Cash Chats #129: Using your money to make a difference

From the climate crisis to Black Lives Matter to struggling high streets, it’s all very well liking a post on social media to show your support for a cause, but is that enough?

It’s time to put your money where it can hopefully make a difference to your community, society and the planet.

Here’s how to work out how your donations, spending and banking can align with what you want to change.

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Listen to the episode

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Further listening, reading & links

Donations

Giving to charity and alternatives to Just Giving

The Bellingcat podcast 

10 Anti-racism charities to donate to (The Independent) 

Shopping and spending

Episode #112 How to be ethical and money saving 

Banking & Investing

Ethical Consumer’s table of banks 

Triodos Bank 

Monzo vs Starling 

Ethical investing guide (Interactive Investor)

Ethical investing articles (Good With Money)

Deals

Free glass of Brewdog Punk IPA

The best American Express credit card

American Express bonus offer workaround

Transcript

(This has been auto-generated so there could be some errors where words have been misunderstood or punctuation missed.)

0:01
Welcome to cast chats with me, Andy Webb. from Be Clever With Your Cash.com. This is the podcast to help you make the most of your money.

0:11
In Episode 129, I’ll be sharing how you can use your money to make a difference.

0:22
Hello, great to have you back listening to the podcast, thank you so much for downloading it streaming it however it is you are listening to my show. I do really, really appreciate it. If you are new to the podcast and welcome, welcome. Thank you so much. I’m Andy Webb, I’m a bit of a money geek. I love finding all the ways to get the best value that I possibly can. From my money’s worth, it’s finding the best deals and tricks to spend less or wherever the money that I’ve got making it work as hard as it can be. So I’ve got even more money than to do with what I want to do with it, save it or spend it, whatever it might be. And I run the blog, be clever with your cash calm. So that’s where I’m spending a lot more time writing new articles all times do check that out and also have

1:00
This cast chats my little podcast here, which I loved every single week, get a chance to actually talk to you. And if you want to talk to me about the stuff I’ve mentioned here on the podcast or on the blog, and don’t forget, you can join the community over on Facebook, just head to be clever with your cash comm forward slash community and it will take you straight through to that Facebook page, you can join us and ask me your questions. I really want to hear your questions, not just about the stuff that I talked about today. But just broadly if you’ve got something you’re not sure about, that’s the place to let me know. And I’ll reply, or you can reply as well. If you see somebody else’s question, you know, the answer is a great place for us to share our knowledge about our money. Now in today’s episode, I’m going to focus on using your money if you’ve got money available to you, how you can use that to try and hopefully make a difference. There’s a lot of stuff that’s been going on in the over the last few months well over the last few years where there’s always something going on, but particularly think about all the stuff around climate change crisis around Black Lives Matter me to try

2:00
writes, there were so many issues going on right now. And sometimes it can be a bit difficult to really think about what if you do care about certain issues. And also, there are so many more issues that you might be particularly passionate about? How do you actually do something that makes a difference. So that’s what this is gonna be about using your money to try and maybe hopefully bring about a little bit of change or support those who are trying to bring about change. So here we go, Episode 129 off cash chats, using your money to make a difference.

2:41
So this is a topic I’ve wanted to sort of talk about for a while, because it’s something that I do tend to kind of struggle with the idea of how can I actually help others? What can I do that actually didn’t make much of a difference? And often, I think when you think about some of those big issues that are affecting society, affecting the world

3:00
The things you can do participate in, in general elections, local elections, they can be very important. But sometimes they don’t necessarily go, the way you might want them to sometimes they do depends, obviously, where you sit on that political spectrum. Sometimes you’ll see things happen. And you think, How can this be allowed to happen? How can this

3:19
exist in our modern society? And you can think, well, what can I actually do? What can I do that that makes a difference. And this came back very much sort of freshly in my mind. And over the last few weeks with obviously the Black Lives Matter movement. And you see the awful things happening over in the States. And obviously the reaction that brings us back here to think about also what that means for black people in the UK. And obviously, the things that you can do in a very sort of immediate moment are generally tend to be on social media. If you’re on social media, I’m sure that you will kind of you know, retweet or tweet the things that sort of stick to your personal beliefs wherever they might be. But I definitely found that with black lives matter it felt well

4:00
This is just I’m just retweeting something. What does that actually do? There was that whole day that blackout Tuesday, if you remember a few weeks ago, where the idea was people be off social media. And they would just post a black square to show their solidarity, their support for that for black people here in the UK and the US, and everything that’s been going on in terms of trying to progress that

4:23
movement for some social change. But it also felt a little bit like, right, yeah, I’m happy to do this. I want to do this. But what does that actually achieve? But in the short term in the immediate moment, may be a sense of people feeling they aren’t alone, but longer term, what does that do? And that kind of feeling I’ve sort of fell on numerous occasions, wherever that’s around, other kind of social issues. You know, think about homelessness, gender equality, child poverty, you these things are kind of like they’re happening all around us all the time. And you buy the big issue that doesn’t necessarily mean

5:00
I mean, that helps an individual it makes it makes a difference. It is important as homelessness, it’s still there. It’s still a bigger issue, what we know that sense of what what can you do what really makes a difference. And there are so many other sort of societal issues as well, I think about just the fair payment of tax on these big companies who don’t necessarily sort of the digital companies paying a lot less than the rest of us do. And then bored of that broaden in the environment, in the global warming crisis that we’ve been up until COVID. Sort of no reason at the top of the news agenda, week after week, is you know, this is something that’s happening, there are smaller things we can do. We can recycle, we can do this, we can do that. But can we do something more, you know, you might be passionate about conservation, again, could be the planet could be animals could be wildlife. You might be passionate about pets and animals here in the UK in a much more sort of smaller scale, and in fact, been on smaller scale. There’s nothing wrong with that local community.

6:00
Making sure that there is a community that you could be from somewhere really small and see that sort of struggling, you could be just be in a bigger town, even the high street, you know that disappearing can have an effect it has on community

6:12
medical issues and health obviously right now we have seen how important and vital the NHS is to us in the UK. But that idea of people having something that impacts their lives and wants us to do something more to try and prevent it happening to other people from you know, family members with cancer, dementia, whatever it might be, you know, Crohn’s disease, I know a couple of people who have do a lot of trying to do awareness around that.

6:40
This is their all issues which

6:43
if they impact us, and if we care about them, and we really want to do something about it, it can be quite hard content to think about what it could be we can do other than, you know, the obvious things and I’ll get onto that in a second. Obviously, thing is, is raising money but can we do more and particularly can we use our finance

7:00
He says, if we have spare money, can we use that to try and further these causes these movements, this research, whatever it might be. So that’s kind of what I think I want to take you through, I’m not gonna give you the answers because you’re all gonna have different things you care about. Of course, you are different things that are more important to you than others, you might have opinions which are diametrically opposed to mine. And some of those, you may feel that you want to do something to support that. But whatever I think it is, it’s trying to think about using our money. So it actually is hopefully bringing about some positive change in society. And also, I want to touch on some other things that are going on particularly during lockdown, things like the arts and cultures, community, and journalism, those kind of areas which have been either particularly hit by COVID and a lockdown, but also some certain things which just haven’t been in decline and the importance of maybe using our money again to try and support those areas to make

8:00
They are sustained and they carry on. And in fact, I think some of those things, the arts and the culture, although they can be quite

8:06
wide scale, they also can be quite linked into that local community. So I think, first of all, I guess I’ve mentioned some of the things there, which I kind of care about, or some of them sort of the most obvious ones, but there will be all sorts of things you care about. So the first step here, if you want your money, to do some good, is to really sort of try and focus down to start with at least on those issues that are particularly important to you. Because I think it’s going to be very, very, very, very, very difficult to try and do everything at once and try and support everything if you don’t have enough money to do it. And if you did, you’d be paring it down to such small amounts, then you might be arguing does it actually make much of a difference? Perhaps you’re better off deciding where you really want your money if you’ve got that spare money, where it’s going to go and maybe choose two or three things that you want to kind of research a little bit further to try and make sure that the money you’re giving that way, it’s gonna hopefully do something you want to hope in the end.

9:00
results, the end target of what your money is going to be useful will achieve something. So I’ll give you a few ideas there. And I’m also going to talk about some of the things where you might want to avoid putting your money.

9:12
So you don’t sort of indirectly help support things that you are opposed to, as well as where you can put your money to good in actually making it go in the direction of positive change, and where you can take it away from places which you think are partly responsible for some of those bad things happen into the world to our society. So the obvious thing is to give your money as a donation to a charity, it could be a single donation, or it could be a regular direct debit. I’ve got an article on a blog, which I will link to in the show notes who sort of shares some of the different ways that you can give money on a regular basis. payroll giving is a really good one. If you’re on a salary job, find out if your work will let you give your every month a set amount of money from direct from your salary to a charity and this is a really tax efficient way.

10:00
Doing it, the charity will get the same amount of money as if you did a Gift Aid, the exactly the same amount of money will go to them, they’ll get that extra cash that tax efficient one, but it is easy. It’s automatically done, the money comes from your salary straight there and is much, much easier. So that’s a great way of doing it. If not, you can set up a regular donation, you can have gift ideas on that, or you can to give a one off, you can do fundraisers, you can sponsor people. Again, more information about that on the blog about the differences between some of those big platforms, obviously just given is the biggest one, Virgin Givens pretty big, big as well. But there are all sorts of other ones which actually might be better choices for you to use in terms of making sure more of your money goes towards those charities rather than get caught up in costs and even profits as far as just giving is concerned. But you know about that you know about giving money to charities is an easy one to kind of think about the ones you care about. You can give them some cash. Obviously I would sort of suggest that you think here,

10:57
both locally and nationally.

11:00
by small and large in terms of charities, it’s not to say that big national charities aren’t worthy of your money and aren’t going to make good do good with your money. But as always, don’t want to forget some of those smaller ones do some fantastic things particularly say in in local communities in those smaller groups who might well be forgotten, not part of those, those bigger charities. You can also I think, right important right now, and I mentioned in the podcast last week, and think about those ones where you might perhaps have gone to a charity shop in the past, they have been closed, obviously all the way through lockdown, they still aren’t open most of them where I am. depends where you are in the country, I guess different ones may have opened different charities might have open their shops, some won’t have done or some will be doing it soon. But a lot of the money charities get particularly particular ones will come from those charity shops which haven’t been open, so they are in sort of quite desperate need of funds to do think about those guys, as well. And when you give them this money, they will use it in all sorts of ways. Sometimes it will be direct help. So if you give money

12:00
It will go directly then through to the people who need it. But sometimes it’s used for research again, particularly when we’re talking about the medical charities you cancer research there in the name, isn’t it? You know, they will have money, some funding, I’m sure that goes to rest by but a lot of it is about trying to find a cure. And that meds, the scientific funding with it, a lot of campaigning, a lot of political lobbying, that goes into the funds, which hopefully they can bring about that wider change that bigger change further down the line. So they may well be charities, and I say have that sort of directly his money which will go to alleviate the problem right now. But they’re also thinking longer term trying to do the things that will mean is no longer. Yeah, hopefully anyway, it stopped being an issue in the future. Although that may be you know, you might feel that’s a bit of a pipe dream. I think if we can do anything to support that, then that’s a good thing. Beyond charities, obviously, there are also organizations which do similar things again, back to black lives matter, you know, in the last three weeks

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34,000 people more or less, have given more than 1 million pounds to the Black Lives Matter UK, go fund me page. Now that isn’t a charity. But again, they want to try and do similar things about trying to bring about whether that’s education, or campaigning or research to try and bring about some change to the lives of black people in the UK. That’s a massive amount of money. So people are doing it, they are finding ways to do it. Obviously, that’s a big group. But there again, there will be all sorts of other organizations which will do similar things, which might not be a charity. But again, they are doing important things to try and to bring about change. You just got to find the ones that that link into the causes that you care about. And again, you think about things, although often sometimes they’re linked together. Sometimes these lobbying groups are charities at the same time Amnesty International, for example. It’s an NGO, a non governmental organization. It’s massive. It’s vast, it’s amazing things all around the world. But it’s also registered as charity locally. So how you give your money where you give your money, charities will get a gift

14:00
Things like that the other groups won’t. But it’s well worth thinking about where your money is going to try and do a bit of research. When you think about that. Now the other thing about giving people money making donations, there is I think, some important stuff beyond those big causes.

14:17
And what I’ve been to particularly over during lockdown, there have been a few things where I’ve been thinking about this. I’ve been sharing quite often here on the podcast or on the blog. Every week I do a kind of a cheap night into lockdown kind of recommend some things to keep you entertained while you’re at home while you can’t go out. And there have been some fantastic things people have been doing, particularly around to the arts and the entertainment sort of fears. We have had the National Theatre and many other theaters have free screenings on YouTube or their websites of some place and fantastic place. There have been comedy shows being put on again by comedians who aren’t working right now. There have been gigs that have been put on some of these very explicitly. They are fundraising for

15:00
Or, let’s say the NHS, some of them such as you know, a lot of the theater ones have been explicitly, people in the theater communities, wherever that’s, you know, any of the production staff, the actors, the directors, the wider staff who work in the theaters. Some of it could well be like the musical ones. Again, it’s about supporting the artists. If you have taken part in any of those, if you’ve watched any of these free things online, then make sure you actually have contributed as well. You didn’t have to it’s a voluntary contribution. But do go back and think actually, Joe, what I watch this or what’s that I didn’t give to the calls they were asking me to give money to, and we can do that we can support that. And I think this brings about a wider thing again, because my local theater in Harrogate, they were small theater, they’re independent, actually a charity as well, but they’re very small, and they are really, really struggling. They may well not survive. COVID. So back at the start of the crisis, I took out a membership with them. So that was a way that I could pay an annual fee. I’m really it’s more than you would expect to get back in it but you asked it

16:00
You’re giving that money to support them to help them maintain

16:04
to help them exist, essentially.

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And there’ll be loads more places like that I took out a big issue subscription. The big issue is a perfect example of this, isn’t it because you are buying something, you’re getting something in return, but really you’re doing it because you want to help that cause something is really interesting. I don’t know about you, you might read different publications to me, but my main newspaper that I turned to is the guardian. And as we know now, let’s face it, most of us get our news online. Occasionally, I’ll pick up a paper in Waitrose, if I’ve spent the required 10 quid but most the time I will read it on my app on my phone or on the website. And every time you open up a little thing pops up. And they asked you to make a contribution or to join as a member to support the Guardian because there’s a decline in medium print news. It absolutely is. So they are obviously struggling in lots of ways. There’s advertising revenue comes in but if you want it if you believe in what they provide and the service the the journalism that they offer, for me, that’s quite a vital

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To support to give money. So we do that me and Becky, we are members of The Guardian. We don’t actually get anything in return for that we don’t get a paper to our door. But we are making sure that hopefully that journalism is funded and it can carry on because that’s, I think, a really vital resource right now. But you can go further than that as well. It’s not just the big publications like the Guardian, lots of podcasts and other cool content creators. They might ask for patron contributions, you basically pay a small monthly fee or you can make it a one off as well. And you get access often to extra content. So one of these was a fantastic podcast you should check out called the belling cat podcast, which looked into the downing of the Malaysian Airlines Mh 17. Plane a few years ago and we looked at basically these journalists they uncovered how these it was actually Russians working in Ukraine who shot down that plane. Those are fantastic podcast. It’s really good. It’s won all sorts of awards. But again, they are doing that they don’t have a huge amount.

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funding so you can be a patron via this website. I don’t know if it’s called Patreon, they spell it with an extra unit. So it’s called Patreon is the website but essentially, you’re a patron.

18:10
And you can use money. Similarly, there’s a podcast, I listen to another one called five year plan, which is all about my football team Crystal Palace. Okay, so this isn’t something, again, a massive cause, but it’s something that I care about something I enjoy listening to. So I’m happy to give them a tip every single month just to support that podcast. So think about those things as well think a little bit wider. Think about arts, think about culture, think about journalism, think about other content that you like, because you can give money to support that as well. It doesn’t have to be about a big issue and campaigning or political slant, it can be just something you enjoy, but you want to make sure that it continues, such as a theater, such as a podcast about your football team. Okay, so that’s the first instance of where your money can make a difference making donations to places really simple. We know about that. And that’s very easy to do. You just need to do your research and work out who you want to give it to, which does take a little bit more time in some cases.

19:01
The next way your money can make a difference is actually making a very deliberate and conscious choice of how you spend it. Where you spend it, what you spend it on, where you don’t spend it is equally important. Now, making these decisions can be really, really hard. It’s not always massively clear, when you’re making a decision that it isn’t ethical purchase, you might be thinking, buying things and not realize that there are connotations to how you’re spending your money. And this can be really, really hard. It also can be a bit overwhelming, but there’s so many different things, so many issues you might care about, how do you choose the ones to focus on so I have spoken about this more over in Episode 112 cash chats where I spoke to the editor of ethical consumer magazine, about how you weigh up being making purchases being a money saver, even and ethical choices and ethical, I guess, goals in terms of where your money is going or where it’s not going. Okay, so what are your goals, in terms of ethics, going back to the beginning, think about the things that are important to you.

20:00
And then kind of trace it back to the high street, or online, however you’re spending money. So for example, let’s say you’re particularly worried because of lockdown what this means for local businesses, shops, restaurants, bars, whoever they might be, if that is something that really bothers you, and you want to make sure that they sustained then you need to spend money at those places, rather than the bigger national chains, the big internet giants, you know, Amazon, you can worry about how they are treating their workers sports direct how they’re treating their workers. So the flip side is you might be avoiding those as well pair those things together. Avoid the bad guys go with the good guys. And that might mean you’re spending more money is very difficult to sort of match up that kind of idea of money saving, you know, me, I’m always trying to save money wherever I can get the best price possible. But I’m also now much much more recently, I would say over the last six to 12 months, focusing more Okay, that’s the cheapest price over there, but I’m not going to

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shop with these guys. I’m going to pay more money because I’m getting it from these guys over here instead. That also can be about not just the big retailers, the discounters It could also be about things such as going somewhere and buying it in a shop because that has a knock on effects it means it’s less called a pressure on the couriers who we know they do a sometimes a frustrating job, and don’t always get us the things we want when we want them to condition we want them but they are under so much pressure. So if we can avoid that they don’t get paid much even you know, again, I don’t get into all the different individual different causes and decisions and social motivations here. But there’s so much you can do. The products you buy fair trade in the news this week. If you don’t know about fair trade, it basically means that the goods often it’s things like bananas, chocolate, tea, the things cotton even the farmers who produced it have been paid a fair price. And often these things again, they cost a little bit more money. But if you’re doing it you’re buying that you’re knowing that hopefully the

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supply chain is it got better monitoring within it and Okay, people who are producing this stuff are getting a fair price. In the news this week, Nestle announced that they will no longer be doing their cap chocolate via fair trade. That’s really bad news. I think for the people, particularly farmers who all of a sudden, they’re not going to get either the price they would have got if they carry on supplying cocoa to Nestle. But at the same time, they might also lose that business completely. But again, is about well, therefore that means if you would have bought this day’s cats before now, maybe you won’t buy them anymore. Choosing to buy a different fair trade chocolate. instead.

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You can think about bills.

22:41
You know, it’s your energy next time you come to switch around, but you should always be switching if you’re if you’re not on a fixed term contract right now for 12 months or whatever it is, then you’re probably paying too much But whatever it is, you come to switch your energy next time, or even within your same company changing your energy deal that you’re wrong. Try make sure that it’s renewable Green Energy.

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Okay, what difference does it make? Do we know if it’s making a huge amount of difference, but it’s better than nothing, isn’t it, it’s a simple thing you can do a simple decision your money can make. And again, you might be paying a little bit more for that you might not, but it’s well worth thinking about it. You can make decisions based on getting a bike, you might have to pay for a bike, and they’re difficult to get right now, because everyone’s been doing it during lockdown. But you might decide that having a bike is a better mode of transport for you environmentally, than it would be, you know, getting driving all the time or using as much public transport or you might wanna use public transport more, rather than use a car I appreciate right now also, during everything’s going to recover. That’s not such an easy decision to make. You might want to have less flights again, right now. It’s an easy decision that’s been made for us And the world has reacted to that in terms of the planet has reacted that positively having so much less air traffic, but you might think, you know, this is something that for me was really sort of a real sort of stand out what I did when those carbon calculators early this year, was quite how much of my carbon

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footprint over a year was down to flights and holidays and things like that. So you monetize, right, I’m going to travel less by air or travel shorter distances if I am going to go, there’s lots of things ways you can choose with your spending money, places you wants to go places you don’t want to go, and alternatives which might be better for those things that you care about. And every single one of the issues that you care about, there will be a way that the money you spend can have an impact. Even the Black Lives Matter, we go for that. There are some companies, some trades people or whoever it might be who don’t support that movement, then you can avoid them. Likewise, you there will be some companies and particularly sort of smaller local places, which are run by black people, and you can give money to those organizations as businesses, those companies instead of others, potentially just to try and sort of make your money. Follow that kind of good intentions. You have back it up with some cash, but that’s why it’s so important to do your research on those causes to try and find out exactly what

25:00
Where you can put that money. And the final one I want to talk about is really around your banking and your investments. And these could very easily be areas that you’ve not considered having an impact on those issues, that sort of societal change that you want to make that you care about, you might not have realized that they can have an impact on that as well. You might think a bank is just a bank. But when you leave your money in your account, or there’s a savings account, or just sitting there in your current account, that’s there for the bank to kind of use it and to invest it and they could be directly supporting organizations and trades that you are hugely opposed to or just generally opposed to you might not be something you daily think about and go Yeah, is it on the top of your agenda, but arms trade fracking, things like that? A lot of the big banks, but money is going to be going towards things like that, even if it’s not directly it’s also hidden around and that’s what’s so difficult with money isn’t it? You watch the movies, don’t you where they’re trying to track down some criminals it’s always follow the money. So I’m not saying you can always identify

26:00
Fight as clearly as that. But there will be ways that you can make sure that certain clear things where you can see this money is going towards or an organization that is actively involved in something you don’t agree with. You can stop that happening. So ethical consumer magazine, which I mentioned earlier, I think is well worth checking out, you can get a free issue of it to try out one issue, and I will link to that in the notes as well. But this is something which they look at different topics all the time, but they have looked at money and banking. And the last time they updated the table was a couple of years ago, but I don’t think a huge amount would have changed on that. At the bottom of their chart. Their list of banks was Barclays, Santander at Lloyds NatWest and HSBC. And within HSBC, obviously, you’ve got first direct and m&s Bank within that Western got RBS and so on. They were bottom of the pile, in terms of your ethical decisions made by that bank. At the top of the list is a bank you might have heard of, it’s called Tria dose now only sort of launched sort of three years ago and that is generally regarded as the

27:00
The most ethical current account and bank that you can get. Now, this actually comes with a three pound a month fee.

27:06
And you don’t get anything in return for that no sort of snazzy rewards or freebies or high rate of interest that you are just kind of clearly paying money to make sure to support the bank and let them make those decisions. That means that your money is going to be sort of ethically invested in the long run. But there are some free banks which do quite well, nationwide building society that scores quite highly the new sort of mobile bank, Starling and munzo. They do quite well in terms of the scores not as high up there as trade offs, but they’re good ones to think about. So this is something I really need to address, although I have accounts with nationwide styling I’m on so I have also got accounts with Barclays, Lloyds NatWest first erect Yes, a lot of those bad ones as well. So I’ve need to address that. I think it’s something I need to kind of consolidate although it’s great to have all these accounts as reasons I have all these accounts and I make lots of money from them and little bonus little features ultimately

28:00
Things like, Is it more important to me that I get a free rental of a movie every month? Or is it more important to me that they aren’t investing in something like fracking or arms trades or whatever it might be some of those things I mentioned before. So have a look. Do your research, see how ethical your bank is? See, if you want to stick with him, wherever you want to switch over to one that is,

28:21
does better in the scores not to be perfect. None of these things can be perfect, but we’re going to do a little bit better, hopefully, who maybe it’s about thinking well, where you put your money, then the main use of your money that can be somewhere which is ethical. No, there’s no money in your account. They can’t be investing it somewhere bad candidate. So that’s something to consider as well. And it doesn’t just stop with banking as well. If you have any investments, and let’s face it, most of us do, because most of us have a pension, any money that is invested, that too could be going towards those same areas which you might not agree with, you might actually be campaigning against on one hand, but your money might be backing up and supporting. On the other hand

29:00
So have a look find out where your stocks and shares, who are they where are these trackers? Where are they going your pension? Where is that money invested, and there will be some ethical funds. And this is a growing thing over the last few years. As you know, I’m not an investment expert here. It’s not something I deal with on a regular basis. But I will link in the show notes over at be clever with your cash.com forward slash cash chats, one to nine to a few articles, a few resources where you can hopefully find out a little bit more about some of the highly rated ethical investment funds, trackers, whatever they might be, you might want to consider them moving your money over to one of those Now, you might find you don’t get as good a return. You who knows you might find you have higher fees to pay. But ultimately, in the scheme of things, this is you talking about? How can your money do good work and you can put your money to make some changes. Sometimes I say that will cost money. There you go. Lots to think about there. Hopefully it’s given you a little bit of direction, a little bit of a starting point to help you think about

30:00
What you want to do with your money, so you can make a difference. So you don’t feel like you’re just retreating into an echo chamber of people with the same opinions as you that actually you’re getting out there, you’re doing something that is going to ultimately make a difference to whatever it is whatever that most important thing to you is right now. And maybe from there, once you’ve got one or two things, you can start expanding that look at other causes, getting more familiar with it, and maybe potentially move to something where all your money is ethically invested, all your shopping is ethical.

30:33
And you are supporting again, those causes which are hopefully breaking through and making some change. And if they achieve what they’re after, then you can give your money to other charities and groups instead. And of course, this isn’t gonna necessarily be a quick, easy solution to anything. Just because you’re putting money behind something doesn’t mean it’s going to make that change straight away. But the more of us who do it, the more we get behind the things that we care about. Hopefully the quicker those sort of social changes environment.

31:00
into changes, political changes, medicine advancements, they come along and they really can make a difference to us in our world and our society. I know I’ve got a lot to thinking about to do myself, particularly around banking and money and where it sits. And I’d love to hear about your thoughts as well what you already do what you’d like to do any ideas you’ve got a really good places to put your money. Let me know head over to that Facebook group. Be clever with your cash com forward slash community. Join us there and let’s talk a little bit more about the ways we can use our money to do good to try and bring about some change very quickly as ever to round out this episode of a couple of deals that you need to know right now.

31:44
So a couple of deals to tell you about very quickly which end on Tuesday which is a 30th of June end of the month, often a time when deals do finish. Now the first one is around brewdog you’ll know them the craft beer manufacturer. They have had an offer going on throughout lockdown basis is the bars was shot.

32:00
When you go onto their website, and you could claim a three schooner, which is basically two thirds of a pint of punk IPA, or punk AF, which is the alcohol free version of that IPA. Now that ability to claim that voucher, I’d say that ends on Tuesday. And as we now know, pubs are going to be opened again with social distancing in place from the Fourth of July. So you’ll be able to spend that voucher spend a voucher use that voucher for the first two weeks after the pubs open. So if you want to get back out there and support the pubs, personally, I’m not so sure about that. I don’t know if I’ll be heading out to any of them right now. While the weather’s nice, has plenty of time to sort of sit outside enjoy pint in the fresh air. If you do want to get a free schooner of that drink, head over to the brewdog website to get that voucher now. Again, I will link to that in the notes below. Now the other offer to tell you about which ends next week involves American Express. Now last week, if you listen to the show, I told you about the shop, small promotion, fantastic deal, spend 10 pounds and participate

33:00
Pricing local independent retailers, you’ll get a five pound credit back to your card, you can use it in 10 different shops as a maximum of 50 quid, you can get hundred quid if you’ve got a supplementary card that your partner is using started this week runs for 12 weeks fantastic deal. Now to take advantage of that you obviously need an American Express credit card. If you haven’t got one, then you want to apply for one before the 29th of June, you have to pass a credit checks you might about to get one so make sure you do a soft check first of all, and I can link below in the notes to make sure you know how to do that. Make sure you can get it and make sure you’re comfortable that you can clear the spending on that credit card completely every single month because any cashback you earn any rewards you earn, they’re going to be completely defeated if you’re getting charged interest on it. So some credit card basics there but you know this right? So if you’re comfortable with a credit card company, you can clear it comfortable, you’re gonna be able to get accepted to one of these American Express credit cards. If you do it before the 29th of June. You’ve got double the length of time in order to be too

34:00
To make the minimum spending that’s needed to get the new member bonus. And these can be fantastic. They can be worth 100 or 125 quid depending on which card you go for. And I will link in the notes below to a bit more information to help you pick which card is best for you. But fundamentally, you can get either 5% back on a limited amount of spending, or you can get bonus points if you spend a certain amount of money. Normally, it’s three months to do this, with locked down even with the high street kind of opening up and it’s like to spend a little bit more money as we go out. Three months is still pretty tight six months you’ve got you will be guaranteed I’m sure in order to spend either I think it’s about two grand two and a half grand, three grand depending which card you go to in that time in order to get the max rewards possible for you. Now, I should say you can’t get these new member bonuses if you’ve had an American Express card and the last two years. There was a little bit of work around haven’t got time to go into it right now. And I will link to an article about that on the blog. But essentially, if you’ve got

35:00
card and American Express card right now, or you’ve closed it off within the last couple of years, but you do have a partner who hasn’t had a card, it doesn’t count, if they’ve had a supplementary card in your account, it counts if they haven’t had their own card, they can apply as a new customer. So they can get that bonus, and they can give you a supplementary card. So it’s well worth sort of checking out again, more information in the notes below.

35:23
Now, thank you so much for listening. I really, really appreciate you every week coming back downloading my show, giving it a listen. Every week, I’m getting more and more people downloading it, which is which is amazing. If you have found this useful, please do give me a review and a rating. It makes a huge difference to how the podcast appears in all different search engines. It does really well when you’re looking in the apps it appears in the top lists and businesses are quite regularly by wanting to get higher and the way to do that is if you guys leave me a review and a rating. We’d really really appreciate that. Very simple to do. Just however you’re listening to this right now whichever app it is, just scroll through and it be very clear. Give me if you can find stuff

36:00
would be lovely, and a few words about why you like the podcast. It makes all the difference. Until next time, make sure you stay safe is still two meters. Don’t forget that we’re still maybe saying two meters away from everyone. And even from not until the Fourth of July when all these other things come into place, there’s still plenty of time for us to get used to exactly what that’s gonna be for us as the shops, the bars, the pubs, the hairdressers do reopen. Until then. I’ll see you next week. Cheers.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

MUSIC

The music used on Cash Chats is Easter Island by Lonely Punk and provided on a creative commons licence 

Andy’s deals of the week 19th June 2020

Here’s more on the best offers you can pick up right now.

This week find out how to save up to £50 while supporting local shops, earn £10 credit at Booking.com, get a year’s free movie streaming, 25% off wine and more.

Watch the video

More on the deals

Amex Shop Small is back from June to September

This promotion from American Express normally runs for two weeks at the start of December, but it’s coming back next week for 12 weeks.

You can get £5 back when you spend £10 at participating small retailers, and earn up to a maximum of £50. Here’s how it works and how to make the most from the promotion.

One year free Mubi streaming service hack

If you like world, indie and cult cinema then the streaming service Mubi has a great range of films to watch – and there’s a trick to get it free for one year, saving £120. Here’s how to get it.

Free £10 to spend at Booking.com

Though we can’t go anywhere right now you can still claim a £10 credit to spend at Booking.com. Here’s more on the offer.

Sky Sports month pass for £17.58

If you’re new to NOW TV you can get £7.52 off a month Sky Sports pass from TopCashback – which you can stack on the 25% discount already on offer. That brings the price down to £17.58 from £33.99.

But you can save more! If you’ve never used TopCashback either there’s a £15 new member bonus, and you might also be able to get extra cashback from your bank. Technically if you can use all the offers you could make a profit!

Here’s more on this and the latest Sky Sports NOW TV pass deals.

25% off wine at Sainsbury’s

You can save 25% on wine if you buy six or more bottles at Sainsbury’s until 21st June. Here’s more on the offer.

Echo speaker and Fire Stick discounts

Amazon, Tesco, Argos and Curry’s have all reduced the price on Echo speakers and Fire TV sticks. It’s worth a look if you need one now and can’t wait for Prime Day – which might be pushed back from the normal July until the Autumn.

Cheap Night In – 18th to 24th June 2020

Here’s my pick of some free and cheap events and programmes for you to watch and listen to over the next week.

Don’t forget I’m also always checking for the cheapest streaming deals and offers, and there’s more information on these links.

[mv_create title=”Cheap Night In – 18th to 24th June 2020″ key=”26″ type=”list” layout=”numbered”]

The best mobile bank: Monzo vs Starling vs Revolut vs Monese

Should you move to a digital-only bank? And if so which one is best?

The world of fintech has brought about a revolution in banking, with digital challenger banks such as Monzo and Starling leading the way with their app-based current accounts, along with Revolut, Monese and the now defunct N26.

These mobile phone only banks are changing our relationships with money, by making it easier for us to track our cash, budget our spending, separate our savings and pay our bills.

Plus they are fantastic for spending on your holiday as there are no fees on transactions and most cash withdrawals.

In this video I…

  • share how to open an account with Monzo, Starling, Revolut and Monese 
  • review the key features
  • break down any charges
  • explain how to withdraw and pay in money
  • look at whether they’re safe to use and if your money is protected 
  • compare them to let you know which bank I think is best for you.

For subtitles, press play and then hit the CC button at the bottom of the video (you might need to tap the video or hover your mouse over it) and you’ll be able to get auto-generated subtitles.

For a transcript, you’ll need to click through to YouTube. Then hit the three dots under the video to access all the subtitles at once. Remember they have been auto-generated by YouTube so there might be the odd word where it thinks I’ve said something else.

If you find this useful, please click to watch this video over on YouTube and then click the “thumbs up” icon as it helps the video appear higher up in YouTube’s search results.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos.

Further links and reading

Monzo 

Starling Bank 

Revolut

Monese 

The best bank bonuses, interest and incentives

How to stick to a budget 

How to automate your savings

The real cost of an overdraft

The banks that’ll let you pay in a cheque online

Switching your energy bills

How to switch bank

Cheapest ways to watch the restarted Premier League and Championship on TV

The Premier League is due to restart on 17th June 2020. Here’s how to watch every game at home for less money.

With play due to begin in mid-June behind closed doors, the decision has been made that every single game will be available to watch at home.

The 92 remaining matches will be spread between Sky, BT, Amazon and even the BBC, which will show games for the first time since the Premier League began in 1992.

Games are going to air over six consecutive weekends and through the week too. The aim is to complete the season by the start of August. You won’t be able to watch every single game as a few fixtures clash.

Matches will kick-off as follows:

  • Friday 8pm
  • Saturday 12.30pm, 3pm, 5.40pm and 8pm
  • Sunday 12pm, 2pm, 4.30pm and 7pm
  • Monday 8pm
  • Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday 6pm and 8pm

A couple of fixtures where clubs have games in hand will also be broadcast on Wednesday 17th June at 8pm.

A third of the matches will be free-to-air, which is great news. But you’ll need to pay to watch the rest. That can get quite expensive – especially for some fans.

Which clubs are on which channels?

So far only the schedule for the first third of games has been announced, a total of 32 games. This takes us up to 2nd July. All the teams are playing three games, apart from four with a game in hand who play an extra one.

Here’s which channels you’ll be able to watch your club.

  BBC Amazon Pick Sky BT PAID FREE
Arsenal       5 2 7 0
Aston Villa       5 2 7 0
Bournemouth 1   3   2 2 4
Brighton     1 3 2 5 1
Burnley   1 2 1 2 3 3
Chelsea       5 1 6 0
Crystal Palace 1 1 1 3   3 3
Everton 1 1 2 2   2 4
Leicester     2 3 1 4 2
Liverpool     1 4 1 5 1
Manchester City 1     4 2 6 1
Manchester United     3 2 1 3 3
Newcastle     3 1 2 3 3
Norwich 1   2   3 3 3
Sheffield United     3 4   4 3
Southampton 1 1 3 1   1 5
Tottenham     1 5   5 1
Watford     4 1 1 2 4
West Ham       4 2 6 0
Wolves     1 3 2 5 1

So far every club has at least one fixture on Sky or BT, meaning it’s going to be impossible to watch every one of your team’s games for free in these first games.

How much it’ll cost you to watch every match by your team 

(Based on the three or fixtures 17th June 2020 to 2nd July 2020)

I’ve based this table on needing to buy a BT Sport month pass at £25, and depending on the number of games (and time between them on the same broadcaster), either one or two week passes (£10 from Currys) or month pass (£25 from NOW TV) to watch Sky on NOW TV.

It could be a lot more if you don’t shop around.

  TOTAL
AVE £ PER GAME
Everton £10.00 £1.67
Southampton £10.00 £1.67
Crystal Palace £20.00 £3.33
Bournemouth £25.00 £4.17
Norwich £25.00 £4.17
Sheffield United £25.00 £3.57
Tottenham £25.00 £4.17
Watford £25.00 £4.17
Burnley £35.00 £5.83
Newcastle £35.00 £5.83
Leicester £45.00 £7.50
Manchester United
£45.00 £7.50
Wolves £45.00 £7.50
Arsenal £50.00 £7.14
Aston Villa £50.00 £7.14
Brighton £50.00 £8.33
Chelsea £50.00 £8.33
Liverpool £50.00 £8.33
Manchester City £50.00 £7.14
West Ham £50.00 £8.33

The most expensive teams to follow are Arsenal, Aston Villa, Brighton, Chelsea, Liverpool, Leicester, Manchester City and West Ham as they’re on BT Sport and multiple times on Sky Sports.

You’ll be paying £50 to watch all six or seven games. Sheffield United fans will also be added to this group if they want to watch the FA Cup Quarter final on 27th June.

Top of the value table are Everton and Southampton, with a single paid game broadcast on Sky Sports, meaning a day or week pass at £10 is all you’ll need to pay. Crystal Palace are a tenner more as you can buy two week passes to catch their three games on Sky rather than a month pass.

If you don’t want to pay for any of the channels, some clubs are getting more free matches than others. Southampton have five of their six games available for free, while Bournemouth, Everton and Watford just behind with four free to air games.

But the followers of teams where there are no free games (Arsenal, Chelsea & West Ham) will no doubt feel hard done by. It’s not much better for Brighton, Liverpool, Man City, Spurs and Wolves fans who will only get one free game each.

Of course this value table could change dramatically when the final lot of fixtures are released, but for now you’ll at least know the cost to catch Project Restart based on the games you want to watch. The full fixture list is here.

And there might be more ways to bring down the cost of your viewing – here’s a guide to the ways to save on each channel.

The cheapest ways to watch each channel

Sky Sports

Almost two-thirds of the games – 64 in total – will be on Sky. However, 25 of them will be free-to-air on the Pick channel (more on that in a bit). This means you’ll only need to pay to see 39 on Sky Sports – though that is still the most of any of the channels.

How to watch the Premier League on Sky

Though Sky might offer some deals on its TV service, it’s can be very pricey. You also have to sign up for other TV channels and long contracts. Personally I’d avoid this unless you know I’m going to watch the sports channels all the time.

Often the cheaper way to access the channels is via Sky’s own NOW TV service. This is an online streaming service and you can buy Sky Sports passes as either Day, Week or Month passes.

Depending on how many of the games you want to watch – and which channels they are on – you might get away with just a couple of day or week passes.

At full price, the day pass costs £9.99, a week pass £14.99 and a month pass £33.99. There’s also a mobile-only pass at £5.99 a month (though there are ways to pay less).

The big advantage here is that you’re not tied into any long contracts, as you would be if you watched on Sky, Virgin or BT.

The thing to note here is that you can only watch live sport – there’s no record or catch-up option.

There are often ways to save money on NOW TV sports passes, such as week passes for a tenner and month passes for £25, and I’ve got a whole page devoted to the latest NOW TV sports pass offers.

Pick TV (Free Sky Sports)

Good news, all the games shown on Pick will be free to watch! It’s Sky Sports coverage.

How to watch the Premier League on Pick TV

You can find the channel on Freeview, Freesat, Sky and Virgin. 

BT Sport

Next up there will be 20 games shown on BT Sport, but you’ll have to pay to watch all of them.

How to watch the Premier League on BT Sport

BT broadband and EE customers can get access via a BT Sport app, which starts at £10.

If you aren’t with BT or EE, then the best bet is to buy a one-off month pass at £25.

Here’s more about both options.

BBC Sport

There will be four games shown on the BBC, all of which will be free-to-air. Match of the Day highlights will also return.

Of course, you do need a TV Licence, which I think is fantastic value for money.

Amazon Prime

The final set of four games will be shown on Amazon Prime – and all will be free!

How to watch the Premier League on Amazon Prime

Normally You’d need to sign up to Amazon Prime to watch these matches, but it’s been announced all will be free.

To watch other Amazon Prime films, TV and sport you’ll need a membership. If you’ve never had a 30-day free trial then that’s one option.

Alternatively you can pay £7.99 a month to get the full Amazon Prime membership (£79 a year), or just £5.99 a month to only get access to Amazon Prime Video.

With both you’ll also get access to box-sets and movies. It’s a rolling monthly contract so you can cancel anytime. 

Here’s more about Amazon Prime membership and whether I think it’s worth it.

> Sign up for a free trial of Amazon Prime 

Championship football

Of the 138 games still to be played in the Championship, 30 will be on Sky Sports. None will be free. The season restarts on 20th June 2020.

Some of the remaining games will be sold on a match by match basis at £10 a game on the EFL’s iFollow service. It’s £10 a game. 

But home matches at Birmingham City, Bristol City, Cardiff City, Charlton Athletic, Derby County, Fulham, Hull City, Leeds United, Middlesbrough, QPR, Stoke, Swansea City and Wigan Athletic won’t be on this service. It’s up to the teams themselves to offer something, 

Sports streaming services – deals and offers

Cash Chats #128: Back to the high street


This week lockdown begins to ease further with the non-essential shops reopening across the UK. I’ve taken a look at how things are working and whether you should be taking a trip to the high street or not.

I’ve also shared your consumer rights for purchases made before, during and after the shops were closed.

Plus news of an offer to help you support small local shops and save yourself cash at the same time.

 
Don’t forget to join the Cash Chats community on Facebook.

Please do also leave a review and rating. Here’s how to do it on Apple Podcasts and iTunes. 

Listen to the episode

SUBSCRIBE & LISTEN TO OTHER EPISODES OF CASH CHATS (it’s free!): 

Further reading & links

Mastercard’s Shop Openings website

How to make the most of American Express Shop Small

Your rights to a refund when you change your mind

How to get free Amazon returns

Deals

A year’s free Mubi

Sky Sports month pass on NOW TV for £25 or less

£3 bonus at TopCashback

Transcript

(This has been auto-generated so there could be some errors where words have been misunderstood or punctuation missed.)

Intro

Welcome to cash chats with me, Andy Webb – Be Clever With Your cash.com This is the podcast to help you make the most of your money.

In Episode One 128, back to the high street, what that means for you, your money and your consumer.

Hello. So things are gradually kind of starting to come back to some sense of normality this week as non essential shops started to reopen their doors after three months, where we’ve had very, very, very little to do with our money outside of our home. So what I’m gonna do in today’s podcast, is to take you through some of the things that have happened, how it’s going to work, how it is working from my experiences this week, just popping into town.

And whether I think you should be doing this or not, is it a good thing to do for your money is a good thing to do for the economy. I also want to touch on some exciting news from American Express around supporting local shops.

And also, finally, your consumer rights. What does this mean for the purchases you’re gonna make? What’s it mean for purchases you’ve already made either before or during lockdown. Don’t forget, I’ve got a community for everyone listening to cash chats over on Facebook, just head over to be clever with your cash.com forward slash community. And that’ll take you straight over there you asked to join. And it’d be great to get your thoughts on everything we talked about in today’s episode and anything else asked me ask everybody else in there some questions, the things that are worrying you about money, and I’ll answer all their answer all of us will hopefully answer and help you with your questions. So we let’s get into this week’s episode 128 cash chats – back to the high street.

Back to the high street

So what’s it like where you live? Have you been out to the shops this week already? Have you been buying things and spending some cash

On Monday, I popped out to where I live in Harrogate, just to see what things were like. And I was surprised quite how busy it was. There were a lot of people out and about. Now, I mean, it’s no surprise when you compare it to previous weeks, because it’s been a pretty much a ghost town, as I’m sure your high streets have to the only things around that have been opened up in supermarkets, and the odd coffee shop more recently, but on the whole, people haven’t been allowed out. And now they can go out and spend money. There were a lot of people there. You probably saw some of the pictures on TV as well of Oxford Street and other sort of shopping centers around the country. It wasn’t quite as bad as that. But I was still surprised quite how many people were there. And there were queues as well. The queues though, did seem to be kind of just on the budget retailers. So prime mark and you can kind of if you’re going if you’re a private person and you shop at prime market, you need to spend a prime mark. Well, this would have been your first chance to do that. So you can understand why one of the biggest queues, if there’s going to be any queues is at Primark cuz that’s the only way to spend

Money their big use next for some reason people like to for next don’t they wouldn’t have the books and our sales and all of that people like queuing for next I was surprised to see queues outside sports direct not only because it’s not that fantastic a shot but also there was a lot of kind of news. early on when lockdown first began about how they were treated staff and lots of calls with people saying they won’t forget that and they were boycott it but the queue there as well. Surprisingly the other places I spotted queues were at mobile phone shops E and O to both had queues outside their shops again, they’re small shops, aren’t they? So it’s not like this is a vast massive one. But you know, lots of space people go to sleep, obviously there’s gonna be queues and most of these queues that we saw everywhere they weren’t hundreds of shoppers trying to get in. It’s because there was reduced entry to those places. So it was harder to fit everyone who wants to be in there. So obviously, bigger shops, more popular shops, you would expect more people coming into them. I was surprised about the mobile phone networks as well having those those queues

On how most shops are open as well, I thought it would be a little bit more gradual. But we’re here in Harrogate. Yeah, lots of the shops, the national chains and the small independent retailers, their doors were open for business. And the big exception I noticed was charity shops. None of the charity shops that I went past about half a dozen of them were open. And considering that a huge amount of the money that a lot of these places make is through the shops. That was, I guess, quite worrying in that.

Are they just going to do it soon? But they obviously they’re going to continue to lose money. So maybe considered donations to charity shops if yours isn’t open.

But on the whole, yeah, it was it was busy. And I was surprised about that. Now where you are, it could be quite different, you might find things still haven’t opened up because the individual retailers, the local ones, the smaller ones, they’ve got to make that call themselves, the national chains quite often they’re doing this gradually. So john lewis, for example, didn’t open the Oxford Street store straightaway that’s gonna happen at a later date. And obviously it was the first day

I think it is going to sort of like tapered down. As we go along. Imagine that be a peak again at the weekend for people who aren’t working, their first opportunity maybe to go to some of these shops. And obviously, there’s still not going to be the peak of the high street are we because it’s still a couple of weeks at least, until pubs cafes, leisure centres, cinemas, all those kind of things, if they’re able to open in some form, it’s not going to be for a couple of weeks at least which will bring more people out. Even so say I was very very surprised to see see this on scale. So why wants to do is to talk you through a little bit about how the shop seems to be working there. And my thoughts about whether you should be going or not. Before we go into that I do want to share with you one episode is from MasterCard and it’s shop openings calm and they are using transaction data from their card. So if money has been spent in a store,

they will tell you that they are telling that shop is taking money. Now that could obviously be a slightly misleading because it could have been an online transaction. But essentially, if you want to find out what’s opening

To you, that is a good way to find out. If the doors are open, if you do want to go and buy some from a particular retailer, bear in mind that open hours could be different right now as well. Okay, so this is how it’s working from the shops that I saw, social distancing is still in place two meters, is the rule is what we’re doing. We should be doing everywhere, let alone in shops everywhere, we should still be sort of two meters away from people who we don’t share a household or a bubble with that could be relaxed. The government means we’re making noises to see that they sort of bowing to pressure to drop that to one meter. The moment it’s two meters and you will see that signage everywhere you will sign out see outside the shop, do you see it within the shops within shopping centers on the floors, things like that. I didn’t see many people with a mask which was quite surprising and you don’t have to wear a mask. So there’s no reason why if you don’t have one you can’t go but I definitely think it’s worth considering if you are going and you’re planning to go into a fair number of shops having a mask available and wearing it.

You will see lots of

Way systems now I didn’t go into many shops or in fact only went into a couple of shops, which weren’t that busy at all. But you do see signage everywhere which was kind of saying you know,

follow this follow that. Now I imagine that’s going to get quite difficult in some of the smaller shops the one I went into TK Maxx, is a very big TK Maxx although there are a lot of people in there, it was easy to avoid people and stay away from people. And but again, you imagine in a smaller shop,

that’s going to get quite difficult holding people up, you know, how are you going to make sure if you’re looking at something and you know that you’ve been to the supermarket you know what it’s like when you’re trying to pick up a pack of pass through and there’s someone standing right there for ages, and you want to wait for them to go it’s gonna be the same thing in the shops as well, isn’t it but the one way systems with signage on the floor in lots of places. The queues as I mentioned, I saw queues at some of those sort of bigger shops. Other smaller shops talked about having a limited entry as well and I think there is a potential that you will key for every single shop. The smaller the shop, the less people that

can have inside of that two meter distance, even at one meter, you’re going to have to potentially wait outside to get in. Interesting thing where I saw obviously shops are next to shops on Etsy shops are next to shop. So, for example, the queue for next went past about three or four other shops. So went past the three shopping went past wh Smiths went past something else. So I’m not quite sure how that is gonna work when you’ve got queues for lots of retailers at the same time, so do bear that in mind that you might have to do that.

One thing I saw in all over the place was lots of hand sanitizer, which was great. Now not every retailer had that but say TK Maxx had some little shopping center had some a few other places or they had some hand sanitizer available. Obviously, if you’ve got your own, it’s much better to have that so you can use it whenever you want to. If you touch anything at all, it’s still well worth using that hand sanitizer. When you get into the shops. Again, some of them might have be exactly as you would normally find them. They’re having any sort of changes.

Particularly that TK Maxx is such a big TK Maxx other than the one way system they hadn’t sort of put to get in and get out once you’re in there was enough room to roam around and avoid people. But other places they might have taken some stock out they might have reduced the range of stuff just so they can get as many people as possible into the shop. What you will find is changing and facilities are pretty much going to be closed if they’re not close they probably should be.

But I would think twice about trying on anything in a shop because if you could try it on that mean someone else might have tried it on and you don’t really know therefore whether that’s safe to do so. If you do buy stuff in because you can’t try it on in changing rooms are you take it home you try it on and you don’t want it then you can return it I’ll get on to this consumer rights in a bit. But bear in mind that if you have returned something or someone has returned something it should be quarantine now different shops are doing different things. Could be 24 hours, could be 72 hours could be more could be less who knows they are meant to be doing that quarantines are closed don’t get put out on the shelves again if someone has already had them in

touch them. You’ve got to trust a retailer, their gauge will gauge whether you trust them or not. To have done that, I guess yeah, the bigger ones, they’re gonna have to do something about it. You expect someone like john lewis has done it well, but a smaller shop, maybe they can’t, maybe they won’t. So do bear that in mind, when you’re taking stuff home to try just picking up things and touching them. You might not even be able to touch stuff. I mean, they’re there. Ideally, they don’t want you touching things so much. You cannot avoid picking things up. Unless you need to properly examine it. If you’ve got gloves, that’s great. And remember that hand sanitizer again, so if you do go, that’s what you could expect to see when you get there. I guess the big question is, should you be going now? there absolutely is an argument and it’s been put forward by retailer associations and even by the government that these shops do need your money. Yeah, that is absolutely true to survive, they need people to spend money.

However, I would say that a lot of the retailers, most of them prymaat have been an exception.

You can still do your shopping online.

A lot, even smaller retailers have had to adapt to this. So I’ve ordered things from small local shops near me. And had it’s all clicking collect or they sort of dropped it off or just sent in the post. They wouldn’t had an online presence before. But they’ve made a way to have never found a way to make it work and more of those shops will be doing that. So you can hopefully still shop support local businesses, but do it online without having to go into shops because remember, these are the non essential shops that have just reopened. They are non essential, that’s the term we’ve got for them. So there’s not going to be so much that you really need to buy right now. Most of stuff we can still wait on and if we can’t wait on it. There are alternative ways to do at the site going online click and collect if you can. Now I do also get that sometimes we like to buy certain things in person and I can go to supermarkets. I’ve never liked ordering fruit and vegetable and supermarkets because of stuff that’s come through Jeremy often

In a little bit on the turn, not great. I’d rather sort of sit in the supermarket and make my choice. And I think lots people have think similarly about things they want to buy, they like to see it close. For example, shoes, I’ve always been one to go and buy them rather than order them online, partly because different sizes and trying them on and it feels like quite a lot of a waste to order multiple sizes and get them all set for them. Choose the ones you want and send them back and all that sort of kerfuffle. But you can do that. And since you can’t try on clothes in shops right now, since you can’t really try on shoes in shops right now, it doesn’t make that much of a difference. And if you do order things online, and I’ll get into more detail about returns in a minute, you’ve got it makes it a lot easier for you to return stuff, you have more options in terms of returning things and if you do buy something in the shop, but it’s not right.

So I certainly would think twice before going to the shops unless you really, really, really have to.

If you really do have to you really think you can do this and then also sort of

about can you afford it and you know what it’s gonna be really nice. Of course, it’s nice, you’d not be able to sort of spend money recently on some of the things you would have done. We’ve all had a bit of crazy a little bit, I’m sure some people are thinking they’d like to splurge, you buy something as a treat, or even just what would have been relatively normal purchases, get out and buying those things. But before we do that, as we talked about last week, and if you missed it, you know, you can so you can just check this out. However, you’re listening to this on the podcasting app, listen to last week’s episode.

Make sure you can afford it. If you’re going to spend any money if you really want to go out to the shops, the things to think about, first of all, if you’ve got any debts, you should be sort of making sure you’re clearing them with any spare cash you’ve got and building up some emergency savings first, before you do any spending that you’ve got with any extra cash, okay to do that before you can have all those okay? And you do want to support some local businesses and you don’t want to do it online. You want to really want to go into the shops, then try and go alone. Try not to go as a group is gonna be much easier if your own to sort of maintain that social distance in and sort of get in and out.

without too much,

too many frustrations and try and wear a mask if you can. Something I didn’t touch on actually, which was pretty worth talking about weeks and weeks ago, a lot of the commentators were saying, there’s so much stock left over in these shops, that they’re going to be massive blowout sales when they reopened just a clear thing out. And actually, you know what that hasn’t happened? They might have been, you know, some places maybe you might find some local businesses have been doing this, but on the whole that the larger chains, they’ve either been holding back their stock for next year and keeping it in storage.

Or perhaps they may want to cancel orders. So they haven’t got as much to go about. Yeah, absolutely. You know what, there will be discounts and onboarding online, you know, there are plenty of sales online which will be transferred to the shops as well. But these aren’t going to be necessarily anything overly different to what you would have seen in normal sales, I would say from from looking around from what I spotted. And again, you can do this online during your career to find the same things online as your own shop and same prices.

So I wouldn’t sort of be motivated to go to the shops, just because you think I’m going to get an absolute bargain right now. I remember Yeah, there’s pictures that we saw on the news of people crammed into getting to the Nike store or wherever it was a prime mark as if it was Black Friday. This is in Black Friday, even Black Friday doesn’t necessarily have those offers, that will make it worth you kind of crushing it the best of times, let alone now when it is still so vitally important that we do to adhere to those social distancing rules. Now if you aren’t going to go as I said, try and go on your own if you can wear a mask, but also try and do try and support those local independent shops because they are the ones who I think will be the first against the wall that really sort of gonna disappear. And we will miss them. We absolutely will. You know, Amazon has been doing incredibly well. Compared to other retailers during lockdown, lots of money being spent there versus other places. They are doing absolutely fine. They are not going to struggle through this. They are still going to be there later on.

If we spend money at Amazon, or another sort of big chain that we don’t really sort of care about just to save ourselves a couple of quid, then later on that it’s gonna be all our only choice. We’re the only ones we go to, we won’t have those smaller shops, which can offer us something a little bit different often. And I’ve definitely sort of come around this over the last year or so. The idea that I’m happy to pay more when I can afford it and where I can afford it, pay more to a smaller local shop than one of the sort of giant behemoths like Amazon. And also I would sort of encourage you to remember those shops that treated staff badly the ones that kind of tried sort of like sports direct, try to say there were an essential workplace try and sort of bullying staff to sort of come in and things like that. Try and remember those places and not go back to those retailers. You know, stick with someone who’s been treating their staff a lot better than ones who are kind of taking it seriously. That we need to although shops opening I think they need to open a lot of the time they know they need to get the money in

But they’re sort of doing it in a safe way for their staff.

Shop Small

Now, some good news as he came out on Monday as well when shops reopened, and his American Express are launching their shop small promotion early now this normally runs every Christmas. And if you’ve been listening to the longtime, you would have heard me talk about it. Last November, December time, I’m a big fan of this is one of my favorite promotions of the year. It’s really really good. It normally won’t say for two weeks, just the start of December. Well, they’re bringing it back from next Monday and it’s going to run for 12 weeks until the middle of September. So a much much longer period and I think that is is really vital which I’ll explain why in a second. But first we’ll tell you how this works. First of all, you need an American Express credit card. Again talk about these a lot. They are I think fantastic cards to have if you are able to repay the balance in full every single month because if you do that you can earn cashback on every single pound that you spend. So it’s well well well worth it. There are some fantastic new member deals as well until the end of June. You’ve got six months to spend

The minimum requirement is around two grand or two and a half grand depending what cards you have to get 5% back. So six months is much, much better than normal three months long time, you’re easily hit that target, I’m sure. Anyway, that’s why I like them. They’re fantastic. You have to have an American Express card and Amex card for short. And they have an extra thing on their cards where you extra promotions, extra cashback deals, you have to activate them in your app and right now, the shop small one is back you activate it to your app. And then if you spend at least 10 pounds in a participating small retailer, and there’s a map online and I’ve got links, they’ve got a whole article about this and you can read exactly how to make sure you’re getting the most from this. There’s a map online where you put your postcode in and you can filter it by shop small retailers, it’ll tell you the local independent shops that are taking part in this promotion, spend 10 pounds in them and you will get five pounds credited back to your card and this five pounds comes from American Express to the local business. They are just winning by this they are getting some new business from you at least 10 pounds.

But you’re also getting a fiver back. Now there obviously there are restrictions, you can only use the promotion once at an individual shop. So you can’t keep going back there and spending lots of 10 pounds to get lots of five pounds is once per shop. And also there is a cap, the most you can earn is 50 quid, but that does mean you can support 10 different retailers. In fact, you should be able to support support 20 different retailers, because if you have a supplementary card for your partner,

they can activate it as well and they can spend at the same shops or different shops as well. So potentially 100 pounds that you can get back to your account by supporting all these businesses as I say a full article which I will link to in the notes or over at be clever with your cash.com forward slash cash chats one to eight for more information about this and my pick of the Amex cards but this is I think a good thing that has come from shop small and as I said this time it runs for 12 weeks until September. The reason this is good news is because if you are as I am, as I said everyone cautious

about going to shops right now, you still got time, hopefully for things to get better things to be a little bit safer for the infection rates to drop for more shops to open to make it easier for us to get out there. If you’re shielding be able to leave the house

and get out there and spend at those local retailers. You don’t have to do it just in the next few weeks. You’ve got until the middle of September to do this. I did have a question from someone who got in touch I called Mike. He asked me whether you can use this online as well as if someone asked me that on on in the Facebook community as well. Can you do this on line? The answer is probably not your mentor spend it in stores. Now. It depends, of course, how the retailer processes the transaction. Because it might be that American Express can’t tell if it’s exactly the same way and if it’s a very small shop, it may well be they’re doing it at the till in the same way they would normally but if they do things differently, it won’t register and you won’t get the money. You could always phone up the retailer and ask them what’s going on and maybe buy something over the phone.

See if they can do click and collect or see if they will send it out to you. But I can’t guarantee you’ll get the credit and it’d be valid for that. But there are some things to think about if you want to.

Your consumer rights

I finally want to touch on your consumer rights. Now the shops have reopened or partially reopened, what this means any purchases that you buy now, and also anything you’ve bought during lockdown, but I’ll get locked down in a second. Let’s talk about anything you buy. Now as we’ve established shopping is different. You might have to try things on your mind to get exactly the thing that you thought it was worth you get home and it doesn’t fit or it’s not the right thing. Can you take it back? Can you get your money back? Well, it depends is up to the retailer whether they will give you a refund for something if you’ve changed your mind. Now most places they’re pretty good about this and they will give you a refund but they don’t have to there’s no legal rights to this. If it’s absolutely perfectly fine what you’ve got Okay, so I before you buy anything, just double check what the policy is.

I imagine things are quite relaxed right now and people are being a little bit more fluid with their returns policies.

Do absolutely check that, okay, if you change your mind, no legal right to return anything. If it’s 40, or stops working, that’s different, they have to give you a refund. And that’s in the first 30 days after buying something, you take it back, you need proof of purchase, and you got it from there. But if it’s broken or damaged, whatever it is, they have to give you their money back. After that first month for another five months, you can ask for a repair or replacement. And the short passes do that if it can’t do that, or won’t do that do that, then it will give you a refund, it has to give you a refund. And that’s within the first six months again, if it’s 40 doesn’t work, whatever it might be, if it’s broken. Now after that six months doesn’t mean your rights completely gone. But you will have to prove that the problem is down to the manufacturing process, not wear and tear, things like that a lot harder to get a repair or replacement or a refund but it those rights are there. I would absolutely say right now the most immediate thing you need to think about is if you’re buying something in a

shop right now. What is their returns policy, if you change your mind if it doesn’t fit, whatever it might be.

Now, it’s slightly different for online purchases, because anything you buy online, you have got at least 14 days to return it. And that’s what earlier on I mentioned about how if you can buy something online now, rather than go into a shop, it’s probably worth doing it because it gives you so many more options. So if you buy something in a shop, you might have to take it back for a start, but you also have to return it to the shop, which means going back into town, getting back in a queue, whatever it might be that pallava of returning something to a physical shop. If you’ve done it online, then you can return stuff online or to a shop in lots of cases you double check, they might not let you take it back to a shop as well. But you absolutely can return it all online. I would always check the terms and conditions. So I for example, bought some trainers the other day, and obviously didn’t know quite what size I wanted. So got a couple of sizes. I made sure that I could return them for free, online really easy. So that’s what I’m going to do without so that’s an extra bonus you get from buying online.

Line says a minimum 14 days to return something often there, extend that. But that is valid if you change your mind as well not just because something’s broken. So that’s a really good extra thing to bear in mind. With this, there’s something else is worth thinking about right now is anything you’ve bought German lockdown or before lockdown, because if you bought just before locked down,

then in the shops were short shots, and it wasn’t right for you, you couldn’t return it would have been impossible to do it. And that’s why so many retailers extend that policy. Now shops have opened that countdown is going to start. So for example, Amazon and Amazon, an online retailer there, but they’ve got an extended returns period. Anything bought from the middle of February

can be returned until the end of June. So you’ve actually only got a couple of weeks now for anything you’ve bought before the shops have reopened and get your money back if it’s not the right thing and the same thing will happen for real shops, proper shops, bricks and mortar shops. He bought something beforehand. You didn’t want it make sure you’ve got it most you’ve got that receipt, and you may well have to venture into the high street to return it but

Double check what their returns policies, you don’t want to miss that cutoff date. It could well be like Amazon at the end of June. So find out what that is you want to take something back. Same similarly again, if you bought something online during lockdown, you want to take it back to a physical shop or return online. Again, I think those countdowns are going to be happening everywhere, sort of stop you being able to take things back your engine that returns period. And one last note on that as well. I bought something literally two weeks before lockdown from john lewis. And the price dropped

it during lockdown actually it was still within that sort of 30 day price matching guarantee. But because the john lewis shop on Oxford Street, hadn’t reopened, and I couldn’t do anything about it. So I actually got confirmation from john lewis online from a web chat, that the price match was valid, but I can’t do anything about it until that john lewis obviously opens and I’m gonna have to phone them up because I don’t live in London. So then get that price match sorted. Now, I don’t know whether they’re there how strictly they’ve been sticking to that 30 day period, but I think it’s well worth if you bought

Anything john lewis, before locked down, and there was a potential price matching, as soon as there’s shops reopen, that’s when that kind of countdown starts there as well. So hopefully that has been useful if you’re thinking about going to shops, maybe thinking twice about going there now because you aren’t going to care. I mean, there’s bargains at least right now. And if you can avoid it, I certainly would try and support those local shops, online or via the phone if you can. If you are gaming, just make sure you remember the social distancing is still in place. And really, really, really vitally. Check what your individual rights are in those shops in terms of returning things if you’ve changed your mind

Quick deals

As always a couple of quick deals for you to round out today’s episode. Now one of them is a lovely little trick that I spotted on Instagram I skipped absolutely full credit to the people who post about this first of all, it was definitely frugal who spotted it on Mr. deal was a monster First of all, so credit to those guys for spotting. This evolves a way to get online streaming

Service mubi free for an entire year. Now to get this, you need to sign up to a free trial with a service called scribe. Now there’s no e at the end there is SC r i b, then D, then you can get a two month free trial for this service essentially, is a

unlimited books on services like your apps on your tablet or on Kobo things like that and audiobooks. Normally it would cost you 999 a month. There are also some magazines and things in there as well. In fact, actually just look at it again. Now it looks like that free trial is down to 30 days from from two months, it was a take out a free trial. Remember, if you don’t want to carry on with the service, you’ve got to cancel it so you don’t get charged. But once you’re in there, they’ve got a little bonus feature. You click on your account and you go to scribed perks, where they give you free access to all sorts of services. So for example, you can get tuned in premium, you can get some cool content plus comments.

Which is kind of got cartoons I guess and things and graphic novels for comics. But the one that really appealed to me was this movie you can get a year free movie.

Now maybe if you don’t know what it is, it is kind of cult arthouse independent movies from from around the world. It’s something that I’ve sort of had my eye on for a while. There are some good movies on there right now if you’ve been watching the Chicago Bulls documentary over on Netflix, then you might want to check out Hoop Dreams, which is a kind of iconic sort of 90s documentary about two young people starting off their careers in basketball. But there’s also I mean, there’s so much on there lots and lots of things. Again, it is kind of more abstract stuff. So not necessarily a big blockbusters is adult jovita is on there. Look at that. Now you would have heard of that. But then the Stranger by saturate Ray from the you know, again, it’s a classic Indian cinema, and more recent things as well, but it’s free for a year. So give that one a go. Now, this is

theory should carry on working even once you’ve cancelled your scribe to trial if you choose to cancel your scribed trial. I can’t guarantee it will do because I’m still only a couple of weeks into this. But if it does carry on and that is free, if not, you’ve got a month of newbie for absolutely nothing at all. I know last week I spoke quite a lot about the different ways to save money on watching the new Premier League football and how it is gonna cost you a fair bit of money to follow your team. But if you are right now with a football about to start tonight if you listen to this on Wednesday, the day the podcast is released, the first two matches kickoff tonight they’re both on Sky Sports are the cheapest way to get a pass for this right now. Now TV offering 25% of that month pass is 25 pounds a month for the first three months rather than 3399. You can get by for just one month, two months or the full three months. You don’t have to take out all three of those months. And you have to cancel it before that third month is up though if you don’t want to get charged full price that sadly is the best deal out there. You can make it a little bit better by checking your banking app again. I think I missed

Last week for me, I managed to get an extra fiver off this by using my NatWest we’re 25% off. Actually that was a special offer for 20 pounds a month but that only ran at the weekend, but an extra sort of 25% off, and Max had an offer as well. So just have a look see if you could save a little bit more with that as well. And also to date only over on top cashback you can get a three pound bonus when you spend 20 pounds via the site and don’t forget that if you haven’t signed up to top cashback before there’s also that 15 pounds new member bonus it links all of this over on the blog Webb – Be Clever With Your Cash calm

that’s it for this week. Don’t forget you can check me out on Twitter and Instagram at Andy clever cashing more deals and sort of news as we go along. And please do come and join in the conversation over at the cash chats community. Just go to be clever with your cash comm forward slash community asked to join our preview and then we can all start talking. Until next time, stay safe if you are going shopping in particular. I’ll be back with another episode next week. Cheers

 

MUSIC

The music used on Cash Chats is Easter Island by Lonely Punk and provided on a creative commons licence 

 

Deals of the week – 12th June 2020

This week the deals I’ve spotted include discounts on craft beer, Adidas, iTunes, Footlocker, NOW TV and more.

Watch this week’s video

More on this week’s deals

Craft beer savings

Monday is National Beer Day – and with the pubs remaining closed its a good time to try one of the many craft beer clubs or online beer shops.

Here’s my pick of the special offers to bring down the cost, including £10 off.

30% off Adidas

Here’s a good example why it’s always worth a quick online search for voucher codes. I was emailed a 25% off code for Adidas which seemed pretty good – but I found one that’s better and offers 30%. Here’s how to get the code.

Extra discounts on NOW TV with your bank

It’s worth checking the bonus offers on your bank or credit card accounts for additional deals on NOW TV – really useful with the return of live sport. I’ve got 25% off on my Natwest and £5 back on my Amex. Here’s more on the latest Sky Sports NOW TV pass deals.

10% or more off iTunes, Foot Locker, Cineworld and more – TODAY ONLY

Another deal that looks like it’s today only at Amazon. There’s 10% to 15% off gift cards at iTunes, Foot Locker, Cineworld and a few pubs/restaurant chains. Here’s more on the offer.

Cheap Night In picks

If you’re getting fed up with box set after box set, then my latest rundown of some of the cheap and free films, TV shows, theatre productions and music sets you can watch from home over the next seven days.

This week it includes Oscar Best Picture winner Parasite (and how to see it for free), virtual tours of Yosemite and Amerstam’s Rijksmuseum, the return of PGA Golf and a few TV, music and theatre picks.

Andy’s £1k money makeover part 11: Clearing you debts

If you’ve got credit cards, overdrafts or other high-cost debts then there are ways to clear them faster to reduce the cost.

This is the final part of my money makeover, and I’m looking at what could be the biggest way to save money – making your debts less expensive and then clearing them.

I’ve looked at the minimum repayment trap on credit cards which could be costing you hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds in interest; how 0% credit cards can help you pay off the balance faster and more.

You can catch up with the rest in my money makeover series here. (Yes there were only 11 in the end – I ditched one part of the planned 12 as it was all about holidays and travel – not very useful during lockdown!).

For subtitles, press play and then hit the CC button at the bottom of the video (you might need to tap the video or hover your mouse over it) and you’ll be able to get auto-generated subtitles.

For a transcript, you’ll need to click through to YouTube. Then hit the three dots under the video to access all the subtitles at once. Remember they have been auto-generated by YouTube so there might be the odd word where it thinks I’ve said something else.

If you find this useful, please click to watch this video over on YouTube and then click the “thumbs up” icon as it helps the video appear higher up in YouTube’s search results.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos.

Further reading and links

Are your debts a problem 

How to make sure you don’t get rejected for a credit card

The good & bad of 0% balance transfer credit cards 

Money transfer credit cards explained 

Cheap Night In – 11th to 17th June

Here’s my pick of some free and cheap events and programmes for you to watch and listen to over the next week.

Don’t forget I’m also always checking for the cheapest streaming deals and offers, and there’s more information on these links.

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