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It's back! The bank charges test case's restarted. Everyone should get their claim in ASAP Finally the test case has reached the House of Lords. Yesterday (Tue) the banks started their appeal to overturn their High Court & Court of Appeal losses. The Story So Far... A £billion paid out. In 2006-7 millions reclaimed unfair charges banks had made for going beyond their authorised overdraft limits. The banks paid out as "goodwill gestures" to avoid the courts, with £10,000+ payouts common. Over 4m template reclaiming letters were downloaded from this site alone. The test case meant reclaiming went on hold. In July 2007 the banks & the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) agreed to a test case to decide the law. Reclaiming was then suspended for most people. What this case is about... Do fairness rules apply? The banks' appeal is against the prior rulings that charges ARE subject to fairness laws. Assuming they fail, the OFT must then decide if charges actually are unfair; it's provisionally said it thinks they are. Result in October. The hearing itself should end this week, but it'll probably be October before the decision's announced. Technically the Lords could refer this to the European Court but the banks can't ask to themselves. Why EVERYONE should reclaim now... It's BIG money. Individual charges may be only £35ish but you should claim all since July 2001 (6 yrs before the test case started), so the total could be huge. If you don't know what you were charged, you've a legal right to find out. Not in financial hardship? Bank charges reclaiming is still on hold, but that just means banks needn't process claims, they must still register them. As up to a million people are already in the claim queue, get yours in ASAP so there'll be less delay getting your cash. Full info & letters in the Bank Charges guide. In financial hardship: The hold DOESN'T apply if you're suffering financial hardship, even if your claim is already suspended you can get it restarted. Hardship essentially means being unable to meet your basic outgoings. Full info & letters in the Bank Charges Hardship guide.

Week of Tue 16 - Mon 22 June '09 (Last week's position) 1. Cheapest iPhone (New) 2. Top Savings Accounts (2) 3. Cheap Travel Money (7) 4. Cheap & Free Flights (4) 5. Travelodge Hotel Sales (New) 6. Freebies, Freebies, Freebies (3) 7. Reclaim Bank Charges (New) 8. Top Cash ISAs (5) 9. Cheap Broadband (New) 10. Cheap Travel Insurance (New) A wee bit strange that such a high end gadget is top of the MoneySaving charts, but as the Bank Charges song once got to No.27 in the real charts I suppose it's payback. Of course if you're going to buy such a gizmo, at least this way it costs less. Travelodge's latest rooms sale (still on, but the £9 rooms have sold out leaving only the £19 deals) means the Hotel Sales deals note flew back in to fifth place. The above excludes daily deals notes

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The Ones Not To Miss MSE

Revealed! The top credit card rewards schemes for flights, cash, points & more.
Make £100s or £1,000s a year by doing your normal spending on the top credit card reward scheme but paying off in full so there's no interest. Our major new research uniquely values, analyses & ranks the big 40 cards inc. Nectar, BA, Tesco & more. All points aren't equal: We've broken through their impenetrability to allow true comparison e.g. one GM point's worth more than 500 Marriott points. Top Cards inc. Cashback: Amex Plat* pays 5% for 3 mths then up to 1.5%. Specialist: The GM Card pays 3x £1 points per £100 spent to be used off new Vauxhalls/Saabs. Flights: The Miles & More Amex pays 1.5% rewards on BMI & Star Alliance flights. FULL pros, cons, APRs & values of every scheme in the New Guide: Top Reward Cards New Tool: Rewards Checker Related: Loyalty Point Boosting, Best Balance Transfers

New 2for1s! GBK most EXPENSIVE free, Pizza Express incl. Fri & Sat & La Tasca 50% off ALL food. These instant click 'n' prints join deals at Tootsies & Dexters, All Bar One and Pizza Hut Delivery in the Daily Deals List: Restaurant Vouchers

Urgent. New 4.5% 2yr Fix Savings. Ends in 10 days. Highest rate since 0.5% base rate
On Saturday, a new 4.5% fixed rate savings account was launched, the last time a rate was this high base rates hadn't yet dropped to their current 0.5%. The Deal: If you've £10,000 to save, niche private bank Close Brothers* offers 4.5% AER fixed for 2 yrs (it also has 3 yrs at 4.75%) but you must get the funds into it by Fri 3 July. Got less? ICICI* has a 2 yr fix at 4.35% and only needs £1,000 to open it. What is a fixed rate? The rate's guaranteed, but you can't access your cash during the term. This means if interest rates increased elsewhere over that time, you couldn't change your mind and move the money elsewhere. Is it safe? All the accounts above have the full £50,000 per person per financial institution UK savings safety guarantee. FULL info and alternatives including the top 1yr fixes, in the Updated Guide: Fixed Rate Savings Related: Safe Savings, Top Savings

Beauty Deals! Free SAKs salon £35 haircut/facial & £5 off £30 at Boots in £1 paper, & instant £5 Ruby & Millie voucher. All the info in the Daily Deals List: Beauty Deals

Major update! Get PAID to have Home Insurance. Record is £67 PROFIT!
Our super-cheap home insurance system's all about combining comparison sites in the right order, then checking special sites for hidden cashack. The current record is being PAID £67 (£53 quote and £120 cashback). New Survey: Following the recent Car Insurance update, we've just done a mammoth quarterly survey & assessment to calculate the right home insurance comparison site order. Compare in this order: Check as many of the following in the time you've available: Confused*, MSM*, GoCompare* and CompareTM* to cover 91 insurers and brokers. Grab cashback: Then take your best quotes and see if you can get them via hidden cashback website deals to bag up to £100ish. FULL step-by-step info in the Updated Guide: Cheap Home Insurance. Other Insurance Guides: Travel, Boiler, Healthcare

P&O Dover-Calais day trip £23 for car inc. passengers AND one free £40 EuroDisney ticket. Book before 15 July for cars with up to 9 people, plus £1 foot passenger tickets available. See the Deals Note: Cheap P&O Ferry Deals

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Unemployment up 232,000 in last quarter. If you’re affected (or have friends who are) read the Redundancy Guide

Get paid to review your holiday. New site passes on a cut of its ad revenue
Just launched SimonSeeks is a new user-review travel site, with substantial financial backing, which gives half the ad revenue it generates to guide authors. How it works: Post a 400-1,000 word holiday guide, with pics, and the more popular it is the more you earn. How much's possible? If it takes off, highly rated guides could earn 5p-20p a view, meaning popular guides could earn £100s. Early adopters should be in a better place to build up status, so it's worth a try. Other Income Boosters: This is just one of a host of ways to generate extra cash, e.g. renting out your driveway, mystery shopping, music reviewing and more. FULL info in the Updated Guide: Boost Your Income Related: Survey Sites, eBay Selling, Comping for Cash

Last Chance. Free BT line installation (usually £123). On Tues 30 June BT's promo to get new lines, second lines or reconnection free ends. See the Deals Note: Free BT Line Installation Related: Cheap Home Phones

Uncover dirt cheap secret hotel rooms. Video Of The Week. Save £1,000s on posh hotel rooms worldwide There are a range of special, super cheap 'top secret' worldwide hotel deals available on Lastminute.com*. The low cost is because you only know the hotel's star rating before you pay, after that you find out the name. Detective Skills: There's a sneaky way to speedily piece together which actual hotel it is before you book, so you can check it out, and see how good the saving is. Video of the Week: To make it easy, Martin's new step-by-step video guide shows exactly how to do it; including cutting a swanky London hotel from the £1,130 list price to £320 in a few minutes. Full Guide & Video: Cheap Hotels Related: Cheap Flights, Travel Insurance, Travel Money Last chance! Instant £5 off ANY £6+ train ticket ends 30 June. Plus £8 Mancs-Lon e/w. See the Deals Note: Cheap Train & Coach Deals

Energy Cap Watch! nPower Capped Tariff Customers. Compare and Switch NOW!
This time last year, huge numbers grabbed capped energy tariffs. Now the first big ones are due to end... the nPower One/Price Fix 2009 caps on 31 July, yet as it usually takes 2 months to switch do it now (there’s no exit penalty so doing it sooner isn’t a problem). Compare carefully: When asked for your current tariff DON’T put your cap, as then it’ll compare to its rate. Instead put your tariff as nPower Standard as it’s almost certainly what you’ll be on when the cap ends. Top Pick Comparison Sites: Energyhelpline* which, via these special links, pays £15 cashback per switch. Dual Fuel: Moneysupermarket* gives £30 cashback, Uswitch* a £40 case of wine, SimplySwitch* (£35 Amazon vouchers). FULL info in the Updated Guide: Cheap Gas & Elec

London tube strike: Many travelcard holders can claim compensation. See the MSE News story: Tube Refunds

Chessington £49 for 2 adults + 2 kids (usually £110). Available via GMTV hotline. This and lots more theme park deals in the Daily Deals List: Cheap Days Out

Free printable PDF Student Finance 2009/10 Guide for parents. Find out how it works...
Lots of myths fly around about student loans, grants and life. If your children are going off to uni this year or in the future, this updated guide's designed to explain how it REALLY works, and what you can do to help them through it, stress free. It's been produced in co-operation with the Department for Children, Schools & Families. Read the New Guide: Parents' Guide To Student Finance Related: Student MoneySaving, Student Loans, Should I Pay Off My Student Loan

Last Chance! Unltd download broadband £5/mth. Two top deals end 30 June. Grab 8Mbps O2 broadband for an avg. £8.14/mth (£4.89 for mobile customers) via a special BroadbandChoices* link. Cheaper but fiddlier, Bethere's equivalent is an avg. £6.83/mth via special cashback sites Quidco* & TopCashback*. FULL info in the Guide: Cheap Broadband

Updated Sales Diary. Adams 2for1s, Selfridges up to 75% off & Gap up to 70% off. See all current sales in the Daily Deals List: High Street Sales Diary

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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% for BTs) Cheap Travel Ins: Annual policies from £15, worldwide £21. See Cheap Travel Ins Top Uninsured Loans: £7.5k-15k: A&L*, Sainsburys 7.9%, Tesco* 8% (can be 7.8%) Car Insurance: Use both MoneySupermarket* & GoCompare* Also see: Van, Motorbike Top Bank Account: Top Pick. Overdraft A&L* (1yr 0%). In-Credit: Earn £23k+ First Direct (£100 bonus), if not Halifax* Free Budget Planner: Use the free planner or do a complete Money Makeover Reclaim £1,000s: Full Mortgage Fees, C'cil Tax, Endowments, Bank Charges, PPI guides Cheap Gas & Elec + Cashback! Top comparison site: Energyhelpline* Free New-Mortgage Guide: Order a copy now for free! Also see: Remortgage Guide Holiday Bargains: Cheap Flights, Travel Insurance, Hotels, Packages, Travel Money

More MoneySaving MSE

Nationwide mortgage, savings & bank account holder? Free 20p charity donation. Vote in this year's AGM (inc approve/reject directors' pay) and it'll donate 20p to Macmillan Cancer Support. See the Forum Note: Nationwide Vote Grab cheap flight sale seats. Sneaky trick to discover how many cheap tickets are left. Updated Guide Spot a dirt-cheap flight seat, and their limited nature means you don’t know how long you’ve got to decide. Yet a sneaky trick lets you manipulate the booking system, and work out how many bargain seats are left. Beat the system: Many airlines allow bookings for up to nine passengers. Pretend to book more seats than you need, and if the cheap fare’s still available for nine seats, then you’ve got breathing space. Yet if the fare shoots up for a booking for three, four, or five seats, you need to grab it ASAP. Guide: Cheap & Free Flights Related: Holiday Haggle, Cheap Travel Insurance Last Chance! Pet vaccinations £30 off. Some vets across the UK are offering £30 off vaccinations during June, worth looking at if it's been a while. Forum Note: Pet Vaccinations MoneySavingExpert.com Summer Intern Opportunity. MSE's looking for a paid intern to join the team this summer for a minimum of six weeks. See the Forum Note: Summer work experience Extra £5 for selling old mobiles with special code. Put the code MSM609 in Moneysupermarket* and you get an extra £5 on top when selling phones over £20. Plus Mopay* is offering an extra 7% if you opt for M&S vouchers until 28 June. First use the Mobile Selling Checker to find the top payer and if it doesn't beat the offers, use the code. Full details and tool in the Updated Guide: Mobile Recycling Heads up for next week. 500 Hoxton posh hotel rooms £1. These will be available midday 2 July. Yet it's never easy to get one, so start planning. Reminder next week, see the Hotels Deals Note: £1 Hotels Related: Cheap Hotels

Q. When using a credit card in Europe I was asked if I wanted to pay in Euros or Pounds. Is paying in Pounds better? Dave Walker, by email A. This is becoming very common, and something to strictly be avoided. The reason is simple, it means the shop (or bank if it's an ATM) is doing the currency conversion for you and the rate's often poor - or at the very least out of your control. If you’ve got one of the specialist cheap overseas cards you’ll certainly get a much better rate paying in the foreign currency not pounds. And even if you’re using a normal card, as you’ve no idea of the relative exchange rates they could be playing you for a fool; so it's always best to stick with paying in the foreign currency and let your bank do the conversion. For more info see the Cheap Travel Money guide. Discuss: Pay in Pounds or Euros? Suggest: A question of the week (big general issues not personal q’s pls)

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should Cilla give Graham a reminder for the date cash?
Cilla's been set up on a blind date with Graham (a friend of a friend), but surprise surprise at the end of the evening when splitting the bill, Graham discovers he's left his wallet at home so she has to cough up the full £40. He promises to repay her at the next date. A few days later and he's texted, but not mentioned the money. As our Cilla wasn't very enamoured with him, should she go on another date to get it, chase for the cash anyway, or leave it? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Cilla's Blind Date Previous MMDs: View All

Great 'Cheap but Thoughtful Wedding Present' Hunt
The wedding season's starting. Maybe you can't quite afford to give something from a list or you'd simply rather give something with a personal touch. Whatever the reason we'd like to tap MoneySavers' wealth of knowledge to compile suggestions for a lovely but less expensive way to wish them well and future happiness. Add your ideas/read other peoples': Great Cheap But Thoughtful Wedding Present Hunt Past Great Hunts: Hotel & B&B Discount, View all

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

Top Deal! £55 dining room table & 4 chairs. Usually £130. Online at Homebase In The Night Garden 'Spin & See' game. £5 delivered (was £20). Buy now for Xmas 1/3 off baby products at Sainsburys. Everything but clothes & formula. One week only Free ebay listing day. No insertion fee for auctions this Thurs 25 June. Make some cash Palmolive shower gel 60p (250ml) Normally £1.50ish. In stores until 12 July UK Atlas for the disabled £6.99 all-in. Via a code for MoneySavers Geared for Saving Londoners! Free summer courses for 8-25 year olds. 100s of subjects. Inc Art, Music Debt Free Wannabe chat of the week: Getting money back from a friend Competitions thread of the week: Wimbledon Tickets (no purchase necessary route) Old Style (Thrift) Board thread of the week: Is a Pizza stone worth the money?

CHEAP FLIGHTS SALES ALERT Airline: BMI Baby. Price: sub. £30 e/w. Ends: Midnight Tues 30 June.
Our top pick budget airline sale this week is BMI Baby's, with 40% off flights to a host of European destinations. Tickets are at this price from Weds 24 June until midnight Tues 30 June, on selected flights travelling between now and Weds 16 Dec 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

Board of the week: Motoring, Public Transport & Cycling
Following suggestions from MoneySavers wanting somewhere to discuss cutting the cost of cycling we've changed the board's title to Motoring, Public Transport & Cycling. Discussions are already going including Under £200 mountain bike, Getting a racing bike and Do you forget how to ride a bike? Plus read Train & Coach Deals Note

Great 'Cheap Legal Music Download' Hunt Result
Last week we revisited the old Great Cheap Legal Music Downloads Hunt to tap MoneySavers' wealth of knowledge and share any new websites and suggestions since it was launched four years ago. There've been some great suggestions including Spotify, Amazon and emusic

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Andrea's Freebies Freebies, Freebies, Freebies

Dove Samples, Treasure Island Dizzy Game Download, Trading Card Generator, Art Exhibition (London), Kids' Greener Future Book

Odds and Ends MSE

Martin's Appearances...Weds 24 - Tues 30 June
These are scheduled appearances, though other ad hocs may happen. See the appearances list for updates.

• Thurs, GMTV, sometime between 8:30 & 9:30am on ITV1. Deals of the Week.
• Fri, Jeremy Vine, sometime between 1 & 2pm on Radio 2. The subject's undecided.
• Tues, GMTV, sometime between 7:20 & 9:30am on ITV1. Motoring MoneySaving.

This week's Martin's Blog: Why Martin Lewis’ is correct grammar!
"Savings fountain HSBC… nifty idea… shame about the products". Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

Should you go on holiday while in debt? This week's poll. Vote and getaway? discussion.

£500k prize? I'll take a holiday home, por favor. 13,345 voted last week. Asked which £500k luxury prize they'd choose, close to half of voters (45%) went for a holiday home in Southern Spain, and the second favourite was a chalet in the Alps with 17%. The most popular non-property prize was a yacht, with 15% of the vote. See Ultimate luxury poll results.

Archna's Free Game of the Week! Fix the power generator to save the robots in Little Wheel

New Bank Charges Anthem! (Last one got to no. 27 in the charts) That's it for this week, but as bank charges are back in court this week, we thought you may enjoy this song... Banks!.

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: Americanexpress.com, closetreasury.co.uk, iciciukpromotions.com, confused.com, moneysupermarket.com, gocompare.com, comparethemarket.com, lastminute.com, energyhelpline.com, uswitch.com, simplyswitch.com, broadbandchoices.co.uk, quidco.com, topcashback.co.uk, uk.virginmoney.com, alliance-leicester.co.uk, tescofinance.com, halifax.co.uk, talktalk.co.uk, tiscali.co.uk, mopay.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.

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