Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

New. 132Mb fast fibre broadband & line '£21/mth'. Millions pay double that - check if you can switch & save £100s/yr
Want a different speed? Two other hot deals ending Thu

If you're one of the seven million households out of contract on your broadband, you're likely overpaying and could save up to £280/yr. Add up how much you pay a month and compare it to the current slew of short-lived promo deals - we've rounded up the best widely-available ones below, including a fast 132Mb fibre deal that's cheaper than the current top deal offering half the speed. What's available to you depends on where you live, so check using our new and improved Broadband comparison tool, which gives deals and speeds tailored to your specific address.

• Use our revamped broadband tool to see if you could save with a smaller local provider. We've made improvements under the bonnet to our broadband comparison tool, so as well as giving you more filter options, we can now tell you exactly what deals and speeds you can get in your home, including potentially cheaper deals from smaller 'alt-net' firms local to you (though do note these are likely too small for us to have a service rating for yet). See what deals are available to you, and do let us know if you've feedback.
  
  
• Don't want to switch? Haggle. If you're out of contract and free to move, you're in a powerful position to haggle. In our December poll, the vast majority of those who'd haggled with the big broadband firms were successful. Use the deals above as a benchmark to help you get your costs down. Not sure how? Read full Broadband haggling tips.
  
  
• Slow broadband? Test your speed - is it the Wi-Fi or the connection? Do a broadband speed check - first when using Wi-Fi, then by plugging your device into the router (if you can). If Wi-Fi's a lot slower, try our eight speed-boosters.
  
  
• At least 50% of customers must get the advertised speeds at peak times. The providers above also tell you the estimated max speed you're likely to get before you sign up.
  
  
• Switching usually only means about two hours of downtime - whether an engineer comes depends on what you're getting. You'll be told the switch time, and most don't need an engineer to set up. There are exceptions to this - if you're moving to/from Virgin you may need one (you're told before applying). Plus if you're getting fibre to the premises (FTTP), as is common for much faster broadband, they may need to send someone to look at the externals of the home.
  
  
• Members of cashback sites can sometimes undercut deals. In some cases, the cashback can mean these sites undercut promos elsewhere, though sometimes the deal differs - so check carefully. More in Top cashback sites.

'I found a £62,000 lost pension - thank you'
Reclaim lost cash for FREE - a forgotten £82 BILLION is sitting in old pensions, bank accounts, savings & more

There can't be many more (potentially) profitable ways to spend an hour or two than checking if you've got any lost pensions. Nearly three million are thought to have gone astray, worth an average of £23,000 each (but sometimes into the £100,000s). And when you add in the money sat lost in bank accounts, savings and investments, there's an estimated £82 BILLION or so waiting to be claimed. Full info on how to check whether any of it's yours in Find lost accounts, but in brief...

• The biggest payouts are usually from old private or company pensions & investments. For pensions, contacting ex-employers and digging out old paperwork is the best first step, but if that isn't possible or doesn't get you anywhere, all's not lost. The Government's Pension Tracing Service tool has up-to-date contact details for 100,000s of different pension schemes.
  
  It's a little effort but can really be worth it, as Deborah's email shows: "I've been having a major sort-out recently and among my husband's paperwork, I found information about a very old pension from 1998 and four addresses ago... before we were even married. He couldn't remember having it, or if he'd cashed it in at some point. We used your advice about tracing a lost pension, and today a letter arrived confirming he has a pension pot of £61,700 that he didn't know he had! So a big thank you! That will make a big difference to our retirement!" See how to find old pensions for more.
  
  For non-pension-based investments, there are a number of different routes - see how to reclaim old investment trusts, unit trusts and insurance policies, which includes info on Gretel, a new-ish free site that searches an array of pension, investment, insurance and bank account providers to check for lost cash.
  
  
• Premium Bonds, current & savings accounts - up to £4.5 billion's waiting to be claimed. Just use the free one-stop service My Lost Account, set up by the bank & building society trade associations. Sign up, fill in the form with details and past addresses, and it'll zip them off to any of 30+ banks, 42 building societies and National Savings & Investments (NS&I, National Savings as was) where you think you may have had an account. If you did, it'll usually let you know by email or letter.
  
  
• Find deceased relatives' lost assets too. If a family member has died and you're responsible for their estate, or you're the beneficiary, you may be able to reclaim that person's lost cash too. You'll need to put their name (as the account holder) on the search forms. If anything's found, you'll need the will as proof it's due to go to you. See how to recover deceased relatives' assets.