Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

Automatic PPI refund for a million mortgage holders Find out if you qualify for FSA-ordered refunds If you've a mortgage payment protection insurance policy (MPPI), the City regulator, the FSA, is forcing all providers that hiked costs in 2009 to automatically repay the increase. Here's a quick Q&A: Why's this happened? MPPI covers mortgage repayments if you can't work due to an accident or sickness, or if you're made redundant. Providers upped prices during the recession to offset the increase in claims as more people lost jobs. The FSA says when prices changed, customers should've been given the chance to cancel their contracts. Who'll get cash back? People who've got policies where the costs increased this year. How do I reclaim the money? Just wait. Your monthly payment will be frozen at what it currently is. Yet by next June, insurers must give back the overcharge. Most paybacks are expected sometime in early 2010. How much will I get? The difference between what you were paying before Jan 2009 and the amount it increased to. For a typical MPPI on a £200,000 mortgage, expect this to be around £150-200. Is my price now fixed? No. Insurers can increase prices from next Jan by cancelling your current contract, and offering a new, more expensive quote. However, they can't incorporate any rises because of any new medical conditions since you bought the policy. What should I do in Jan? See if you can beat the price. This'll be especially easy if you got cover from your mortgage lender; you may be able to halve the cost, saving up to £500/year (read the full MPPI cost-cutting guide). Yet beware switching if you've developed a medical problem or have the forseeability of redundancy, as the new provider may exclude it. Discuss this: MPPI refunds. Also see MSE News: £60 million MPPI hike refund

State pension to rise by £2.40 a week Energy prices could jump by 60% Student loan sale ‘won't push up rates’ Banks to improve transparency Stoozing in Oxford English Dictionary? This week's full MSE News list Week of Tue 6 - Mon 12 Oct '09 (Last week's position) 1. Top Savings (1) 2. Beauty Deals (3) 3. Cheap Car Insurance (-) 4. Xmas Spending Boost (-) 5. Breakdown Discounts (-) The above excludes daily deals notes

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The Ones Not To Miss MSE

NOW ENDED! Urgent Savings Trick! Get 5.15% AER guaranteed for five years WITH access to your cash
A small clause in a new fixed rate savings deal effectively lets you use it as a guaranteed 5.15% AER 90-day notice account, beating the next best by nearly 2%. But high demand could close it any minute. How it works: The AA has a 5-yr fixed rate paying 5.15% (min £1). Normally fixes require you to lock the money away, yet this permit withdrawals, at the cost of 90 days' interest. How good is it? The massive rate means as long as you withdraw after 9 mths or more, it'd beat the current best buy instant access accounts. Top Easy Access: Citibank* pays 3.3% AER (min £1), with a year's 2.25% bonus. Safety info: These have the full £50k per person UK safety guarantee, but The AA is part of the HBOS group (inc B Midshires, Halifax, Saga, IF), so you only get one £50k protection between any of these. FULL info & more best buys in the Updated Guide: Top Savings Related: Safe Savings, Top Cash ISAs

New vouchers! 25% off ASOS, Wallis & Warehouse (with £2 mag), £10 off Molton Brown (with £4 mag). These join 15% off £50+ at Barratts, 10% off Halfords, 20% off Adams, 20% off Paperchase and £5 off £50+ at Tesco Direct in the Daily Deals List: Discount Vouchers

New! Free £15 Amazon voucher. Joins other credit card freebies inc. £30 high st. voucher & BA Europe flights You now get a free £15 Amazon gift voucher, if you sign up for the Amazon credit card (16.9% APR) & spend anything on it (even buying a Mars bar at the supermarket). Then repay the card in full, so there's no interest & you never need use the card again. Other freebies inc: Free flights: Sign up and spend a tenner on the Lloyds TSB Airmiles* card (15.9% APR) for a free BA European return flight inc. all taxes, though you must spend at least a night in an Airmiles hotel. £30 Voucher Sign up for Goldfish (9.9% APR), spend £100 per month for three mths, and you get a £30 high st. voucher. Always repay in full: This way, you won't pay interest, otherwise it eats up the gain of any freebie. Full freebie list, card-by-card info & the affect on your credit score in the Updated Guide: Credit Card Freebies Related: Cashback Cards, Best Balance Transfers, Freebies Travelodge £9 Xmas room sale (Nov-Jan stays). Starts 6am Thurs. Good for visiting relatives. It's got 10,000 rooms at £9 & 50k at £19. See the Deals Note: Travelodge Sale Related: Cheap Hotels, Hotel Sales, Cheap Trains

New Vouchers! Pizza Express 2 for £10, GBK £15 meal deal 'n' drinks for 2 & La Tasca & Zizzi's 50% off. Joins 2for1s at Strada, Caffe Uno and Cafe Rouge in the Daily Deals List: Restaurant Vouchers

Get UK parcels delivered for £7 (rather than c. £15). Beat the postal strikes!
With the Royal Mail currently slightly less reliable than the pony express riders of old, thankfully there's a way to bypass it, and get big-name courier delivery at tiny prices. Web parcels: When major firms like DHL have too much capacity, they bulk sell slots to a range of companies; some resell them online at vastly discounted rates. You get the same service as if you went direct, inc. collection from your home or office. Cheapest UK delivery (10KG): A 3-4 day service can be had for £7 via ParcelMonkey*, instead of £15 from DHL Direct. Royal Mail would be around £13 for standard parcels, but without useful insurance. Cheapest EU delivery (10KG): Get DHL 48hr service to most western European countries for £22 from Parcel2go*, usually c. £75. FULL info & many more delivery options in the Updated Guide: Cheap Parcel Delivery Related: Online Shopping, eBay Selling

ALL Amazon shopping now free delivery. It's got rid of the £5 min. spend rule. Full info: MSE News: Free Amazon Delivery

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Code gets Dover-Calais P&O day trip for car inc. 9 passengers & 6 free bottles of wine for £24. The wine's worth over £25 itself. Full info in the Deals Note: Cheap P&O Ferry Deals

Boiler cover market heats up for winter. Boiler repairs, parts & labour for £6/month
Boiler cover prices have dropped as competition gets fierce, with the cheapest prices now under £6 a month. Don't think you need stick with your own energy supplier's policy; anyone can cover your boiler. Easy comparison: Go to uSwitch*, as it's giving an extra 20% off one of the cheapest. Plus Energyhelpline* & MoneySupermarket* are worth a secondary gander. One to add: Direct Line* isn't included by comparison services, and currently offers 15% off its policy, so it's worth a look. For much more info, read the Updated Guide: Cheapest Boiler Cover More Winter MoneySaving: Gas & Elec, Home Insurance, Grant Grabbing

Urgent. 1p(ish) European flights (Nov-Dec). Ends midnight Weds 14 Oct. Ryanair has another 1p e/w sale (inc. some charges) from various airports to over 50 European destinations. Speedily find them using the Updated Guide: 1p Flights, then beat the scores of add-on charges with the Budget Airline Fee Fighting guide. Related: Cheap Flights, Cheap Hotels

50,000 sub-£10 prescription glasses, inc. lenses, frames & UV/glare/scratch protection. It's back; single lens glasses £8 to £12 all-in. See the Forum Note: Cheap Glasses

Train fare £127 saved ... Video of the Week. Split your tickets! Splitting tickets is bizarre & counter logical, yet it works. Simply check where your train stops on a journey, and see if it's cheaper to buy separate tickets to and from that stop. After one MoneySaver recently reported a £127 saving, I thought it time for a reminder. Split ticketing success: "A ticket for my family of four to travel between Aberdeen and Great Yarmouth was going to cost £218 with a railcard. By splitting the tickets from Aberdeen to Peterborough and Peterborough to Gt Yarmouth, I'm only paying £91. We'll be on exactly the same train, leaving at exactly the same time!" Video of the Week: To make the concept simple, I've a five-minute video that takes you through step-by-step. Full Guide & Video: Cheap Trains Related: Train & Coach Deals, Cheap Petrol X Factor free voting ... it worked! Nearly 10,000 votes were placed using a new service that lets you cast votes for free if you listen to an ad. See the Updated Deals Note: Free X Factor Votes, plus read the MSE News Story: Thousands vote for free on X Factor

Student? Get Microsoft Windows 7 for £30, Office 2007 Ultimate suite for £39. Microsoft's 'ultimate steal' student offer is back on, and this year it includes the yet-to-be-released Windows 7 OS. Full details, plus £35 Office 2008 for Mac in the Deals Note: Student Software Deal Related: Free Anti-Virus, Free Office Software

Cheap Home Phones. £15.50/mth for line, calls & bband OR £19/mth inc. free line installation
The TalkTalk* Essentials combined line rental, unlimited eve & wknd calls and broadband deal at £19.41/mth all-in is usually a best buy. Yet currently get an 18mth contract & you get 3 mths' call charges free too (worth £6.49/mth). Plus you can cut costs further. Deal 1. Easy £50 cashback: Go via comparison site SimplifyDigital*, and it'll send a £50 cheque, though then it's a 24mth contract. Deal 2. £55 cashback: A cashback website's offering £55 cashback on an 18mth contract. While this type of cashback isn’t 100% certain, it's very likely in these cases. If you're not a member, you'll need to join up. Incorporating cashback, the all-in price avg's: £15.50/mth. Deal 3. £60 cashback with a new line: TalkTalk line installation's normally £60, but call Simplify Digital on 0800 840 5405, and it'll pay you £60 cashback, but there's no 3mths free & it's a 24 month contact. Full info in the Guide: Cheap Home Phones Related: Free BT Installation

New autumn sales! House of Fraser up to 50% off inc. £2 rings, £5 bags & more. In-store and online. This joins Adidas 30% off, ASOS up to 50% off and more in the Daily Deals List: High St. Sales Diary

Last chance. 50% off Tesco home ins. ends Wed 14 Oct. Tesco's* home insurance 50%-off deal's closing, yet it's not automatically cheapest, so always also check via comparison services Confused*, MSM* & GoComp* too, then try for cashback. Full Info: Cheap Home Insurance.

How reliable are cashback sites? Do they really pay when they promise to? Please help
Cashback websites that pay you a proportion of their marketing revenue if you buy products through them have boomed in the past couple of years. Many people swear by them, but a few at them. How reliable are they? We’re reviewing our Top Cashback Sites guide, and need help from reasonably regular cashback site users, to find out if the sites actually deliver the cash promised. Please feedback on any sites you’ve used at least a few times over the past year. Reliability Polls: Quidco, Topcashback, Cashbackkings, Greasypalm, Wepromiseto, Rpoints 

10% off codes for 16-25 & Senior Railcards plus 25% off Family & Friends Railcard. These £26 railcards get you a third off fares. See the Deals List: Cheap Train & Coach Fares Related: Cheap Train Fares

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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 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: Sainsbury's 7.9%, Tesco* 8% (can be 7.8%) Top Bank Account: Top Pick: £100, 0% overdraft & free travel insurance with A&L* 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.  MoneySaving Books: The Money Diet, Thrifty Ways, Three Lessons

More MoneySaving MSE

Get 40% off bikes if you 'Cycle to Work'. There's a govt. project that lets those who cycle to work get bikes at 40-50% less. Forum Note: Pedal Power Code for a 12x18" photo poster & 40 photo prints. You just pay £1.50 p&p. New Tesco photo customers can get a big photo-printed poster worth £3.50, limited to the first 6,000. See the Forum Note: Free Photo Poster Top Savings Account for £25,000+ just got better. Calculation change means Investec's now 3.35% AER The Investec High 5 3mth-notice account provides savers with over £25k a guaranteed high rate, as it promises to match the average of the top five best buy accounts. The change: It used to only include accounts with bonuses under 1%, but now it's including those above that too. What it pays: The change pushed the current rate to 3.35% AER (previously 3.13%), and with big bonuses now in vogue, the rate could rise further. Updated Guide: Top Savings Related: Safe Savings Want to have your will drafted for nowt? BBC2 is looking for volunteers for a new wills & inheritance series. Find out more Great 'Gold Selling Tips' Hunt. Max cash for min bling ... what's the best way to sell? The high price of gold means you can get a pretty penny for your old jewellery and there's adverts to do it all around. So we want MoneySavers' top tips and feedback on selling old gold, whether it’s high street jewellers, eBay or postal gold companies. Add your ideas/read other people's: Great 'Gold Selling Tips' Hunt Past Great Hunts: View all 250 FREE 'Drive Smart' courses, worth £60. If you passed your test in the last 12 mths, you may be able to go on the AA Charitable Trust's 2hr course inc. safe & fuel-efficient driving tips. See the Forum Note: Drive Smart 'ENVI' energy monitor giveaway result. 40 devices were up for grabs; find out if you blagged one in the Forum Note: Energy Monitor Giveaway

Q. How can I find out how much I am owed in bank charges? Online banking will only take me back so far. Vickie by email A. You should try to reclaim all charges since July 2001, though some argue it's even longer. The total could be huge. Some banks will send you the info if you phone to ask, so try this first. If not, send a letter to your bank, requesting a list of all past overdraft charges. If it refuses, then you've a legal right to demand the ‘past charge’ information under the Data Protection Act, though banks are allowed to charge up to £10 for it (and, banks being banks, they usually do). Ensure you ask for a list of charges, not old statements, or you could be charged for each one. Bank charges reclaiming is still on hold, unless you’re in financial hardship, but that just means banks needn't process claims; they must still register them. So get claims in asap; see the Bank Charges guide. Discuss: How many bank charges? Suggest: A question of the week (big general issues not personal q’s pls)

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should Tyrone & Molly serve picky guests out-of-date food?
Tyrone and Molly invite their friends Sally and Kevin round for dinner. As Molly prepares the meal, she spots the frozen pies are two years past their best-before date. Molly would normally eat them herself; she knows it’s safe to eat food after this date (see the Supermarket Shopping guide). Yet Sally is quite fussy, and has mentioned that they NEVER eat food past its best-before. Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should Tyrone & Molly serve out-of-date food? Previous MMDs: View All

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

Top deal! THREE for one Dolmio pasta sauce & Buitoni pasta at Morrisons. Saucy! Free Thorntons tastings for Chocolate Week (12-18 Oct). Find one near you Even more £15 coats at Asda. Online & in-store. A coat above £1.90 Ben & Jerrys 500ml tubs at Morrisons. Normally £3.99. Jerry good £5 branch lights for vases at Argos. 75% off. Before they twig! GadgetShop month of madness. 80% off daily deals. Go, go gadget! 45 Finish dishwasher tablets £3 at Lidl. Normally c. £10. Dishy deal Free £30 mum & baby hamper. Just buy a £4 pack of nappies. Pamper yourself Free money advice for Birmingham residents. Various dates starting Wed 14 Oct Debt Free Wannabe chat of the week: Today I am debt free! Competitions thread of the week: £200 Habitat vouchers Old Style (Thrift) Board thread of the week: Lazy tasty recipes

 

Board of the Week: Health, Beauty & Fashion: Style, make-up & diet tips
The Health, Beauty & Fashion board is a hub of activity with MoneySaving fashionistas swapping beauty, fashion & health tips. Top discussions include FitFlops, thread veins and private vs NHS dental? Plus read: Cheap Beauty Deals

Great 'Hair MoneySaving' Hunt Result
Last week, we asked MoneySavers for their top tips on keeping locks lovely for less. There were some great suggestions including How to cut your own hair, Coconut oil and Lush £7 colours

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Andrea's Freebies Freebies, Freebies, Freebies

Language Show Tickets, Road Safety Pack for Educators, Peter Kay Audio Book Baileys, David Gray & More iTunes Downloads

Odds and Ends MSE

Martin's Appearances ... Weds 14 - Tues 20 Oct
These are scheduled appearances, though other ad hocs may happen. See the appearances list for updates.

• Thurs, GMTV, ITV1, sometime between 8:30 & 9:30am. Deals of the Week.
• Fri, Jeremy Vine, Radio 2, between 1 & 2pm. Online Vs Offline.
• Fri, Tonight, ITV1, 8pm. Who's Britain's thriftiest?
• Tues, GMTV, ITV1, sometime between 7:20 & 9:30am. The topic's news reactive.

This week's Martin's Blog: MPs' expenses payback, now they know how tax credit victims feel
"Stoozing … ready to enter the Oxford English Dictionary?" and "Q. How many TV experts does it take to make a coffee?" Read m'blogs (or RSS users access)

Should you be allowed to sell your organs? This week's poll. Vote and Cash for Organs? discussion.

Most of you wouldn't save in a non UK-protected bank. 7,164 voted last week. A full 64% of you wouldn't entrust your savings to a non UK-protected bank, compared with 24% who would. A further 13% would only do so if the bank was from a larger country. See the Safe Savings poll results.

Archna's Free Game of the Week! Help find the missing crown for Red Ball

Think you know your gorgonzola from your Garamond? That it’s for this week, but before we go, we’ve discovered a cracking quiz that tests your knowledge of obscure typefaces. Cheese or font?

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, askbm.co.uk, citibank.co.uk, confused.com, directline.com, energyhelpline.com, firstdirect.co.uk, gocompare.com, halifax.co.uk, lloydstsb.co.uk, moneysupermarket.com, parcelmonkey.co.uk, parcel2go.com, plus.net, talktalk.co.uk, simplifydigital.co.uk, tescofinance.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-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.

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