Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

The MoneySavers' home & away summer checklist

25 last-ditch tips for holidays abroad & in the UK; and entertaining & looking after the kids at home

Schoooools out for summmmer (in Scotland and N. Ireland, and soon to be across the UK). Whether that's music to your ears or fills you with dread, we're here to help you make it more affordable, with 25 key tips...

- Crucial last-second checklist if you're headed abroad
- Trips, tips and deals if you're staying in the UK or at home

Half of you are headed overseas according to our poll. We've full help in our 60+ overseas travel tips guide, but here are the biggies to check...

1. Is your passport valid? Watch for the '10-year rule'. Check your travel party's passports to make sure both that...

1. They have at least 6mths left on them (3mths for EU) on the day you leave.
2. They'll be less than 10 years old on the day you enter the country.

If you fail either of those, see our passport rules & renewals guide to check the rules for the country you're travelling to and what to do, or else you may be sent back as you try to fly (or worse, in the airport on arrival).

2. Still time to grab the cheapest way to spend abroad. Spend on a specialist overseas card, and you get the same near-perfect exchange rates in every country that the bank does. And with our top-pick cards you also get cashback in the UK & overseas - meaning, in effect, you get better than the perfect exchange rate.

• Top easy overseas debit card: Open Chase* (you needn't switch bank to do so, and there's no hard credit-check) and it gives 1% spending cashback up to £15/mth. Even if you're going tomorrow (or are already there) you can do this, as you can load the virtual card into Apple or Google Pay immediately.
  
  
• Top debit card with FREE £200: First Direct* customers also get a top overseas debit card (though no cashback). And currently, newbies switching to it get £175 cash and a £25 Amazon voucher - more info below.
  
  
• Top overseas credit card: Barclaycard Rewards pays accepted cardholders 0.25% cashback, but as it's a credit card ensure you'll repay IN FULL each month or its 28.9% rep APR interest dwarfs the currency gain. The advantage here is Section 75 protection - if you buy items overseas costing £100+, it's valuable extra consumer protection if they go wrong or need returning.

This is just the tip of the iceberg - full info & more options in our Top cards for travelling abroad guide.

3. Need a card for under-18s to spend on abroad? It's a whole different selection of mainly prepaid cards. See Top cards for under-18s to spend on abroad.

4. Going to Europe? Don't forget to pack a valid EHIC/GHIC for all the family. These cards give access to state-run hospitals or GPs in EU countries for the same price as a local - so if they don't pay, you don't pay. Yet 4.3m EHICs become invalid this year, so check yours. If it's set to expire, see how to safely get a free GHIC (same card, new name). If it's too late and you're already overseas, you can apply for a Provisional Replacement Certificate.

5. Try the 'rebook trick'... check if your hotel / car hire is cheaper than when you booked. Keep your eyes on cheap hotel comparison sites and cheap car hire comparisons to see if what you booked is now cheaper. If so - and your booking allows free (or cheap) cancellation - rebook for less, then cancel. See rebook hotels trick and rebook car hire trick for help.

As Ian emailed us at the end of last month: "I saved nearly £1,000 by cancelling my existing booking (it cost me £100 to cancel) and rebooking on a 4-week holiday to Disney in Florida. Same company, same car! Originally paid in September and rebooked last night. Thank you so much... cannot believe how this can actually happen."

6. Bookmark key pages on your phone in case of flight cancellation or delay. You often have a right to £200+ per person compensation. Bookmark our flight delay & flight cancellation rights guides, so you can read them if it happens - many read them on the plane after their landing is delayed. Plus, you could be eligible to make a retrospective claim for a delay/cancellation in the last five or six years in light of a new court ruling...

7. Need travel cash? Find your cheapest bureau de change in seconds. Our travel money comparison tool compares 15+ bureaux for best rates.

8. Booked car hire? Be prepared for the hard sell on insurance at pick-up - prep now to beat it. If you've booked cheap car hire, it usually includes basic insurance. Yet at the pick-up desk, they almost always try to push 'excess cover' costing up to £25/day so you won't have to pay the excess. You'll hear scare stories of huge bills for just a scratch, and some even try and make you think it's mandatory.

Instead, get cheap standalone 'excess' insurance in advance for £2/day. Yet even with it, they'll try to put you off, tell you it doesn't work, or try to make you jump through hoops, so be prepared to...

- Leave a refundable deposit of possibly £1,000+ on a credit card.
- Often debit cards aren't accepted.
- It usually needs to be in the name of the person who booked (though some are the main driver). If not, they won't accept it, so check first.

9. Where tinkling in the sea, wearing flip-flops and more can get you a holiday fine. Know your foreign laws before you go - see our holiday habits warning.

10. Book airport parking ahead - even if it's on the day. Pull up to Stansted Airport without booking, and you'll pay from £315/wk to park. Book ahead, EVEN ON THE SAME DAY, using a comparison site, and it could cost you as little as £89/wk - though generally, booking earlier (and flexibly) is best.

Here are our MSE Blagged discounted comparison site links: FHR 8% to 45% off* | SkyParkSecure 5% to 45% off* | Looking4Parking 5% to 45% off* | Holiday Extras 10% to 40% off*. For more deals & tips, see cheap airport parking.

11. When using plastic abroad, don't let them do the conversion, always pay in the local currency. See Martin's pay in euros? blog - it may be a bit dated, but the logic's still right.

12. Don't get stung with hidden roaming charges. Several major networks now charge £2ish/day to use your phone & data package in the EU, so don't get caught out - see full firm-by-firm EU roaming info. Better still, find yourself a cheap Sim from £4/mth for use here and in the EU.

For those heading further afield, check out eSims, a digital solution to getting much cheaper overseas usage on your existing package.

Whether it's time to fill for you or the kids, or you fancy a UK trip...

13. Paying for summer childcare or clubs for under-11s (U16s with disabilities)? Money may be available. It's tough to work while the children are home - so many rely on clubs, camps and childcare. Yet few know the same support schemes (that work even for those earning up to £100,000) for year-round childcare also apply to those using it just in the summer - as long as it's a registered childcare provider - which many camps and clubs are. Full details in our Are you missing childcare help? note below.

14. Urgent. Does your child get free school meals? Apply for holiday support NOW. The Holiday Activity & Food Programme (HAF) in England gives children aged 4+ at least one meal a day (+ free activities) for at least six weeks a year during the main school holidays. Access to the programme isn't automatic, so apply to the HAF now. It's run by councils, so exact details depend on where you live. There are also schemes available in Scotland & Wales, though not Northern Ireland.

15. Grab a 'FREE' National Trust family day pass (normally £30ish) with 95p newspaper. See National Trust deal for full info, but you can pick up the pass in newspapers until Sunday 21 July.

19. Take a child to a West End show for 'free'. When a grown-up pays, a kid aged 17 or under goes free to 50+ shows, including Wicked, Mrs Doubtfire, and Shrek. See Kids Week theatre deal.

20. How to find cheap UK hotels. Our full 22 cheap UK hotel tips guide takes you through it, but here are a couple of our faves...

- Secret hotel sites: Where they only tell you a star level and a rough location until you pay, but there are sneaky ways to uncover its real identify before.
- Stay in university digs outside term time for a surprisingly cost-effective way of staying very centrally - especially good for Oxford & Cambridge.
- How to find top self-catered deals: Our cheap rentals guide includes tips to find five-star accommodation at two-star prices. It's tougher in the school holidays, but we found a three-bed cottage in Devon for £678/wk in late Aug, compared with £1,710/wk for three rooms in a nearby swish hotel.

21. Don't forget your railcard, plus get 34% off a new one. If you're travelling across the UK by train, especially on a long journey, the cost of the railcard is likely to be easily covered by the saving on just that journey - especially as we've a way to get 34% off a digital railcard. The Family & Friends and Two Together (for couples) railcards are particularly useful.

22. Cheaper entry to theme parks. There are no 2for1s available this year, so Tesco vouchers are the primary route to savings - see our discounted theme park tickets info for more.

23. Cheap UK holiday park stays if you start collecting The Sun tokens by Sunday. Its famous '£9.50' holidays deal is back for stays up to June 2025, and while our The Sun holidays analysis suggests they aren't really as cheap as £9.50, decent savings are still possible.

24. £2.50-ish kids' AND grown-ups' cinema tickets. Cinemas put on special family-friendly screenings over the school hols at Cineworld, Odeon and Vue. It's not usually the newest films, but includes recent releases, eg, Kung Fu Panda 4. See our 20+ cinema savers.

25. Hostels are usually dirt cheap, not dirty, eg, stay in a country manor from £25/night. Hostels aren't just for gap-year students in far-flung destinations. There are loads across the UK and they don't have age restrictions (though some aren't suitable for young kids).

Don't automatically think bunk bed in a shared dorm either - many offer singles, twins and doubles. Some even throw in free Wi-Fi and breakfast. For example, YHA Wasdale Hall is a 19th century manor in Cumbria with gorgeous views and it costs from £25 a night per person. See MoneySavers' top UK hostel picks.