Last chance - DITCH O2, cheap Private Health Cover, Free £200+ for Xmas, Costco tips, savings safety boost, top 0% debt shift + £20

Plus... Martin: get £100s student loan back, £11 Baileys, Xmas lights calc, Amazon Black Fri sale

                                                           

18 November 2025 | View in browser

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THE TOP TIPS IN THIS EMAIL Get cheap Private Health Insurance: - Get paid £100 via a top comparison site - New. Get £370 Apple Watch 11 for £9? - Got PMI? Many can slash costs - PMI can be an employment perk, but... Free £200+ in time for Christmas Last chance: Ditch O2 penalty-free New. Top 35mth 0% debt shift + £20 News. FSCS savings safety limit to rise Is Costco cheapest for your Xmas shop? Amazon's Black Fri sale starts THIS Thu Martin vid: Repaying student loan? Check your account NOW! £11 for one-litre Baileys New Martin pod: Wallet Workout to gain (£100s of) pounds Question Time pod: Will new partner need pay for my child's uni? Credit scoring... if it happened at the pub How much do Xmas lights cost to run? Black Friday interrogated - is it cheaper? Hot Diamonds 40% & 50% off codes Making cash from a festive side hustle? This week's best buys: 4.56% cash ISA, 500Mb broadband £24/mth & more Money Moral Dilemma: Should I give my fast-spending nephew £10k now or later? BEST BUYS & TOOLS MSE Cheap Mobile Finder Credit Club including free credit report 0% balance transfers Compare broadband deals MSE Car Insurance Compare+ Best bank accounts Top savings accounts Credit cards for bad credit Credit Card Eligibility Calculator Loans Eligibility Calculator Mortgage comparison Compare travel money Cheap Energy Club Best Sim-only deals

How to get the cheapest Private Health Insurance New. Get a £370 Apple Watch Series 11 for just £9 if you're young(ish), fit(ish) & go to the gym Martin: "The NHS and its staff are true national treasures. Yet, painful as it is to write, the pandemic and cost of living crises, among other things, mean it's struggled. In recent years, even the Prime Minister has said it was 'broken'. So, no surprise, we've seen an increasing demand for Cheap Private Medical (Health) Insurance (PMI). In my X poll yesterday (Mon), 21% of people have PMI policies, up on the year before. "PMI is a policy you pay for, so that when you need medical help, you can opt to bypass the NHS. And it covers the cost of private consultations, treatments and operations - be it hips, heart or toes - and sometimes mental health, too. Its main advantages are speed and 'hotel-like' hospital accommodation. "It isn't cheap. It's a lifestyle choice, unaffordable for many, meaning there's a two-tier system. Costs heavily increase with age, starting from £20ish/mth in your mid-20s to double that or more by mid-50s. Below the team and I will run you through six need-to-knows including: - Get paid £100 by using a top comparison site. - New. Can you get Apple Watch Series 11 for £9 via PMI trick? - Got PMI already? Many can slash costs. "PS: A more affordable type of medical cover is healthcare cash plans, which cover selected NHS and private costs (eg, dental, physio etc). Here, you pay for treatment, send off the receipt, and it repays you up to an annual limit (some end up in profit)." 1) Get £100 cashback or £120 Amazon voucher when you get a policy via top comparison sites The obvious start point is to do a comparison to test the market. With PMI, though, while there seem to be many sites, most are just 'white labels' of one or two underlying comparison engines (ie, the same comparison under the bonnet but with different branding).  So, our focus is to get you the most lucrative perks available with each, as well as for a third standalone comparison. These engines largely cover the same insurers but all have one or two the others don't... PMI comparisons plus cashback MoneySupermarket* Underlying comparison engine: ActiveQuote (also used by Gocompare). It compares seven firms & brokers. Clear summary of cover and option to specifically add/remove certain features. MSE Blagged. £120 Amazon voucher. Via our link, after six monthly payments on PMI of any value, you'll get a £120 Amazon voucher emailed to you. Max one voucher a year. Howden Life & Health* Underlying comparison engine: It is the underlying provider (it also powers Confused, uSwitch, Compare The Market). It compares 11 firms, has a shorter list of questions to get a quote, so is speedier, though with fewer options. MSE Blagged. £100 cashback. Via our link, after six monthly payments on PMI of any value, you get £100 cashback paid into the account you use to pay your PMI premiums. Which Health Cover* (nothing to do with Which?, the consumer site) This tool compares nine insurers and uses its own tech. Options to select features at quote stage are easily and clearly displayed. MSE Blagged. £100 cashback OR one free month (good on costlier plans). Via our link, you can choose at the point of purchase to get £100 cashback OR the premium paid for a month. The money will be paid into your account after six monthly payments. Annoyance alert: All three want you to put your phone number in, and may try to contact you by phone or email to discuss a quote. There's no way to opt out. It would of course be terrible if you accidentally put in a non-working phone number - we hope that doesn't happen. What to look for when picking a PMI policy... Comparison sites give an overview of cover, but always do a detailed look before signing up. Full help in picking a PMI policy, but do check... Which hospitals can you use? Bigger choice equals increased cost. So, once you home in on a policy, check its hospital list and options. This can make a huge difference to cost (and it's really important to look at when comparing policies). What treatments do you want to cover? Options can include improved cover for cancer and mental health. Consider what you'd be happy to use the NHS for and what you'd want treated privately. Full medical underwriting vs moratorium. With full medical underwriting you disclose your medical history at sign-up (via a health questionnaire, a check-up, or access to your medical records), which can take time but ultimately may prove easier.  The alternative is moratorium cover, where you don't need to do that, but it will automatically exclude pre-existing medical conditions, and each time you claim (for sometimes up to five years), you'll usually have to prove you didn't have the condition before, and your claim will likely be slower. The excess matters. This is the amount you'll pay, either towards each individual claim, or better, towards any treatment in a year (so once you've paid it, there's no excess on further claims that year) - though these tend to have a higher monthly cost. A £37/mth policy with no excess can reduce to £26/mth with a £500 excess. So think about at what level you'd claim. It's a conceptual choice between whether you're wanting a 'cover everything' policy or only a 'cover big things' policy. One strategy is to combine a very high excess (£1,000+) with self-insuring, where you put cash aside each month in top savings. Then, you can use the NHS for smaller treatments or pay the excess, but it is a backstop for bigger treatments. It works for some but does depend on circumstances, so needs some thinking through. 2) Are you young(ish), fit(ish), and go to the gym and/or fancy an Apple Watch? Vitality Healthcare* is a PMI policy that encourages you to stay fit and active, and if you do, provides serious rewards, such as a near-free Apple Watch, and 50% off gyms. For some younger people, if you'd have spent money on those anyway, the perks may come close to covering the PMI fees. The key perks are... New. Apple Watch Series 11. It's just upgraded its Apple Watch offer to the latest Series 11 model (which launched in Sept). Take out a new PMI policy with Vitality and you can get the £369 Series 11 watch for an upfront payment of just £9 (or the SE watch for £1).  What you pay for it after that depends on how many 'Activity Points' you earn - at the top level, which is 12,500 steps for five days a week, you DON'T PAY A PENNY MORE. Even at lower activity levels, there are decent savings. PS: For inspiration on getting your steps in, see Martin's 'I did 24,703 steps a day in 2024' blog. Up to 50% off many Virgin, Nuffield and PureGym monthly fees, even for existing members. These are straight discounts, not linked to activity. While they're off the full list price (which many can bring down a bit by negotiating, see cheap gyms), this is still likely to be a big discount, and works even if you're already a member, eg, the Virgin gym in Sheffield's listed price is £85/mth, but you could get it for £42ish/mth. There are also discounts for Caffè Nero, Samsung and others. How to get Vitality. You've got a choice. Go direct to Vitality* or go via the comparison links above, which all include it, to get the extra cashback/voucher instead (and a comparison is always worth doing). The Vital(ity) maths: How it can stack up For a healthy 25-year-old living in London The policy cost... - The quote was £44/mth, so that's £530/yr (an equivalent policy elsewhere costs £20 to £70/mth) The possible savings...  - At the top activity level, they save £360 on the Apple Watch over 3yrs, so £120/yr saved (if, and only if, they'd buy one anyway) - Existing Virgin gym member, possible £500/yr fee reduction The overall effect... While Vitality isn't the cheapest policy, if you were planning to buy an Apple Watch anyway, and are at the top activity level, it can even out. And, if you are paying for a gym, then the total savings can outweigh the whole PMI cost - in the example above they pay £530/yr but save £620/yr.  Clearly, though, you need to do your own numbers, and to get the max benefits you'll have to stick with the policy for a few years. Like all firms, the policy cost will likely rise each year. 3) Already got PMI? Many can slash costs (but take care switching if you've had past treatment) PMI prices usually rise each year at renewal. And the 'existing customers can't be charged more than new customers going via the same channel' rule for car and home insurance doesn't apply to PMI. So costs can escalate quickly. But there are ways you can slash them... - A comparison will often reveal BIG savings. Use the links above to check. And if you've never claimed on your PMI, switch away! Yet if you've had treatments on the policy within the last five years, and the issue reoccurs within two years, a new provider will likely exclude treating it, as it's a pre-existing condition (some even say more than two years, so do check policy details). If that's an issue, you may effectively be locked in to your current provider as long as you want treatment on those issues. - Alternatively, see our tips to haggle with your existing provider at renewal. As Tony, who emailed earlier this year, did: "My PMI price has risen steeply over the past few years. Thanks to a mention in your email, I tried the comparison sites you recommend and got a quote from another company for just over half the cost. I phoned my provider to cancel, but after checking that I had a like-for-like quote, they applied 'loyalty discounts' and reduced my renewal price by 43%. Thank you, MSE, for saving me a four-figure sum over the next year!" Get paid £50 just for checking if a switch'd save you The Confused.com Switch and Save* service (underlying broker is Howden Life & Health) does a comparison and asks for your existing policy details. If it can't find you a better deal than your current policy, you'll get £50. However, as part of this, you are effectively agreeing that Howden will become your broker (even if you don't accept the quote), which means it'll handle any future queries, changes or renewals. It's not a bad thing, but decide whether you want it before doing anything. 4) PMI can be a great employment perk, but... PMI via your employer can be substantially cheaper, even if your employer doesn't contribute (and some do). The issue comes if you claim for treatment and then decide to leave your employer. So, before starting a policy, it's worth asking two key questions about what'd happen if you left. Can you... - Continue with that healthcare plan on the same terms?  - If not, can you at least continue on costlier terms as an existing customer? If not, the problem is all your previous treatments are excluded as pre-existing conditions, and each time you claim for at least the first two years for other conditions you may need to go through the rigmarole of proving you haven't had that condition before. To put it more plainly - you could leave a corporate Bupa policy after a decade, for example, get a new Bupa policy, but then be excluded from conditions the corporate policy had paid out for. And even though it's known you for a decade, you still have to prove for each new claim that you hadn't had it before, as if it didn't know you. 5) Confused or can't get what you want? Try a broker If you're confused or have pre-existing conditions that make things difficult, get assistance from a member of the snappily-titled Association of Medical Insurers and Intermediaries (AMII). These brokers can answer questions about cover, particular insurers' records, rules and more. Most are free to you, because they take commission from insurers if you get a policy. Though check if, and how, they'll charge before you get the advice. 6) Feel your claim's been unfairly rejected?  Picking the right policy is only half the journey - it needs to deliver when you need to claim, too. But it's more difficult to predict how it'll perform. So, it's worth knowing, like all insurance, that these are regulated policies where you have a legal right to be TREATED FAIRLY. If not, make a formal complaint, and if it still doesn't stack up, you can take it to the free Financial Ombudsman Service to adjudicate.

 

 

DON'T believe the fake 'Martin Lewis' or 'MSE' ads Lots of scam ads litter social media and even newspaper websites - some of these lie that we or Martin promote Bitcoin, binary trading etc. See Fake ads warning.

 

 

 

FREE CASH in time for Christmas...  SEVEN banks are willing to pay switchers at least £175, and up to £400. So, unless you love your bank, why not grab it? One-in, one-out, but there are still seven banks willing to pay for your current account custom - some in time for Christmas - and if not, you get much-needed cash in the New Year. Most of these legal bribes come from top bank accounts with strong financial perks and/or top service. And, if you're wondering, yes some people do make £1,000s by repeatedly switching banks (though you need to be careful - the link takes you through it). Switching's usually quick & easy. To get the free cash, you need to use the bank's seven-working-day switch service (so it takes roughly 10 days). This closes your old account and moves all your money, Direct Debits and standing orders for you. Payments to the old account are auto-forwarded. You'll need to pass a not-too-harsh credit check. FREE CASH FOR SWITCHERS (new customers) Most accounts require you to be switching 2+ Direct Debits/standing orders. Full eligibility info in Best bank accounts. High earners ONLY Barclays Premier Bank Account* FREE £400 paid out by 8 Jan (1) Min pay-in: A total of £4,000 within 30 days. FREE £400 upfront & Apple TV+. This is the largest switch payment we've ever seen, but you need to earn £75,000+/yr (or hold £100,000+ in investments with Barclays) to get it.  - Fee-free? Yes. - Other perks: Free Apple TV+ (it costs £10/mth otherwise) and an ongoing £500 0% overdraft for many, too. See full Barclays Premier eligibility & review. Santander Edge* FREE £200 paid out by 17 Feb (1)  Min pay-in: A total of £1,500 within 60 days, then £500+/mth (equivalent to a £6,000/yr salary going in). Top (joint) bills account FREE £200 upfront, 1% cashback on bills and linked 6% saver, near-perfect exchange rates. This account has a £3/mth fee but as you get cashback on bills paid from it by Direct Debit, that normally covers it and far more for most. - Fee-free? No, £3/mth. - Other perks: 1% cashback on bills (max £10/mth) plus a linked saver paying 6% AER variable for 12mths on up to £4,000. Its debit card is also fee-free for spending overseas, so you get near-perfect exchange rates. See full Santander eligibility & review. Barclays Bank Account* FREE £200 paid out by  8 Jan (1) Min pay-in: A total of £2,000 within 30 days, then £800+/mth (equivalent to a £10,000/yr salary going in). FREE £200 upfront (plus Apple TV+ for £5/mth fee). To get the £200 for switching, you need to also join Barclays' Blue Rewards scheme, which includes Apple TV+ (usually £10/mth).  - Fee-free? Yes and no... There's no fee for the account, but you must join Barclays' £5/mth reward scheme to get the free cash. However, you can cancel this as soon as you get the cash (roughly after a month). - Other perks: Apple TV+ and more (if you stay in the £5/mth reward scheme). See full Barclays eligibility & review. Club Lloyds FREE £200 paid out by  10 Dec (1) Min pay-in: A hefty £2,000/mth (equivalent to a £29,000/yr salary going in). FREE £200 upfront and 1yr Disney+, near-perfect exchange rates. Another decent payout, and the account's strongest suit are the perks you get on top...  - Fee-free? Yes, as long as you meet the £2,000/mth min pay-in - if not it's £5/mth and best avoided. - Other perks: Each year you can also choose between Disney+ for 12mths (with ads) OR six free cinema tickets & other options. It has a linked 6.25% 1yr AER fixed regular saver you can put up to £400/mth in, and a £100 0% overdraft buffer zone. Its debit card is also fee-free overseas, so you get near-perfect exchange rates on it. See full Lloyds eligibility & review. First Direct 1st Account* FREE £175 paid out by  20 Dec (1) Min pay-in: A one-off total of £1,000 within 45 days. Top customer service FREE £175, 7% regular saver, ongoing 0% overdraft, near-perfect exchange rates. First Direct's big strong point is service - it was rated 92% 'great' in our last customer service poll. In 15 years of these polls, it's been top or near top every time. - Fee-free? Yes. - Other perks: It also has a linked 7% fixed regular saver, letting you put away up to £300/mth for 12 months, and many get an ongoing £250 0% overdraft. The debit card is fee-free on overseas spending, so you get near-perfect exchange rates on it. See full First Direct eligibility & review. And there are two more... Nationwide FlexDirect. Free £175 by 6 Dec plus possible £5/mth cashback and a 6.5% linked regular saver (1). NatWest Reward. Free £175 by 26 Dec plus £3/mth cashback and a 5.5% linked regular saver (1). (1) The 'paid out by' date is when you'll get the free cash if you start a switch on 19 Nov and fulfil all terms within a week. Do these all work for joint accounts? All except the two Barclays accounts do. Are subscriptions moved too? Direct Debits and standing orders are moved for you. Yet the third category of regular payments, known as recurring payments - where you give the long number on your debit card when you pay - aren't moved; you need to do this yourself, eg, for Netflix, Disney+ etc. If you do forget, though, normally they'll notify you that 'your payment card no longer works' so it shouldn't be too big an issue. See recurring payment help. Can switching bank affect your ability to get credit? In the short term, yes. It's a credit application, so that has an impact by itself, but also lenders like to see evidence of stability. It usually isn't a big deal, but if you've an important credit application soon (eg, a mortgage), it's probably best to hold off until after. More in how switching banks affects your credit.

 

New. Top 35mth 0% debt shift now gives £20 cashback, so transfer under £800 and it's 'FEE-FREE'. A 0% balance transfer is where you get a new card that pays off debts on existing cards for you, so you owe it instead, but interest-free for a set time. HSBC's 35mth 0% card (existing HSBC customer? Use this link) was already our top-pick longest 0% card, and now it gives £20 cashback for shifting £250+ on to it within 60 days. That all but covers the one-off 3.19% balance transfer fee (min £5) if you shift under £800, and substantially reduces it if you shift more. Pay it off before the 0% ends to avoid the 24.9% rep APR interest. Full info and options in top balance transfers. News. Savings safety limit to rise to £120,000. Currently, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) covers up to £85,000 in savings per person, per institution. Today (Tue) we learned it'll rise on 1 Dec, and the 'lifetime events' limit will rise too. See Are your savings safe? Related: Top 4.56% cash ISA | Top 4.51% easy-access savings. Is Costco cheapest for your Xmas shop? We spot-checked prices for festive faves, eg, Lindt 3D Teddy Advent calendar & Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label champagne - see how Costco compares with the supermarkets. Many unknowingly qualify for Costco membership (£42/yr) and petrol savings alone may pay for it. 18 Costco tips  Tonight (Tue) 8pm ITV1 or after on ITVX...  The Martin Lewis Money Show Black Friday & Christmas Special LIVE  It's the big one - huge audience, the famous 'Festive Forecaster' deals predictions, free cash, return rights quiz... and the tradition is that Martin sings the intro (we'll be watching through our fingers). Got questions? Email the show at martinlewis@itv.com. Amazon's Black Friday sale starts THIS Thu. For confirmed brands & how to spot dud deals, see Amazon Black Fri. Related: Black Friday deals & predictions | MSE Christmas Deals Predictor. Martin video. 'Repaying your student loan? Check your account NOW! Over 1m of you can reclaim £100s.' Watch Martin's 4 reasons you can reclaim student loans explainer on his YouTube channel (& do subscribe for more), taken from his ITV show last week. Plus, read our how to reclaim student loans help. £11 for one-litre Baileys. Now at two big supermarkets, normally c.£22. Where to get cheap Baileys (pls be Drinkaware). New Martin pod. Small actions, big impact! My Wallet Workout to gain (£100s of) pounds. Earn £100s in mins by perusing your purse or (digital) wallet. In Martin's main podcast this week, he takes you through how to speedily spot the best debit cards, credit cards, overdrafts & more. Plus, listen to him whinge about AI chatbots. Listen via BBC Sounds | Apple | Spotify etc. Question Time pod. Will my new partner need to pay for my adult daughter to go to uni? High interest savings vs cash ISAs? In Martin's Question Time podcast, you can ask whatever you like (within reason), and this week there's a nightmare question about uni finance for blended families, plus one on what happens to broadband contracts when you move home, and more. Again, listen via BBC Sounds | Apple | Spotify etc.

 

 

BLAGGED FOR MSE - £120 voucher / £100 cashback on Health Insurance Ongoing - Hot Diamonds 40% to 50% off + free delivery Ends 25 Nov	DID YOU MISS? - Ryanair no longer accepts home-printed boarding passes - 50% off Christmas trees at Tesco, eg, 6ft fir £20 - Boots Showstopper beauty box: £371 of Fenty, No7 & more £90 - 'Free' four-pack Strongbow strawberry cider, save £6 - Govt-backed NS&I boosts fixed savings to 4%+

 

 

Last chance. O2 mobile contract customer? Millions have been told 'we're hiking our price hike!' If that's you, ACT NOW or lose the right to switch & save penalty-free  Eg, switch to 40GB data for '£3.25/mth' with cheaper-than-chips Sims On 23 Oct, O2 started contacting customers to tell them it'd be hiking prices in April by more than it said it would when they signed up. Martin went ballistic, saying it "made a mockery of regulator Ofcom's new rules", where you have to be told when you sign up of planned price hikes, and since then we've been campaigning hard on this. Yet the most important thing you need to understand is...  As O2's hiking prices by more than it said it would when you signed up, it must let you leave penalty-free within 30 days of notification & that time is up THIS WEEKEND for many. So you need to ACT NOW to see whether you can save. Many O2 customers already pay more than they need to (see Cheap Mobile Finder). And as O2's behaviour feels disreputable, it deserves a corporate bloody nose. We've heard from large numbers of customers who have either switched away or haggled a lower price, which suggests it's getting that. So, on to your options... Leave O2 and find the cheapest Sim deal on any network. Use our Cheap Sim Finder tool, as Jan did. She emailed: 'I've been an O2 customer for years. When I received the increase email I rang O2 and cancelled my contract. I went on your site and got a 5GB Sim for £1.60/mth. Thank you Martin - you've saved me £20 a month [£240/yr].' Leave O2 but find the cheapest Sim on its network. Sky, Giffgaff & Tesco are among the virtual network operators that pay O2 to piggyback on its signal, so you should get similar reception. Our Cheap Sim Finder comparison tool lets you filter to see the cheapest deals on the same signal. Check the features though (eg, Wi-Fi calling) - don't assume they stay the same. As for how good they are, see our 'there's no noticeable difference for most' on piggyback networks report. Stay with O2 and haggle. Benchmark the cheapest deal elsewhere, call O2 and politely explain you can leave, but want to stay if it makes it worth your while. Many O2 customers are reporting huge haggling successes on the back of this. Example cheapest Sim-only mobile deals compared Cheapest (1)  Cheapest alternative on O2 signal (1) Typical O2 cost over 2yrs (2) Ends Fri. Lebara (uses Vodafone signal) on rolling 1mth contract - 3GB at average '£3.18/mth'. £1.95/mth for 6mths, then £4.40/mth. Ends Thu. iD Mobile (uses Three) on 12mth contract - 40GB data at '£3.25/mth'. £4/mth for 3mths, then £8/mth and you'll be emailed a £45 Amazon or shopping voucher (check spam folder if not received). With all that factored in, it's £3.25/mth over the contract. Sky on 12mth contract - 10GB at £6/mth - 40GB at £10/mth (3)  O2 on 24mth contract - 3GB at '£19/mth' - 10GB at '£21/mth' - 40GB at '£25/mth' Ends Thu. iD Mobile (uses Three) on 12mth contract - Unlimited data at '£12.13/mth'. £8/mth for 3mths, then £16/mth and you'll be emailed a £22.50 Amazon or shopping voucher (check spam folder if not received). With all that factored in, it's £12.13/mth over the contract. Giffgaff on 18mth contract - Unlimited data at £15/mth O2 on 24mth contract - Unlimited data at '£35/mth' (1) Deals from our Cheap Sim Finder tool. (2) Based on current deals on O2.co.uk including a £2.50 rise in both Apr 2026 and Apr 2027 - cost averaged over the period. (3) O2 currently has a slightly cheaper deal, but existing customers can't sign up to it so we've excluded it from the table. You can change your airtime network and still pay O2 monthly for your handset. O2's communication on this has been dire. Many have received this message when quitting airtime contracts: "If you've a device plan, you'll still need to pay this off in full." It's terrible phrasing - all it means is you must keep paying it each month, not that you need to pay the whole amount now. Martin complained to Ofcom about this and it's written to O2 on this issue. To keep your number when switching, text 'PAC' for free to 65075. You'll get a code to give to your new provider, which uses it to transfer your number over, usually in one working day. (Some providers will ask for your date of birth to confirm your identity. Also this text may not work if you're on a contract with more than one phone.) O2 customer? Quick FAQs: I'm also a Virgin Media customer, will I lose my Volt benefits if I leave O2? Generally, yes, so factor that in. If I leave O2 for a piggyback network, will I lose O2 Priority? Yes, that only comes with O2.

 

Martin videos. Credit scoring: If it happened at the local pub. A simple explanation of how credit scoring works via Martin's credit scoring (pub explanation) video. Plus, watch his answer to 'Will applying for a balance transfer hurt my excellent credit score?', or watch the full show on ITVX catch-up. Related: Test your eligibility rating for free. The MSE Christmas lights calc - how much do they cost to run? Updated Xmas lights & decs calc. Black Friday interrogated - is it really cheaper than pre-Christmas sales? See Black Friday analysis. Hot Diamonds - codes get 40% off full-price AND 50% off its already-half-price outlet. MSE Blagged. Plus free delivery code. You can stack all three together - beating Hot Diamonds' own 30% off Black Friday offer. Hot Diamonds Planning on making some money through a festive side hustle? If you're selling your old stuff, don't worry. But if you're crafting things or buying stuff specifically to sell online via platforms such as Vinted, Etsy, eBay etc, check whether you'll need to do a self-assessment tax return. See When do I pay tax on online earnings?

 

 

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AT A GLANCE BEST BUYS 0% balance transfers Longest 0%: HSBC (check eligibility, or use link for existing HSBC customers) 35mths 0% + £20 cashback, 3.19% fee, 24.9% rep APR No-fee 0%: Barclaycard (check eligibility) up to 15mths 0%, 24.9% rep APR Top savings accounts Top easy-access savings: Chase 4.5%, min £1 (newbies only) Top easy-access ISA: Trading 212 4.56%, min £1 Top one-year fix: Monument Bank 4.47%, min £25k Top energy deals Use our whole-of-market Cheap Energy Club Compare insurance deals Car: Use our Compare+ Car Insurance tool Home: Try our Compare+ Home Insurance tool Cheap loans £5,000 to £7,499: M&S Bank (check eligibility), 6.9% rep APR £7,500 to £15,000: M&S Bank (check eligibility), 5.8% rep APR Best bank accounts Free £200 + 6% linked saver: Santander Edge Free £200 + perks: Barclays Bank Account Broadband top picks Fast fibre (100Mb+): Vodafone '£20.25/mth' Superfast fibre (500Mb+): Vodafone '£24.09/mth' On Universal Credit or similar? Check all discounted social tariffs Cheap Sims Up to 3GB data: Lebara, '£3.18/mth' for 3GB 31GB+ data: iD Mobile, '£3.25/mth' for 40GB

 

 

MSE NEWS - Top story: WASPI women latest - Government to review decision to refuse compensation

 

 

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA Should I give my nephew £10,000 now even though he'll likely fritter it away? Following a small inheritance I received four years ago, I gave my niece £10,000 towards a house deposit. I want to do the same for my nephew, her brother, but his life's very different. Although he's 29 he's not saving for anything in particular, and his parents say any money that comes his way quickly disappears on expensive restaurants. But I'm not keen on delaying giving it to him indefinitely as I'm getting older and Inheritance Tax could become an issue. Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should I give my spendthrift nephew £10,000 now or later? | Suggest a Money Moral Dilemma (MMD) | View past MMDs

 

 

MARTIN'S APPEARANCES (WED 19 NOV ONWARDS) Thu 20 Nov - Ask Martin Lewis, BBC Radio 5 Live, midday Tue 25 Nov - This Morning, phone-in, ITV, 10.20am   Tue 25 Nov - The Martin Lewis Money Show Live, ITV1, 8pm

 

 

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