| | MARTIN'S QUICK BRIEFING: For more tips, alerts & awful puns, follow Martin on Twitter 60 MoneySaving hacks incl...
Free 'Amazon delivery trick' tool, plus
4 numbers to beat spam texts | Exploit eBay spellng mishtkes | Slash Sky bill with a call | Free Blue Peter badge | Buy stolen goods and many more  Life hacks, tricks, loopholes - whatever you call 'em, throughout 2015 we've been compiling quick-hit savvy tips so you can be cute with your cash.
This week we launch our new 60 MoneySaving Life Hacks guide with many of the big hitters and a host of new ones. So I've picked 24 to get you going. Do check back on the guide as we'll keeping adding more as we find them.
| 1. | Free 'Amazon delivery trick' tool. The e-retail giant used to give free delivery if you spent £10. Now it's a minimum of £20 - but a handy new tool provides a way around this. See Free Amazon Delivery Tool. | | | | 2. | The four numbers that can beat spam texts. If you're sick of PPI or debt write-off texts, beware replying 'Stop' - it works for legit texts, but if they're spam it means they know you're real. So for full help to fight back see our Stop Spam Texts guide, plus also Stop Spam Calls, Stop Junk Mail and a free 'No Cold Callers' sign too... | | | | | 3. | Slash £100s off your Sky bill. Our Slash Sky Costs guide has left us swamped with successes, such as @OmicronPersei12: "Just knocked £30 a month [£360 a year] from my Sky bill thanks to @MartinSLewis." And it's not just Sky - we've similar guides for BT, Plusnet, TalkTalk & Virgin. | | | | 4. | Pay at least 1p on a credit card - it could be worth £10,000s. In Scott Parsley's case, he's very grateful he paid £300 of his £26,000 car on a credit card - if not he could've lost the lot. See Credit Card Penny Protection. | | | | | 5. | Pssst. Wanna buy stolen goods on the cheap? Fancy a new bike or bit of bling? Don't worry, it's all above board - in fact, even the police are in on it. All is explained in our Buy Cheap Stolen Goods guide. | | | | | 6. | Are you missing out on the £212 marriage tax allowance? If you're married or in a civil partnership, you may be eligible, as @_CorinneMullins tweeted after reading our guide: "Easy - £212/yr better off. Thanks." See Marriage Tax Allowance Help. | | | | | 7. | Find when your student loan will be wiped. It all depends on what year you started. See student loan wiped info. | | | | 8. | A YEAR'S 2for1 cinema by manipulating Meerkat Movies. The Meerkat Movies trick shows how to get a year's 2for1 pass for a few quid. Darcy tweeted: "Loving Meerkat Movies - £26.70 saved over three weeks." | | | | 9. | Uncover the cheaper tariffs your mobile network won't tell you about. When we talk about ditching & switching mobile provider to save, many say: "I wish I could but only Vodafone/EE/3 works in my home." Yet there are hidden tariffs you can switch to on the same signal - see our Mobile Piggybacking guide. Also see 30+ ways to cut your mobile bill. | | | | 10. | Bag secret scholarships and hidden grants. Amazingly many of these student-only pots of gold go unclaimed each year. Our Scholarships and Hidden Grants guide has all the tricks in the school book in it. | | | | 11. | Amazon shopper? You're entitled to music going back 16yrs. If you've bought CDs/vinyl since 1999, our Amazon Music Reclaim guide shows how to get 'em as downloads for free. See if you can beat @lukedixonoxford who tracked down a whopping 7,654 songs.
| | | | 12. | Private parking firms can't fine you - it's just an invoice. Many tickets from supermarkets, retail parks and private car park firms do better impressions than Alistair McGowan. Some even call themselves Parking Charge Notices (PCNs) to mimic official Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs). Yet they've no right to fine you - see how to Fight Unfair Private Parking Tickets. | | | | 13. | Tools analyse your mobile bills in minutes. Give them your log-in, they read your bills & work out cheaper deals: mobile contract assessment. | | | | 14. | Don’t almost clear your card - clear it IN FULL if you can. If you've £1,000 debt from spending on a credit card, clear it IN FULL and there's no interest. Only clear £999 and you usually pay interest on the lot. So if you can nearly clear it, totally clear it. If you can't, balance transfer it. | | | | 15. | Turn your smartphone into a free sat-nav for 28 countries. If it's got GPS, convert it into a free sat-nav for the UK and elsewhere. Just download maps on Wi-Fi to avoid pricey data costs (especially abroad). | | | | 16. | Exploit eBay speiling mistaykes to uncover mega-bargains. Typos and erors on eBay are incredibubbly common and mean fewer peeple serching for things, so prices are rock-bottom. Use a mistake-spotter to find 'em. | | | | 17. | How to stop a 3.5% loan costing you 20%. The cheapest loans are currently 3.5% representative APR, and that big word 'representative' has an even bigger impact. It means only 51% of accepted applicants need get that rate - the rest can and usually do pay more. You only find out by applying and that marks your credit file. Our loans eligibility calc can help - in general the higher your odds, the more likely you are to get the advertised rate. | | | | 18. | Turn detective and uncover secret hotels for huge discounts. Secret hotel bookings on sites such as Lastminute.com give you big discounts on 3-5 star hotels, UK & worldwide, but you don't know the exact hotel until after you've paid.... UNLESS, that is, you use our Uncover Secret Hotels tips. | | | | 19. | Always turn your sun cream bottles around. For why, see our how to make sun cream last tips.
| | | | 20. | Hidden council MOT centres mean 'fewer fails'. As they don't do repairs, they've no vested interest to fail you, and many like Jemayhew say it means fewer fails: "Huge thanks. Last year ripped off - £400 repairs. Today passed at council centre with only test fee to pay". Use our UK council MOTs finder to locate your nearest. | | | | 21. | 'I got my Amazon Prime £79 subscription back.' Our Amazon Prime Refund guide shows those charged for unwanted membership how to get it back, like Tianna: "Didn't even know I had it - got £79 refunded. Thanks." | | | | 22. | Bag hidden local eBay bargains. eBay sellers often specify items, from bikes to PS4s, as 'collection-only', so they get fewer bids so prices are lower. You can't search for them on eBay, so we built a Local eBay Deals Mapper, eBay Deals iPhone App & eBay Deals Android App to find 'em. Zoe said: "Got a new VTech Baby Dancing Tower toy for 99p (was £40ish)" | | | | 23. | How kids can get a free Blue Peter badge - free entry to Legoland/Ldn Zoo etc. A Blue Peter badge can be seriously MoneySaving, with up to 10yrs' free admission to attractions. How to get a free Blue Peter badge | | | | 24. | 'I got £67 of shopping for 11p'. Source, gain & hoard 100s of product and store coupons, then combine for huge discounts on groceries & more. Purple Sarah said: "Got £67 of shopping for 11p after store offers, coupons & my employee discount (but it's totally doable just with coupons)." Few will reach such heights, but many can cut costs via 20 extreme couponing tips. | | | |
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| Wed 9 Sep 2015 |
Ends TODAY. Shift debts to 40mth 0% - the longest ever
Last chance for the longest balance transfer by a huge 4mths. Or if you can repay quicker, a new long low-fee deal If you've debts on credit cards, a 0% balance transfer's the key weapon. It's where a new card pays off old card(s) for you, so you owe it instead. The low interest means your repayments clear the actual debt, so you get debt-free quicker. Yet don't just apply in hope, that'll mark your credit file - instead find the odds of getting each top card via our Eligibility Calc first. - Apply by 11.59pm Wed. 40mths 0% balance transfer (2.99% fee). Virgin Money's* card is by far the longest 0% balance transfer ever, plus for a higher 4% fee, it allows money transfers too to clear costly overdrafts or other debts. To get either 0% deal, you must transfer within 60 days.
- Long 32mth 0%, low 1.4% fee plus new free £25 cash. If you can repay quicker, the HSBC* card has a long 0% but a far lower fee. Plus if you apply this month and shift £100+ it'll give you £25.
So here's how these two compare - always aim for the LOWEST FEE card you're sure you've enough time to clear. - The Balance Transfer Golden Rules. It's not just about picking the right card, it's about using it the right way...
a) Never miss the min monthly repayments, or the bank is allowed to end your 0% deal and charge far more.
b) Ensure you clear the card or transfer again before the 0% ends or the rate rockets to the rep APR.
c) Don't spend/withdraw cash on these. It usually isn't at the cheap rate & cash withdrawals hit your credit file.
d) Unsure what to pick? Use our Which Card Is Cheapest? tool. Full help in Best Balance Transfers (APR Examples). back to top ↑ |
| This Thur's the CHEAPEST time to book millions of Easyjet seats. Only happens 4x/yr. Full info in Easyjet tricks. Free 50p/person to refugee crisis appeal. Spread the word, we'll donate 50p for each genuine new recipient of this email. Ends Sat 11.59pm. We've done it before for the Haiti earthquake, Burma cyclone & South Asian tsunami appeals. We wanted to do it again - on top of our usual charity fund. Pls tell via email & social networks. Full info: Free Refugee Crisis 50p. Join email: MoneySavingExpert.com/tips. Donate direct: Red Cross appeal. Related: MSE charity fund FREE visits to 4,700 hidden property gems this weekend. From Thu-Sun, many usually-closed or usually-charging English buildings are open free incl Beatrix Potter's house, Lion Salt Works, BBC Bristol. Free Heritage Open Days SUCCESS OF THE WEEK: (Send us yours on this or any topic)
"Thanks MSE team. Got the free £10 Amazon promo code and was able to put it towards a useful toy for my baby. Always look forward to your weekly email." (The promo's still available if you missed it) Warning: Don't bin AI Scheme (Sentinel) letters - they're worth £100s. 2m are being sent letters about auto-compensation for mis-sold card protection by banks. Help to fill it in, incl templates, in Sentinel (AI Scheme) help. |
Cheaper than the cheapest energy - 'I'm saving £580/year'
ENDS IN 9 DAYS: MSE Big Switch Event III. 3 short-lived tariffs beat the market's cheapest - many can save £100s Last week we launched our new collective switch (sadly not for NI or prepay) where energy firms compete to give a special tariff. Lots have saved already, as these tweets show. Adrian: "Just switched energy suppliers & could save £578.67/yr." Bjorn: "Thanks, £160 p/m @BritishGas to £111 p/m E.on". Cherie: "Was already on a super-cheap E.on deal & even I could still save."
Six quick need-to-knows. For full help see our main detailed, MSE collective switch FAQ.
- Already on E.on or Green Star? They'll NOT CHARGE EXIT FEES if you switch to theirs, ie, E.on->E.on, GS->GS.
- These all beat the market's cheapest (on avg). Yet it can vary by use and area. That's why when you click them, we ask for your info and do a full comparison, so you can be sure it's your cheapest & how much you save.
- All winners are available for dual fuel (gas & elec together) and electricity-only. Sadly we had no decent prepay bids.
- We're paid £60ish/dual fuel switch & give you £30 as cashback. After supplier costs we get £11 for costs & profit.
- All the tariffs are fixes - so the RATE'S locked-in with no hikes at all. Obviously use more & you pay more though.
- Need help picking? We've full pros, cons & service ratings in the comparison.
back to top ↑ |
| Got a Tesco credit card? Bad news if you like Clubcard points. Full info in Tesco points news. 12,000 FREE £15 Grand Designs Live tix. MSE Blagged. Birmingham NEC 8-11 Oct. Two per person. Grand Designs Trade in old nail polish for a free £6 Crabtree & Evelyn one. Plus MSE Blagged 15% off code. Crabtree & Evelyn New 24mth 0% on spending AND balance transfers. The Halifax 2in1 card* (eligibility calc) gives accepted new cardholders 24mths 0% on spending & shifted debt (the latter for a 0.8% fee), making it the top dual-action card, beating Virgin * (eligibility calc) as it's also 24mths 0% but with a 1% balance transfer fee. Virgin also allows money transfers (1.9% fee). Clear before the 0%s end or they jump to 18.9% rep APR. See 0% all-rounder cards (APR Examples). Hotpoint/Indesit EXTRA 35% code off its clearance, eg, £275 washing machine £180. MSE Blagged. 35% extra off its online clearance store, incl ovens, fridges, microwaves, blenders and more. 35% extra off stock clearance |
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Show Best Buys
Up to 55% off Thorntons bundle codes (stock up for Xmas). MSE Blagged. Eg, £50 bundle £23. Ends Sun Magazine beauty freebies incl £12 Balance Me face cream. See a full rundown of the latest Mag freebies. New. Top 1.65% easy-access savings. ICICI Bank's now 1.65% (min £1) and so is Kent Reliance (min £1,000), while BM Savings (part of the Lloyds bank group) is 1.6% (min £1,000). All allow unlimited access to your cash. |
"I cut home insurance from £330 to £80" - hot deals comparison sites miss
Many people are hugely overpaying for their cover. Take 5 minutes to check whether you can slash your costs Whether it's full home insurance or just contents, many auto-renew and hugely overpay. Even those who shop around may be able to to cut costs further. Our full Cheap Home Insurance system scores down costs, as Junaid tweeted: "Parents were paying £330+ per year for home insurance - with the help of @MartinSLewis, I got it down to £83." Here are the 3 foundations:  Know how much to cover. There are two elements to home insurance:
a) BUILDINGS: usually just needed by freeholders. Don't insure your home's value. Just use a rebuild calc to see the cost of rebuilding if it were knocked down - cover that.
b) CONTENTS: for all. Some under-insure, thinking they'd never claim it all. Yet with £20k of stuff, cover £10k and if your claim's £1k you may only get half - contents calc.
- Combine comparison sites to get cheap prices. As they don't cover identical insurers, our current order's CompareTheMarket, Confused.com*, GoCompare*, MoneySup* (see full comparison order and why).
- New HOT deals comparisons miss. It's not just big firms Direct Line* & Aviva* which aren't on comparison sites that you should check - we list a range of promo deals not included too. As Gail told us: "Got excellent policies for my daughter & I, we both received £80 M&S vouchers too - another brilliant deal accessed via your site." Here are some of the latest special links to check. The freebies/vouchers mentioned can take up to 120 days to arrive.
- £85 Amazon vch with combined buildings & contents via this Age UK* link (avail for any age). Ends Tue 15 Sep
- £80 M&S voucher with combined buildings & contents via this Policy Expert* link. Ends 30 Sep
- £70 Amazon voucher with combined buildings & contents via this L&G* link and the code GIFT16. Ends 30 Sep
- £40 House of Fraser voucher with contents-ONLY policy via this MoreThan* link. Ends Wed 16 Sep
- £25 Amazon vch with a contents or buildings-ONLY policy via Age UK* (avail for any age). Ends Tue 15 Sep back to top ↑ |
| Code gets early access to Lastminute.com's £25 spa sale. MSE Blagged. Gives access from Thu while there's max availability, plus a further 15% off code so it's £21. Spa days/massage/facials etc. 30+ venues. Lastminute.com sale CODES & VCHS incl Boden, Body Shop, Links of Ldn. A Boden 20% off + free del code (ends Thu), Links of London 20% code, Body Shop 30% + 'free' £5 hand cream code & Joules 20% code (Thu-Sun). See ALL Codes & Vchs.
Show Best Buys |
| Show Vouchers and Top Deals |
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 MONEY MORAL DILEMMA
Who should pay for my non-refundable concert tickets?
This week's MoneySaver who wants advice asks... I bought them for me and a friend as a birthday gift, and before booking I asked her to keep the date free, which she agreed to. However she's just told me she has to go to a wedding then. The £100-a-pop tickets are non-refundable, and though I may find someone else, I don't like the band - I was going with her because it's her favourite. Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should she pay for one or both the tickets? | Suggest an MMD | View past MMDs THE GREAT HUNT
What stops you switching broadband?
We're trying to work out what prevents people switching broadband providers. Is it the hassle factor, because you're worried about losing service or because you've managed to haggle down the cost so you've not needed to? Whatever it is, we want to know. Share yours/read others': What stops you switching? Past topics: View all back to top ↑ |
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Martin's appearances (from Wed 9 Sep onward) Thu 10 Sep - GMB, ITV, Deals of the Week, 7.40am. Watch previous |
MSE team corner Regular team appearances: Fri 11 Sep
BBC Radio Manchester, 4.50pm | Discussion of the week What? No condiments? What do you do if you're a guest at a friend's house for dinner and they don't put out any condiments to go with the meal? Is it okay to bring your own? Share your opinion in the What? No condiments? discussion. | Cheap travel money |
This week's poll: Where have you shopped so far in 2015? A simple question. Which of our list of 50 major retailers have you bought from in 2015? We want to find out which attract the most custom. Please vote for all those you've purchased from, whether in-store or online. Aldi | Amazon | Apple | Argos | Asda | ASOS | B&Q | Boots | Burton
Carphone Warehouse | Clarks | Co-op | Currys/PC World | Debenhams | Game
Gap | H&M | HMV | Holland & Barrett | Homebase | House of Fraser | Ikea
John Lewis | Lidl | M&S | Matalan | Monsoon | Morrisons | Mothercare
New Look | Next | Ocado | Poundland | Poundworld | Primark
River Island | Robert Dyas | Sainsbury's | Sports Direct | Tesco | TK Maxx
Topshop/Topman | Toys R Us | Very.co.uk | Waitrose | Waterstones
WHSmith | Wickes | Wilko | Zara | Poll results Have you bought clothes just to wear then return?
It seems taking advantage of shops' returns policies becomes more morally dubious the older you get. Only 38% of women and 44% of men under 25 thought it morally wrong, with 29% of women and 16% of men in this group having bought clothes to wear and return. Yet 95% of women and 96% of men aged 65+ thought it morally wrong, with only 3% of women and 0.9% of men in this group having done so. 16,020 voted. See the full results. |
| Q: When you are using a credit card in Spain and you're asked if you wish to pay in pounds or euros, what answer should you give? MSE Amy's A: The answer is ALWAYS pay in euros. This applies to any local currency: US dollars, Turkish lira and more. When you pay in pounds the overseas bank does the conversion for you - known as 'dynamic currency exchange' - and the rate is usually pants. See Martin's ALWAYS pay in euros blog for research on the differences. If you pay in the the local currency, your home bank or card company does the conversion, usually at the Visa/Mastercard exchange rate (which is as good as you can get), but most providers then add a 3% 'load'. While not the cheapest way to spend, this usually beats paying in pounds. If you have a specialist cheap travel credit card, these don't add the load and are the best way to spend, so don't kill the benefit by paying in pounds abroad. Please suggest a question of the week (we can't reply to individual emails). |
 Nick's free game of the week: Bomb a Bomb |
A few too many glasses of vino and a pair of granny pants That's it for this week, but before we go, have a look at this thread from the forum - 'Embarrassing accidents'. We've all been there. Whether it's a slip into a pond or your skirt tucked into your underwear, you'll be able to sympathise with these embarrassing accidents from our forumites. Post yours and share in the red-faced shame. We hope you save some money, Martin & the MSE team |
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What you need to know This info does not constitute financial advice, always do your own research on top to ensure it's right for your specific circumstances - and remember we focus on rates not service. We don't as a general policy investigate the solvency of companies mentioned, how likely they are to go bust, but there is a risk any company can struggle and it's rarely made public until it's too late (see the section 75 guide for protection tips). We often link to other websites, but we can't be responsible for their content. Always remember anyone can post on the MSE forums, so it can be very different from our opinion. Please read the Full Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, how this site is financed and Editorial Code. Martin Lewis is a registered trade mark belonging to Martin S Lewis. More about MoneySavingExpert and Martin Lewis What is MoneySavingExpert.com?
Founded in February 2003, it's now the UK's biggest consumer help website with more than 10 million people getting this email and about 13 million using the site every month. In September 2012 it became part of the MoneySupermarket Group PLC. Its focus is simple: saving cash and fighting for financial justice on anything and everything. The site has over 80 full time staff, more than a third of whom are editorial – researching, analysing and writing to continually find ways to save money. More info: See About MSE Who is Martin Lewis? Martin set up and runs MSE, and still writes this email each week (unless it says so). He's an ultra-focused money-saving journalist and consumer campaigner with his own ITV prime-time show The Martin Lewis Money Show and weekly slots on Radio 5 Live, This Morning and Good Morning Britain, among others. He’s a columnist for publications including the Telegraph, Sunday Mirror and Woman magazine. More info: See Martin Lewis' biography What do the links with a * mean? Any links with a * by them are affiliated, which means get a product via this link and a contribution may be made to MoneySavingExpert.com, which helps it stay free to use. You shouldn't notice any difference; the links don't impact the product at all and the editorial line (the things we write) isn't changed due to it. If it isn't possible to get an affiliate link for the best product, it's still included in the same way. More info: See how this site is financed. As we believe transparency is important, we're including the following 'un-affiliated' web-addresses for content too:
Unaffiliated web-addresses for links in this email virginmoney.com, hsbc.co.uk, lloydsbank.com, tescobank.com, postoffice.co.uk, barclaycard.co.uk, confused.com, gocompare.com, moneysupermarket.com, directline.com, aviva.co.uk, ageuk.org.uk, policyexpert.co.uk, legalandgeneral.com, morethan.com, halifax.co.uk, admiral.com, zopa.com, sainsburysbank.co.uk, firstdirect.com, santander.co.uk.
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