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| DON'T believe the fake 'Martin Lewis' or 'MSE' ads |
| Record inflation means your savings are shrinking... Yes, it's a mixed message: the good news is... after four UK base rate rises, savings rates across almost all categories are the highest in a decade. The bad news is... prices are rising faster than even the best savings will grow, so in real terms savings are shrinking. So unless you're willing to risk your capital, it's important to maximise your interest to minimise the shrinkage. Thankfully, with top savings rates up, most with savings can easily do this... Check your savings - if they pay under 1.5%, switch. The top easy-access account pays 1.5% AER variable interest. That's the bog-standard account, so if you're earning less than that, unless your money's locked away (or you've got more than £85,000 and want to spread it for safety), there's no excuse not to consider ditching and switching.
We get it's a faff. Yet as we've described in the table, factoring in the cashback, you can earn close to £50 more than the highest interest rates, especially if you've only just over £10,000, which is not insignificant. Is it worth fixing with interest rates rising? At the last Bank of England meeting, while rates went up, some members of the committee voted to raise them further - a strong sign further increases are likely. If that happens, you don't want to lock money away (as you have to with fixes) for too long, in case events overtake. But there's still a big gap between the best fixes over 6 months to 2 years, compared with easy access, so they're worth considering. Though there's only a small premium for fixing longer (the rates are hardly higher), so we've not listed these. Most should DITCH cash ISAs for accounts that pay more. Cash ISA rates are worse than normal savings in all categories. The advantage of a cash ISA is all the interest is tax-free, but these days fewer than one in 20 people pay interest on savings, so there's just no point - most should just focus on getting the highest interest. For full pros and cons, and who cash ISAs are still right for, see Martin's 'Should you ditch cash ISAs?' blog. 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 18-39. See Top Lifetime ISAs. - Earn up to 3.5% on smaller amounts if you save monthly. See Regular savings. - Earn 2.02% on smaller savings. See Current account savings. - Prefer to invest? Higher returns, but more risk. See Stocks & Shares ISAs. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Heads-up. £25 M&S beauty bag (normally £160) if you spend £30. It's back from Tuesday (31 May). The 11-piece set is always mega-popular and sells out within a day or two. See what's in it and how to grab it: M&S beauty bag. Wow. Aged 45 to 70? Can you, like MoneySaver Zoe, boost your state pension by £31,000 for just £975? Success of the week. In last week's email, Martin explained an urgent way to boost your state pension. It was read by enormous numbers and successes are already coming in - Zoe emailed: "I checked and found I had 6 years missing for the full pension. I was entitled to claim national insurance credits for 4 years and pay to top up others. This means for about £975 and 30 minutes of my time, I'll receive an extra £31,000 in pension payments if I live for the average 20 years after retirement. Thanks Martin." Send us your MoneySaving successes on this or anything else. Amazon £10 off £30 - can you get it? How to check for this + other codes, plus another 33 Amazon tricks. Updated. Energy price cap now predicted to rise 42% in October - should you fix? October's price cap prediction has rocketed to a staggering £2,800/year on typical use - 42% higher than the current cap. We've crunched the numbers and analysed the cheapest existing-customer deals in Should I fix? (which includes Martin's video explainer). Premium Bond prize rate to rise to 1.4% from June. Yet most with typical luck will do better in the top-paying 1.5% easy-access account or with better-paying fixes (though Premium Bonds may win for a few). See full Premium Bonds analysis. It's back. Megafast 108Mb Virgin broadband & line just '£17/month' - we've not seen cheaper. MSE Blagged. This yo-yo deal comes and goes, but from now till Wed 1 June newbies can get this Virgin Media 108Mb broadband & line deal for £22.95/month, with an automatic £100 bill credit (so nowt to pay for four months, unless you make calls). Over the 18-month contract, it's equivalent to £17.40/month. Not available in your area? Use our broadband comparison. £17 million of Tesco Clubcard vouchers expire on 31 May - we've a trick to extend 'em. Use them now, or follow our clever trick to extend them for another two years. Clubcard alert Got credit card debt? Shift it to 0% for a huge 33 months AND get £25 cashback. A balance transfer's where you get a new card that pays debts on old card(s) for you, so you owe it instead - but interest-free. HSBC's 33-month 0% deal (2.7% fee, min £5)* is near the longest 0%. But crucially - via our links - it also gives £25 cashback if you shift just £100+, which can cover much of the fee. Will you get it? Always use our 0% Eligibility Calculator first to see your chances of being accepted for this and other cards. Golden rules: Repay at least the monthly minimum, and clear the card before the 0% period ends, or it's 21.9% rep APR interest. Full help in Top balance transfers (APR examples). 8pm TONIGHT (Tue) ITV: The Martin Lewis Money Show LIVE special. A one-off show covering the cost of living crisis AND how to keep summer-holiday costs down. As Martin often says, do watch or set the Betamax. |
| 'I found a £39,000 lost pension - thank you' There are few better (pre-watershed) feelings than finding an old fiver down the back of the sofa... unless of course you find £1,000s in an old pension or savings account you'd forgotten about. There's up to £50 billion waiting to be claimed, so it's worth doing a few quick, free checks to see if any of it's yours. Full info's in Find lost accounts, but in brief... Premium Bonds, current & savings accounts - up to £4.5 billion's waiting to be claimed. Just use the free one-stop service My Lost Account, which was set up by the bank & building society trade associations. Sign up, fill in the form with details and past addresses, and it'll zip your details to any of the 30+ banks, 43 building societies and NS&I (National Savings as was) where you think you may have had an account. If you did, it'll usually let you know by email or letter.The biggest payouts are usually from old private or company pensions & investments. These may take a little more work to find, but it can really be worth it, as Lance's story shows: "I used the information on your site to search for any old pensions I might have had years ago. I didn't think it would be a lot, but found I had a £39,000 pension with Scottish Widows. Thank you." See how to find old pensions for more. Plus for non-pension-based investments there are a number of different routes - see how to reclaim old investment trusts, unit trusts and insurance policies, which includes info on Gretel, a new free site which searches an array of pension, investment, insurance and bank account providers to check for lost cash. Find deceased relatives' lost assets too. If a family member has died and you're responsible for their estate, or you're the beneficiary, you may be able to reclaim what we've mentioned above for that person too. You'll need to put their name (as the account holder) on the search forms. To get the cash you'll need the will as proof that you're the right person to get the money. More help in how to recover deceased relatives' assets. |
| As the war in Ukraine continues, here's how you can donate money or help. How kids can earn a Blue Peter badge to get FREE entry to 200+ attractions. Find out how to earn one in time for the summer holidays and how it compares with other deals. Hit by passport application delays? Your travel & compensation rights explained. Lengthy waits are threatening to derail holidays for some. We've your rights, plus what to try if you're affected by passport delays. £60 off Ninja 11-in-1 multi-cooker. MSE Blagged. Normally £230, but it's £170 with our code. 5,000 available. Ninja Amex tricks, including new boosted 'refer a friend' bonuses, £10 Asos cashback & more. We've lots of ways to boost your rewards in our American Express tips & tricks guide. 48 craft beers for £50 delivered (normally £80). MSE Blagged. Newbies only (not Northern Ireland) - please be Drinkaware. 1,000 boxes available. Flavourly Mis-sold an Amigo guarantor loan? Use its scheme to reclaim. The High Court's just approved Amigo's formal reclaim scheme - here's how to check if you were mis-sold and make a claim. Are you an avid deals hunter? Or a community champion? Work for MSE... We're looking for a new Deals Writer and an Assistant Forum & Community Editor. MSE jobs |
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| AT A GLANCE BEST BUYS
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| THIS WEEK'S POLL How did you buy your mobile phone? Mobiles are often pricey, but some ways of buying them are more MoneySaving than others. So this week, we want to know how you purchased your phone. Vote in this week's poll. Most MoneySavers say it's appropriate to borrow for a new home or car - but not for day-to-day living costs. Almost all (97%) of the 3,500 who responded to our poll last week said they thought borrowing for a new home was appropriate, and 87% for a new car. But only 12% said they thought it appropriate to cover day-to-day living costs, while most were also against borrowing for holidays, Christmas and train tickets. See full poll results. |
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| MONEY MORAL DILEMMA I'm crashing on a mate's sofa - can I tell him to stop eating my food? I'm crashing on a mate's sofa after falling on hard times. He wasn't keen on the idea, but I'm desperate - I'm paying him £160 a month to cover bills and the inconvenience. We do our own food shopping, yet I often find him eating my food, which I can't afford to replace. He says he's busy at work and doesn't have time to go shopping. Should I say something and risk rocking the boat or let it go as I don't really have other options if he decides he's had enough of me staying there? Enter the Money Moral Maze: I'm crashing on a mate's sofa - can I tell him to stop eating my food? | Suggest a Money Moral Dilemma |
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| MARTIN'S APPEARANCES (WED 25 MAY ONWARDS) Wed 25 May - This Morning, phone-in, ITV, 10.30am MSE TEAM APPEARANCES (SUBJECT TBC) Tue 31 May - BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, Mid-morning with Jeremy Sallis, from 10.45am |
| BAG YELLOW-STICKER BARGAINS & BATCH-COOK: YOUR TOP MONEYSAVING MEAL-FOR-ONE TIPS That's all for this week, but before we go... MoneySavers have been sharing their top tips for cutting food costs for those living on their own. There were lots of general MoneySaving tips, such as timing your shop right to nab yellow-sticker discounts, batch-cooking meals and portioning out and freezing the leftovers - which apply just as well to families/couples as those living on their own. Though others jokingly suggested wangling dinner invites from friends and family several days a week was the ultimate tip to save money on food. If you have tips to share or want to be inspired by others, see our top tips for spending less on food when cooking for one Facebook post. We hope you save some money, stay safe, |
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 autoaidbreakdown.co.uk, chase.co.uk, marcus.co.uk, hsbc.co.uk, uk.virginmoney.com, santander.co.uk, novunapersonalfinance.co.uk, bank.marksandspencer.com 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. |
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