Martin Lewis

Parking Ticket Appeals: Money back from unfair fines plus free template letters

parkfront
If you’re given an unfair parking fine, you’ve a right to appeal and get your money back. This is a step-by-step guide to reclaiming all council, police or TFL parking fines.

URGENT MONEYSAVING 50% off Pizza Hut Delivery, 1p flights, shift loans to 0%, energy prices falling

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This week’s MoneySaving e-mail contains over 50 new & urgent ways to save. Ensure you don’t miss out; get it e-mailed direct, or if not you can read it here.

IMPORTANT! Most deals, best buys and loopholes end within a week

The weekly MoneySaving email ensures you don't miss out

Super Balance Transfers: Shift loans or overdrafts to 0% cards

A clever credit card trick can bag you a 0% cash loan into your bank account. Use this to pay off expensive debt and...

Free Anti-Virus & Safety Software: Legally protect your PC without spending

It's possible to fully protect your PC from viruses, adware, spyware, worms, trojan horses and the rest, without paying...

Cheap Gas & Electricity: Switch NOW to beat energy price hikes

All of the big six energy suppliers have hiked their prices by up to 35%. It’s now the perfect time to compare, ditch...
Eating out: 50%
NEW: Pizza Hut
 
Shopping Vouchers
NEW: 25% Debenhams
 
Days out / Theme parks
NEW: 2for1 Cinema tickets
 
Grocery Coupons
NEW: Aunt Bessies

Fix your savings NOW: Massive base rate drop, lock in pre-cut savings rate

Banks weren't expecting a cut of this size. Act now and there's a window of opportunity to fix savings at the pre-cut rate. Plus Mortgage & Recession Briefing too

PPI Reclaiming Guide: Get £1,000s back on loan insurance

Inc. template letters. Anyone who’s got or had a loan, credit card or store card may be able to reclaim £1,000s. This full guide includes template letters on checking if you were missold and getting your money back.

Home Phones: The UK's Cheapest Calls Provider

It's possible to get your home phone plus line rental, broadband and cheap calls to mobiles for under £17 a month, almost half of the cost of BT!

Haggle on the high street: Tips & techniques to get huge hidden discounts

You can save £100s haggling in high street stores or for broadband contracts, insurance and more. This is a sector by sector haggling techniques guide.

Are your savings safe?: Full guide to protect your cash

Icesave, Kaupthing Edge, Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock have all been financial catastrophes. How safe are your savings? Bank by bank safety check-up includes NEW Icelandic bank compensation guide.

0% Credit Cards: Best credit cards for new spending

If you need to borrow, done right credit cards are the cheapest way. The current top deals allow you to get a year’s borrowing at 0% or long term borrowing for 6.8%.

Freebies, Freebies, Freebies: A guide to and directory of free stuff

Whether it's perfume, pants, games, gym passes or books, there's masses available for free on the web with a simple click-and-grab. This a huge list of permanently available genuine freebies.

Cheap Train Tickets: how to find hidden fares

With scores of different fares and tickets combinations to choose from, it's easy to get taken for a ride by rail companies. Yet it's possible to work the system to your advantage and flay chunks off ticket costs.

Supermarket Shopping: Halve your weekly bill by beating the system

It’s possible to save £1,000s annually on supermarket shopping, with a few designed techniques: shop at the right time in the day, use the downshift challenge, use online supermarket comparisons, grab discount vouchers and more…

Section 75 refunds: Free protection for ALL spending

The little known Section 75 law means buy on a credit card, and the card issuer’s jointly liable. So if the company goes bust, you can get your money back from the card issuer. Full Q&A including free template letters and how Visa Debit Chargeback works too.

Best Balance Transfers: Cut existing credit card debt costs

If you're paying interest on your credit cards, get up off your backside and sort it out. Savings in the thousands are possible and there's a special 'no-hassle' solution too

Cashback Credit Cards: Get 5% off ALL Xmas and Jan sales spending

The best cashback card pays 5% back on all spending for the first three months. Simply buy everything you can on your card and make £100s

Cheap Petrol & Diesel: Cut your fuel spend by a third

Find the cheapest petrol station, pay the right way, speedily make your car more efficient and learn the golden driving rule & you'll cut your fuel bill by a third.

Savings Accounts: Earn 6.46% instant access

This is a full best buy guide to maximizing your interest; including a unique calculator to tell you how much, long, or big your savings should be.

Give yourself a Money Makeover: Completely overhaul your finances and save £1,000s

By shifting to the best products for everything you can easily give yourself as much extra cash as a 25% payrise. Better still you can do it all yourself, without paying anyone and it only takes a day.

Cheap Car Insurance: Speedily compare 120 quotes + possible cashback

It's easy to sever car insurance costs, possibly to under £100, in around 10 minutes. The trick is harnessing every web comparison service in the correct order, massively increasing the number of quotes, and then sneakily get cashback on top.

Cheap Mortgage Finding: Use the ‘broker plus’ technique to slash costs

The right Mortgage broker can scan the market and give extra influence and protection. Sadly, more lenders have stopped allowing brokers to advise on their deals, so now use a broker and specific lenders on top.

Bank Charges Reclaiming News: Result in the High Court test case!

There’s a result in the high court test case; it's decided bank charges ARE covered by Unfair Contractual Terms rules. This is a major victory for bank charges reclaiming and a huge step. Find out all the latest whether you’ve started reclaiming, or plan to, this is a guide to what you should do.

Cheap Home Insurance: Speedily compare 50+ quotes plus possible cashback

Slash the cost of buildings and/or contents in ten minutes by harnessing every web comparison in the right order; then find the web’s hidden cashback deals on top
Fun Stuff and the Site

Latest MoneySavingPoll:
Should Cheap Booze Be Banned?


Poll Started 17 Nov 2008.

Should Cheap Booze Be Banned?

There’ve been calls from a Government select committee for price caps on alcohol. This would impact the selling of booze in supermarkets and would hit promotions such as '6 bottles of wine for a tenner' or even low brand lager for 30p.

Pros include... it’ll stop some “pre-loaded” binge drinking, making our streets safer.

Cons include... it’ll penalise those who just want a night in at a cheap rate.

So, it’s a deliberately polarising question.

Should there be minimum prices set on booze?

Vote: Should Cheap Booze Be Banned?
Economic uncertainty's rife, and picking troubled companies isn't easy, so it's crucial to protect yourself.
Section 75 Free protection for all purchases
Are my savings safe? Bank-by-bank guide
Recession Proofing Sort your finances

Meanwhile we'll carry on finding top deals & bargains.
What's It All About
It's about cutting bills not cutting back and being a sassy consumer. Companies try to screw us for profits. MoneySaving shows you how to (legally) screw them back.
More on MoneySaving
More On MoneySaving

Corporate Britain isn't the enemy, but it is the opposition. A company's job is to make money, nothing wrong with that. A consumer's job is to keep as much of their cash for themselves as possible. The problem is that companies spend billions on marketing, advertising and teaching their staff to sell: yet consumers get no buyers' training.

This site aims to redress the balance, both with highly researched journalistic articles and forums that bring millions together to gradually build collective resources. MoneySaving is about finding best deals, legal loopholes and how to save money on everything and anything; on average following these will gain you the equivalent of a 25% payrise.

MoneySavingExpert.com was created in February 2003 for £100 by Martin Lewis, and all the site's analysis and recommendations still come directly from him. By January 2007 nearly 2.5 million users a month were reading the site, and the weekly email went to nearly a million people.

Read the full About the Site article
Who is Martin Lewis?
Who is Martin Lewis?

Who is Martin Lewis?

Money saving expert Martin Lewis is an award-winning 36-year-old ultra-specialised journalist, TV & radio presenter and bestselling author. He created this site, which has over 5,000,000 users a month, in Feb 2003 and all the analysis and recommendations still come directly from him.

  • TV and Radio MoneySaving: Martin has his own prime time It Pays To Watch show on five, is a regular presenter on ITV1's Tonight, is GMTV’s Money Saving Expert, with weekly slots on the main programme and LK Today and has regular slots on BBC Radio 1  & Radio 2 Vine. He's in constant demand on countless other programmes, such as Moneybox, This Morning & Titchmarsh, and, outside of talking money, is a regular panelist on five's The Wright Stuff.

  • Book and Print MoneySaving: Martin's has fortnightly columns in the News of the World in England and the Sunday Post in Scotland and syndicated columns in regional newspapers across the UK including the Manchester Evening News.  His books The Money Diet, Three Lessons & Thrifty Ways are bestsellers, The Money Diet even knocked Jamie Oliver & Sharon Osborne off the top of the Amazon bestsellers' list.  In the past he’s been a columist for the Sunday Times, Guardian and Sunday Express

Full Details:  Martin’s Biography, Martin’s Blog, It Pays To Watch, GMTV appearances

Where do I start?
Where Do I Start?

This site's huge and can be daunting for new MoneySavers; so take your time, you won't discover all its gems at once. For specific MoneySaving use the search box above, but in general:

For full details, read my Money Makeover article.

How's the site financed?
How's the site financed?
This site has a strict ethical financial stance; it has no adverts and is completely free to use. You can't pay to have anything put on the site. Things are only included if they're the best way to save money based on specialised journalistic research.

Income is generated from links that generate revenue when clicked. Once articles are finished, where possible 'affiliated links' to the top products are used and have a * by them. Yet if no affiliate link is available a non-paying link is used; i.e. if the top product doesn't pay, it remains the top product regardless; financial considerations don't play a role.

This stance means the top products detailed here often easily surpass those on the other money websites, because these sites are fully commercial. Yet thankfully the sheer scale of MoneySavingExpert.com means it's very healthily in profit and also donates a good chunk of cash to the MoneySavingExpert.com Charitable Fund.

Read full details about this site's ethical financial stance.

Watch the 'What's it all about?' video

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This website is based on journalistic research. It does not constitute financial advice. Any information should be considered in regard to specific circumstances. All tips are followed at your own risk and should be followed up with your own research . See Full Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy (last updated 03.09.08). ® Martin Lewis and MoneySavingExpert.com. 'Martin Lewis' and 'Money Saving Expert' are registered trademarks belonging to Martin Lewis.