Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

New 3.17% savings - best rate for over 18 mths
Easy-access rates are bouncing back. A host of new deals all smack the prior best buys

It's a savings switcheroo week, with lots of new accounts and rate improvements. So check what you're earning and push it (baby), push it real good (apologies to Salt-N-Pepa) by switching to the new best buys. All accounts below have £85,000 savings protection per person; see the Safe Savings guide for more details.

• New top 3.17% AER easy-access deal. The West Brom BS* WeBSave Easy Access (min £1,000) pays 3.17% AER and allows up to four no-notice, penalty-free withdrawals a year (make more and you just lose 90 days' interest on the amount withdrawn). The rate includes a 1.42% bonus till Oct 2012, so diarise to ditch and switch then.
  
  If you'll need to make lots of withdrawals, the top penalty-free deal is Derbyshire BS's NetSaver at 3.11% AER, including a 2.11% bonus until Nov 2012.
• New top 3% AER no-bonus account. The Newcastle BS Online Easy Saver pays 3% AER on balances over £1 and you can make unlimited withdrawals. It's a 'clean' rate (so there's no short-term bonus). Yet it's still free to vary the rate whenever it chooses, so monitor it carefully.
• 3.05% AER tax-free cash ISA. You can save up to £5,340 tax free each tax year in a cash ISA - so it's the first place to put savings. The online Northern Rock* easy-access e-ISA pays 3.05% AER on new money and transfers. Go direct, and the rate's worse.

For more best buys and fixed deals, see the Updated Guides: Top Savings & Cash ISAs Related: Best Bank Accounts

HUGE 3% cashback on petrol/diesel spending
New top petrol cashback credit card | Slash costs at every major petrol station and get £100s back a year
With petrol at an average £1.35 a litre, someone filling up a typical size tank each week now spends an eye-watering £3,500/year – by far the biggest single item people use plastic for. No wonder a wave of petrol cashback cards, which pay you money back when you buy fuel, are tapping in.

• How to make £100s with petrol cashback cards. The golden rule's ONLY do this if you set up a direct debit to repay IN FULL each month, so there's no interest - then the cashback's pure profit. Use the card for all daily spending instead of cash, cheques or other plastic to maximise the gain. You'll need pass a credit check to get the cards.
• New! 3% fuel and 1% food cashback. The Santander 123* card pays 3% cashback, that's £3 per £100, at petrol stations up to a max £9/mth, ie, £300 of fuel. On top it pays 2% in department stores and 1% in supermarkets. There's a £24 annual fee, so it only adds up for regular drivers. A family spending £60 a week filling up and £150 on food would make £150 a year (after the fee). Though fail to fully repay and it's a big 18.9% representative APR.
• 1.5% fuel & food cashback (0.75% on anything else). If you're unsure you'll spend so much, the MBNA Amex*, pays 1.5% on fuel AND supermarket spending, plus 0.75% on everything else. Its advantages over Santander are no annual fee, uncapped petrol cashback (good for serious mileage) and cashback on ALL spending. Fail to repay in full and it's 18.9% representative APR.
• 5% on ALL spending for 3 months. If you're planning a big one-off spend other than fuel, try overall top cashback card Capital One's* World Mastercard, which pays a huge 5% on all spending (£5 per £100) on up to £2,000 spent in the first three months. After, it's 0.5%-1.25% cashback (the higher rate's on annual spending over £10,000). To get it, you need to earn over £20,000, be 21+ and a homeowner. Fail to repay in full and it's 19.9% representative APR.

For more info & best buys, including an AA members-only petrol cashback deal, plus loads more petrol saving tips, see the Updated Guide: Cheap Petrol Related: Top Cashback Cards, Your Credit Score, 0% Credit Cards

Call 0800 numbers from mobiles for free
It's meant to be free, yet you can be charged a mammoth 20p/min | Easy trick to call for nowt

Paying for freephone calls is an oxymoron, so that makes the charges when dialling 0800, 0808 or 0500 numbers from mobiles moronic. Thankfully, T-Mobile & Orange have just reduced costs to about 7p/min - Vodafone joins them on 11 Oct. Yet, others, incl O2 & Three, still charge up to 20p/min. But why pay? Here's a summary of our Free 0800 Calls From Mobiles guide.

• Use 0800Buster to dial for free. Visit the 0800Buster website, where you'll be allocated a normal landline number, eg, 01234 456***. Save it to your mobile and when you've a freephone to call, dial the landline number first and enter the 0800 number when prompted. You'll only be charged a normal call at your network's rate, so if you've free minutes, it'll be free.
• Special apps for smartphones. Even better, download the 0800 Wizard app to an iPhone, Android or BlackBerry handset, then punch in the 0800 number you want to call. The app dials it via a normal number, making calls free if you've inclusive minutes.
• Pay as you go users be careful. If you don't get inclusive minutes when you top-up you'll be charged the standard per minute rate for a local call. In some cases this can be more than the per minute rate for an 0800 call so do check first.
• 0808 80 are always FREE. Numbers that start 0808 80 are free to call from the big networks, as these are issued by the Telephone Helpline Association (THA) for non-profit helplines. (Don't call these using the tricks above or you use up inclusive minutes unnecessarily.) The guide has a full list for each network.

Full info, step-by-step help & pros and cons for each option in the Updated Guide: Free 0800 Calls from Mobiles Related: Cheap Mobiles, Free Texts

Should I pay off debts with my mortgage? New Guide
It sounds a no-brainer: "shift expensive card debts to cheap mortgages". Yet beware!

For many with hefty credit card or loans debts, shifting them to today's current super-cheap mortgages feels an obvious, easy solution. Yet it ain't simple. Get it wrong and you can pay more, risk your home or even end up in dreaded negative equity. Our new Should I Repay Debts with My Mortgage? guide takes you through it. Here's a tiny flavour.

• Mortgages are secured debts. 'Secured' may sound good, but it's the lender, NOT you who gets security, in the form of the right to take your home if you can't repay. So shifting unsecured loans or cards to mortgages means failing to repay can cost your home.
• It's the cost, not just rate, that counts. Which costs less: borrowing
  £10,000 on an 18% loan or a 5% mortgage? If you think “bazinga, it's obvious", then beware! You don't have enough info to answer correctly; interest costs depend on both the rate AND how long you borrow for. Add £10,000 at 5% to a 25-year mortgage and the interest is £7,500, while an 18% loan over 5 years is just £5,200.
• Compare a mortgage to the CHEAPEST credit cards. Shifting to secured debt's only worth it if it means you save large. Work out if you would be better off (and have credit score) to slice your debt's rate by shifting it to the best deals, eg, a 22mth 0% Balance Transfer. It's this you should compare the cost with, not your current debts.
• Don't cut repayments if you do shift the debt. If you do move debts to your mortgage, don't drop your total repayments. Someone who shifted a £10,000 credit card debt to a £100,000 mortgage at 5% could pay £25,000 more interest than if they kept the same mortgage payments. Yet if they put the credit card payments towards the mortgage too, they could pay £30,000 less interest overall (full calcs in the guide).
  

For far more info and help, see the step-by-step New Guide: Pay Off Debts with Mortgage? Related: Best Balance Transfers, Credit Card Shuffle, Remortgage Guide, Mortgage Guide

Cashback sites - you can make £100s, but be careful
There's a spate of cashback website adverts on TV. If you're new & tempted, read this first
With cashback sites, you sign up, then click through them to buy something/get financial products. They get paid for sending traffic and give some of this cash to you. Full info's in our Top Cashback Sites guide. Here's a brief safety summary.

• Rule 1. Never pay to join a cashback site. Some sites charge you to join. Don't do it: they're meant to give YOU money. The best sites are free and give you 100% of the amount earned from your transaction (they get the bonuses for volume or take, say, the first £5 you earn each year for admin) - see the Top Pick Cashback Sites.
• Rule 2. Think of it as a bonus - it's not guaranteed. Never let cashback dictate where you spend. Find the cheapest or best deal, then see if cashback's available. That way, if it doesn't track or goes bust, you've the best buy anyway.
• Rule 3: Never spend it until it's in your bank account. Whether it's tracking, payment or reliability issues, problems happen. To avoid disappointment, never think of the money as yours until it's in your account.
• Rule 4: Never store cash in a cashback site - withdraw ASAP. Withdraw funds as soon as you're permitted, otherwise if companies go bust (as happened last year), you're not protected.
• Rule 5: Don't let the cashback tail wag the dog. It's easy to be seduced by £50 cashback for signing up to an insurance provider or an extra 5% discount when shopping. Yet just because it's paying cashback, doesn't make it cheapest. Often bigger discounts outweigh cashback; check first, especially with Car Insurance & Home Insurance.

Full explanation, more warnings and a tool to find the best payers for every transaction in the the Updated Guide: Top Cashback Sites Related: Boost Your Income, Survey Sites