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Saved cash? Shout it from the rooftops.If this email's ever helped you, please forward it to friends and suggest they get it via moneysavingexpert.com/tips |
New. FREE £50+ in M&S vchs (use on food, clothes, almost anything) If you're debt-free, have a good credit history and are a disciplined spender, this M&S card is a good way to bag free 'cash'. Though only do it with normal spending - it's NOT an excuse to borrow willy-nilly. Here's how it works:
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Free 1yr Tastecard, 2,018 available (norm £80). Gets 2for1 or 50% off your food bill at 6,000+ eateries (eg, Pizza Express, Prezzo and independents). Via ballot which closes Mon. If unsuccessful you get one free month. Free Tastecard 5 top package-holiday booking codes, eg, Tui £150 off £1,000. Jan's the busiest booking month but don't pay till you've checked our list. Holiday codes New. Cheapest loan if borrowing £7.5k-£15k. Rates have dipped this year, the stand-out being M&S Bank* going from 3% to 2.8% rep APR if borrowing £7.5k-£15k. Next lowest if borrowing that much is TSB* and Zopa* at 2.9% rep APR. You're credit-checked when you apply so use our free Loans Eligibility Calc to find which you've the best chance of getting, without hitting your score. Only borrow if it's planned and affordable. Full help & more best buys in Cheap Loans. Does your Pensioner Bond mature this Sun? What to do. See 900,000 Pensioner Bonds maturing help. Unwanted gift card? How to sell it or get paid £3 to 'swap' it for another store's. MSE Blagged. There's a marketplace that lets you sell unwanted gift cards (you get slightly less than face value), or we've blagged a £3 bonus if you 'swap' them. See Sell or swap gift cards. Ryanair hand luggage rules changing from Mon. See what you can still take on Ryanair for free. |
Alert. Everyone get travel insurance ASAB (As Soon As you've Booked) Sadly, every year we hear stories such as this @hayles_tawny tweet: "Fractured ankle in Sep but didn't have cover for Oct trip to Oz, and I can't go... anything I can do?" The unfortunate answer is you're only covered for cancellation if you have insurance BEFORE an illness/injury, job loss, jury service call-up etc. So whether going away soon or later this year, buy ASAB. Full help in our Cheap Travel Insurance guide, here are the headlines...
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AT A GLANCE BEST BUYS
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5 tips to help you STOP wasting money in 2018 It's easy to make January resolutions, but when it comes to throwing away cash, for many of you, your worst enemy's often yourself. The first solution is to do a full Money Makeover to ensure you're not overpaying your bills (see 'Save £1,000s in an hour' at the top of this email). Then we've loads of tips and tools to help you toughen up and fight your impulses in our Stop Spending guide - here's a quick warm-up.
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New 'Open Banking' era starts on Sat - what it means for you. You'll have more protection when sharing your banking details with authorised budgeting and switching apps. See our new Open Banking guide for full help. YOUR 2017 SUCCESSES National Express £5 or less coach fares, eg, B'ham-London £3 return + £1 booking fee. 1m cheap fares for travel up to 20 Apr. £5 or less coach tix |
THIS WEEK'S POLL Do you pay cash in hand for any of these services? With an increased focus on tax collection, investigations have shown billions of extra revenue could be collected if there were more formal payments for casual work. Yet in many industries cash in hand is still commonplace. Do you pay cash in hand for any of these services? Yodel tops list of WORST parcel delivery firms (again). In last week's poll, we asked you to rate parcel delivery services, and received over 9,300 votes. For the second year running, Yodel came bottom of the pile, with 50% of its customers voting its service 'poor' and only 23% 'great'. There was better news for DPD, rated best for the fourth consecutive time - with 67% saying it's 'great' and just 12% 'poor'. See full parcel delivery firm results. |
MONEY MORAL DILEMMA Should I return a lost £65 jumper and keep the cash? Just before Christmas, I found a John Lewis bag in the pub where I work, with a £65 jumper and a cash receipt inside. It's been three weeks now, and no one has made any enquiries. Would it be wrong to return it to John Lewis and keep the money? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should I return a lost £65 jumper and keep the cash? | Suggest an MMD | View past MMDs THE QUICKIES - Debt-Free Wannabe chat of the week: January Penny Pincher Challenge |
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MARTIN'S APPEARANCES (WED 10 JAN ONWARDS) Thu 11 Jan - Good Morning Britain, ITV, 7.40am MSE TEAM APPEARANCES (SUBJECTS TBC) Wed 10 Jan - BBC Cumbria, Money Talks with Ben Maeder, from 6pm |
QUESTION OF THE WEEK Q: I recently paid for and downloaded a game which can be played online. Technical issues mean the servers are crashing, making it unplayable. I'm going to try to get my money back - what are my rights? James, by email. MSE Sarah M's A: When it comes to faulty digital content, you have a right to a repair or replacement within a reasonable time - which, in this case, would likely mean the games company would need to make a patch (ie, a fix) available so the game can be played online. If the repair doesn't work, you're then entitled to ask for a reduction in price, or a full refund "where appropriate" - you may need to negotiate which is appropriate with the site you bought the game from. It's worth noting these rules differ slightly from your rights when buying goods. The 'SAD FART' rules still apply - digital content needs to be of Satisfactory quality, As Described, Fit for purpose And last a Reasonable length of Time. But notably you don't have an automatic right to a full refund within 30 days, as you do with faulty goods. See our Consumer Rights guide for more help and info. Please suggest a question of the week (we can't reply to individual emails). |
CHARGED MORE FOR BEING GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT? That's all for this week, but before we go... are you a punctuation pedant when it comes to texting? We found this week that thanks to a bug in Apple's iOS 11 operating system, iPhone users who put an apostrophe in an SMS message will see their character count slashed - and so could end up paying more for multiple messages as a result. See how texting with impeccable grammar could cost you. We hope you save some money, |
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 www.confused.com, moneysupermarket.com, gocompare.com, comparethemarket.com, directline.com, aviva.co.uk, bank.marksandspencer.com, tsb.co.uk, holidaysafe.co.uk, coverwise.co.uk, leisureguardlitetravelinsurance.com, lv.com, barclaycard.co.uk, halifax.co.uk, admiral.com Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Note MoneySupermarket.com Financial Group Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 303190). The registered office address of both MoneySupermarket.com Group PLC and MoneySupermarket.com Financial Group Limited (registered in England No. 3157344) is MoneySupermarket House, St. David's Park, Ewloe, Chester, CH5 3UZ. 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. |