Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

New Free Tool! MSE's MegaShopbot.com Instantly searches THE BEST shopping comparison sites to find goods cheapest Shopbots are price comparison sites aimed at finding where your chosen CD, book, video game, perfume, electronics or owt else are cheapest. Yet there are loads of them, and different ones are good for different things. Megashopbot.com: We've radically overhauled and souped up the free MSE MegaShopbot.com - now it automatically selects the three best shopbots for your specific search and lists all their results with just one click - making it super-speedy to check out the cheapest price over a huge range of stores e.g. SuBo CD £7.68 & Call of Duty Xbox 360 £32. Related: Online Shopping, Top Cashback Sites, Consumer Rights

25% off Monsoon, 10% off £50+ at MandM Direct
New Shopping vouchers! Plus free B&Q 4-5ft Norway Spruce (worth £10) with £30 spend
They join Barratts 20% off online, People Tree 25% off, and HalfPricePerfumes.co.uk 10% off in the Deals List: Discount Vouchers

Get 10 free personalised-photo Xmas cards (worth £25) just pay £2.50 P&P
Also avail. a free photo book, 50% off calendars and even a personalised photo snow globe!
A full rundown of the latest photo gift deals & free photo developing in the New Deals List: Free Photo Gifts & Prints

New Top 3.5% AER Cash ISA
Get 3.5% AER fixed for a year (min £500) and you can transfer past years' cash ISAs in too.
A cash ISA is simply a savings account you can put £3,600 in per tax year (£5,100 for over 50s) and you don't pay tax on the interest. New Top Deal: Northern Rock's new ISA pays 3.5% AER fixed for a year, if you've £500+. You can withdraw cash early, though you pay 60 days' interest as a penalty. It will also allow you to transfer money in from existing old cash ISAs from previous years. Top easy access: Standard Life's cash ISA pays 2.65% AER and you can withdraw cash penalty free, alternatively if you've over £9k in past years ISAs, Abbey's* online direct ISA lets you transfer them in at 3% AER easy access. FULL info in the Updated Guides: Top Cash ISAs, Cash ISA Transfers Related: Top Savings (3.6%), Safe Savings

M&S, Tesco & Sainsbury's big wine & champagne sales
Ends soon! 25% off all M&S & Sainsbury's wine plus further £10 off £50+ on Tesco's wine sale
This plus limited stock £14 Moet and £18 Bollinger in the Deals Note: Champagne & Wine Deals

Pizza Hut Delivery 50% off £30, Yates Xmas Dinner 2for1
New Restaurant Vouchers! Also Cafe Rouge 2 mains for £12.50 and Bella Italia £10 for 2 courses and Wine
Join La Tasca £15 lunch & wine for 2, Crown Carveries 2 courses for £5 & ASK buy one get one for £1. See the Daily Deals List: Restaurant Vouchers

Beat Ryanair's new £10 Visa Electron booking charge!
Budget airline adds £10 return to Electron bookings - but there's a new way to book for free
While Ryanair advertises flights for pennies (see below for this week's '£5' e/w sale), there are hideous add-on costs, including up to £10/return for most paying by credit & debit cards. What's the change? The current way to pay for free is with a Visa Electron card - but outrageously, from 1 Jan it'll move the goalposts and charge £10 return on these too. Beat the charges: Yet from 1 Dec. it won't charge for bookings using Mastercard Prepaid cards (no surprise as it's launched its own one in Ireland; maybe coming here?). The cheapest of these is ICE's Sterling Card* (choose the UK pound version) which is available free, and only charges 2% when you top up (min £100) though you can spend that anywhere. FULL info in the Full Guide: Beat Budget Airline Fees MSE News Story: Ryanair adds charge for millions

Get £25 iTunes giftcard for £20.
Buy a £25 iTunes giftcard in store at Tesco and you only pay £20
It's not advertised instore so be sure you get the right one, full info in the Forum Note: Cheap iTunes

Cheapest Home Insurance! Record's being PAID £67 A major update to our cheap home insurance system - where some even profit from getting cover Our super-cheap home insurance system has four steps... but the key ones are combining comparison sites in the right order, then checking for hidden cashback. The current record is being PAID £67 (£53 quote, but £120 cashback) though of course that's the exception. New Survey: We've just done a mammoth quarterly survey & assessment to calculate the right comparison site order to get you maximum quotes from sites with the best feedback in minimum time... check in order as many as you've time for: GoCompare*, MoneySuperMarket*, Confused* and CompareTM* (combined cover 96 insurers and brokers). Grab cashback or special offers: Then take the best quotes and see if you can buy them via hidden cashback deals. FULL step-by-step info in the Updated Guide: Cheap Home Insurance Other Cheap Insurance Guides: Car, Van, Motorbike, Travel, Boiler, Healthcare

Cheapest Netbooks: £200 mini laptops
These are super-portable but relatively low powered web-surfing type computers
Designed for the basics, Netbooks have come a long way in the last year. Deals List: Cheapest Netbooks

New Free MoneySavingExpert.com Car Sticker You'll see the brand new slogan you voted for on the right... Simply send a SAE. See the Forum Note: Free MSE carsticker

Warning! Halifax's new £1/day overdraft starts Sunday. .See the Full info: Beat Halifax charges

Free letter & video from Santa. New Section! Christmas deals We're launching a brand new site section for all Christmas MoneySaving needs Outrageously, some companies charge up to £20 for a letter from Santa. Yet, Father Christmas's friends at the Post Office will help him write back for free - separately there's also a cracking personalised video, good for kids big and small, naughty and nice, where Santa gives bespoke words of wisdom. Full info in the Deals Note: Santa Letter & Video New Section: This fits snugly into our new Christmas site section, it's split into four: 'Popular Deals', Gifts, Vouchers & Sales, Xmas Shopping and Entertainment & Travel. See the New Christmas Section

Premium Bond Calculator Dec. odds update. Check your new chances in the Probability Calculator

Free £100, travel insurance & 0% overdraft bank deal's back!
Open new account (min. £6,050 income) get £100 & travel insurance with 0% overdraft and 0.5% in-credit.
The free £100 switching bonus from Alliance & Leicester's* fees-free Premier account has returned to top of the best buys again this week. With it you get free annual Europe travel insurance, a year's 0% overdraft up to £1,000, and 0.5% interest if you're in-credit (up to £2,500). Who's eligible? You must pass its credit score, earn over £6,050 and pay your salary directly into the account. Sadly, existing A&L, Abbey & Cahoot current account customers can't get it. Alternative In-Credit Deals: Strong customer service bank First Direct* gives new switchers £100 too and a small 0% overdraft, but requires min. £23,500 salary and doesn't pay in-credit interest. Alternatively Halifax* pays £5 each month if you pay a salary of £15,000 in. FULL info & more best-buys in the Updated Guide: Top Bank Accounts Related: Compare Bank Charges

Code for 20% off Family & Friends Railcards
Gets 1/3 off up to 4 adults and 2/3 off 1-4 children's fares for a year for £20.80 (usually £26)
Joins Greyhound coaches 25% off, Red Funnel IoW car ferry 15% off and more in the Daily Deals List: Cheap trains & coaches

10,000 free copies £4.25 Moneywise mag. Blagged for MoneySavers. See the Forum Note: Free mags

Tiscali Sky+ style TV box, broadband & line rental now £14/mth
Or get £100 cashback and £50 of M&S vouchers on a Sky+HD high end package.
A couple of great digi TV bundle deals around - remember BT phone line rental alone is £11.25/mth. Tiscali bundle: Until 11 Dec, sign up for Tiscali's digital TV, 8Mbps broadband and line rental package via comparison Simplify Digital*, and you get £100 guaranteed cashback (it was £70) and a free '+Box', which works out equivalent to £14/mth over the 12-month contract. However, only 55% of the UK can get Tiscali; it'll tell you when you order. Cheapest Sky+ HD: Until 17 Dec, Sky* offers a free top-of-the-line Sky+HD box and a £50 M&S voucher with its Movies package, which works out at £38/month (plus you need a phone line) yet new customers can grab an extra £100 by going via a cashback site. FULL pros, cons & details in the Deals Note: Cheap Digital TV

Free Waitrose choc truffles (worth £3.50) in £1.80 newspaper
Get the voucher in the paper on Sat 5 Dec then redeem in store
This joins a completely free 100g Milka bar, free milk and loads more in the Daily Deals List: Supermarket coupons

MoneySaving Books as stocking fillers? They've got cheaper
If you want to give a bit of MoneySaving this Xmas, there are three MoneySaving books. Thrifty Ways £5.33: Full of thousands of thrifty tips written off the MSE Old Style forum Thrifty Ways is £4.80 inc. P&P if you use the 10% off code "Happy99X" before 11 Dec at the Book Depository* (all my author's proceeds go to the MSE Charity Fund). The Money Diet £4.49: My first and biggest book, the MoneySaver's bible so to speak, The Money Diet is cheapest at Tesco Books* at £4.49 if you're already spending £15+, if not it's £5.21 at the Book Depository* when you use its"Happy99X" code.Three Lessons £3.60: The quick book 3 Most Important Lessons is £3.24 at the Book Depository* again providing you use the code "Happy99X" (again all proceeds for this book go to the MSE Charity).

CHEAP FLIGHT SALES ALERT:
Airline: Ryanair Price: £5 e/w Ends: 4 Dec
Our pick this week is the Ryanair £5 e/w sale: On until midnight Fri 4 Dec, it includes some taxes & charges. It's for Tue 15 Dec-Sun 28 Feb flights to a range of European destinations from many UK airports. To find them quickly use the FlightChecker on a £5 max search. Extra Charges Warning: Avoid, payment and check-in charges, see the Budget Airline Fee Fighting guide Related: Cheap Flights, Cheap Hotels, Spending Abroad, Cheap Currency, Travel Insurance.

Free Book Giveaway! 'Multiple Job Offers In 10 Days'
25 copies of this chunky job hunt books blagged for MoneySavers. Want one?

MSE Charity Grants for Individuals closes 15 Dec
The MSE Charity gives grants to both individuals and groups. What can I get a grant for? It's all about financial education for adults, if you can't afford to do a course, be it basic financial literacy or the Open University’s personal finance, money may be available. What you CAN'T apply for: Sadly we can't give money to help pay your debts, do professional qualifications, or any other courses other than those for financial education. How to apply: See The MSE Charity Related: The MSE Charity Fund, How this Site is Financed

Great 'Best Value Artificial Christmas Trees' Hunt
With a shortage of Christmas trees announced for this year, it's expected Britons will rush to the shops for fake ones. But what are the best bargains around? We want to tap into MoneySavers' knowledge to find out what the best value for money is or perhaps you make your own? Add your ideas/read other peoples': Great 'Best Value Artificial Trees' Hunt Past Great Hunts: View all

76% want to limit xmas gift-giving! 13,613 voted last week.
Asked if it's time to stop giving Christmas presents, 8% voted yes, 18% wanted to limit gift-giving to kids only, and a full 50% want to keep it within the family. On the other side, 16% think giving to a wider circle is fine, and 8% think we should give as much as we can afford. See Bah Humbug poll results.

Turn friends and family into hip hop dancing elves! Bizarre, random, but strangely compulsive. We've done one of Martin seriously rocking some hip hop moves, hope he likes it! Festive fun!

We hope you save some money,

Martin & the MSE team