Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email
Over 50 ways to save, incl... new FREE £175, MPs: put financial ed in all schools, cheap Samsung S24 + FREE laptop, beat stamp hikes, council tax warning, cheap BT broadband, £221 Boots £65, new top 0% card, £70 Eurostar.
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It's back! The five-perks-in-one bank switch The bank switch market has been weak for a while, but now First Direct's 1st Accounts's* free cash switch bonus has returned, finally we can say there's a corking deal. Switching bank is usually easy & hassle-free. You just do it (in fact, you must do it) via their 7-working-day switch service, which sorts it all for you. It moves across all your money, Direct Debits & standing orders, closes your old account, and auto-forwards any payments to it to the new account. You usually must pass a not-too-harsh credit check too. Full info & other options in Best bank accounts, but here's the latest... New. FREE £175 First Direct switch plus £250 0% overdraft, 7% linked saver & more. New customers who switch a current account to First Direct's 1st Account* will be paid a £175 bonus. First Direct's been top or near-top of every bank customer service poll we've ever run - it scored 91% 'great' in our July poll, plus you get these perks...
BOOST the gain and get 1% cashback on all spending... On top of First Direct, or any bank account, you can get the fee-free, app-only Chase current account*. This doesn't do a hard credit-check, nor do you need to switch to it, which is why it's easily usable as a second account. The big perk is you get 1% cashback (max £15/mth) on most normal debit card spending. So just use First Direct as your main account, but put some spending money in Chase, and you get up to £180/yr cashback on top. Full info in our Chase bank review. |
1st class stamps UP AGAIN by another 30p from 7 Oct - beat the hike. See beat stamp rise. Cheapest Samsung S24 deal ('£28/mth') with 100GB/mth AND get FREE Chromebook laptop worth £200. MSE Blagged. Newbies to iD Mobile (on Three's network) can get the latest Galaxy S24 (marketed as 'the AI one'), with a huge 100GB/mth of data, for £89 upfront (enter our Blagged code IDM10OFF), then £24/mth, so a total of £665 over the two-year contract - cheaper than the £799 Samsung charges if you buy the handset alone. PLUS you can CLAIM a Chromebook laptop from Samsung worth £200 with this deal. Want a different phone/network? See Cheap Mobile Finder. Martin tells MPs loudly and plainly 'we need financial education in EVERY school for EVERY child'. Watch Martin's full-on speech to an all-party group of MPs & peers at Parliament yesterday (Mon). Related: Free financial education textbook | Free MSE Academoney | Free financial education resources. Ends Thu. £70 Eurostar returns (plus get extra 5% off). For travel 24 Sept to 27 Nov. Your(o) star deal
New. Top balance transfer 29mth 0% (3.5% fee) - check if you can shift debt to it. A reminder of Martin's credit card cost-cutting masterclass (incl poor credit) from last week, which told you of the new MBNA 29mth 0% balance transfer that lets you shift existing card debt(s) to it for a one-off 3.5% fee. It's an 'up to' though, meaning some could get 14mths interest-free - in which case other cards beat it. Do read the masterclass for full help. Golden rules: Repay at least the monthly minimum & clear the card before the 0% ends or it jumps to 24.9% rep APR. Easy FREE Coca-Cola Zero Sugar (normally £2 to £4). Claim a free Coke Zero at Tesco and Co-op supermarkets. Ends Thu. Fast 145Mb BT broadband '£25/mth'. Via Broadband Genie, BT newbies pay nowt for 3mths for this broadband only package (no phone line), then £34/mth. Plus you can CLAIM (don't forget) a £70 Amazon, Tesco or M&S voucher AND a £50 prepaid Mastercard. Factor 'em in, and it's equivalent to £24.75/mth over the 2yr contract. Not the cheapest, but we know many prefer a big name, and BT scored well in our service poll. See all deals: MSE's broadband tool. Martin: 'Warning, council tax debt collection is so aggressive banks'd blush - change is needed.' Miss a monthly payment and within three weeks some councils demand you pay the whole year (as if people who've missed payments can afford that). Fail to do that and bailiffs can be sent in just a few weeks later. No consumer debt firm would be allowed to be so harsh. New research from Martin's charity the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute shows that up to two million people with mental health problems are at risk of harm caused by aggressive council tax debt collection. Watch Martin's council tax debt collection - change is needed explainer. |
The story so far... Back in January, the financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), launched a formal investigation, meaning it thought there was a substantial likelihood of car finance mis-selling, and it can now use beefy powers to force its way into firms and gather evidence. We were expecting its ruling this month, but that's been knocked back to May 2025. Disappointing, but the FCA told me this signals that the chance of consumers getting money back for mis-selling is now MORE LIKELY - though the finance firms are unsurprisingly fighting it hard. 1. Did you buy a car, van, camper van or motorbike on finance? Get a complaint in ASAP. Our car finance reclaiming guide takes you through it step-by-step, but in a nutshell, you may be able to claim £1,000s back due to HIDDEN Discretionary Commission Arrangements (DCAs) on your policy. These DCAs are where finance firms let car dealers pump up interest rates, without customers being told, and then bunged 'em extra commission if they did. This likely meant many OVERPAID WITHOUT KNOWING and may be due a predicted average £1,100 back.
If that all stacks up for you... it's time to put in a complaint. There's no way for you to know if you had a DCA without complaining. That's why our complaint tool does two things:
The key to all this is to get a complaint in ASAP, as it's possible when the ruling comes there may be a time bar introduced, and the sooner you log a complaint may mean the less chance you'll be excluded due to that. Once your complaint is logged, then it's a waiting game until the FCA rules in May 2025.
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Nationwide to hike FlexPlus packaged bank account fee by £60/yr - ditch & switch? See Nationwide news. 50% off code for preloved Zara, White Stuff & more clothing. Works on a £25+ spend at used clothes site Thrift+. 'I saved £756 using your Virgin Media haggling tips.' Our success of the week comes from Phil, who said: "Thanks. I followed your how to haggle down broadband costs guidance and renegotiated my Virgin Media contract for broadband, phone and TV. I went through retentions, turned down their offer of £129/mth, and they put me through to a UK team. They offered £94/mth. I told them my wife was looking for a better price, so we settled on £87/mth, saving £756 over the next 18 months." If we've helped you save (on this or owt else), send us your successes. Wetherspoon pubs ONE DAY 7.5% off food & drink. Full info: Wetherspoon discount. Please be Drinkaware. FREE London Snow Show tix (norm £18). For snow sport enthusiasts, 19 to 20 Oct, 5,000 available. A nice saving Used a Lifetime ISA (LISA) to buy a home, or plan to? We want to hear from you. Take our quick survey. |
AT A GLANCE BEST BUYS
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THIS WEEK'S POLL How much did you spend on school uniform for your child this summer? The start of the new school year is always a scramble to ensure uniforms fit (and are allowed by school policies). It can be an expensive exercise, and this week we want to know how much you had to spend this year. Vote in this week's poll. Most MoneySavers say they have a will. In last week's poll, we asked you if you had a will, and if not, why not. Of the more than 7,000 people who responded, three in five (61%) said they do have a will - although about 15% of those admitted that theirs isn't up to date. Of those without one, 'not getting round to it' was the most common reason why. See the full poll results (and for help getting one, see our Cheap and free wills guide). |
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MONEY MORAL DILEMMA I loaned my friend £1,000 and she isn't paying it back - what should I do? I've often loaned my friend money when she's been short, and she's always paid me back over a few months. This time, she borrowed £1,000 - but two weeks later, she asked if she could pay me £20 a month. I have a deteriorating medical condition, and this may be my final year - which she knows, so she must realise it'd take over four years to pay back and that I might not live to see it. I told her I was upset and felt used, and she paid me £50, but there's been no word and no more money since. My daughter thinks I should write it off for the sake of my mental health, but a friend thinks I should tell her husband, who doesn't know about the loans, to try and get it back from him. What would you do? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should I ask my friend to pay back the money I loaned her, or let it go? | Suggest a Money Moral Dilemma (MMD) | View past MMDs |
MARTIN'S APPEARANCES (TUE 10 SEPT ONWARDS) Thu 12 Sept - Ask Martin Lewis, BBC Radio 5 Live, 1pm MSE TEAM APPEARANCES (SUBJECT TBC) Wed 11 Sept - Look North with MSE's Gary Caffell, BBC One (Yorkshire), from 6.30pm |
TIME TO 'HAVE A BREAK'? OR GOT 'A TIGER IN YOUR TANK'? DO YOU KNOW THESE MEMORABLE TAG LINES? That's all for this week, but before we go... last week, John Lewis brought back its 'Never Knowingly Undersold' price pledge. That got us thinking - what other tag lines are so memorable you know the brand straightaway? MoneySavers contributed in their 100s - so... how many of these do you remember? We'll start easy with 'The best a man can get', 'Good things come to those who wait' and 'It does exactly what it says on the tin'. But maybe you'll need to reach back a bit further into the memory banks to get 'Tell them about the honey, mummy!', 'Re-record, not fade away' and 'Watch out, there's a Humphrey about!' Let us know which great tag lines we've missed in our Facebook, Twitter and Threads conversations. We hope you save some money, |
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