding, all NEW savings will be under one Santander licence, meaning £50k protection for the lot. We asked if old A&L accounts would stay separate, but it couldn't confirm or deny, so watch out; another institution to spread savings into may disappear. Full details and all future updates will go in the Updated Guide: Savings Safety or read the News story: Santander savers

8.2 Megapixel Sanyo camera under £50. Plus more sub-£100 branded, digital camera bargains in time for hols, in the New Deals Note: Cheap digital cameras

Do you have Sky Sports or Setanta for the footie? The season's over, so haggle or cancel til the next one could save you £££s. See the Forum Note: Fancy a kick'emout?

Earn £100s/year answering online surveys. Video of the week. FREE money for Xmas? We've added lots of new info into our recent guide to online surveys, where you can make £100s a year just by answering online surveys without any special skill or talent. Video of the Week: To make it even easier we've added a video packed with loads of hints and tips. One MoneySaver even answered so many surveys she paid for her entire family's Christmas presents from the profit. More in the Full Guide: Survey Sites Related: Boost Your Income Cineworld £3 adult's tickets, £2 kid's, with Tesco points. These join new 2for1s at Thorpe Park & the Dungeons, £5 tobogganing, Open Farm Sunday and more in the Daily Deals List: Cheap Days Out Premium Bond Calculator updated with June's odds. Well over £40bn's saved in them now, but the odds remain miniscule. Check your chances of winning in the updated Premium Bond Probability Calculator

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%) Cheap Travel Ins: Annual policies from £15, worldwide £21. See Cheap Travel Ins Top Uninsured Loans: £5k-15k: Sainsburys 7.9% (need Nectar) £15k+: AA*, A&L* 8% Cheap Gas & Elec + Cashback! Top comparison site: Energyhelpline* Free Budget Planner: Use the free planner or do a complete Money Makeover Sell Old Mobiles: Top picks: Love2Recycle*, Envirofone*, Mopay*. 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 Car Insurance: Use both MoneySupermarket* & GoCompare* Also see: Van, Motorbike Cheap Broadband: Plusnet* £6/mth up to 10 Gb download. Home Phone & Broadband: TalkTalk* £19.41/mth or Tiscali* £17.49 Holiday Bargains: Cheap Flights, Travel Insurance, Hotels, Packages, Travel Money

More MoneySaving MSE

MoneySavingNews Orange launches £5 pay monthly tariff. But not available online yet. See the News Story: Orange £5 tariff Full info next week MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Would you sell a treasured trinket? Your ‘red letter’ phone bill is due and you don’t have the ready cash to pay it off. You’ve missed a few payments in the past, and the provider suggested you may be cut off for missing any more, so you’re considering selling a gold watch tucked away in your jewellery box. It was given by your aunt/uncle for your 21st birthday but you know it’d clear the debt. Would you trade in a treasured trinket? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Would you sell a treasured trinket? Previous MMDs: View All MoneySavingNews Some voucher users branded thieves by industry body (though we disagree). See the News story: Voucher users Fight for simpler energy tariffs & bills. If you're fed up with baffling energy bills, Which? has launched a campaign to lobby local MPs. Full details on how to complain inc template emails in the Forum Note: Campaign for better energy bills Great 'Summer Party' Hunt. Tips & hints on cheap booze, food & garden gear Summer fiestas can be fun, but if you're not careful the costs can quickly swell. So we thought after all the summer sunshine we'd tap MoneySavers' knowledge on where to find the cheapest booze and BBQ meat. What are your top recipes for impressing your friends and how can you deck out your garden without it costing the earth. Add your ideas/read other peoples': Great Summer Party Hunt Past Great Hunts: Great Cuppa Hunt, View all MoneySavingNews Average petrol prices hit the £1/litre mark. See the News story: Petrol prices Full Guide: Petrol New Huge Credit Union to cover the whole of North Yorkshire Credit Unions are non-profit financial organisations which offer savings and borrowing to their local communities, great for those who struggle to get a bank account. New North Yorkshire Union. Anyone living or working in North Yorkshire can now join York Credit Union as it has extended its joining criteria to the whole county. For how they work, how to join and the best way to use one, read the Full Guide: Credit Unions

Q. My credit card has an £8,500 limit. My lender sent a later stating it has reduced the limit to £3,500. It also said it made the change after carrying out a search on my credit file. Is it allowed to change the limit and check my file even if I haven't agreed to it? Toni Duke, by email A. The answer to both is 'legally yes but morally a BIG no'. When you sign up for a credit card, most lenders state in T & Cs that they can reduce your limit, as long as they give 30 days notice. Outrageously, it can reduce your credit ceiling to a level below your current balance, immediately putting you over your limit. A lender can also search your credit file whenever it chooses, although there are different types of enquiry; some for lenders' benefit and some for yours. In this case, the type of search is likely to have been an 'unrecorded enquiry' meaning it can only be seen by you and not other lenders, meaning this shouldn't harm future applications. Discuss: Reducing Credit Limits Suggest: A question of the week (big general issues not personal q's pls)

CHEAP FLIGHTS SALES ALERT Airline: BMIBaby. Price: c. £20 e/w. Ends: Midnight Thurs.
Our top pick budget airline sale this week is bmibaby's just pay taxes & charges (around £23) flights to 10 UK/European destinations from a range of UK airports (more availability at E. Midlands & Manchester). The sale ends midnight Thurs 4 June, and tickets are only available on selected flights. 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 £25. 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

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

Top Deal! Free hour of snooker/pool at Riley's. Click 'n' print voucher. Up to 4 players Slumdog Millionaire DVD for £9 (Morrisons, Tesco, Asda & Amazon Oscar winner Pint of Bulmers cider £1 at Morrisons. Can you find it? Fruity Fizz Up to £30 off pet vaccinations in June. Click 'n' print Trust Graphics Tablet £15 at ASDA. For drawing on your PC. Sketchy Deal! Debt Free Wannabe chat of the week: What will you change first? Competitions thread of the week: Mars sports balls (no purchase necessary) Old Style (Thrift) Board thread of the week: Learning to sew

Board of the week: Consumer Rights: Ensure you're dealt with fairly
Set up in March, the Consumer Rights board has been a big hit with a huge range of topics being discussed including Car I bought's had a past accident, Returning cosmetics that don't live up to their claims and "Valid until" legal question Related: Consumer Rights

Great 'Party for Profit' Hunt Result
Last week we asked MoneySavers to list your top tips on party planning as a way to boost income in the Great 'Party for Profit' Hunt. There were some great responses and ideas including sell books, think carefully before going it alone and do something you love

Andrea's Freebies Freebies, Freebies, Freebies

Free Gigs With Orange Rock Corp, Freddie Flintoff Mask Download, Baby Bottle, Woodland Trust Nature Detectives Membership, L'Oreal Collagen Filler

Odds and Ends MSE

Martin's Appearances...Weds 3 - Tues 9 June
These are scheduled appearances, though other ad hocs may happen. See the appearances list for updates.

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

Should the Royal Mail be part privatised? This week's poll. Vote and Royal Mail discussion.

Men should foot the bill on a first date! 9,232 voted last week. Asked who should pay on the first date, 47% of male voters said themselves, with just 1% thinking women should foot the bill. Of female voters, 27% that thought they should offer but the man still pay, 21% wouldn't offer anyway and 25% voted for splitting the bill, compared to 14% of male voters. See Who should pay in 2009? poll results.

Archna's Free Game of the Week! Find & reveal the X-Spot

A sore winner? Remember it's the taking part that counts! Excessive Celebration Fail

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: abbey.co.uk, standardlife.co.uk, directline.com, confused.com, comparethemarket.com, moneysupermarket.com, amex.co.uk, virginmoney.com, theaa.com, alliance-leicester.co.uk, energyhelpline.com, moneysupermarket.love2recycle.com, envirofone.com, mopay.com, gocompare.com, plus.net, talktalk.co.uk, tiscali.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.

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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