Martin's family-finance must-knows, 3% savings, Sky £19/month, free £200, Ryanair refund victory

Plus... 15% off Nike, Ted Baker, Converse, beat Virgin hikes, prepay warning

                                                           

01 February 2023 | View in browser

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

 

THE TOP TIPS IN THIS EMAIL Martin's family finance must-knows: kids' savings, life insurance, uni & more New. 3.03% easy-access savings Car insurance up 15% - check NOW if you can save £100s Download the MoneySavingExpert app FREE up to £200 bank switch battle Extra 15% off Secret Sales, including Nike, Ted Baker, Converse How to beat Virgin Media's 13.8% price hike Ends Wed. Sky 59Mb fibre '£18.89/month' Speedily find your cheapest supermarket Urgent. On prepay energy? Use £66 help vouchers NOW Ryanair passenger wins refund in court after Covid-disrupted flight FREE £50 investments Martin's podcast: haggling, LISAs, free cash for teens? Valentine's: £25 couriered roses, 33% off cards & more Are your Clubcard vouchers expiring soon? £302 of Elemis and more beauty £45 Need a passport? Apply online to save In Northern Ireland? FREE Open University courses This week's best buys, including 30 months' 0% debt shift. 5GB Sim '£3.38/month', 4.8% loans What should I do with the money I was overpaid from the Christmas party I organised? 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

Martin: 'Parent, guardian, grandparent?' 10 key family finance need-to-knows: top kids' savings, life insurance, save for uni, mobiles, children's pensions & more   It's likely the worst investment you'll ever make. They cost £100,000s, rarely give back or say thank you, and once you do it, you'll need to keep shelling out again and again (and again)... children! Thanks heavens we love 'em though, and are desperate to do what's right. "What are the best kids' savings?" is one of the most common questions I'm ever asked, so I'll answer that for you, but I want to go further, with key things to think about that you may be unaware of... 1. DO YOU PAY FOR CHILDCARE? Check if you're one of 800,000 missing out on £1,000s of help (even if you earn up to £100,000)... This is about Ofsted-registered (or other UK nations' equivalent) childcare, including childminders, nurseries, after-school & holiday clubs, and more. Child aged 3 or 4? They're usually due a free 15 to 30hrs a week depending on which UK nation you're in and the hours you work. Family income under £40,000ish? First check if you're due cash to cover some childcare costs, using our Universal Credit (UC) calculator. Already claim UC? If you're in work, see if you're due up to 85% of childcare costs. On tax credits? Are you due up to 70% of childcare costs? Earn up to £100,000? Check out Tax-Free Childcare. If you can't get UC or tax credits, look at Tax-Free Childcare. Here, for every 80p you put in the scheme, the state adds 20p, up to a max £2,000 per child per year for up to 11-year-olds (16 if they have disabilities). To be eligible, you must earn equivalent of 16 hours minimum wage or more a week (if a couple, both of you must), whether you're employed or self-employed. See how to get Tax-Free Childcare. 2. TOP CHILDREN'S SAVINGS Everything you ever wanted to know about saving for children, but were afraid (or didn't know who) to ask... Sadly, when saving for ickle ones, many accounts pay ickle interest. So if your children have savings, do check now what they pay (if they're older, get them to do it, it's a good lesson), then up the rate. Full help in Top childrens' savings, but at speed... Top easy-access children's savings pays 3.75%. For age 7 to 17, HSBC's MySavings pays 3.75% AER variable on up to £3,000, with unlimited withdrawals. If parents bank with HSBC, it can be opened online, if not, it must be in branch. For younger children and / or larger amounts, Leeds BS's Youngsaver pays 3.65% AER variable on up to £1m, again with unlimited withdrawals for any child up to age 17. Your local building society or credit union can occasionally pip these rates. More help and options in Top kids' savings. Earn 5% on up to £100/mth. If you're regularly putting money aside, Halifax's Kids' Monthly Saver pays 5% AER fixed for a year for up to 15-year-olds, and you can put in up to £100/mth. You can only withdraw early by closing the account. More options in Children's regular savings accounts. As for fixes for lump sums, where money is locked away, these are rare, but Saffron BS currently has a 2yr 4.4% fix openable by post or branch for £500 to £25k. - Can grandparents open accounts? Yes with Leeds, no with Halifax, Saffron and HSBC, as it needs to be the parent/guardian or they need to sign. Yet in all cases, you'll need the child's ID (passport or birth certificate). - What about investing in shares & funds etc? That means you go for higher returns, but accept the risk you could lose some of your initial investment. It's not our expertise so we don't cover it, but I'm not against it, indeed if putting money away for a longer period, it's worth considering. We've some signposts in JISA investing. It's a myth that children needn't pay tax Children are mostly taxed just like adults. That means they can earn £12,570/yr tax-free, and if they've no earnt income, £18,570/yr tax-free from savings interest. So in practice, most children don't earn enough to pay tax, but if they did, they would pay it. Money from parents/step-parents (not grandparents) is different. For under-18s, if these savings earn them more than £100/yr interest from one parent (which would take £2,650 in top kids' savings right now), or £200 from two, the whole amount is taxable at the parent's tax rate - done to stop parents stashing large amounts in their kid's name. Yet most parents don't pay tax on their own savings anyway, as the personal savings allowance means basic-rate taxpayers can earn £1,000/yr interest tax-free. For those who do exceed this, a Junior ISA (see below) comes into its own, as then all the child's interest is tax-free, even if given by a parent. Read more on children's tax. Top Junior ISAs (JISAs) pay 3.8% - check what yours pays. You can put up to £9,000 per tax-year in a JISA, and all the interest is tax-free. Once the money is in, it stays tax-free year after year, and is locked away, without access, until the child is 18, then it's their money. This is a boon if you want to save for their adulthood. Yet do remember your gorgeous baby now may be different at 18, and then it's their cash (so if you use it to save for uni, they may choose to spend it on an Amsterdam smoking trip). The current top payer is Coventry BS's 3.8% AER variable (max £9,000/yr), both for new savings and you can transfer in existing JISAs if they're paying less, which most are. There are also stocks and shares-based JISA investments. More help in Top JISAs. You can open and save in a pension for your child. If you've done everything else and are lucky enough to have cash left over, then opening a pension for your child's worth considering. Even those who don't earn (including under-18s) can get the equivalent of 20% tax relief in a pension. In this case, the maximum amount that can be put away is £2,880/yr, and pension companies would automatically top it up to £3,600 saved with the 20% from the state via what's called 'relief at source'. This money will be locked away until they're at least 57 (unless rules change). Yet as it's almost always better to start pension-saving earlier, as it has longer to grow, this is a great start, you could even do it for newborns (it doesn't need to be the max). The simplest routes are via a basic stakeholder pension or other personal pension (they can transfer it when they're older) or, if you want more investment choice, a SIPP. PS: Prioritise family financial security ahead of kids savings... I think of this like the aeroplane oxygen mask safety warning: "Put your own on before your child's", as if you're struggling to breath (financially) you can't help them. So while a nest-egg for kids is great, that comes after sorting expensive debt, and ensuring urgent living costs are met. 3. CHILD BORN 1 SEPT 2002 TO 2 JAN 2011? Up to 1m have £1,000ish in savings but don't know it UK-born children aged 12 to 20ish had a Child Trust Fund (CTF)  opened in their name with £250 (£500 for those from low-income families) automatically added by the state to it. This tax-free savings product, which up to £9,000 a year can be added to, can't be touched until you hit 18 (which is now quite a decent number of people). Lost track or weren't aware of the CTF? It's your money and there's an easy tool to reclaim it. To find out, either watch my 3min Child Trust Fund reclaim video, or read our full Reclaim your Child Trust Fund help. Child still under 18? Ensure your CTF pays max interest. Many have pants rates, but you can transfer it to get 3.8%. Child now 18+? What to do with it. See our Maturing CTF help. 4. ONE IN 29 LOSE A PARENT BEFORE AGE 18 Are your kids financially protected if the worst happens? I worked this horrid stat out years ago, and haven't been able to face updating it since, but it's in the right ballpark. It means one in a class loses a parent. I was one of those. It's why when friends who've had children ask me, as they always do, "where should I save for their future?", I check if they've got life insurance before answering. Families already struggling with dire grief can risk losing their income, standard of living or home if unprepared. The simplest protection is explained in detail in our Level-term life insurance guide. This pays out a fixed sum if you die within a set term, but how you get it can make an enormous difference to cost. For example, on Monday quotes for a £200,000 policy to last till children leave education (21 years) for a 45-year-old non-smoker were: - Straight with a bank - £26/mth (£6,500 over the term). - A comparison site searches for cheapest - £20/mth (£5k over term). - Via an execution-only broker, which rebates its commission - £14/mth (£3,600 over the term). To get this, you usually pay a one-off £25 fee. Yet that's for those who know what they're doing. Many should get advice due to complexities like 'writing in trust'. This can still be cheaper than comparison sites (but more than the execution-only). Full help in the guide. 5. GRANDMA/PA WHO LOOKS AFTER THE KIDS? There's a little-known credit that may be worth £1,000s If grandparents (or other family members), unpaid or paid, look after their under-12-year-old grandchildren while parents / guardians work - the parents can apply for the "specified adult childcare credit", so the national insurance (NI) credits that normally go to an off-work childcaring parent go to the grandparent instead. It won't impact the parent applying, as they'll be getting NI credits due to working. Extra NI credits can boost the state pension of those with gaps in their record by £1,000s. - Applications can be backdated to 2011. - You can't get it if you are already of state pension age unless...  - ...you don't get full pension & were doing childcare before state pension age, so you can backdate to increase state pension. As Mick tweeted me: "@MartinSLewis I can't thank you enough. My wife retired 5 years early to help with our grandchildren. She was 4 years short of a full state pension. We'll now save £3,000 from not having to buy missing years." By the way, do check Are you short of pension years? 6. TOP DEBIT/PREPAY CARDS FOR UNDER-18s Cash isn't king online. What cards should they spend on? Independent spending is an important way to learn financial responsibility - as is choosing the right product, so why not do it together? From age 6, (FREE) kids' prepay cards give you control. Children's prepaid cards let you load cash online to the card you give to your kids (aged 6+) to spend on. Most have many functions so you can monitor spending, set limits, block certain categories and more. The most famous is GoHenry*, but it charges £35.88/yr (though via this link newbies get 6mths free). Others are cheaper... - FREE HyperJar* card can be used online & in-store, but can't be used to withdraw cash from ATMs. - 1yr FREE for existing NatWest (RBS/Ulster) customers. NatWest Rooster Money kids' card is free for a year if parents are existing customers (£19.99/yr if not, and after). It also has a feature to list chores your child needs to do to get their pocket money. - £5 card for Revolut* customers on its free plan. You create the card for a £4.99 delivery fee, then free after (max £40/mth free ATM withdrawals). From age 11, they can get a debit card. HSBC's 3.75% MySavings account also offers a debit card for those aged 11+ on its linked current account. Alternatively, Santander's 123 Mini* offers a card at age 13+ and pays 3% AER variable on the whole amount if you've £1,500-£2,000 in it (lower interest if you've less). 7. HOW MUCH'S NEEDED TO SAVE FOR THEIR UNI? It isn't for tuition fees, but the hidden maybe £10,000+ parental living cost contribution. Even if your kids are wee now, use our calc to find out When most under-25s apply for university funding, there's a means test of family income for most that's effectively a proxy for parental income. In Eng, Scot & N Ireland, this means test directly impacts how much your offspring gets to live off (loan & sometimes grant) while studying. The reduction is an implied parental contribution (in Wales, the means test just dictates the split between loan and grant). Our How much will you need to save for your children's uni? calc works for all UK nations. The reduction starts at family income of around £20,000 in Scotland & NI, and £25,000 in England. PS: I'm not saying uni is always the best route, there are many other options including apprenticeships / degree apprenticeships. Just it's worth being prepared. And of course, funding rules may change too. Free financial ed textbooks and Academoney course I've passionately championed financial education for years. Firms spend billions on advertising, marketing and sales training, so consumers need buyers' training to redress the balance. In 2014, I was one of the leaders of a campaign to get financial ed on the English secondary curriculum. We won. Yet the growth of free schools mean most needn't follow the curriculum, so provision is patchy. 1. Free financial ed textbook for teens. The Your Money Matters textbook is available as a PDF download to teach your teen (or yourself) key information from scams to payslips, budgeting to banking. There are four, each mapped to the curriculum of a UK nation, so pick the right one. 2. The free MSE Open University Academoney course. We joined forces with the OU to produce the six 2-hour Academoney modules, from borrowing to pensions to investing and more. There are even videos from yours truly. Since launch it's been one the most popular free OU courses. It's designed for adults, but would work for older teens as well. There's a Welsh language version too. 3. Scores more free resources for age 3+. Free financial education resources for children as young as three (and up to the age of 19) are available on the Young Money website. 8. SLASH THE COST OF MOBILE PHONES  Teens are data fiends. How to feed the habit for less Obviously the right and cheapest route would be to get one of your old phones and put a cheap Sim in it - good luck getting teens to accept that. Our Cheap Mobile Finder tool finds the cheapest handsets for you too. Here I just want to jot down a couple of notes about kids' mobiles - do also see the NSPCC for some good help on parental controls. If it's a contract, it must be in an adult's name. Under-18s can't sign up for contracts, so it'll be yours and you'll be liable, and you'll normally need to pass a credit check. Though at least all networks let you set a spending cap. See cheapest contracts. Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) is usually beatable by rolling contracts. Traditionally, PAYG was a popular parental option as it gives more control. Today though, one-month rolling Sim contracts (where your calls, minutes & data are renewed automatically each month) are cheaper, so you can get the handset separately. You will need a contract for this, but often there's no credit check (you can still set spending limits though). As for price, you can get unlimited mins & texts, plus 4GB data '£2.40/mth', 12GB data '£4.20/mth'. See cheapest PAYG and cheapest rolling contracts. Family smartphone insurance is cheapest via bank accounts. While standalone smartphone insurance is fine for one phone, if you've a few in the home, then for £13/mth (so £156/yr) some bank accounts cover all the family's mobiles, and travel insurance and breakdown cover too. See Packaged accounts. 9. TOP BANK ACCOUNTS AT AGE 18 Banks want younger people, hoping they can grab your custom for life... make 'em pay for it (& move once it's pants) Student accounts allow those doing degrees, or in some cases level 4-7 apprenticeships, BTEC courses and more, to get them. Most banks launch their new offers in summer, so it's too early to tell you now what's coming. For those already at uni, check out the current top student accounts, as you can switch to get a free 4-year railcard and an up to £1,500 0% overdraft if it's better. There are fewer 'special' offers for those not going to study, so you're looking at the normal top bank accounts. Most of the switching deals will require you to pass a credit check. If not, app accounts like Chase*, which don't credit check, give 1% cashback on most normal daily spending for a year. More in our Chase review. 10. QUICK FAMILY DEALS AND TIPS Railcards, kids eat free, baby freebies, school hol flights £6 off Family & Friends Railcard code - gets a third off most train fares for grown-ups, 60% off for kids. It lets you and up to three friends travelling with you get 1/3 off rail fares, as long as you travel with one to four children (who get 60% off). See railcard discount code. Kids eat free restaurant deals. Whether Asda, Beefeater, Ikea, The Real Greek or more, see where kids can eat for 'free' or £1. Freebies if you've a newborn or one on the way. Baby essentials boxes, nappies and more. 47 tips in our Baby MoneySaving guide. Beat school holiday travel price hikes. From hidden booking dates to checking out overseas holiday dates, the Scottish trick and more, MSE Jenny has loads of tips to help in her Beat school holiday price hikes blog.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

New. 3.03% easy-access savings, open to all, no withdrawal restrictions - the highest rate since 2012 Easy-access savings are the bog-standard basic accounts, so unless you've a huge amount of savings (or have money locked away), the highest easy-access rate is THE MINIMUM you should be earning. Some easy-access accounts have withdrawal or 'who can open' restrictions, so it's good to have one anyone can get, and you can withdraw whenever you want. All savings accounts listed have the full £85,000 UK savings safety protection. New. Top rate and unlimited withdrawals.  New app-only bank Kroo* pays 3.03% AER on up to £85,000 from tomorrow (Wed), up from 2% (so no problem if you do it a bit early), and you can withdraw at whim. Technically it's not a savings account, it's a current account, but in practice there's little difference - you don't need to switch bank to get it, and there's no hard credit-check (so it doesn't impact your creditworthiness). - Saving under £5,000? Yorkshire BS pays 3.35% up to £5,000 (2.85% above), but you can only withdraw twice a year penalty-free. - Bank at Barclays, Nationwide, Santander Edge or HSBC? You can get up to 5% easy access on smaller amounts. - Want a name you know? Sainsbury's Bank pays 2.92% (min £1,000) and Nationwide* 2.5% AER (min £1), though both limit you to three penalty-free withdrawals a year. TOP TIP: All of these are variable rate, so can change. Every couple of months, check what you're earning (and ensure you check the right account, they sometimes launch new accounts with similar names). To earn more, up to 4.45%, you need to lock your money away. The top fixes pay more than easy access (though the differential has closed over the last four months) and the rate is guaranteed. Yet you can't access your cash during the fix, so only lock away money you won't need. Rates change regularly, so use our top fix guide for updates. Today's top payers are... - One-year fix: SmartSave 4.16% AER (min £10,000). App-only Atom Bank pays 4.15% AER (min £50). - Two-year fix: App-only Atom Bank 4.45% (min £50) or online-access SmartSave 4.36% (min £10,000). TOP TIP: If you want a fix that you can access money from in an emergency, then the top fixed cash ISAs must by law allow you to do that, though they can charge interest penalties for letting you get to your money. Got a cash ISA? Martin has three important questions for you, as millions are being underpaid. Some have cash ISAs unnecessarily, others have them but are earning diddly-squat, and others think their money's locked in on a low rate when it isn't. Watch Martin's cash ISA BOOSTING video explainer. Can you boost interest further? Some specialised options in our Savings section pay even more: - 50% bonus for many on universal credit or tax credits. See Help to Save. - 25% bonus for first-time buyers aged 18 to 39. See Top Lifetime ISAs. - Earn up to 7% if you can save monthly. See Regular savings. - Prefer to invest? Higher returns, but more risk. See Stocks & shares ISAs.

 

Did you know MoneySavingExpert now has an app? All of MSE & more, appificated (is that a word?). Try the MSE app FREE up to £200 bank switch battle. In the red corner: Santander's FREE £200* on its £3 a month Edge account that gives 1% cashback on bills and supermarket/fuel spending, worth £70 to £100 a year on typical bills even after the fee, plus 4% linked easy-access savings on up to £4,000. In the blue corner: First Direct's FREE £175*. It's rated 90% 'great' for service, has a linked 7% regular saver (max £300 a month), plus a £250 0% overdraft for many. Who wins? You decide. Full details and crucial eligibility info in Best bank accounts. Secret Sales code for extra 15% off already-reduced Nike, Ted Baker, Converse and more. MSE Blagged. Sells high-street & designer stock at reduced prices, the code gets extra off. Secret Sales code Virgin Media customer? 13.8% hike coming - but you're free to ditch and switch. Unlike many other firms, its hikes aren't in its contract, so you can leave penalty-free or use it as haggling ammunition. How to beat Virgin hike Ends 11.59pm Wed. Sky 59Mb fibre broadband & line '£18.89 a month'. It's the cheapest Sky newbies deal we can remember for this speed, though other firms do slightly undercut it. Sky 59Mb broadband is £25 a month, but you can CLAIM (don't forget) a £110 prepaid Mastercard. Factor that in and it's equivalent to £18.89 a month over the 18-month contract. Note: there are no price rises in the contract, so you can leave penalty-free if it hikes prices (which it usually does). Compare deals: See the best in your area with our Broadband Unbundled comparison. Speedily find the cheapest supermarket for your groceries. Try the handy free Trolley comparison. Urgent. Prepay energy user? Use your £66 or £67 energy support vouchers NOW. If you've a traditional (non-smart) prepayment meter, vouchers expire after 90 days, with over 100,000 vouchers issued in October estimated to have expired without being claimed. Check yours now. Though if you've an expired one, don't panic, your supplier can reissue. See Prepay vouchers help. Ryanair passenger wins refund in court after Covid-disrupted flight. Could you too? See Ryanair refund. FREE £50 investments. This is frankly a ridiculous deal. If you put £50 (or more) into robo-investment firm Wealthify (it chooses the investments for you to make it easier), then after a year it will give you £50 cashback. So put fifty quid in, get the investment, and then you get your money back, so whatever the investment is worth in a year is a win. Even if your investments flop, at worst you break even. About half last week's cap has now gone. Full info in robo-investing cashback. Tonight (Tue 8pm), ITV, The Martin Lewis Money Show LIVE! Over to Martin: "It's all about family finance this week, children's savings, life insurance, childcare and more. It's no coincidence that's at the top of this email too, there's so much to cover I doubled up, but many find it easier to watch than read. And of course I've my News-You-Can-Use and I answer your questions. Do watch or at least set the Betamax".

 

 

BLAGGED FOR MSE - Extra 15% off reduced Nike, Ted Baker & more Ends Mon - £302 of Elemis, Elizabeth Arden & more for £45 1,000 available	DID YOU MISS? - 40+ coupons including FREE £2 lentil crisps - Lifetime ISAs no longer fit for purpose for some first-time buyers - And the worst parcel delivery firm is... Evri - Hot Diamonds 40% off EVERYTHING code - FREE pairs of Build It Live tickets (normally about £12 each)

 

 

Car insurance costs predicted to rise by 15% (£66 a year). Check NOW if you can save £100s, even if not at renewal Car insurance costs are predicted to rise this year by 15% - an average of £66 per policy - which is why EVERYONE should check now if they can save. Our cost-cutting system is long tried-and-tested, but last year we souped it up and automated much of it with the MSE Car Insurance Compare+ tool, which we hope will help. Ann got in touch by email recently to tell us about her MoneySaving success: "I used the 'magic time before my renewal' tip and went through the MSE tool. My insurance company's best offer had been £652. I got exactly the same cover for £262. That is nearly £400 saved. Thank you." Full help in Cheap car insurance, but in brief... DON'T think 'this isn't for me, I'm not at renewal'. It's worth checking just in case you can make big savings. If you can, then provided you haven't claimed this year, you can just cancel your policy and get a pro-rata refund if you paid upfront, minus a usually £50ish admin fee - so check that, then get the new policy and cancel the old one. See save if not at renewal help. The only negative is you won't earn the year's no-claims bonus, but for big savings, it's often worth it. NEVER auto-renew - instead use our tool, and combine comparison sites for 100s of quotes in minutes. With the Car Insurance Compare+ tool, you... - Fill in one questionnaire. We've borrowed MoneySupermarket's, so if you've used it before, your answers can be auto-filled. Then... - Get MSE cost-cutting tips as you answer. Such as our 'best time to buy car insurance' analysis, which can tell you if waiting a day or two to get quotes is likely to give you cheaper prices. - See your cheapest insurers from the comparison as a benchmark. But of course we want you to beat them... - Personalised tips to try for an even bigger saving. These include whether you should look to add an additional driver or pay annually not monthly - and some have one-click checks, so you can easily find out if they work for you. - Whether other sites can help slice down your costs even more. We assess if Direct Line (which isn't on 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 your cheapest. If you've more than one car, check if you can save with a multicar policy. Often, multicar newbies get hot offers to suck 'em in, but that advantage can disappear at renewal, so Martin's rule of thumb is: "If you're on a multicar policy, check separate policies to see if you can save. If you're on separate, check multicar." For full info, including how to compare if your cars have different renewal dates, see our Multicar insurance guide. To show how it changes, Michelle emailed: "For the last couple of years I've put our cars on multicar insurance, as for the first year it was cheaper. However, my daughter recently passed her test and the quote was just over £1k for her car alone. I turned to your website and was surprised to read you recommended getting individual costings as well. I did that and all four cars were cheaper - saving £830 across all four cars. Thank you." Make sure the policy is right for you and complain if you're unfairly treated. As with any insurance, check the policy details and make sure that insurers are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority before you buy. If a claim is unfairly rejected, take 'em to the free Financial Ombudsman.

 

Haggling help to slash costs, LISAs, free cash for teens? And more... Listen to the new The Martin Lewis Podcast. How you doin'? Valentine's deals: £25 couriered roses, cheap champagne & prosecco, free gift cheques and more. This is the week the best discounts are available - leave it later and you may pay more. Valentine's deals Are you one of 2m Tesco shoppers with expiring Clubcard vouchers? How to extend 'em. The deadline is Tuesday 28 February. Full help to check in Unspent Tesco Clubcard vouchers. £302 of Elemis, Elizabeth Arden and more beauty products for £45 (normally £73) in Harper's Bazaar beauty box. MSE Blagged. 1,000 available. Harper's Bazaar beauty box Need a passport? Apply online. Last year, one million people would've saved doing this. With application fees set to rise on Thursday 2 February, here's how to cut passport costs. Live in Northern Ireland? FREE Open University courses (normally costing up to £3,200). Apply to one of 27 courses. 650+ places available. Open University NI

 

 

Tell your friends about us They can get this email free every week

 

 

AT A GLANCE BEST BUYS 0% balance transfers Longest 0%: Sainsbury's Bank - up to 30 months 0%, 2.89% or 4% fee (21.9% rep APR) No-fee 0%: NatWest - 19 months 0% (23.9% rep APR) Best bank accounts £200 to switch + 1% bills & supermarket cashback: Santander £175 to switch, 7% savings + TOP service: First Direct Top savings accounts Top easy access: Kroo 3.03%, no min Top one-year fix: SmartSave 4.16%, min £10,000 Car insurance Try our Car Insurance Compare+ tool Cheap loans Cheapest for £5,000 to £7,499: AIB (NI) (apply), 5.6% rep APR Cheapest for £7,000 to £15,000: Sainsbury's Bank (check eligibility / apply*), 4.8% rep APR (Must have Nectar card) Broadband top picks Standard (10Mb+): Shell Energy '£12.69/month' Fibre (30Mb+): Shell Energy '£15.53/month' Fast fibre (55Mb+): Shell Energy '£16.86/month' Superfast fibre (100Mb+): Virgin Media '£18.40/month' On universal credit or similar? Check discounted social tariffs Cheap Sims Up to 3GB data: Lebara, '£2.48/month' for 3GB 4GB to 9GB data: Lebara, '£3.38/month' for 5GB 10GB+ data: iD Mobile, '£3.84/month' for 15GB

 

THIS WEEK'S POLL When did you last use your bank branch? Whether it's down to customer behaviour, cost-cutting or both, banks are closing branches left, right and centre. This month alone, Barclays has said it will close another 30 branches. So this week, we wanted to know when you last used your main bank's branch. Let us know in this week's poll. Chase claims the banking service crown. Last week, we asked you to vote in our biannual banking customer service poll, and nearly 4,000 people responded. Chase Bank UK was at the top of the table, with 94% of customers rating it 'great' and just 1% rating it 'poor'. Starling Bank was close behind, with 91% rating it as 'great'. Meanwhile, 39% of Barclays customers rated it 'poor' for service. See the full bank service poll results.

 

 

MSE NEWS - Top story: Shop at Sainsbury's? You can get up to £25 in bonus Nectar points on Saturday - Flybe stops trading and cancels all flights - what you need to know - Employment rights if you take time off work for childcare due to teacher strikes  - NS&I to increase the Premium Bond prize rate to 3.15% - Barclays to shut 15 more branches in fresh round of closures

 

 

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA What should I do with the money I was overpaid for the Christmas party I organised? Before Christmas, I organised a party at a restaurant for about 35 people. I paid the bill on my credit card, which worked out at £29.15 each, then most people transferred money to me electronically afterwards. Many rounded up what they owed to £30, meaning I now have an extra £25. But I don't feel right keeping the money, and I'm not sure what to do with it. Enter the Money Moral Maze: What should I do with the money I was overpaid for the Christmas party I organised? | Suggest a Money Moral Dilemma

 

 

MSE TEAM BLOG - MSE Forum highlights: Paint, prints & parents

 

 

MARTIN'S APPEARANCES (WED 1 FEB ONWARDS) Wed 1 Feb - Ask Martin Lewis, BBC Radio 5 Live, 1pm Tue 7 Feb - This Morning, phone-in, ITV, 10.25am Tue 7 Feb - The Martin Lewis Money Show Live, ITV, 8pm MSE TEAM APPEARANCES (SUBJECTS TBC) Thu 2 Feb - BBC Radio Leicester, Mid-morning with Summaya Mughal, from 11.35am Tue 7 Feb - BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, Mid-morning with Jeremy Sallis, from 10.45am

 

WHOPPERS AND ICE CREAM... WHAT MONEYSAVING FIBS DO YOU TELL YOUR KIDS? That's all for this week, but before we go... a couple of years ago, parents on the MSE Forum told us about MoneySaving fibs they tell their children. The discussion was revived recently, with one Forumite remembering their dad telling them to put their pocket money in the 'savings box' under the stairs... which they eventually realised was the gas meter. Some of the thread's original classics were ice cream van-related, with fibs including that the van only plays music when it's run out of ice cream or that it's driven by the notorious Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Read more truth-bending tales in the what MoneySaving fibs do you tell your kids? MSE Forum discussion. We hope you save some money, stay safe, The MSE team

 

Important. Please read how MoneySavingExpert.com works We 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 Lewis What is MoneySavingExpert.com? Founded in February 2003, it is now the UK's biggest consumer help website, with more than 12 million users each month and about 8.5 million receiving this email. 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 Lewis CBE is the founder and executive chair of MSE, as well as the founder of the MMHPI charity. He's an ultra-focused MoneySaving journalist and consumer campaigner with his own prime-time ITV programme The Martin Lewis Money Show, Radio 5 Live Wednesday show Ask Martin Lewis and weekly slot on This Morning, among others. More info: See Martin Lewis' biography. 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 gohenry.com, hyperjar.com, revolut.com, santander.co.uk, chase.co.uk, kroo.com, nationwide.co.uk, santander.co.uk, firstdirect.com, sainsburysbank.co.uk 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.