£90 off groceries, can energy firm cancel fix?, £75 off Ninja air fryer, free Royal Mail parcel pick-up, 5GB Sim '£3/month', car insurance alert

Plus... free £175, 10% off Apple + £120?, cheapest BT broadband for a year, A-level warning

                                                           

17 August 2022 | View in browser

Banking & Savings Household Bills Deals Insurance Cards & Loans Mortgages Income Reclaim

 

THE TOP TIPS IN THIS EMAIL Cheap broadband deals, including: - BT's cheapest fibre in a year - Superfast fibre just '£16/month' - Discounts if you're on a low income Car insurance renews in Sept? Save £100s checking quotes NOW 'I fixed energy to beat price rises - must firm honour it?' £15 off at Sainsbury's & Amazon, £5 off Iceland & more New. FREE £175 bank bribe £75 off Ninja air fryer & grill A-level results warning: delaying uni could cost £10,000s  Hot Diamonds 40% off EVERYTHING 5GB data Sim just '£3/month'  Tell us how you pay for childcare  Can you get £200 school uniform grant?  'I won £12,500 thanks to MSE Forum'  Royal Mail free parcel pick-ups Get £30 cashback for investing £100 10% off Apple + £120 gift card - do you qualify? This week's best buys, including 2.96% fixed savings, 2.7% loans, 34 months' 0% debt shift Should I use my work perk for household food shopping, or keep it for myself? 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, with Pick Me A Tariff Best Sim-only deals

Are you a big brand broadband fan? BT launches '£23/month' fibre - its cheapest deal in a year. But you can pay just '£16/month' elsewhere for faster speeds... BT rarely offers hot broadband deals and they're never the cheapest, so we don't often shout about them. But we know many prefer it as a brand and right now it's offering its 50Mb fast fibre broadband-only deal at its cheapest rate since August 2021 - so it's worth sharing. However, if you just want the cheapest deal, you can undercut BT... and get faster speeds too. So if you're out of contract, don't pay too much... just switch. Our broadband comparison tool has top deals at each speed. Here's the pick of the crop: NEWBIES' BROADBAND DEALS All deals are postcode dependent, but 96% of homes can get them  Deal & equivalent cost (1) excluding calls How good is it?  BT's cheapest fibre broadband deal Ends Thu 25 Aug. BT 50Mb (fast fibre) broadband '£22.62/month' Customer service score: 6.2/10 ('good') Cheapest BT deal we've seen for a year. Go via this BT link and BT charges £26.99/month for broadband ONLY. But you can claim a £25 Amazon, Tesco or Currys voucher AND an £80 prepaid Mastercard (don't forget - details of how to claim are in the link). Factor those in and it's equivalent to £22.62/month over the two-year contract. For a phone line it's an extra £5/month. Market's cheapest deals Ends Fri. Vodafone 67Mb (superfast fibre) broadband '£15.75/month' Customer service score: 5.7/10 ('OK') Cheapest superfast fibre. Vodafone charges £22/month via this link, but you can claim a £150 Amazon, Tesco, Sainsbury's or M&S voucher (don't forget). If you'd have spent there anyway, factor that in and it's equivalent to £15.75/month over the two-year contract. Shell Energy 38Mb (fast fibre) broadband '£15.58/month' MSE Blagged Customer service score: 4.3/10 ('OK') Cheapest fibre. Shell Energy charges £20.99/month for broadband and line, but with our deal you AUTOMATICALLY get a £65 bill credit within 90 days. Factor that in and it's equivalent to £15.58/month over the 12-month contract. Shell Energy 11Mb (basic) broadband '£12.71/month'* Customer service score: 4.3/10 ('OK') Cheapest standard speed deal. Apply via this Broadband Genie Shell Energy link* and you'll pay £4.95 for set-up, then £17.99/month for broadband and line, but you can claim a £100 Amazon gift card (don't forget). If you'd have spent there anyway, factor that in and it's equivalent to £12.71/month over the 18-month contract. (1) To compare, we use 'equivalent costs' - adding all costs, deducting promo credits and averaging over the contract. Be warned though - BT, Shell and Vodafone all have spring price rises built into their contracts, so you'll see an increase in 2023, which we can't yet factor in to the price.   Are you on universal credit or similar? If so, you could be missing out on discounted 'social tariffs'  The broadband regulator Ofcom says more than four million people qualify for these cheaper social tariffs, and it estimates that switching to one saves an average of £144/year. Eight providers currently offer discounted social broadband tariffs, including biggies BT and Virgin Media. Plus TalkTalk offers six months' FREE broadband for jobseekers. These social tariffs (except TalkTalk's) have consistently low monthly costs, so are - for most who qualify - unbeatable price-wise if you want to stick with one provider for a number of years. However, if you're a regular switcher you'll be able to undercut them by riding the top deals above for the switching incentives and changing every year or two. It's worth checking, as David emailed: "Thank you for the advice about BT's social tariff, which isn't widely advertised. I have switched a friend on to this tariff and he'll save £96/year." Quick broadband switching tips A few things you need to know if you're planning to switch... Consider whether you really need fibre. Standard 10/11Mb broadband is usually fine for browsing or light streaming for one person. But if multiple people use the broadband at the same time, or you're a gamer, you're likely better off going for fibre to try and avoid the dreaded buffering circle. Members of cashback sites may be able to undercut some deals. Our Top cashback sites guide explains how these sites work - they often feature broadband deals and give cashback on 'em. In some cases, the cashback means they can undercut promotional deals elsewhere - though don't assume it's the same deal; they can be structured differently, so check. Switching usually means about two hours' downtime. You're told the switch time in advance and it's often quick. Most won't need an engineer to visit, but with switches to or from Virgin it's more likely - you're usually told before you apply. Slow broadband with your new provider? Test your speed - is it the Wi-Fi or connection? First check your speed from a wired connection, so it's the broadband speed coming into your home you're measuring. Then test again connected to Wi-Fi. If it's a Wi-Fi problem, see our 8 speed-boosters. If it's the connection, see below. If you're not getting the speeds your provider promises, you can leave penalty-free if it can't fix it. Advertised speeds are MUCH more reliable than they used to be - the rules now are that 50% of customers must get the advertised speeds at peak times. All bigger providers also must indicate your estimated minimum speed pre-application. Shell, BT and Vodafone all let you cancel penalty-free if your speed is below the minimum for three consecutive days, and they can't fix it within a month. Happy where you are? Haggle. If you're out of contract and happy with the service you get, just not the price, use our broadband comparison to benchmark a cheap deal available in your area. Then use that to haggle a better deal with your existing provider. Broadband firms are easy to haggle with. In our last poll in November 2021, the success rates for those who tried were over 80% for Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin, and over 70% for BT. See how to haggle with broadband providers.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

Don't wait till the last minute to buy car insurance - the perfect time's 20 to 26 days ahead September's peak renewal time. Not due to renew? Check anyway - some can save £100s New car registrations are released in September (and March) - and related to that, these months also see a spike in online searches for car insurance. Yet when we analysed more than 70 million quotes, we found the cheapest time to get car insurance quotes is 20 to 26 days before you want the policy to start - it's more expensive if you're too early or too late, as the graph shows. So NOW is the perfect time to check, especially if you're renewing in September... timing it right saved Sandra £190: "Renewal quote for my daughter's insurance was £1,300. Quote 30 days prior £995. Checked again 24 days prior to renewal: £805 - with improved benefit of protected no-claims. Thank you." Earlier this year, we built our Car Insurance Compare+ tool to help you find cheap car insurance. Here's how it works... Fill in one form and we give you quotes, plus our tips to try to get it cheaper. Use Car Insurance Compare+ and you... - Fill in one questionnaire. We've borrowed MoneySupermarket's (we're part of the same group), so if you've used it before, your answers can be auto-filled. - Get MSE cost-cutting tips as you answer. Like our Job Picker tool, which suggests tweaks to your job title that can cut costs (though never lie, as that's fraud and can invalidate insurance). - See your cheapest insurers as a benchmark. These are from the comparison, so you can see them straightaway, but of course we want you to beat them... - Personalised tips to try to cut costs further. These include timing your quote right, whether you should look to add an additional driver or to check multicar policies - often with one-click checks to see if they actually do cut costs for you. - Whether to try other sites to cut costs further. We assess if Direct Line (which isn't in comparisons) is likely to be cheaper for you, and give you our latest comparison site order of others to try, as MoneySupermarket may not be cheapest. Not renewing in September? Check if you can save by switching mid-term. The majority of policies won't be due for renewal in the next few weeks. Yet even if yours isn't, it's worth checking now if you can find a cheaper quote than what you currently pay. If so, you can usually cancel an expensive policy mid-year and move to a cheaper one. As long as you haven't claimed, you'll likely pay a £50ish admin fee (factor that in) and get the rest of the year refunded. Use the Car insurance tool to see if you can save. Holly switched mid year: "Just wanna say thanks for your emails. I wouldn't have thought to cancel my car insurance policy mid-year and start a new one - which is £300 LESS a year." Full help in switching mid-policy.

 

£15 off Sainsbury's, £15 off Amazon Fresh, £5 off Iceland with newbies' grocery delivery offers. Get up to £90 off online shops with our updated round-up of grocery delivery codes. Delivery discounts New. Switch banks for £175 FREE + top service. This week First Direct* boosted its switcher bonus to £175 (was £150). It was rated 88% 'great' in our last service poll, plus gives access to a 3.5% linked regular saver, and many get a £250 0% overdraft too. Full details, including crucial eligibility info and other options, in Best bank accounts. £75 off Ninja air fryer & grill. 3,000 available. MSE Blagged. Normally £250, but £175 with our code. Plus get 20% off pots and pans. Not available in N Ireland. Ninja A-level results warning: putting off uni till 2023 could cost you £10,000s more. For students in England, deferring for a year means you'll be on the new student finance system coming in 2023, and will repay your loan for a much longer period - potentially costing £10,000s more. See student finance shake-up for what you need to know. Hot Diamonds 40% off EVERYTHING - for example, £80 ring for £24. MSE Blagged. Includes already reduced outlet items. Hot Diamonds 5GB data + roam-like-at-home in Europe with '£3/month' Sim - we've not seen cheaper. Newbies to Lebara (uses Vodafone's network) can get a 5GB/month Sim with unlimited minutes and texts for just 1p/month for the first six months, then £5.90/month. Over a year, it's equivalent to £2.96/month, but as it's a one-month contract, you can cancel any time. Plus Lebara doesn't currently charge extra for using your allowances in mainland Europe - useful if you're heading overseas. Need more/less data? Use our powerful Cheap Mobile Finder. How do you pay for childcare? Let us know your experiences. Whether you use childcare vouchers, Tax-Free Childcare, tax credits or get help from family, tell us how it works for you and any issues you've faced in our childcare survey.

 

 

BLAGGED FOR MSE - £75 off Ninja air fryer & grill 3,000 available - Hot Diamonds 40% off everything Ends Tue 30 Aug - Get £30 cashback for investing £100 1,700 available	DID YOU MISS? - FREE £4 Higgidy pie, FREE £3 plant-based burgers - Paying for a day's roaming - but only getting a minute? - Swap £6 in Clubcard vouchers for 3 months of Disney+ - How to see Hamilton for £10, Harry Potter for £20 & more - £20 cashback with longest 0% spending card

 

 

'I fixed to try and beat the coming huge energy price rises, do they have to honour it?' Unless there's state intervention, the long-predicted, hideous hikes in energy bills will sadly soon come to fruition. The current estimate is an 82% rise in October, then a further 19% rise in January - so bills will then be well over DOUBLE what they are now. To mitigate the rises, Martin's Should I fix energy? guide has for many months shown when to pounce on, and when to avoid, your energy firm's usually short-lived fixed offers. If you haven't fixed, it's worth regularly (weekly or, ideally, even more often) scanning the guide, which has a list, checked and updated every weekday, of firms with fixes worth considering. I've fixed. Can they take it away from me? Many who took advantage of Martin's updates earlier in the year did bag fixes, which now look like they'll save them large amounts. Yet some are worried, like Tony in his email to us... "Following Martin's tip, I took a dual-fuel fix in February this year and have the agreed fix paperwork till February 2024. Will E.on have to honour this even though prices are going through the roof? If this is the case, my direct debit will stay at £120 a month, what a saving. Well done to you all." In simple terms, the answer is yes. A fix means the rates you pay for each unit of gas and electricity are locked in - though what you pay can vary with usage. And if you fix, the energy company must charge you the agreed rate, provided nothing changes with you or it. The main exceptions are: - If you move home (most fixes aren't portable). - If you change the person named on the bill (some firms allow it, but others cancel the fix - even if the change is due to a bereavement). - If you get into arrears (here, the provider can move you to a prepay meter if you don't agree a repayment plan). - If the energy firm goes bust, when you'd likely be moved to a different supplier at the price-capped rate. Of course there are always the unknown exceptions, such as a big anti-consumer change in regulations - yet hopefully that's very unlikely. Already struggling to pay? We've compiled all the help that's currently available, including grants, payment options and more in Struggling to pay energy bills.

 

Struggling with school uniform costs? Check if you can get a grant worth up to £200. Means-tested support is available across Scotland, Wales and N Ireland. In England, only a few councils offer it. See if yours does in our updated council-by-council school uniform round-up, which includes details of how to apply. 'I won £12,500 thanks to the MSE Forum.' Our success of the week is a 'comping' win from MSE Forum user becks171, who said: "I received a call from Absolute Radio telling me I'd won the 'Summer Payday' £12,500. A huge thank you to MSE Forum user Comping_Rich for posting the daily amounts - and a note to anyone who is sick of entering: keep it up, it can totally happen for you too." Send us your MoneySaving successes on this or anything else. Sending a parcel? Royal Mail will now pick it up for free. Till 31 Dec, normally up to 72p. Free parcel collection Get £30 cashback for investing £100. 1,700 available. MSE Blagged. If you plan to 'robo-invest' - where investments are selected for you based on your attitude to risk - then after fees, this InvestEngine deal is equivalent to a 29.3% head start, provided you keep it for at least 12 months. This isn't an InvestEngine recommendation - we don't do investment tips - just if you're going to use it anyway, you can get cashback. Full details in Robo-investing cashback. Students, parents, teachers - buy a Mac or iPad & get up to 10% off + free gift card worth up to £120. Apple isn't MoneySaving, but if you're buying from it anyway, this is a cheaper way. Take a bite out of Apple's prices

 

 

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AT A GLANCE BEST BUYS 0% balance transfers Longest 0%: Sainsbury's Bank (check eligibility / apply*) - up to 34 months 0%, 2.88% or 3.88% fee (21.9% rep APR interest) No-fee 0%: Sainsbury's Bank (check eligibility / apply*) - up to 22 months 0% (21.9% rep APR) or NatWest - 22 months 0% if you're a NatWest/RBS customer (21.9% rep APR) Broadband top picks Standard (10Mb+): Shell Energy '£12.71/month' Fibre (30Mb+): Shell Energy '£15.58/month' Superfast fibre (55Mb+): Vodafone '£15.75/month' On universal credit or similar? Check discounted social tariffs Top savings accounts Top easy-access: Cynergy Bank 1.85% (includes fixed 0.15% 12 month bonus), min £1 Top one-year fix: Cynergy Bank 2.96%, min £10,000 Car insurance Try our new MSE Car Insurance Compare+ tool Cheap loans Cheapest for £5,000 to £7,499: M&S Bank* 3.7% rep APR interest Cheapest for £7,500 to £15,000: Finble 2.7% rep APR (1-7 years, only available via our eligibility calculator) Best bank accounts New. £175 to switch + TOP service: First Direct £160 to switch + 1-3% bills cashback (£2/month fee): Santander Cheap Sims Up to 3GB data: Lebara, '£2.46/month' for 3GB, unlimited mins & texts 4GB to 9GB data: Lebara, '£2.96/month' for 5GB, unlimited mins & texts 10GB+ data: Lebara, '£3.46/month' for 12GB, unlimited mins & texts

 

THIS WEEK'S POLL How do you rate your broadband provider? We can tell you which are the cheapest broadband providers but to keep our customer service ratings updated, we need your help. Please rate your broadband provider on customer service (not price) over the past six months. Vote in this week's poll. More than half of you avoid using cash. More than 11,000 people responded to last week's poll, with just over 50% telling us they rarely or never use cash. Paying for parking, hair care and food were the top reasons for using it. See the full cashless society poll results.

 

 

MSE NEWS - Top story: Asda launches first-ever loyalty scheme  - Days left to use John Lewis's 'Never Knowingly Undersold' pledge - Warning: MSE and Martin Lewis have NOTHING to do with viral social media energy posts - Mortgage lenders lengthen product transfer windows - lock in new deals sooner - Rail fares to rise again in March 2023, but by less than inflation

 

 

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA Should I use my work perk towards household food shopping, or keep it for myself? My partner and I have always split bills and rent based on our earnings, so he paid more when I earned less, though we now earn about the same. As a work perk, I get a prepaid card topped up with £200 a month as a 'lunch allowance', but I can spend it anywhere. Sometimes I use it to pick up food shops for us both, but it's got me wondering... should I keep it for my lunches, or should I do our food shops on it to make up for when my partner was paying more towards bills? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should I use work perk towards household food shopping? | Suggest a Money Moral Dilemma

 

 

MSE TEAM BLOG - Commas, kittens & cash prizes - last week's MSE Forum highlights

 

 

MSE TEAM APPEARANCES (SUBJECT TBC) Tue 23 Aug - BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, Mid-morning with Jeremy Sallis, from 10.45am

 

BROKEN IPADS & OLD CAR TAX DISCS... WHAT ITEMS ARE YOU SHOCKED YOU MANAGED TO SELL? That's all for this week, but before we go... we've enjoyed a bit of nostalgia this week after we unearthed an old MSE Forum discussion in which posters compare the weirdest second-hand items they've managed to shift on eBay and the like. A few made a pretty penny flogging old car tax discs, while one Forumite was shocked to see her old Sindy doll clothing spark an eBay bidding war. Plenty found surprising success selling broken items - one poster nabbed £30 for a Game Boy they'd previously dropped down the loo, and another £50 for an iPad that'd been reversed over by a car. Read others and add your own success in the Things you never thought you could sell MSE Forum discussion. We hope you save some money, stay safe, The MSE team

 

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