Archive: MoneySavingExpert's Money Tips Email

Martin: Going away this summer? 
24 things to do NOW that slash cost & hassle when you go abroad 
Plus help on Middle East conflict knock-on issues

Summer's coming! And if you've booked - or are thinking of booking - a holiday abroad, many of the smartest ways to save money and avoid hassle need to be done before you go. 

That's especially true this year, with the Middle East conflict and it's possible knock-on effect on jet fuel and travel disruption making things more uncertain. So below, the team and I have put together key need-to-knows and must-dos, including...

- Key document checks: Incl passports, GHICs, pet passports.
- Cheapest way to spend abroad: Incl FREE £210 & top card.
- The Middle East conflict impact on travel.
- The cheapest travel insurance.
- Cheap airport parking & car hire: Incl new 'compare the comparisons'.
- Miscellany: Incl roaming, cheap Zara, family flight sit together free.

1. THE PASSPORT CHECK: Don't risk being turned away at boarding or border control. There are two important checks you should make. Check now that, on the day you enter the country...

a) There's at least 6mths left (3mths for EU)
b) Even if so, if going to the EU, will your passport be under 10 yrs old?

If it's no to EITHER, check our country-by-country UK passport rules to ensure you won't be sent back. The Passport Office says you should allow "up to three weeks" to renew. Full help on how in Cheapest passport renewals.

2. GOING TO THE EU? Ensure you've a valid (free) EHIC/GHIC. Over 2m expire this year. These cards are a valuable additional to travel insurance and 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 need to either. 

Over two million expire this year, check yours. When it coming to renewing, beware shyster sites trying to charge you for 'fast tracks' or other fake nonsense. The new ones are called GHICs, never pay to get a GHIC, they're always free. See how to safely get a free GHIC. 

New. 3. TRAVELLING TO THE EU WITH PETS? EU pet passports no longer valid for most UK residents. The use of these for most ended last week. Instead, you must get a possibly costly, single-use Animal Health Certificate (AHC) within 10 days of departure, see our updated Taking pets abroad help.

4. ALLOW MORE TIME WHEN YOU ARRIVE & LEAVE EUROPE. New entry/exit system (EES). The EES means you now need your fingerprints and face scanned as you enter and exit many European countries. It's meant some long queues and delays at border. See EES for more.

PS: You don't need 'European Travel Information & Authorisation System' (ETIAS) yet, it's likely to launch in Oct 2026, so beware the 150 shyster websites trying to charge you for it. See ETIAS info.

5. USA BOUND OR PASSING THROUGH. Got an ESTA? Unless you've a visa you'll need an ESTA. It lasts two years and now costs $40.27, again beware scam sites trying to overcharge. 

Spend on your plastic abroad and card providers get a virtually-perfect exchange rate for that moment, but most add up to 3%-ish non-sterling exchange fees on top of what we pay. So £100 worth of euros on the day costs you £103, and others whack more fees on too. 

Yet top specialist overseas cards don't add this fee, so you get the same near-perfect, bureaux-beating exchange rates as the banks meaning £100 worth of euros costs your £100 - undercutting even the best bureau de change. The most lucrative route involves switching bank, but there are simpler routes too, let's go through it...

6. GET PAID £210 TO GET A TOP OVERSEAS CARD. If you're prepared to switch bank. A couple of the top bank accounts that pay you to switch include debit cards that give you near-perfect rates abroad. 

You must use the 7-working-day switch service, which closes your old account, shifts over all Direct Debits and Standing Orders, and ensures any payments to your old account are auto-forwarded. You'll usually also need pass a not too harsh credit check.

• Biggest bonus & top customer service First Direct FREE '£210', 7% saver, and for many a £250 interest free overdraft. Its ongoing £175 free cash on its fee-free account is currently boosted via our specific First Direct link*, which gives £35 to spend at most big supermarkets in-store/online (Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Aldi, Morrisons, Waitrose, M&S, Iceland). As well as a top debit card for spending abroad, other perks include:
  
  - Service 92% 'great' - topped almost every poll we've ever done
  - Linked 1yr 7% fixed regular saver you can put up to £300/mth in.
  - Most get an ongoing £250 interest-free overdraft (don't go over).
  - See full First Direct review for full eligibility & acceptance info.
  
  
• Strong perks Club Lloyds, FREE £200, 1yr Disney+. To get the free £200 for switching and perks on this fee-free Club Lloyds account though, you need to pay in £2,000/mth, which effectively means you need to be earning £29,000/yr+ to get it. You also need to switch over three Direct Debits, not the usual two. As well as a top debit card for spending overseas, other perks include:
  
  - A yearly perk, eg, choose Disney+ (with ads) OR 6 cinema tix.
  - Linked 1yr 6.25% fixed regular saver for up to £400/mth in.
  - A £100 0% overdraft buffer zone (don't go over).
  - See full Lloyds review for full eligibility.
  
  
• Top (joint) BILLS account Santander Edge FREE £180, up to £10/mth cashback on bills, 6% easy-access savings. As well as the free £180, the big sell with Santander Edge* is that while you pay £3/mth fee, you get cashback on bills paid from it by Direct Debit. For a typical home, that covers the fee and more. As well as a top debit card for overseas spending, other perks include:
  
  - 1% cashback max £10/mth on Council Tax, energy, water, mobile & home phone, paid TV & broadband bills paid from it by Direct Debit.
  - Linked saver paying 6% variable for 12mths on up to £4,000.
  - See full Santander review for full eligibility & acceptance info.

7. THE TOP CREDIT & DEBIT CARDS ABROAD. Near-perfect rates and possible cashback too. There's an increasing number of specialist overseas cards, and while nothing beats the free switching cash, for spending solely abroad these cards beat the ones above, and you needn't switch bank. 

If you already have a specialist overseas card (see full list) switching to these is only likely to bring a small gain. The big gain of these cards is that as well as near-perfect exchange rates on the day you spend, they have no other overseas spending fees, plus they either pay cashback or easy acceptance...

8. IF THEY ASK 'WANT TO PAY IN POUNDS OR EUROS?' Pay in the local currency. These days, buy things abroad or take cash out and the store or ATM will often pressure you to pay in pounds. That's so they can ramp up the conversion cost and pocket extra profit. Just say non/nein/no! Full help in my old but still relevant Pay in pounds? video & blog.

9. JUST WANT TO TAKE CASH? Speedily compare 15+ bureaux. If you just want a little foreign cash in your pocket for safety before you go, or more as it helps you budget, then our TravelMoneyMax comparison tool quickly compares 10+ bureaux, factoring in all rates & costs to find your best. It won't beat the top plastic, but it's far better than AAARGH getting it at the airport (terrible rates).

11. DON'T LEAVE IT TO THE LAST MINUTE. You lose vital cover. As I always say, get your travel insurance..

ASAB 
As Soon As you Book

My 'As Soon As You Book' rule isn't just so you don't forget later. It's because one big protection of travel insurance is to cover you in case something happens before your trip that means you can't go, such as accidents, cancer, a death in the family. All can derail trips and without insurance in place you've little protection. Yet at this time of year, my slight tweak to the rule is...

Booked & don't have travel insurance yet? Do it NOW!

Admittedly while ASAB is by far the safest route, it isn't 100% fool proof. Some firms may cancel cover if you're diagnosed with a severe illness before travel. Yet it's still worth doing. As for what 'having travel insurance in place' means depends on the policy...

- Single-trip policies: Just get insurance to cover a specific future trip (eg, 10 to 17 Aug) and once that's paid for, you're done. If the trip's over a year ahead, see single-trip policies for over a year in advance. 

- Annual policies: You need cover all the time from booking up to the end of your trip. So if you don't already have one, get an annual policy starting when you book the holiday (or as soon as possible after) - not when you go away.

Already got an annual policy? Great, unless it ends before the date you return from holiday, in which case you need a new policy that runs straight on, ie starts when your existing cover ends. Most policies, including all we list, will cover you for issues that happen within the cover period for booked trips, even if the travel is after your renewal date (a few don't, do check). 

12. CHEAPEST TRAVEL INSURANCE POLICIES. Cover from just £8/week. Below, the team has put together the cheapest bog-standard, no-frills, FCA-regulated options we can find that meet our minimum cover levels, judged purely on price, NOT feedback. For higher-end policies use our Travel Insurance Finder tool.

• Cheapest policies for under 66s. Exact price depends on age and who's travelling, yet for both single trips and annual policies, these three tend to come out cheapest: Coverwise (Bronze)* | Leisure Guard Flexi (Bronze) | Admiral* (use code MSETRAVEL20). They cost from £8 for one week in Europe, or from £79 for family worldwide annual cover. See Cheap Travel insurance for more.
  
  
• Over 65s cheapest policies. Prices vary widely with age, and there are many options so see our full Over 65s travel cover guide. 
  
  
• Got pre-existing medical conditions? It's still possible to get cover, though it may take some elbow grease, our Cheapest Travel Insurance (pre-existing conditions) guide takes you through it.

13. MIDDLE EAST FLIGHT DISRUPTION. Will travel insurance cover it? If we're talking flights cancelled - say, due to jet fuel shortages - your insurer will expect the airline to refund you or provide an alternative. And most airlines must do that (see Middle East disruption above).

Yet the real concern is knock-on hotel and other costs if your flight is cancelled. We checked over 40 policies and only one standalone policy said it would cover these, as well as a couple of packaged bank accounts. At a rarefied level you may also be covered by 'travel disruption' or 'cancel for any reason' cover but usually these cost far more. See our travel cover exceptional circumstances info for more. 

That will be prohibitive for many, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't get travel cover at all. It is still valuable protection even without this, as there are many other reasons it does cover you for.

New. 14. AIRPORT PARKING COMPARE THE COMPARISONS (BETA). Find the cheapest parking at speed. Pull up at, say, Manchester Airport without a booking tomorrow, and it'll cost you £430/wk to park there, but we found official parking today for just £67/wk. In fact, even (the passenger) booking online on the way to the airport can be cheaper. 

As for finding the best price, we're testing our new Airport Parking: Comparison of Comparisons tool, which so far includes three of the big four sites, including all the key MSE discounts we normally give you. It's only in Beta stage so we're still tweaking (please feedback), but I liked it so much I couldn't resist adding it here.

Alternatively, here's our old school links, to the blagged comparison site discounts direct (the biggest discount doesn't always mean the best price): FHR 5%-55% off* | Holiday Extras 10%-50% off* | SkyParkSecure 3%-54% off* | APH 16%-20% off*. For alternatives and need-to-knows, fly over to Cheap airport parking guide.

15. EARLY BOOKED CAR HIRE USUALLY WINS. It only takes a few minutes to find the cheapest. Early booking tends to be cheapest, but we've also seen some super cheap last-minute deals in places where there's spare capacity (so if you can get free cancellation use the cancel & rebook tip below). Either way, don't leave it till you get there. Top comparison sites include:

Kayak* | TravelSupermarket* | Carrentals* | Enjoy Travel*
See a full list and far more help & tricks in Cheap holiday car hire.

16. BEWARE THE CAR HIRE INSURANCE HARD SELL. Get standalone insurance for 90% less. Car hire almost always includes basic insurance. Despite this, at pick-up many will try to push you to get 'excess cover insurance' at up to £42/day with scare stories of huge bills for just a scratch (or sometimes implying you have to do it). Say no - standalone car hire excess cover insurance can cut the cost by 90%...

- Compare via MoneyMaxim's* car hire excess insurance comparison.
- Check against MSE Blagged discounts, eg, our 20% off Leisure Guard* (with code MSE20), 20% off ReduceMyExcess* and 17% off Eversure* (code will be auto-filled when you follow these links).
- If you hire cars a lot, you can buy an annual policy.

Yet even if you get this, they may try to put you off, say it doesn't work, or make you jump through hoops, so be prepared. You must usually...

- Leave a refundable deposit of possibly up to €1,200 on a credit card.
- Have a credit card, as often debit cards aren't accepted.
- Have the card in the name of the booker (though some say it needs to be the main driver). If not, they won't accept it, so check first.

Don't be overly put off by these tactics. Many (including me) successfully do this with no problems. Just be prepared.

18. AVOID £7+ 'KISS & FLY'... though you may need to get your steps in. How to ditch the pesky charges for dropping people off at the airport - if you know where to go and can walk just a little bit. We've a newly updated airport-by-airport guide.

Yes, basically this is all the stuff I couldn't neatly fit into other categories, but that doesn't mean it's not important... 

19. FAMILIES SIT TOGETHER FOR FREE. On BA, Virgin, Jet2 and more. A family of four could have to stump up £250+ to pre-book seats together on return flights. Yet gen up on the rules and your rights via our Airline-by-airline seating guide now, and you may be able to do it free (though even we struggle to find a way to overcome Ryanair's charges).

20. FOUR FREE AIRPORT LOUNGE PASSES. Plus a free £225 at Amazon/Sainsbury's. If you've not had an Amex credit card in the last two years, apply for its Gold card and use it right and there are serious freebies, including four lounge passes. We covered it a couple of weeks ago in this email, so see Amex Gold airport passes + £225 Amazon + Deliveroo bonus for full info.

21. ZARA, MASSIMO DUTTI OR PULL&BEAR SHOPPER? It's likely cheaper on hols... I first wrote my Zara trick blog back in 2014, and it has been a real winner for anyone going to Europe (especially Spain and Greece) - MSE Rosie's kindly updated it for me so the prices are current, so do have a read.

22. DO YOU HAVE FREE EU ROAMING? Most big networks don't, many little 'uns do. Vodafone, Three and EE all now charge around £2/day to use your home phone & data package in the EU. O2 is the only 'big four' network to still be free. Yet many piggyback operators are free to EU-roam, including Lebara, Smarty and Giffgaff.

With 14m of you out of contract, free to switch and often already massively overpaying, why not ditch and switch to save in both the UK and in the EU in three simple steps...

1. Text INFO for free to 85075 to check if you're out of contract.
2. Use our Cheap Mobile Sim Finder to do a comparison. Eg, these all include EU roaming (and some cover other countries) at no extra charge:
   - Lebara (via Vodafone signal) 5GB '£2.95/mth' 
   - iD Mobile (via Three signal) 50GB '£3.50/mth' (max 30GB abroad)
   - iD Mobile (via Three signal) 120GB '£4.55/mth' (max 30GB abroad)
3. To keep your number, text PAC to 65075 to get your switch-over code.

23. AN eSIMple WAY TO CUT COSTS. Especially outside the EU. Rather than the £15/day you may face for roaming in some countries, buy cheap international eSims online (eg, £10 for 9GB USA data that lasts 30 days). These adjust your phone's settings and temporarily route it via another provider, so you get its data allowance overseas.

Popular providers to try: Airalo* | Amigo* | Breeze* | EasySim* | Firsty* | GoMoWorld | Holafly | Mozillion* (get 25% off using code MSETRAVEL) | Nomad | Saily* | Vodafone*. Though be warned, provider-level feedback is limited. It has worked for me before though - read my story of trying an eSim from a couple of years ago - and many people say similar.

24. AND FINALLY... SORRY, DO A BUDGET. Though you can factor in what you're not spending at home. To avoid a financial holiday hangover when you return, it's useful to get an idea of what you can afford to spend (especially if you're out on the town - drinking and sticking to financial limits go together as well as Baileys and lime juice).

As a salve, remember when you're away that some of your usual home expenditure won't be spent - no food, lower energy bills & transport - so add that into your budget. For general help, see our budgeting guide.