Loading...
|
|
|
---|
DON'T believe the fake 'Martin Lewis' or 'MSE' ads |
HALVE smartphone insurance costs due to price war Cover an iPhone or Samsung for just £60/year or all the family's phones for £160/year After careful deliberation, you choose a shiny new handset, happy you've done the research and bagged the right kit. Then while your mind's on it, there's a quick "An'yull need insurance right?", so without thinking you say "yes", usually to a costly policy which drips out of your account for years. We want to challenge that habit. Many pay up to £15/month, so £180 over a year, but our Cheap mobile insurance guide shows how to do it for far less. Here are the key digits... The four key mobile-insurance questions. Before plumping for a policy, ask yourself: Cheap insurance price war - slash network prices. In the process of updating our guide, we compared over 40 mobile insurers. And some, when they realised what we were doing, started to offer us MSE Blagged codes to cut their prices, so they could be top, inadvertently starting a price war. Great, as you pay less, but get the same cover. Tend to lose your phone more than twice a year? Policy excesses vary by phone, and insurer, and on those above vary between £30 and £100 - so that's what you'd pay towards each claim. If you think that's too high (maybe you lose your phone a lot) then Trusted Insurances* and Post Office* offer policies with an excess at just £25, though for that you'll tend to pay £120-£140/year for cover on the latest handsets. Got two or more smartphone users in the home? Get FAMILY phone insurance plus travel and breakdown cover for £156/year via a bank account. The Nationwide FlexPlus account costs £13/month (£156/year) and covers phones worth up to £2,000 each, belonging to you, your spouse/partner and children under 19 (or under 22 if in full-time education) - and the cover's decent. |
FREE Greggs meat or vegan bake & hot drink (normally about £3). A festive chicken (or Quorn), onion and bacon (or vegan bacon) pastry and a drink. 50,000 available originally, but they're going fast. See how to get free Greggs. £10 off £40 Lidl voucher. How to bag a nice Lidl saving (not in Northern Ireland). Martin: 'Energy price cap now due to rise 40% next April - that's typically over £400/yr.' It's getting worse - watch Martin's new 4min energy crisis help video which explains what's happening and what to do. Urgent. Shelly saved £560 after Martin's car & home insurance warning last week. The clock is ticking - last week Martin warned everyone to get quotes NOW, even if not near renewal as imminent new rules are likely to see costs spike, and it's not too late if you missed it. Our success of the week is from Shelly, who followed that tip and emailed: "After reading the recent email, I sorted out my home insurance. My renewal quote was £743 but I got a quote for £181. Thanks for all your tips." Please send us your MoneySaving successes on this or anything else. The Financial Conduct Authority launches new 'Consumer Duty' - meaning firms can't leave customers stuck with poor mortgages, savings and more. This is just one likely benefit to the City watchdog's far-reaching proposals. See what it could mean, including Martin's two-minute video briefing. |
10 speedy MoneySaving Christmas planning resources Tools & info to help with gifts, spending, sending parcels, gift vouchers, charity and more Advent has started, so we wanted to open a window into some of the clever and useful MoneySaving resources out there to help you celebrate the festive season without creating a financial hangover afterwards. Also see Martin's now (in)famous Ban unnecessary Christmas gifts blog, which includes his video on it that went viral with over 17 million views and 300,000+ shares. Free or charity letters from Santa. The big fella has his elves stationed everywhere to help him reply to all the little people who write to him. Two of those to note are...- Ends Thu. For a suggested donation of £5, the NSPCC elves will send a personalised letter, and the money will help less fortunate children - a nice bit of karma. - Ends Fri. There are hordes of elves stationed at Royal Mail, so post a letter and Santa will reply at no cost. Cheap parcel delivery firms. It's almost always cheaper to have an item delivered straight from the retailer, but if you want to send one yourself, our Cheap parcel delivery guide shows how to cut costs. Last 'free or cheapest' online order dates for Argos, Currys, John Lewis, M&S and more. Planning & prep saves money - see our full list of major retailers' last 'free or cheapest' order dates and how much you'll pay if you leave it later. Free Christmas gift cheques. If money's tight, why not give time instead? Our printable Christmas gift cheques let you pledge to do something nice such as brekkie in bed, cleaning a car. What you give is only limited by your imagination. Charity gift catalogues mean real impact for Christmas giving. From buying a goat for a family, to polio vaccines, or shelter for an abused family here in the UK, our Charity gifts catalogue guide shows how to give a gift perhaps more in line with the original Christmas spirit - far better than tat. The Christmas Deals Predictor. For seven years we've carefully tracked the timing and quality of big firms' Christmas discounts. That knowledge has been poured into our Christmas Deals Predictor to help you pounce when what you need is cheapest. The DemoHoHotivator shows how little sacrifices can create big savings. For example, give up a daily £2 coffee in December and you'll have an extra £50 in the festive kitty. See what you could save with the The DemoHoHotivator. 20 free (or very cheap) ways to add Christmas magic for kids. One of our own resources, MSE Jenny's Christmas magic for kids blog helps you create lasting memories for little money. Track Santa as he delivers presents. The big fella has quite the journey on Christmas Eve, and a nifty free Santa tracker lets you watch his progress from the North Pole to Northampton, and everywhere in between and beyond. Martin's tip: 'Give the ultimate paper gift vouchers spendable everywhere without any expiry date.' "Gift vouchers and cards have a risk to them. If the firm goes bust, they're often worthless. Plus many have expiry dates too. So think very carefully about the solvency of the firm, and how quickly the recipient will use them, before you do it. If in doubt, don't. For me, the ultimate flexible gift voucher is... cash. It can be spent anywhere, and never lapses." |
Barclays customer? It's slashing Blue Rewards, so many should dump it. From March 2022, it will cut its basic rewards from £36 a year to zero, and with switch bonuses of up to £150 currently available, it's a good time to ditch & switch. See our full Barclays slashes Blue Rewards analysis. |
Tell your friends about usThey can get this email free every week |
AT A GLANCE BEST BUYS
|
THIS WEEK'S POLL How do you rate your mobile network's service and coverage? We want to find out how each provider rates for service (how it treats you) and coverage (how strong the signal is when you need it). How do you rate your mobile network? RAC is the easiest firm to haggle with. Last week, we asked which companies you've tried to haggle with in the past year, and if you got a better deal - over 6,000 people responded. A whopping 86% of those who'd tried haggling with the RAC reported some sort of success - the highest among all firms. Meanwhile, Virgin Media was top for TV and broadband, Sky for mobiles and Admiral for insurance - all with success rates of over 80%. See full haggling poll results. |
|
---|
MONEY MORAL DILEMMA Rather than toys, should we buy Premium Bonds for the children in our families this Christmas? My partner and I don't have kids, but we've always bought small gifts for the children in our families. Yet we begrudge buying toys for consumerist and environmental reasons, and are considering getting something such as Premium Bonds for them instead. However, we're not sure whether that would be appreciated by the children or their parents. Enter the Money Moral Maze: Rather than toys, should we buy Premium Bonds for our families' children? | Suggest a Money Moral Dilemma |
MARTIN'S APPEARANCES (WED 8 DEC ONWARDS) Wed 8 Dec - Ask Martin Lewis, BBC Radio 5 Live, 1pm. Listen to past episodes MSE TEAM APPEARANCES (MOST SUBJECTS TBC) Wed 8 Dec - Keep 106FM, Ridgeway Magazine with MSE's Oli Townsend on easy ways to go green, from 11am |
A BIG HALLOWEEN FIGURE & THE OLD OCCUPANT'S DINNER. DID YOUR NEW HOME COME WITH A SURPRISE? That's all for this week, but before we go... Forumites are sharing stories about unusual discoveries after moving into new homes. Happy surprises included an oak floor hidden under stained carpet, a parking space covered by overgrown bushes and even a secret garden. Others found a spooky life-size Halloween figure that moved and one Forumite had an unfortunate surprise - the remains of the previous occupant's dinner in the oven. Read the full list and add yours in the new home surprises MSE Forum discussion. We hope you save some money, stay safe, |
Important. Please read how MoneySavingExpert.com worksWe think it's important you understand the strengths and limitations of this email and the site. We're a journalistic website, and aim to provide the best MoneySaving guides, tips, tools and techniques - but can't promise to be perfect, so do note you use the information at your own risk and we can't accept liability if things go wrong. 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 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 LewisWhat is MoneySavingExpert.com? Who is Martin Lewis? What do the links with an * mean?Any links with an * 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 products at all and the editorial line (the things we write) isn't changed due to them. 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 hsbc.co.uk, firstdirect.com, uk.virginmoney.com, santander.co.uk, sainsburysbank.co.uk, americanexpress.com, mobilephoneinsurancedirect.com, switchedoninsurance.com, insurance2go.co.uk, loveitcoverit.com, trustedinsurances.com, postofficegadget.co.uk, confused.com, comparethemarket.com, moneysupermarket.com, gocompare.com, theaa.com, cahoot.com Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Note MoneySupermarket.com Financial Group Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 303190). MoneySavingExpert.com Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales. Company Registration Number: 8021764. Registered office: One Dean Street, London, W1D 3RB. MoneySavingExpert.com Limited is an appointed representative of MoneySupermarket.com Financial Group Limited. To change your email or stop receiving the weekly tips (unsubscribe): Go to: www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips. |
Loading...
Loading...