Uni costs up 50%, slash holiday costs, 3.85% savings, Overpay mortgage?, Amazon 30% discounts, 'Should u fix energy?' calc

Plus... beat car insurance hikes, 2x sunnies £35, 12GB Sim £3/mth, £12 BBQs, cheap iPhone 14

                                                           

20 June 2023 | View in browser

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THE TOP TIPS IN THIS EMAIL Martin's 18 tips to slash travel costs, including: - Cheapest ways to spend abroad - Get travel insurance ASAB - Drive down car hire costs Martin: 'Millions should consider overpaying mortgage to save £1,000s' Car insurance highest since 2019 - check if you can save NOW New. Uni costs to rise 50% for many - Martin's key need-to-knows Ends Fri. Free £10 Amazon with best-buy easy-access savings New. 'Should you fix your energy?' calc On disability benefits? £150 cost of living payment due £66 prepay energy help vouchers alert Martin writes to Ofgem over fixed tariffs Extra 30% off Amazon Warehouse Pay £800, get £6,000 state pension boost TWO pairs of sunglasses for £35 Ends Fri. 12GB Sim for '£3.15/mth' Ends Sun. Cheapest-ever iPhone 14 '£33/mth' 'Free' children's Olympic sports session Six weeks to use non-barcoded stamps £5 paddling pools, £12 BBQs, cheap Pimm's, fans & more The future of bank branches? New shared 'banking hubs' Premium Bond prize rate to rise to 3.7% FREE Homebuilding Show tix This week's best buys, including free £200+ bank bribe, 5.7% fixed savings, '£19/mth' fibre broadband Should I keep the refund I was sent in error for my damaged barbecue? 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

Booked a holiday abroad? Martin's 18 things to do NOW to slash costs when you go Includes cheapest way to spend for adults & kids, GHICs, sun cream, insurance, eSims and more Overseas holidays are still on for many. Around 50% of the 95,000 who replied to my Twitter poll yesterday plan to leave UK shores and vacation overseas - some of the rest have already been. Yet with the mortgage squeeze tightening since many booked, cost control will often be key. The key route to that is to pre-prep, as last-minute action adds pounds and pressure. PS: For the 11% who still plan to book, speed often helps there too. Use our Cheap flights | Cheap hotels | Cheap package holidays guides. 1. Check your passport. Beware if it has under 6mths left OR is over 10yrs old when you go. Renewals can take MONTHS. And post Brexit, what counts as a valid passport has got stricter in some places. Check our country-by-country UK passport rules list. Need to renew? Don't dawdle. The Passport Office says you should allow 'up to 10 weeks', but I'm hearing far longer delays for some, and 'fast-track' appointments are less common. Full help in Passport renewals. PS: Heading to the US? See our ESTA guide, and elsewhere use the Government's foreign travel advice to check visa requirements. 2. Rebook trick: is the hotel cheaper than when you booked? I'd keep your eyes on comparison sites such as Skyscanner*, Kayak*, TripAdvisor and Trivago*. If the price has dropped and your booking allows free cancellation, rebook for less. As Andrew emailed: "Followed your advice, checked our hotel price. I cancelled and rebooked, saving over £1,000. Thanks for all your help." See cancel & rebook step-by-step for more help. 3. Sit together for FREE on BA, Easyjet, Virgin and more. A family of four may pay up to £240 extra for peace of mind to book seats to sit together on return flights. Yet follow our Airline-by-airline seating guide and you can oft do it free (though even we struggle to beat Ryanair's charges). 4. Cheapest way to spend abroad and cashback / free £20. Spend in a foreign currency on most plastic and while the banks get a near-perfect exchange rate, they charge us a 3% non-sterling exchange fee, so £100 worth of euros / dollars / dong costs £103. Yet top specialist overseas cards don't add this, so you get the same near-perfect rates banks get holiday after holiday. The top 3 'near-perfect exchange rate' travel cards Chase Mastercard* DEBIT card via Chase app Halifax Clarity Mastercard* CREDIT card Barclaycard Rewards Visa* CREDIT card Perks ✓ 1% cashback up to £15/mth for at least 12mths on most overseas & UK spending ✓ Free £20 on 1st purchase (even 1p) within 90 days ✓ 0.25% cashback on most UK & overseas spending Easy credit check? ✓ Yes, just ID check No, full credit-check (eligibility calc shows acceptance odds) No, full credit-check (eligibility calc shows acceptance odds) Fee-free ATM cash? ✓ Yes, up to £1,500/mth (1) ✓ Yes, up to £500/day (1) ✓ Yes, up to £500/day (1) Interest-free spending? ✓ Yes (it's a debit card) ✓ Yes, if paid IN FULL each month (22.9% rep APR if not, so avoid) ✓ Yes, if paid IN FULL each month (25.9% rep APR if not, so avoid) Interest-free ATM cash? ✓ Yes (it's a debit card) No, 23% to 29% even if repaid in full ✓ Yes, if paid IN FULL each month (25.9% if not, so avoid) (1) These cards won't charge you, but individual ATMs may.   Which wins? It's close - all are good abroad. Chase is easiest to get, and if you spend £2,000+ on it (over the year), it beats Halifax's cashback. You must preload it, and it's not a winner if you withdraw lots of cash. With the two credit cards, you just use them and are billed later (always pay off IN FULL each month to avoid interest), and you get Section 75 spending protection. Halifax's boon is a free £20, but its cash withdrawal interest means it's best to spend on it rather than withdraw cash. Barclaycard's better for that and its cashback can win for really big spenders. If you've already got a specialist card (check yours), such as Santander Zero, Monzo, Starling, and some Virgin Money and NatWest credit cards, the cards above are only marginally better, so don't feel you need switch. Want to lock in the rate? The cards above give you top exchange rates on the day you spend. To lock in today's rate instead (which can be a winner or a loser), top prepaid cards give you the rate at top-up. 5. Approx 5.4m EHICs expire this year - check yours. These cards give access to state-run hospitals or GPs in EU countries for the same price as a local - so if it's free for them, it's free for you. Yet check point 9 on your card, as 5.4m become invalid this year. If so, you'll need to get a new GHIC instead. See (it does the same thing) how to safely get a free GHIC. 6. Find your cheapest bureau de change in seconds. Taking cash abroad isn't as cheap as top plastic, but a little bit can be useful. Our Travel money comparison tool compares 26 bureaux for best rates. 7. Using plastic? Should you pay in pounds if offered? My old Pay in euros? blog explains why you should say no to pounds abroad. 8. Booked to go abroad, but not got travel insurance?  Do it TODAY, DON'T DELAY a moment My travel insurance rule is simple, get it ASAB - as soon as you book. Yet a worrying 25% who've booked haven't got insurance yet, most leaving it to do later. That's a mistake. Do it NOW. Half travel insurance's value is protecting you BEFORE travelling. Waiting to sort it means you're not getting full value, and are at risk. Each year, frustratingly, someone asks me for help as they can't get a holiday refund after something horrid, even a cancer diagnosis. That's what insurance is for, but leave it late & you're scuppered. Thankfully Jonathan heard the warning & emailed me: "Two weeks before our Kenya holiday, my wife had an accident and fractured her pelvis. She needed nearly 12wks recuperation. I'd bought our travel insurance ASAB, so reclaimed just over £2,000 for the flights & hotel costs. What a relief to get the money back." There's full help in Cheap travel insurance, but briefly... Cheap 'no-frills' ANNUAL policies for under-65s. Annual policies cover virtually all a year's trips (as long as they're not too long). These are usually the cheapest route if you go abroad more than once a year. You'll pay from £12 (Europe-only individual) and £71 (family worldwide). Prices depend on age, but usually one of Coverwise (Bronze)*, Leisure Guard*, Admiral* and Avanti (Classic)* win - all meet our min cover levels. Cheap 'no-frills' SINGLE TRIP policies for under-65s. From £9 (individual) and £48 (family worldwide), again prices depend on age - try Leisure Guard*, CoverForYou (Silver)*, Coverwise (Bronze)* and Staysure (Comprehensive)*. All meet our min cover levels. Over 65 or have pre-existing medical conditions. Prices can rocket. See our step-by-step Over-65s' travel insurance and Pre-existing medical conditions travel insurance help, which include best buys. What we mean by 'no-frills'. We pick based on price, NOT feedback or payout rates. So see them as a not-too-fussed backstop. Alternatively, use our Cheap Travel Insurance Finder tool to look at our good feedback and value policies, but of course they cost more. And as with all insurance, if you're unhappy your claim's rejected or don't feel you've been treated fairly, then make a formal complaint. If the provider rejects it, go to the free Financial Ombudsman Service. 9. Beat EU roaming charges. Virgin Media O2 is the only 'big four' network not to have brought back EU roaming fees post Brexit. The rest charge £1 to £2.50/day to use your phone & data package abroad. Yet many smaller mobile operators still don't charge EU roaming fees (see which). So if you're one of the 9m out of contract and often already massively overpaying, why not ditch and switch to save in the UK and when in the EU? Here are the team's top picks for unlimited UK data & texts, with EU roaming (links explain details of how prices work): - Lebara (via Vodafone signal) - 12GB for '£3.15/mth' - iD Mobile (via Three signal) - 20GB for '£4.25/mth' - iD Mobile (via Three signal) - 100GB for '£7.84/mth' Or you can do more specific searches via our Cheap Mobile Finder. If you don't want to ditch your existing UK network, always check for EU roaming fees and add-on options. 10. New. Going outside the EU? Use an eSim to roam. Providers charge up to £8/day for limited data via costly add-ons. Instead you can get top international eSims, which aren't physical Sims. You just buy online (eg, 10GB USA data for £21, lasting 30 days), adjust your phone's settings and it gives you a data allowance overseas. Read my story of trying an eSim (spoiler: it worked well and was far cheaper). Also ensure you've got a spend cap in place and use tips for using less data, such as turning your mobile into a free worldwide sat-nav. 11. Know your flight delay and cancellation rights. This is important - if your flight's delayed or cancelled, you could get a refund AND £100s in compensation. Bookmark our Flight delay & cancellation rights guide (some read it on the plane as they're landing). 12. Two rules to drive down holiday car hire costs i) Do it via a comparison. Car hire prices have sky-rocketed since the pandemic. Early booking tends to be cheapest, eg, August car hire's still £14/day in some Spanish destinations, but could rise to nearly £80 last minute. Yet perversely, I've had a few reports that in some places in the world prices are dropping, so if it's not cheap, try a few days apart to see if it's moving - or try for free cancellation, so you can check later. If unsure, sooner's likely safer. Try a few of... Skyscanner* | Kayak* | TravelSupermarket* | Carrentals* Though there's far more help & tricks in Cheap holiday car hire. ii) Be prepared to beat the insurance hard-sell at pick-up. Car hire usually includes basic insurance, yet at the pick-up desk, they almost always try to push you to get 'excess cover insurance' costing up to £25/day with scare stories of huge bills for just a scratch - or sometimes implying you have to do it. Instead, get cheap standalone car hire 'excess' insurance in advance for £2/day. Yet even with it, they will try to put you off or tell you it doesn't work and make you leave a refundable deposit of possibly £1,000+ on a credit (often not debit) card, which must be in the name of the person who booked. Not a problem, as long as you have one, just nod and carry on. I've done it many times. 13. Parking at the airport? Book ahead, even on the day. Turn up at Manchester Airport without booking and it's £350/week to park there, yet pre-booked on the same day using a comparison site, it's as little as £64/week, though even earlier is obviously better. Use our special discounted comparison site links: FHR 10%-45% off* | Holiday Extras 10%-40% off* | Airparks 10%-40% off* | SkyParkSecure 5%-28% off*. For other sites worth checking and more creative options, see Cheap airport parking. PS: Avoid £5 'kiss and fly' charges for dropping people off at airports too. 14. 'Avete delle salsicce, per favore?' Free apps to help you learn the lingo before you go. Download a free language app now. Yet if there's no time to master a new lingo, Google Translate can translate over 100 languages and even scan and translate written text (eg, on food jars or menus) via camera. 15. Top card for under-18s to spend on abroad Many people don't use cash abroad anymore, which makes it tough to give children spending money. The solution is kids' UK prepaid cards, where you (or they) load up money to spend. These also often let you set spending limits and monitor via apps too. Some of these offer near-perfect exchange rates. You should get the rate on the day you spend. Full info in Top kids' travel cards, but some of the main ones that do are... - HyperJar* is FREE, though it doesn't allow ATM withdrawals. - Nationwide's FlexOne is a fee-free bank account debit card for 11 to 17-year-olds, but doesn't have monitoring facilities like other cards. - GoHenry* is the most well-known brand, costs £4/mth, but get 6mths free (& £10) via this link, so you could get it for hols and cancel later. If you already pay for a Starling Kite* card, it also has near-perfect exchange rates. - If parents/guardians are a customer, Revolut <18* can be opened for free (£4.99 delivery fee). Similar to NatWest Rooster Money, but its fee-free foreign spending is only on up to £50/mth. 16. Outside the EU: beware the debit cards from helllll... Most debit cards add a 3%-ish load on the exchange rate, but some ALSO add a charge each time you spend outside of the EU (plus Iceland, Liechtenstein & Norway), so buy something for a fiver and you can pay £6.65 for it. So these are the worst cards to use in the USA and elsewhere. See our card-by-card overseas charges calc to find out how much your cards cost. The main offenders are: Bank of Scotland (50p) | Halifax (50p) | Lloyds (50p) | TSB (£1) 17. Beware holiday scams. If you get an out-of-the-blue email or WhatsApp message offering deals, be very careful. Scams are rife - it's a Wild West out there. Any source contacting you that you haven't asked is a risk. See our full list of holiday scams to be aware of. And don't just click on the top link on search engines If you're applying for an official document, these can often be shyster sites - firms that exploit loopholes to charge you to make official applications through them, even though it adds nowt. The big, big travel ones to watch for are GHIC / EHIC / ESTA / Passports / Visas. Always check you're on the official site, or use these safe links. Full details in Copycat websites warning. 18. Finally, turn your sun cream around to save cash. It works. See turning sun cream around and our Cheap safe sun cream guide.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

Martin: 'With mortgage rates rising, millions should consider using spare cash/savings to overpay & save £1,000s. Here are my 10 need-to-knows...'  New fixed-rate mortgage deal costs are rising rapidly, as lenders believe UK interest rates may now peak at nearer six than five percent. Most have already factored in the Bank of England's likely 13th consecutive rise due this Thursday - the cheapest fixes are roughly 1% point higher than in April (c. £50/mth more per £100,000 mortgage). We've focused recently on is now the time to fix? See my Govt were warned tweet. Yet today I want to look at a question I'm asked a lot: should those with savings use them to reduce their mortgage debt? Of course many have no savings, but millions do, so here are my 10 need-to-knows... 1. The simple rule: if your mortgage rate is higher than you can earn in savings, overpaying adds up. After all, £10,000 saved at 3% earns £300 for the year, yet use it to overpay a 5% mortgage and it reduces costs by £500 over the same period. Overpaying is effectively tax-free 'saving' at the mortgage rate. Yet remember, millions of savers are being ripped off earning diddly-squat. So unless your money's locked away in a fix, don't compare your mortgage to your current savings but to top savings accounts, and if they pay more than you earn, and overpaying isn't for you, at least ditch & switch savings. 2. Check the sums with our Mortgage Overpayment Calculator. In a few cases, even where savings pay a little more than your mortgage costs, overpaying adds up. The calc shows the gain, and contrasts it with saving. Don't take my word though... 3. Still on an older cheap fix? Save instead of overpaying, but have the money ready for when the fix ends. If your mortgage rate is still, say, under 2% or 3%, you can likely earn far more in top savings. If so, you could put the money aside UNTIL your mortgage fix ends (timing fixed savings to end at the right time is useful), and at that point, consider using it towards reducing your new, likely much higher rate, mortgage. 4. Got other more expensive debts (eg, overdrafts)? If so, prioritise clearing them. See overpay my debt? 5. Always keep a cash emergency fund. My rule of thumb is have money to cover 3-6 months' bills accessible in savings. Then only overpay with any money above that (unless you've a specific offset mortgage), as even if you've overpaid, if you lost income and couldn't cover the mortgage, that'd still put you in arrears. 6. Are there any overpayment penalties? Many lenders let you overpay 10% of your mortgage balance each year, but add penalties above that, which usually kiboshes any gain, so it's not worth it. See can you overpay without penalty? 7. Ensure overpayments are put towards reducing the term. Some just lower your future repayments, and keep you paying over the same period, then there's no interest gain. You want it to reduce capital owed and the mortgage term. 8. Is it better to decrease the term or overpay? I wrote a Decrease term or overpay? blog back in 2015. It still stands. 9. Reducing your mortgage debt may get you a better future remortgage deal. Your loan-to-value (LTV) is the amount of your home's current value you're borrowing. If your LTV is over 60%, reducing it can mean better deals. In fact, there are certain thresholds - usually 90%, 80%, 75% and 60% - where it gets cheaper. So if overpaying to reduce your borrowing takes you beyond a threshold, it can really help. 10. Comparing overpaying with investing is tougher. Neither overpaying nor saving involve risking your capital (initial cash). Investing is where you hope for better growth in the knowledge your capital is at risk - nothing wrong with that in the long run. Yet comparing it with overpaying is comparing apples and chimpanzees (and not really my bag).

 

New. Uni costs to rise 50% for many English students starting in/after this year. Martin's 6 key need-to-knows. It's the biggest student finance shake-up in a decade, so Martin's unique, detailed new guide & analysis takes potential uni starters (& their families) through this and future years. New student loans Ends Fri 11.59pm. Free £10 Amazon voucher with best-buy 3.85% easy-access savings. MSE Blagged. Newbies via this link to app-only bank Kroo* get a £10 Amazon voucher just from opening an account and putting £50 in, not an issue as from 1 July it pays 3.85% - only just below the top 4.1% payer (it pays 3.6% till then). You needn't switch bank to open it, there's no hard credit-check, and it has the full UK £85,000 savings safety protection. Full info in Top savings. Key energy updates... - New. 'Should you fix your energy?' calculator. Based on energy price predictions. Should you fix? calc - Claim disability benefits? £150 cost of living payments to start. See Am I eligible? - 10 days left. Prepay for energy? Use or lose any £66 help vouchers you've got left. See Prepay help. - Martin writes to Ofgem to ask it to make firms publish all fixes. He says we need to fix the opaque system. Extra 30% off Amazon's already-reduced 'hidden' Warehouse, including £30 tower fan for £16. It sells returned or slightly-damaged items at knockdown prices, and now there's 30% more off. Amazon Warehouse Pay up to £800, get £6,000 - HUGE boost to your state pension (some turn £1,400 into £30,000). This and more in this week's episode of The Martin Lewis Podcast - listen via BBC Sounds, Spotify, Apple etc. And it's the subject of our success of the week too... as Martin (another one) says: "After watching Martin's state pensions boosting ITV show, I called the helplines and was told that I could increase my pension by over £2,000/yr if I made a one-off payment of £1,400. If I live another 14yrs (to 80) I'll get £30,000 back. I can't thank you enough." Full help in our Voluntary NI contributions guide, and please send us your MoneySaving successes (on this, or 'owt else). TWO pairs of prescription sunglasses from £35 delivered. MSE Blagged. Code stack at Glasses Direct. Ends Fri 11.59am. 12GB Sim for '£3.15/mth' - cheapest we've ever seen. With unlimited mins & texts, this Lebara Sim (via Vodafone's network) is £6.90/mth, but you can CLAIM (don't forget) a £45 Amazon, M&S, Argos or Just Eat voucher after 6mths. If you claim the voucher, it's equivalent to £3.15/mth over a year, but it's a 1mth contract, so you can cancel at any time. Want a different network or less data? Cheap Mobile Finder Holiday special - tonight (Tue 8pm), ITV, The Martin Lewis Money Show LIVE! Over to Martin: "All the holiday prep needed to keep costs down and fun up, plus taking your questions on anything and everything. Do watch or set the Betamax."

 

 

BLAGGED FOR MSE - 128GB iPhone 14 for '£33/mth' Ends Sun - £10 Amazon voucher with Kroo account Ends Fri - Two pairs of sunnies for £35 delivered Ends Thu 29 Jun	DID YOU MISS? - Are you one of 6m missing £160/yr water bill help? - Could Octopus Tracker save £100s on energy bills? - Get up to £150 off Dyson cordless vacuums via code - Asos joins dress rental market - how does it stack up? - SIX MILLION more are likely to qualify for legal aid

 

 

Car insurance costs at highest level since 2019 Check NOW to see if you can lock in a price & save £100s We've been warning that car insurance costs were set to rocket, and they've truly taken off now. Premiums are at their highest since 2019 according to the Association of British Insurers - it says this is largely down to the soaring cost of repairs, paint, materials and courtesy cars. So EVERYONE (even if not at renewal) should check now if they can save - as if you can, you lock in today's premium, forestalling rises for a year. Full help in Cheap car insurance, but in brief... NEVER auto-renew. Always check what's out there, as Alan emailed us: "Got my multicar renewal, £2,090 up from £1,450 the previous year. Used your Compare+ Car Insurance tool to get three separate quotes and got cover for a little over £1,200. That saving is just immense for us at present. So keep spreading the word. Never, ever just renew!" (Though see when multicar can be a winner.) Here's what the tool does... Use our tool, and combine comparison sites for 100s of quotes in minutes. The tool is now over a year old and we've been delighted with how many people find it helps. - You fill in one questionnaire. We've borrowed MoneySupermarket's, so if you've used it before, it auto-fills answers. - Get MSE tips as you answer. Such as our 'best time to get insurance' analysis. - 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. - See 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. DON'T think 'this isn't for me, I'm not at renewal'. Check just in case you can make big savings. If you can, 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 Cancel your car insurance for help. The main negative is you won't earn the year's no-claims bonus, but for big savings, it's often worth it. 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, remember you've a right to take 'em to the free Financial Ombudsman.

 

Ends Sun 11.59pm. Cheapest-ever iPhone 14 '£33/mth'. MSE Blagged. Newbies to O2 can get an iPhone 14 (128GB) on a 24mth contract with 80GB data for £199 upfront, then £25/mth via MobilePhonesDirect. MobilePhonesDirect is responsible for the handset, O2 for the contract. Want a different handset? See Cheap Mobile Finder. 'Free' children's Olympic sports session when you spend £30 at Aldi. Receive a voucher which entitles a child to a free taster session of an Olympic or Paralympic sport of their choosing when you shop in store. Aldi Six-week warning to use non-barcoded 1st and 2nd class stamps. From 31 July, everyday stamps with the Queen's profile on will become worthless unless you use them or swap them. See Stamps deadline. £5 paddling pools, £12 BBQs, Pimm's round-up, cheap fans & more hot weather deals. See our 'Summer sizzlers' round-up. Please be Drinkaware. The future of bank branches? 56 new shared 'banking hubs' to open around the UK. Last week, Martin cut the ribbon on the newest hub in Acton, London - one of six currently up and running. Many more are coming soon. See how the hubs work and where they're due next. Premium Bond prize rate to rise to 3.7% in July - but are they worth it? It's the highest rate in 15 years, but most people with typical luck won't get that. See our Premiums Bonds analysis. FREE Homebuilding & Renovating Show tickets (normally up to £13.50). For the Surrey show in July, or for London, Harrogate and Somerset shows later in the year. Free tickets

 

 

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AT A GLANCE BEST BUYS 0% balance transfers Longest 0%: Virgin Money (check eligibility / apply*) - 31mths 0%, 3.5% fee (23.9% rep APR) No-fee 0%: NatWest (check eligibility / apply*) - 19mths 0% (23.9% rep APR) Best bank accounts £200 to switch + £36/yr cashback: NatWest / RBS £200 FREE cash to switch: HSBC Top savings accounts Top easy access: Tandem 4.1%, no min, (app only) Top one-year fix: Ahli United Bank UK 5.7%, min £1,000 Car insurance Try our Compare+ Car Insurance tool Cheap loans Cheapest for £5,000 to £7,499: AIB (NI) (apply), 5.6% rep APR Cheapest for £7,500 to £15,000: Sainsbury's Bank (check eligibility / apply*), 4.9% rep APR (need Nectar card) Broadband top picks Standard (10Mb+): Shell Energy '£16.88/mth' Fibre (30Mb+): Shell Energy '£19.38/mth' Fast fibre (55Mb+): Vodafone '£21.67/mth' Superfast fibre (100Mb+): Virgin Media '£22.06/mth' On Universal Credit or similar? Check all discounted social tariffs Cheap Sims Up to 3GB data: Lebara, '£2.70/mth' for 3GB 4GB to 9GB data: Lebara, '£3.45/mth' for 5GB 10GB+ data: iD Mobile, '£7.84/mth' for 100GB

 

THIS WEEK'S POLL Should energy standing charges be lowered and unit rates increased instead? Currently, under the Energy Price Cap, everyone pays almost £300 a year just to access gas and electricity - even before they've used any - and that's because of daily standing charges. Energy regulator Ofgem is currently seeking views from the industry on these costs, so we want to ask for yours. Vote in this week's poll. Over half of MoneySavers pay less than £10 a month for their mobile. Last week, we asked how much you usually pay for your mobile phone, and over 7,000 responded. With plenty of cheap deals about, it's good to see that 62% of you pay less than £10 a month, with only about 15% spending more than £20 a month. This is likely down to the majority of MoneySavers being on Sim-only plans, rather than paying for their handset as part of a monthly contract. See full mobile phone poll results.

 

 

MSE NEWS - Top story: E.on Next to pay compensation to 500,000 customers over poor service - Railcard tech error leaves some train passengers unable to access cards

 

 

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA Should I keep the refund I was sent in error for my damaged barbecue? I ordered a £400 barbecue from a supermarket chain. Unfortunately, it was delivered slightly damaged, but it was only superficial, so I didn't give any thought to returning it. Two weeks later, I received an email from the supermarket, apologising for the item not being right and saying I'd be refunded. I dismissed it as an admin error, yet a few days later I received the refund. Should I offer to pay the money back or, as I didn't complain about the damage, see it as karma and keep it? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should I keep the refund I may have been sent in error? | Suggest a Money Moral Dilemma

 

 

MSE TEAM BLOG - MSE Forum highlights: Weddings, woodworm & wills

 

 

MARTIN'S APPEARANCES (WED 21 JUN ONWARDS) Wed 21 Jun - Ask Martin Lewis, BBC Radio 5 Live, 1pm Tue 27 Jun - This Morning, phone-in, ITV, 10.20am MSE TEAM APPEARANCES (SUBJECT TBC) Tue 27 Jun - BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, Mid-morning with Jeremy Sallis, from 10.45am

 

DOG-COOLING MATS AND MAKESHIFT SWIMMING POOLS - HOW TO STAY COOL THE MONEYSAVING WAY That's all for this week, but before we go... much of the UK has been sizzling in recent weeks, so we asked for tips on how to beat the heat the MoneySaving way. Putting your feet in a bowl of ice water, strapping ice blocks to the back of your neck, putting hot-water bottles in the fridge, shutting your curtains, and using dog-cooling mats under bedsheets were all popular suggestions. And one resourceful MoneySaver has been using their wheelie bin as a makeshift swimming pool - yes, wheelie. Tell us your top tips to keep cool in our Facebook and Twitter discussions. We hope you save some money, The MSE team

 

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