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February 28, 2019   |   Podcast

Cash Chats 77 – Should you be stockpiling food?

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Welcome back to Cash Chats! After a bit of a break, this is the first episode of 2019 and I’ve looked at stockpiling.

In part this is due to fears caused by the impending Brexit, particularly in the event of a no-deal exit from the EU. Reports state prices will rise and the supply chain restricted. Both reasons to stock up now if you can. But that’s not the only reason. Any period of time when you might not be able to leave home – illness perhaps, or severe weather – could quickly eat up your normal cupboard and freezer supplies. So it makes sense to have a bit more at home.

But if you do this you need to follow a few rules to make sure you’re not going to waste this food or spend more than you can afford.

So enjoy this week’s episode. Please do leave a review and subscribe over on iTunes – it really makes it easier for others to find the podcast. You can also now listen on Spotify!

This week’s further reading links

How to stockpile for an emergency

My addiction to yellow reduced stickers

Best before, use by and sell by dates – what’s the difference?

My addiction to yellow reduced stickers

February 26, 2019   |   Articles

Are your debts a problem?

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Seven questions to help you decide if your debts are worse than you think.

The average total debt per UK household is currently £59,261 according to the Money Charity’s latest figures. That’s a mix of credit cards, loans and other types of borrowing such as mortgages. But take out mortgages and the average consumer credit debt stands at £7,863 per adult. The interest costs alone on that amount are going to be huge.

Those figures are averages. You could have more or you could have less. And they might be perfectly affordable for you. But there’s a risk, whatever the amount of the money you owe, that these debts are or soon could become a problem.

I’ve got seven questions for you. Have a think if they relate to you and your debts. Make a quick mental note of whether it’s “yes” or “no”.

1. Are you unsure of how much debt you have?

I’m not saying to the nearest penny, but could you say within £50 or £100? If not, total up the debt. This can be quite sobering.

2. Are you spending more than you earn?

I imagine for lots of people the answer is probably “I don’t know”. To find out you need to do a budget, something I wrote about here.

3. Do you need to use credit for everyday essentials?

By the end of the month, do you need to use a credit card or overdraft to get food from the supermarket or pay some bills?

4. Have you been rejected for credit?

This could be anything from a mortgage or credit card, down to a mobile phone contract.

5. Are you ashamed or worried about your debts?

This could manifest itself through hiding debts from your partner, losing sleep or being scared to open up bills.

6. Are you behind on repayments?

This isn’t just being behind or late on paying your bills. It could be you’re only making minimum repayments. Or you find direct debits or standing orders are bouncing.

7. Are you borrowing to pay your other debts?

This could be taking out payday loans or cash advances on credit cards just to clear other debts.

What do your answers mean?

Each of these, just on its own, is likely a sign you need to take action to avoid bigger problems. Hopefully you can sort this yourself by bringing down the cost of your borrowing and finding as much money as possible to clear the debts as fast as you can. I’ve shared a few ways to better manage your debts here.

But if you answered yes to a fair few, then it there’s a chance the situation is past a DIY resolution already. This means you need to get help. Don’t pay for this. There are lots of free and independent advice lines run by charities such as StepChange, Citizens Advice or NationalDebtLine. They’ll help you work out what’s best to do. This guest post from top debt blogger Debtcamel takes you through some of the steps you can take.

Want to read more?

What can you do if your debts are getting too big?

How to quickly clear your credit card debt

How to quickly clear your credit card debt

February 24, 2019   |   Articles

Be Clever With Your Cash is five!

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The highlights for me and the blog over the last 12 months.

I don’t write about me and the blog itself very often, but I find this anniversary each year is a good time to reflect on everything that has been going on. It’s actually been a huge year, with lots of change in my life, but all of it good.

This article is also an opportunity to thank you all for your continued support as the site turns five years old. I know the words I write and speak here on Be Clever With Your Cash can make such a difference to your finances, but without you reading, listening and watching it would all be quite meaningless. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Here’s what been going on:

Leaving London, going freelance… and on to TV

At the end of February last year Becky and I upped sticks and moved to Yorkshire. The locals have a reputation for being a savvy bunch, so it seems like fate to have ended up here.

In another big change, last May I took the tough decision to go full time and leave the Money Advice Service where I’d been writing their blog for the previous four years, though only part-time for the last 18 months. I was looking forward to devoting more time to the blog, when quite unexpectedly a new opportunity came about… TV.

I’d had chats with TV production companies before, even making a “taster tape” at one point, but none ended up getting commissioned. This one was different, Channel 5 already wanted a new consumer series and the team at True North were looking for a money expert to be part of the team.

The initial chats were promising, and I hoped I’d get this small role on-screen to build upon my other TV experiences. You know that I did make the cut, alongside Gaby Roslin and Fiona Phillips. Shop Smart Save Money had an initial run of three episodes in June 2018, returned for another eight in the autumn.

I didn’t expect quite how large my role would end up being. I’m loving going out and meeting a different family each week, and even more so sharing tips and tricks every week in the studio. We’ve just started filming for another batch which will air in the spring – and I found out last week that I’ve been shortlisted for the Financial Broadcaster of the Year award at the Headlinemoney Awards for my work on the show. Exciting stuff!

The site

The TV work actually takes up as much time as my two days a week at the Money Advice Service, so sadly I’ve not been able to expand my time on Be Clever With Your Cash. But that doesn’t mean the blog hasn’t continued to do well.

One million different people have visited the site in the last 12 months, totalling 1.4 million different page views. Imagine one person saved £1 for each of those views… a huge amount of money saved, and I really think the figure could be much, much higher.

The articles and deals

I wrote a total of 122 articles, and regularly found and updated hundreds of deals. Once more I still didn’t have the time to write about everything I wanted to. My highlights, in case you missed them the first time around, are:

Sadly the last year saw the end of the popular NUS card trick, and it looks like Zeek’s cut-price gift cards are also now finished. So I’ll keep working hard to find new ways for you to get the best discounts and help your money go further.

The podcast & YouTube

Cash Chats clocked up 35,000 listens in 2018. Though I’ve taken a bit of a break over the last few months it’ll return in March with brand new episodes. Plus you can now listen on Spotify!

YouTube also took a bit of a back seat during filming, and with house renovations about to start these videos might not return for a few months. The most popular has been “Why I’m saying no to a smart meter“, which so far has had almost 5,000 views.

Another big award win

When I wrote the article for the site’s fourth birthday, my highlight was winning Financial Blog of the Year at the 2018 Headlinemoney awards. It says a lot about this year that winning it for a second time last May wasn’t the biggest news! But it was amazing to win the award again.

What do you think?

I’d love to know what you think about Be Clever With Your Cash so I can make it even better for you. If you have a few minutes, please do fill in the survey below.

February 21, 2019   |   Articles

Get 50% off Domino’s Pizza every time

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Here’s a great trick for a half-price pizzas voucher code at Domino’s every day of the week in London and Yorkshire.

Takeaways aren’t great for your waist or your wallet, even when you’re using a voucher code. But there’s no reason they shouldn’t be an occasional treat. And when they are it obviously helps to pay as little as possible.

On the rare occasions we do order in, I prefer Domino’s to Pizza Hut and Papa Johns, going with my create your own choice of meatballs, pineapple and jalapenos (give it a try). But you’re looking at £19.99 for a large – stupid money. But I’ll never pay this.

You can search for Domino’s vouchers and offers online, and often you’ll find most of the deals listed on the local takeaway’s website (or on a junk mail menu). Some days you’ll be able to pick up close to half-price pizzas, such as the “Two for Tuesday”, though often 50% offers have minimum orders of £50 or even £100.

However I’ve just found a trick that’ll get you half price with a minimum spend of £20 or £30. It’s only for London or Yorkshire, but that’s still a huge number of you reading. If you’re outside those areas, scroll to the bottom for tips on finding the best Domino’s offers and vouchers.

How it works

1. Get a Tastecard

You’ll probably be familiar with Tastecard. It’s a membership that offers 2-4-1 discounts at restaurants, from your local to nationwide chains. It turns out it also has an offer for Domino’s in parts of the UK.

You can get a free trial of Tastecard, normally for 30 days, or you can sometimes find longer ones lasting 60 or 90 days for a quid.

After this you’re looking at £30 to £35 for a year, depending on the offer you find. Now you’ll make that money back if you go out for two meals, but you shouldn’t shell out if you don’t think you will. I’ve written more about Tastecard and the latest deals here.

2. Search for your Domino’s

You’ll likely get a digital membership for Tastecard, giving you access to a card via your phone. You can see participating restaurants via the website or app.

As I said this offer is only for London and Yorkshire, but enter your postcode and you’ll see if your local takeaway is included.

3. Get your Domino’s code

Once you’ve got your local restaurant you’ll be able to claim your 50% off code. Simply enter this at checkout on the Domino’s website.

The minimum spend is only £20 in Yorkshire and £30 in London – far lower than most other deals. Frustratingly a large pizza will cost £19.99 at most, so you can either add a topping to get you over the £20, or the cheapest option is to buy a 40p sauce.

You can’t use it on meal deals to get a double discount, and London excludes ice cream, drinks and 14 or 21 sized chicken sides. The only other exclusion I could find was in some London locations where you can’t use the code in December. But that’s it – so enjoy your pizza!

Save at Domino’s elsewhere in the UK

Sadly this trick is only for London and Yorkshire, so how do you save in the rest of the country?

Well Domino’s are actually a franchise so each area will have its own offers. Which means you’ll have to do a little research.

You might find the best offers on the Domino’s website, so always check there first. If they are lacking then you can check online for different codes and vouchers, though this can be frustrating.

Before I found the Tastecard trick, I would use a tool made by my mates Deepak and Tom rather than a random Google search. Enter your postcode into their Domino’s voucher finder and you’ll find all the codes which work at your local. They might not all work, but they’re worth a go.

Free Tastecard & Gourmet Society trials & offers (May 2021)

February 19, 2019   |   Articles

How to beat broadband price hikes

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It’s not all bad news when your broadband provider increases prices. You’ve got an opportunity to see if you can get a better deal.

When you sign up for something, you expect the prices to stay the same while you’re in contract. But sadly the likes of BT, Sky and Virgin don’t agree.

We’ve seen broadband bills jump up at least every 12 months, if not more, over the last few years, despite the actual costs for the companies actually falling. No doubt we’re subsidising the continued Premier League TV coverage price war.

And it’s already happening in 2019, with Sky announcing an average increase of 5% from April. Others will likely follow with their own increases.

But what can you do about it? Well if you’ve been plagued by substandard internet connections, the increase is often a chance to get out of your contract. And even if you’re happy with the service you get you might be able to use an increase to save money.

Your rights when broadband prices go up

Price hikes usually mean you can leave penalty free – even if you’re still within the minimum contract period.

To do this you need to let your provider know that you wish to leave, usually within 30 days of being notified of the increase. You will have to wait until you’ve had that letter or email informing you of the increase. You’ll also have to give notice.

If you’re out of contract then you can leave at any time, though you will also have to give notice, normally a month.

However before you do this, find out if you’ll get a refund on anything you’ve paid up front for, like a 12-month line rental saving package with BT.

Get a better deal

This is a good opportunity to see what you can save – either by moving to a cheaper company or negotiating for a discount. So it pays to research not just what you’ll be paying after the increase, but also what other offers are out there. You could cut your bill by hundreds of pounds each year.

Switch to a different provider

Some of the best deals are for new customers. Sign up via a cashback site and you can get as much as £180 back. Plus you can usually combine these with other promotions. So when I switched to Virgin a few months ago, I was given a huge discount on a super fast connection for the first year.

> How to save on broadband and phone bills

Haggle for a discount

Once you’ve done your research on competitor’s deals, call up your current supplier and tell them you’re thinking of leaving as a result of the price hikes. You should be able to haggle a discount or some extras.

I managed to get my fibre broadband bill with BT down to £5 a few years ago this way. If I’d wanted I could have got a discount on TV or BT Sport too but I decided instead it was cheaper to axe the TV service completely and get deals on NOW TV passes.

Cancel and get your partner to join as a new customer

A final option if you want to stay with the same company, and are willing to get a new landline number, is to cancel your contract and get your partner to sign up as a new customer. He/she can then get all the savings you get as a newbie, but you shouldn’t see any gaps in service. And don’t forget the cashback!

The danger of TV and mobile bundle deals

If you’ve got TV with your broadband, then it’s unlikely you’ll be able to quit your contract when broadband prices go up – even if TV prices are going up too. If this applies to you it’s worth calling up and seeing what can be done. Even if they let you separate the two contracts so you can continue your TV service but switch your broadband, be prepared for a price hike. That’s because there could well be a discount on your TV because you have other services via the same company. 

It’s not just pay TV. When BT hiked prices a couple of years ago, I not only had my phone and broadband through the telecoms giant, I also had my mobile phone contract. 

As part of being a BT customer I got £5 off my monthly mobile bill. So if I was to leave BT I’d still be in contract with BT Mobile, but would have to pay the extra £5 a month. In the end we followed the last tip above. Becky signed up as a new BT customer and I transferred my mobile account over. So we got big discounts as newbies and I kept my £5 saving.

How to cut the cost of your broadband and landline bills

February 6, 2019   |   Articles

The ways hotel booking sites could mislead you

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Hidden charges, overseas fees and pressure tactics could all make your hotel stay more expensive.

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Contents

Some articles on the blog contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund the blog. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or the blog’s independence. Read more here.

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I’ve been using sites such as Booking. com and Expedia for years to find hotel rooms, and I’ve made some decent savings as a result.

But there are the odd little things on these and similar sites which have caught me out. And I’m not alone. The government’s Competitions & Markets Authority (CMA) has completed an investigation into misleading prices and results on sites like these. As a result six of the largest booking websites – Booking. com, Expedia, Trivago, Hotels. com, eBookers and Agoda have agreed to stop these practices.

But they don’t have to implement these until September 2019, so until then you could still get caught out. Plus there are many other booking sites who are yet to agree to these voluntary principles.

So here are a few things I’ve noticed some hotel booking sites do that could end up costing you more money.

Are hotel booking sites misleading you? What you need to watch out for

Hiding extra charges

Often the price you see displayed isn’t the total cost.

In the UK our tax (for hotels it’s VAT) is included, but it’s often added as extra overseas. I’ve just been to the USA and each State there will have a hotel tax, while many cities will have a city tax on top.

What’s frustrating is some sites will include this in the total price, while others will hide it elsewhere on the page. Confusingly, some sites do both depending on where you’ve clicked from.

I had this with Booking. com recently. Direct to the site prices were without tax, yet via comparison site Kayak (where I’d selected “all in” prices), the fees were included.

You might also find you have to pay “resort fees”, while Wi-fi, breakfast, parking are all often extra too.

All this information could be much, much clearer.

Charging you in the local currency

Longtime readers will know I’m well prepared to avoid currency conversion fees. But even with my selection of fee-free cards I’ve still managed to get caught out a couple of times.

There are a number of ways this can happen:

  • Though many hotels with free cancellation won’t charge you at the time of booking, some do – and it’s not always clear what currency you’ll be paying in. Booking. com for example makes the pound price most prominent.  Yet when I booked for Las Vegas recently, on the final page, in smaller letters further down that it’s easy to miss, it says you’ll pay in the properties currency. It could be, and should be so much clearer.
  • One booking I made with Expedia was listed as pounds, until I selected to pay with Amex. Then a small extra line appeared on the screen offering me the choice to pay in dollars or pounds. It wasn’t obvious that the extra option appeared, and the dollars option was pre-selected. It’s very easy to miss things like this and just click “Buy Now”. Again, it should be clearer – and more consistent!

expedia currency

  • The sites might ask for a card to hold the room, though at the same time making a big thing of “you won’t be charged for making this booking”. However if you don’t provide a different card when you check-out, it’s the first the card that will be charged – and that might come with heavy currency conversion fees. And even if you offer a different card at check-in, make sure that’s the one used. I found out too late that a hotel used the one from Booking. com rather than the one I gave them, costing me an extra £12.
  • Also, remember that any price for an overseas hotel quoted in pounds can go up and down with the exchange rates if you haven’t prepaid.

Sadly these variations seem down to the hotel you choose, rather than the booking site – meaning it’s going to be different every time you book, even if you use the same website for all your bookings. So you need to vigilant here.

Inflating discounts

Often when I search for hotels, it’s easy to be tempted by the biggest discount – and potentially pay more than I intended to get a “nicer” room. That sometimes works out and you get a real bargain.

But hotels notoriously have very fluid pricing. Weekends and peak seasons will generally cost a lot more than less popular times. So the 60% discount you’re seeing for a Tuesday might be the standard midweek price. And if you’re influenced by discount rather than price, you could get easily spend more than you need to.

Not putting the best deals at the top

The hotels you see at the top of a search result are likely there because the hotel has paid to be or offers a higher commission! So always change the order of the results to see all the options.

I tend to filter by review scores (usually 7 out of 10 and above), then order by price from low to high.

Pressuring you to book

These sites all use similar tricks: “only two rooms left!”, “This hotel has been booked 17 times today”, “77 people are looking at your location right now”.

It’s all there to push you to book now and not search elsewhere. But a lot of the time, people are looking at different dates to you. So take this with a pinch of salt.

If you are worried about rooms selling out then look for free cancellation. This way you’re protected if your plans change.

How to get an extra discount when using hotel booking websites

Despite all the issues above, I’ll still make most of my bookings via one of these websites – usually Booking.com or Expedia. Though price and the ability to cancel for free are big factors, I’m also able to knock the price down further by going via cashback sites.

The rates you get from TopCashback and Quidco vary from week to week, but it’s often possible to get 4% back at Booking. com and as much as 10% back from Expedia. A word of warning – as with any cashback purchase you might not get the money. It’s rare this happens, but sometimes sales don’t track, or they track at the wrong rate. So always make a note of when you clicked and the rate you are expecting so you can put in a claim.

> Not signed up to Topcashback or Quidco? Get a new member bonus of up to £16 here!

Want more hotel booking tips? Read my article below.

My tricks to save money on flights

January 28, 2019   |   Articles

All-in-one card Curve now takes American Express – should you get it?

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Adding your Amex to your Curve card means you can now spend with your American Express everywhere – and still earn points or cashback. It seems like a win-win but is it too good to be true?

* Update: This Amex partnership lasted just one day before American Express pulled out. Curve is apparently trying to resolve the situation. I’ll update here if anything changes *

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Contents

  • How to use American Express cards everywhere with Curve
  • What else you get with Curve
  • Why Curve’s Amex solution doesn’t quite work
    • Curve’s fees and charges
    • There’s an alternative cashback credit card
  • Why you should still give Curve a try

Some articles on the blog contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund the blog. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or the blog’s independence. Read more here.

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I quite like the Curve card, as I shared in my review last year. It allows me to carry a single card with me rather than all my Mastercard and Visa debit and credit cards, yet I can still choose which account the transactions are actually charged to.

Until now the main issue has been you couldn’t link American Express cards, but that’s now changed, along with a few other updates – including to the Curve pricing. This means you can now spend on your Amex anywhere, even retailers that don’t accept the card provider.

It sounds great, so I’ve looked into how it works – and whether you’re better off looking at alternatives.

How to use American Express cards everywhere with Curve

When you add a Mastercard or Visa card to your Curve app, you are using the Curve card in the same way you’d use Apple or Google Pay on your smartphone or use Paypal online. The Curve card is essentially just a middleman.

With Amex it’s different. Once you add your credit card you are provided with an Amex wallet. This needs to be topped up by transfer from your Amex. So add £100, and a charge of £100 will appear on your Amex bill, and you’ll have a pot of £100 to spend on Curve. There’s no fee from American Express for doing this, and any top-ps will earn you the points or cashback as if you’d spent the money in a shop.

There could however be a charge from Curve for topping up. This depends on which Curve card you have. If it’s the basic Blue Curve card there’s a 0.65% fee. With the Black Curve card the fee only applies if you top-up by more than £1,000 a month. This card also comes with a £9.99 a month fee. The top-end Metal Curve doesn’t have any charges, but will cost you £14.99 a month, or £150 for a year. More on these cards in a bit.

To spend your Amex wallet you need to select it via the Curve app before spending with your Curve card. This is the same as you would when choosing any card you have connected to Curve. It’s easy once you get used to it. Since the Curve card is a Mastercard, you can then use it pretty much anywhere – even shops which don’t take Amex.

What you also get with Curve

My review explains some of the basic features, but you get limited fee-free spending and cash withdrawals abroad and you can earn cashback at selected retailers when you join for the first three months.

You also now get worldwide travel insurance and gadget insurance with both Curve Black and Curve Metal, while the Metal version also gives you car collision damage waiver insurance. You can see a full comparison of the different Curve cards here.

Why Curve’s American Express solution doesn’t quite work

So why am I not excited about this? I feel it’s a case of the Emperor’s new clothes. If you are an Amex fan this sounds amazing, but once you crunch some numbers it’s a huge disappointment.

The top-up fee and monthly Curve card price

Remember, you’d want to use your actual Amex card in places that accept American Express to get the best cashback or reward rate. So any Curve spending is just at places that only take Visa and Mastercard.

For these purchases you need to factor in the fees and monthly charges when working out how much better off you’ll be. And your cashback rate will be hit. For example, with the basic Blue Curve card, knocking the 0.65% off your cashback or rewards rate could at worst mean you’re losing money (if your Amex earns 0.5%), and at best earning an extra 0.85% (if your Amex earns 1.25%).

I’ve worked out the following, assuming you’re earning 1% on your American Express credit card.

Curve Blue (free)

  • Spend £100 a month via your Amex wallet and you’ll gain £4.20 a year
  • Spend £1,000 a month and you’ll gain £42 a year
  • Spend £1,250 a month and you’ll gain £52.50 a year

Curve Black (£9.99 a month)

  • Spend £100 a month via your Amex wallet and you’ll lose £107.88 a year
  • Spend £1,000 a month and you’ll break even
  • Spend £1,250 a month and you’ll gain £10.50 a year

Curve Metal (£150 a year)

  • Spend £100 a month via your Amex wallet and you’ll lose £138 a year
  • Spend £1,000 a month and you’ll lose £30 a year
  • Spend £1,250 a month and you’ll break even

Now, at first sight, the Blue card looks good whatever your spend, and when you factor in the free insurance with the Black and Metal cards, higher spends look good too.

But these figures change drastically when you factor in an Amex alternative.

You can get 0.5% cashback elsewhere

One of the cards in my arsenal is the Tandem credit card. You earn 0.5% cashback on all spending AND you can use it overseas fee-free. It’s essentially my back-up for when I can’t use my Amex or when I go abroad.

In each example above, you’d be better off paying with the Tandem Mastercard rather than adding money to an Amex wallet via Curve.

Say you spend £1,000 a month on Tandem, you’ll earn £60 a year in cashback. That’s £60 more than if you’d used the Amercian Express wallet via a Curve Black, and £90 more than if you’d used the Curve Metal.

The profits with Tandem are smaller when compared versus the Blue Curve card, but you still make more cashback.

And this doesn’t mean you need to carry an extra card around – I’ve got my Tandem linked to my Curve card and only carry the actual Tandem card with me when I go abroad.

The insurance could be better

Of course, this hasn’t factored in the free insurance with the paid Curve options. But that still doesn’t quite balance out, as I think you’ll get a better deal by using the Tandem cashback card for non-Amex purchases and buying your insurance elsewhere.

You might not just get it cheaper, you might get better coverage too – only the Metal version includes baggage and personal belongings cover.

Huge spenders could benefit

There are a couple of times when I think the Amex trick using a Metal Curve card can work out in your favour. First is if you are earning 1.25% on your American Express (the Platinum Cashback card reaches this level after you’ve spend £10,000 on it in a year). From that point onwards, you’ll earn more cashback via the Amex wallet on Curve Blue rather than Tandem.

The other is if you are regularly making large payments you can’t use Amex for. So if you’re spending £2,500 a month, or £30,000 a year, outside of your Amex then you will earn the same amount of cashback after the fees as via Tandem AND you’ll get the free insurances. I can only really see this applying to businesses, but things like tax returns, rent and car payments could possibly boost non-Amex spending areas.

Why you should still give Curve a try

So, though I don’t think it’s worth using the Amex wallet via Curve to use your American Express card everywhere, I do think the Curve card is worth a look.

You get a free £5 credit

If you download the app and sign up with the code 25PBH you’ll receive £5 credit to your rewards wallet which you can spend as you like.

You get 1% cashback at the start at shops like Apple, Ikea and John Lewis.

For the first three months, new customers get to select from a list of retailers to earn an additional 1% cashback, on top of anything you earn on your linked card or Amex wallet. Curve Blue customers can choose three, while Black and Metal can pick six from a longer list.

You can slim down your wallet

In my wallet right now I have my American Express card and my Curve card. That’s it.

It’s a great backup card for going abroad

Though I’ll take my Tandem credit card and Starling debit card with me overseas as my main cards, the Curve card is a handy and free option to have with you.

The best cashback and reward credit cards (May 2021)

January 22, 2019   |   Articles

Fix your finances in 2019 part 4: Get the best deal

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By paying less for your everyday services you’ll have more money in your pocket to spend or save.

In this final part of my January series to help you start the year getting a hold on your finances, I’m looking at the simple ways you can boost your income by getting the best deal every time you spend money.

Set aside half a day, or spread it out over the next few months, to do the following, and you’ll cut the cost of your bills and get better value of your spending. In total, you could easily be a grand better off thanks to all of these.

1. Switch your bank for a cash bonus

If you’ve never switched bank, you really should. It’s possible to get £150 paid into your new account at the moment just for moving from one bank to another. And you can do this again, and again, and again. You can read about the current deals in my regularly updated guide.

2. Open up another bank account

And once you’ve switched for a bonus, you can also open up more accounts to take advantage of other incentives – cashback on bills and interest on savings.

I wrote last week about the best places to put your savings, with a handful of current accounts offering the highest rates right now. You don’t need to switch to get these interest rates, though you might have to have a couple of active direct debits or pay in a certain amount each month.

You also don’t need to switch to have an account that pays cashback on your bills. Both Santander and Natwest offer these accounts. They do come with a fee, but you should easily clear it and make more on top if all your bills are paid out of this account. Of course if you don’t switch you do need to manually change all the direct debits.

3. Switch your bills

Next up, look to move your energy, mobile phone, insurances, internet and TV deals to cheaper providers. Sometimes this is as simple as switching who provides the utility. For others it might require a little bit more effort, but whatever you choose it’ll be worth it.

> My guide to switching energy

> My guide to switching mobile phone

> My guide to switching insurance

> My guide to switching internet provider

> My guide to switching TV 

4. Sign up to cashback sites

Right, now on to day-to-day shopping – though you can also use the following to save on your bills.

Every time you shop online you should go via a cashback wesbite. These sites will pay you for clicking from them to the retailer’s online shop. Though the amounts are often small, they really add up over the year.

The top two are Quidco and TopCashback, and if you’ve not signed up to them yet, there are bonus deals of between £10 and £16 available on your first purchase.

5. Get a cashback credit card

You should also consider getting and using a cashback credit card. I use these for everything and get between 0.5% and 1.25% back on each full pound I spend – it’s easily worth £150 on a normal year. My fave is from American Express – particularly as you can get 5% back for the first three months as a new customer. Here’s my guide to how they work and which ones to look at.

Of course this only works if you can clear the full balance every month. If that sounds unlikely then you should probably avoid most credit cards, not just the cashback ones.

Missed a previous part in this series? Catch up via the links below

https://becleverwithyourcash.com/fix-your-finances-part-3-sort-out-your-savings/

How to quickly clear your credit card debt

Fix your finances in 2019 pt1: Know your money

January 17, 2019   |   Articles

Are you oversharing on social media?

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It’s easy to reveal more about yourself online than you realise – and that could help scammers and hackers.

This week a couple of blogging friends shared one of those little games that are so popular on Facebook. This one used your answers to tell you “Who you are”. The month you were born decided the first part of the answer, and the second part depended on which four-day date range your birthday fell into. So someone born between 12th and 15th of February would be a “Short Princess”, whereas 24th to 27th June would be a “Giant Unicorn”. Then you’re asked to post your answer in the comments below the picture.

Harmless fun right? Well, maybe not.

What those answers really reveal

Think about the information the quiz asks for.

By reading the comments posted for this game, I can work out the poster’s birthday within four days.

Ok, you might be thinking “What can they with just part of my birthday?”. Maybe nothing. But think about when you’ve had to go through security on the phone and date of birth has been one of the questions – particularly when asked for a four-digit memorable code.

People are rightly concerned when this kind of personal data is stolen in hacks like the ones on TalkTalk, Uber and Equifax, but they’re happy to share similar information when it’s presented as a bit of fun.

And this is done is in huge numbers. At the time of writing the game I mentioned above had 39,000 comments – and that’s just on one Facebook page. There will be many, many more comments on threads where people have shared the image.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this kind of data harvesting. When Facebook first started a popular one was to find your “pornstar name”. There were a few versions of this but the most common one was first pet’s name followed by mother’s maiden name. Oh, how we all laughed. Go on, do it now. It’s either very funny or incredibly dull (which is also funny). But don’t share it. Because, surprise surprise, do that and you’ve given away two key security questions.

Giving away access (and your data) to games and apps

You could also be giving away more information than you realise when you add extras to your Facebook account. By giving permission to apps, games and permissions you need to agree to what you share.

Some will just want your name and email address. But others will want your friends list, birthday and location.

The risk here is the game has only been created to get your data. And once you’ve given permission for Facebook to share it, those scammers can use the info against you or sell it to others.

The personal information we’re not even tricked into revealing

Social media was named as such because it’s about being social. And that means we’re likely to celebrate and share the things we love. Favourite bands and sports teams, pet names, family connections, anniversaries – even where we went to school. You might even proudly display your full date of birth including the year.

Do these all sound familiar? Yup, they’re all common security questions.

How to stop scammers finding your data on social media

As well as using the information you share to try to bypass security on your accounts, it could be used against you in other ways.

Often small parts of data can be merged with data found elsewhere to build up a bigger profile of you and your information. There could even be enough out there for people to steal your identity.

So how can you minimise this happening?

Well the first thing to do is make sure your social media accounts are locked down. Limit your Facebook page just to people you actually know, and then go through removing the obvious security risks such as your date of birth. You can remove your birthday on Twitter too.

Then just be careful about the games and quizzes you take part in. If any part of the question appears to reveal personal data, don’t take part. And only give access to any of your account data to brands you trust. On Facebook you can check which apps you’ve given access to.

Other ways oversharing could affect you

I’ve written about how I never reveal on social media if I’m on holiday or away from my house if there’s no one at home. The danger is you’re effectively advertising to thief’s that there’s an empty home ripe for a break in.

It has also been known for employers and recruiters to check social media accounts of prospective employees. Anything dodgy and there’s little chance you’ll get the job.

And sometimes old tweets and posts can come back to haunt you. It seems every month or so a footballer, politician or celebrity has to apologise for something they said online. To be fair most of these examples tend to be racist, homophobic or misogynistic and I’ve few issues with those people being exposed. But you might want to audit your accounts for anything you regret typing, and deleting as appropriate.

Facebook hacking checklist: how to protect your data