Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

Stop the postal strike hitting your pocket Always pay bills on time, even if you haven't received them! Royal Mail workers' strikes have been on for 14 weeks, and more are planned. Even if you're not in affected areas like London, Glasgow, Plymouth & more, the person sending to you may be. Here are the key tips: Don't pay via posted cheques. You can't guarantee they'll get there, and you could be hit by fines. Pay over the phone via debit card, online or at bank counters. Take special care of credit card repayments. Even a slight late payment can mean you lose your 0% or promo deal, get a £12 fine and hurt your credit score. So call up, find out what you need to pay and sort it. Switch to online billing. Many utility and financial companies will email statements & often you get a cheaper product too. Though ensure their email address is in your system's 'non-spam' list. Set up a direct debit. This guarantees payment and can mean cheap bills (see the Direct Debit guide). For credit cards, if you must, set it up to pay the minimum (see danger min repayments) then manually pay more on top; at least you're guaranteed not to be late. Check your statements. The risk of fraud isn't increased, but if you don't get your bank statement you won't know. So check it online, or get an ATM mini statement (see ID fraud guide). Already been late? Some big companies, inc. Barclaycard, MBNA, Cap One, Amex have said they'll judge whether to refund charges and reinstate lost promo deals on a case-by-case basis, though if you usually pay on time you've got more chance. See MSE News: Card companies & the postal strike...

Week of Tue 22 - Mon 28 Sept '09 (Last week's position) 1. Top Savings (1) 2. Freebies, Freebies (3) 3. Reclaim Bank Charges (New) 4. Ryanair Flights Sale (4) 5. Cheap Gas & Elec (5) The above excludes daily deals notes Orange & Vodafone to sell iPhones House prices fall Tax deadline looming. Avoid £100 fine Minimum wage rise Cheque guarantee cards to be scrapped This week's full MSE News list

Please suggest friends/family/colleagues get this free weekly e-mail from moneysavingexpert.com/tips

[[tip_box_in_tip]]

The Ones Not To Miss MSE

Free sofas, beds, furniture, bikes, baby clothes & more. Try Freecycle & others
Whether it's bedside cabinets, books or wedding dresses, a new range of giveaway community websites offer first-class, second-hand goods for free. Joining stalwart Freecycle, and similar site Freegle, are two new sites that let you browse local goodies online. Isn’t it all junk? Of course some is, but pick right, and there's top-notch stuff from generous people; one MoneySaver recently acquired a pristine Laura Ashley sofa bed. How to get it. It's all about following etiquette, and keeping your eyes peeled. This brand new, detailed guide takes you through how to do it step-by-step. New Guide: Freecycle & Giveaway Sites Related: eBay Buying, eBay Selling, Freebies, Money Makeover

Totally free £5 House of Fraser 'Home' giftcard & free £5 Ikea Voucher. There’s no minimum spend on these, so it's freebies galore. The HoF one is a simple click and print, Ikea requires you to donate five ‘old books’ to charity. Full info in the Daily Deals List: Shopping Vouchers

Massive new PPI misselling crackdown. 185,000 rejected loan insurance reclaim cases may be reopened. Reclaim £1,000s now
If you've got or had a loan in the last six years, you could be entitled to £1,000s back. Even household names have been misselling Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) alongside their loans. Regulator crackdown: The FSA's announced 'tough new measures' saying 40% of single-premium policies, the most common type, sold since Jan 05 will be investigated & if missold, providers must offer customers refunds. Old cases reopened: It's also considering reopening 185,000 previously rejected complaints - no surprise after recent stats showed for lenders like Lloyds TSB, Egg & Capital One, over 90% of cases they rejected, got awarded compensation if they reached the Ombudsman. Reclaim now: Many are due payouts of £1,000s right now, use the Full Guide inc free letters: PPI Reclaiming MSE News Story: FSA to reopen PPI complaints Related: Bank Charges Reclaiming, Council Tax Reclaiming

Free Dan Brown 'The Lost Symbol' audiobook or 1,000s more. There's a free 'sign up & cancel' trial letting you download two free audiobooks from a choice of 30,000, inc. new titles like Dan Brown's latest blockbuster. See the Deals Note: Free Audiobook

Premium Bond Rates BOOSTED. Tool of the Week. Find out what you're now likely to win (odds update 3pm Thurs). The Premium Bond interest rate jumps from 1% to 1.5% on Thurs. Will I win more? Your chances depend on whether there are lots more smaller prizes or a few more big ones. As soon as NS&I publishes the new prize distribution we'll put it into our unique Probability Calculator to tell you your chances. How do Premium Bonds compare? A rise is good, but it's still far behind the best normal savings. Citibank* pays 3.3% AER instant access (including a 2.25% bonus (min £1)) and you can save £3,600 tax free in First Direct's 3% cash ISA (inc. a 2.8% bonus). Find out what you're likely to win: Premium Bond Probability Calculator Full Guide: Premium Bonds: Are they worth it? Related: Top Savings, Cash ISAs

New Vouchers! 50% off Pizza Hut delivery, £5 off £15 Dominos, 2for1s at Ha Ha and Tootsies & Dexters. These join 2for1 Las Iguanas set lunch, Bella Italia 2 courses & wine for £10 and more in the Daily Deals List: Restaurant Vouchers

[[tip_box_in_tip]]

New Beauty Deals. £10 Lush bag (with £18 contents), free posh tiny moisturiser worth £40 (w/ mag) & 50% off Stila make-up. Joins free Sanctuary gift when you spend £10 at Boots.com and 10% off Superdrug online in the Daily Deals List: Beauty Deals

Over 60s can claim up to £400 Winter Fuel Payment help. Quick Briefing
Any household with someone aged 60 or over, by 27 Sept, living in it is entitled to Winter Fuel Payments. How much do you get? 60-79 households get £250 tax free, over 80s £400. Who should claim? If you've had the payment in the past or receive the State Pension, you DON'T need do anything, payments will be made automatically in Nov/Dec. Anyone else should download a claim form and return it to the Pensions Service. Full info in the MSE News Story: Over 60s Winter Fuel Help Related Guides: State Pension Boosting, Cheap Gas & Elec, Cheap Boiler Cover, Benefits Check-Up

New vouchers! £5 off £30+ Waitrose spend (Sat only with 60p paper). Plus 25% off Coast, 20% off Figleaves & 20% off Paperchase. These join 20% off New Look, 20% off Karen Millen and £5 off £50+ at Tesco Direct in the Daily Deals List: Shopping Vouchers

Last Chance & New Deal! Direct Line Home Insurance. Grab 50% off contents today or 33% off buildings & contents tomorrow
Today (Wed) competitive home insurer Direct Line* offers new customers 50% off contents insurance. Yet a birdy's told us tomorrow (Thur) it'll switch to 1/3 off joint building & contents cover and, like Aviva* which is currently giving £50,000 of free contents (when you buy buildings), it's not listed by comparison sites. Get both D.Line quotes: If you press 'save' afterwards, quotes are valid for 90 days, so do one now and one on Thur and you can then opt for the better price. Don't assume it's cheapest: No one provider, even with a sale, is ever always cheapest. Grab as many quotes as possible; to do that speedily, combine as many comparison services as you've time for in the following order: Confused*, MSP*, GoCompare*, CompareTM* . FULL info & how to get cashback in the Updated Guide: Cheap Home Insurance Related: Car Insurance, Boiler Insurance

Code for 25% off Family & Friends Railcard - then get 1/3 off rail travel. Normally £26, with the code a railcard's £19.50, and then up to 4 adults & 4 kids travelling together get 1/3 off adult and 60% off kids' train fares. See the Deals List: Cheap Train & Coach Fares Related: Cheap Train Fares

New cheapest gas & elec tariff. Plus Scottish Power, E.On & British Gas capped customer WARNING The online tariff price war continues, Scottish Power's new Online Energy Saver 7 tariff is now cheapest in four UK regions, though it's beaten by First Utility and Ovo elsewhere; still serious savings are possible, see Cheap Gas & Elec guide. WARNING! Is your cap ending? Three big capped tariffs from E.On, Scottish Power and British Gas end this week, if you don't act you'll be shifted to EXPENSIVE tariffs, so do an urgent comparison. Special capped comparison. Most comparison sites only use capped rates to compare, but more important is the rate the cap goes to, yet Energyhelpline's* adapted and now incorporates the rate your cap'll go to and pays £15 cashback too via this link. FULL info, explanation & ways to get more cashback in the Switching Guide: Switching From a Cap URGENT! 500 Hoxton posh hotel rooms £1. Avail. 12 noon Thurs 1 Oct for stays 1 Nov - 31 Jan. Yet it's an online scrum to get one, so good luck. Info in the Deals Note: Hotel Sales

Free £100 for properly switching bank account to Alliance & Leicester. Apology, error last week
Last week's email included a free 12 bottles of wine deal, now closed, if you opened a Smile bank account and you didn't even need to switch over direct debits or standing orders to get it. Free £100 from A&L: A suggested alternative is the Alliance & Leicester* free £100, but sadly a proofing error meant some emails incorrectly said you didn't need to switch properly to that too. Sorry you do have to switch salary, DDs, etc (the info on the site was correct). Though as it's the current best buy and you get a 0% overdraft & free travel insurance too it's a good deal, and if you don't want to switch, it just means no £100. Related Guide: Best Bank Account

Urgent. £5(ish) European flights (Oct-Mar). Ends midnight Thurs 1 Oct. Yet another 'million' Ryanair £5 each-way flights (inc. some charges) from 13 UK airports to over 50 European destinations. Speedily find them using the Updated Guide: £5 Flights then beat the heap of add-on charges with the Budget Airline Fee Fighting guide. Related: Cheap Flights, Cheap Hotels

[[tip_box_in_tip]]

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) Top Savings: Easy Access: Citibank* 3.3% inc 2.25% bonus (min £1) Clean: IF 2.85% (min £1), One Year Fix: Chelsea BS 3.8% (min £1,000) Cheap Gas & Elec + Cashback! Top comparison site: Energyhelpline* Car Insurance: Use both MoneySupermarket* & GoCompare* Also see: Van, Motorbike Cheap Travel Ins: Annual policies from £15, worldwide £21. See Cheap Travel Ins Top Uninsured Loans: £7.5k-15k: Sainsbury's 7.9%, Tesco* 8% (can be 7.8%) 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 Broadband: Plusnet* £6/mth up to 10 Gb download. Teen Cash Guide: Free 40 page PDF guide to teach your kids about money

More MoneySaving MSE

Reminder! BT call hikes 1 Oct. BT's price increases come into effect 1 Oct. Find out how to slash call costs in the Guide: Cheap Home Phones Related News Story: BT hikes Great 'Disguised Own Brand' Hunt Revisited Result While certain brands may say if their name's not on the box then it's not inside the box, this isn't always the case. So last week we revisited the super popular Disguised Own Brands hunt to call on those with insider reports on which own-brands are really leading brands in disguise. There were some great tip-offs including McCains make for the supermarkets, Thorntons choccies for M&S and Harrods biccies at bargain prices Freeview viewer? Don't forget to retune your set Wed 30 September. All users of Freeview, Top Up TV and BT Vision must retune to continue getting a full service. Forum Note: Retune at Noon New MoneySavingExpert.com YouTube channel. Lots of videos inc. MoneySaving Live!, Cheap Trains, Balance Transfers and more. Visit: MSE's YouTube Channel MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should you pay the cabbie? You jump into a cab at a red light and so he doesn't hold up traffic the driver speeds away. You know the journey usually costs about £20 but half way there you realise he hasn't put the meter on. Would you argue it's their fault and just pay meter price or just stump up the full cash? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should you pay the cabbie? Previous MMDs: View All

Q. What's the difference between APR and AER? A. Quite simply, APR is the official measure used for debt, AER is the same for savings. The Annual Percentage Rate (APR) is the overall cost of the debt over a year, including any associated fees. The Annual Equivalent Rate (AER) shows you the interest you'd earn if you put your money in an account and left it there over a year. Discuss: What's the difference between AER & APR? Suggest: A question of the week (big general issues not personal q's pls)

Great ‘Take care of your wardrobe’ Hunt
Looking after your clothes carefully means less cash on new outfits. So I want to tap MoneySavers for practical tips on keeping their wardrobe pristine, whether it’s cleaning, fixing or dying. How do you polish scruffy shoes, store posh frocks and revive battered handbags? As an example, salvage old flip flops by soaking them Daz for 10 mins, and scrubbing them with an old toothbrush; the results are like a Cillit Bang advert! Add your ideas/read other peoples': Great Take Care Of Your Wardrobe Hunt Past Great Hunts: View all

New Style MSE Sections. The redesigning of our section pages to make them easier to use is motoring ahead – this week four more launched: Utilities, Banking & Saving, Travel and Insurance. Hope you like them (an example of the old style is Mortgages).

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

Top Deal! 4pk Branston Beans 79p. At Morrisons. This week only Play.com Gifts & Gadgets Sale. Stocking fillers under £5. Inc mugs, posters, keyrings 24 pack of Charmin loo roll £5.99. In store at Lidl 28 Sept. Stock up! Mr Men & Little Miss DVDs. £10 for the complete set. Usually £24 £15 Ladies' mac at Asda. In store & online. Red, black, stone & navy Debt Free Wannabe chat of the week: Let's Make It A Good Xmas Competitions thread of the week: Win an XBox 360 Old Style (Thrift) Board thread of the week: Using Up Herbs & Spices

Board of the week: Silver Savers (over 50s) MoneySaving
The Silver Savers board offers a wealth of information and innovative ideas for the more mature MoneySaver. Discussions include Need a medical bracelet for my mum, Wireless headphones for TV and Downsizing

Andrea's Freebies Freebies, Freebies, Freebies

Washing Colour Catcher, Twinings Teas, Multivitamins, Nivea For Men Sample, Billy Goats Gruff Story Download

Odds and Ends MSE

Martin's Appearances...Weds 30 Sept - Fri 9 Oct
These are scheduled appearances, though other ad hocs may happen. See the appearances list for updates.

• Weds, GMTV, ITV1, sometime between 8:30 & 9:30am. How to have a bargain Christmas.
• Thurs, GMTV, ITV1, sometime between 8:30 & 9:30am. Deals of the Week.
• Mon-Fri, Countdown, Channel 4, 3:25 - 4:10pm. In the Dictionary Corner.

This week's Martin's Blog: GMTV's hidden pop hit predictor...
"The “right to know rates before applying for credit” campaign moves apace" and "Free Gu Chocolates… it was like the wildebeest mass exodus". Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

MoneySavers fave bank is Lloyds TSB! 17,491 voted last week. Last week we asked simply 'who do you bank with?' Llyods TSB won by a nose with 11% of the vote, followed by Alliance & Leicester (10%), Barclays (10%), Halifax (10%), and NatWest (10%) again. See the Where do you bank? poll results.

Archna's Free Game of the Week! Remove the blocks without disturbing them in this physics game Sleepy

What are they teaching these days?! That's it for this week, but before I go look at these 25 Best Exam Blunders

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: alliance-leicester.co.uk, aviva.co.uk, citibank.co.uk, confused.com, comparethemarket.com, directline.com, energyhelpline.com, gocompare.com, moneysupermarket.com, plus.net, tescofinance.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-focused 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.

To change your E-mail or stop receiving Tips (unsubscribe): Go to: www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips

Was this free e-mail forwarded to you? To receive it directly go to www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips