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April 24, 2015   |   Deals

Cheap Blur, Kylie and Strokes tickets

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Get joint tickets to two of the British Summer Time concerts in Hyde Park for £99, saving as much as £35

Groupon are selling cut price tickets to see Blur, The Stokes or Kylie in London this June when you buy them two together.

I’m a huge music fan, and would be heading to the Strokes and Blur ones if I didn’t already have plans – especially at this price!

Your options are:

  • Blur and The Strokes – £99, saving £35
  • Blur and Kylie – £99, saving £28
  • Kylie and The Strokes – £80, saving £28

You select and buy the tickets via the link below. You can buy one, two, three or four in one purchase. You’ll then be sent a code to redeem at axs.com.

There will be an extra booking fee of £7.40 per ticket (that’s a few quid less than buying them seperately) and a £2.75 postage fee for each booking. You pay this when you redeem your code.

>> LINK: Buy cheap British Summer Time tickets from Groupon

The tickets for The Strokes and Beck are normally £59 plus fees on Thursday 18th June.

Tickets for Blur, Metronomy and more on Saturday 20th June are usually £75 plus fees on their own.

 Tickets to Kylie with Mika and others on Sunday 21st June also have a face value of £53

 

April 1, 2015   |   Articles

Easter Sunday Trading

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Don’t get caught out by shut shops over Easter

It would go like this. I’d pop out to the shops to pick up some bits for lunch or dinner only to find everything shut. Everything. This would happen to me each year without fail. The reason I would get caught out- it was Easter Sunday. But this year it’s going to be different. I am prepared, and you can be too.

Easter Sunday and Christmas Day are the only days of the year where shops in England and Wales have to shut by law. The exception is any shop that is under 280 square meters and service stations. They can open for as long as they want – including normal Sundays. That means alongside your newsagents and corner shops, most of the Tesco Metro, Sainsbury’s Local and similar mini chains have their doors open for business.

So if you need something for an Easter roast this weekend and don’t have a smaller shop nearby, don’t leave it to the last minute.

If you’re heading to the cinema, museum or other entertainment venue they’ll probably be open as usual. The best advice is to check online before heading out.

Easter Monday isn’t regulated by any law, though many companies do open for shorter hours, or even close.

March 24, 2015   |   Articles

Meerkat Movies – how to get a year of 2 for 1 cinema tickets for less than £1.40

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Orange Wednesday is dead, long live Meerkat Movies! Get 2-4-1 cinema tickets every Tuesday and Wednesday with this trick.

When Compare the Market announced it was replacing EE as the sponsor of buy one get one free cinema tickets I’ve got to admit I was sceptical. You’d need to buy a product through them to be eligible, and there are far cheaper ways to get insurance out there.

But checking through the terms and conditions and I’ve found that you only need to pay £1.37 and you’ve got access to the deal for a full 12 months!

How Meerkat Movies works

When you buy any product through Compare the Market you are able to use the policy number to unlock the code on your app. Each week you can claim a code to show at the cinema. The cheapest ticket will be free, and most cinemas will charge extra for 3D or premium seating.

You are limited to one code per week. Unlike EE Wednesdays, Meerkat Movies codes can be used on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.

The deal starts on April 3rd 2015.

Keep reading for how to get it for less than £1.50

>> Don’t forget to read my ultimate guide to cheap cinema tickets with all the other ways to save at the movies

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How to get Meerkat Movies for £1.37

** UPDATE 15/4/15: the lowest price has now gone up to just over £2 – still a great deal though! **

To get the two for one movies deal you must buy a qualifying purchase through Compare the Market. You can probably get most of these cheaper through cashback sites like Topcashback and Quidco.

However if you get one day travel insurance in the UK, you should see a £1.37 offer from ERV. Buy this and enter the policy code in the iOS or Android app. The app will be activated and you’ll get able to get an additional free ticket to the cinema every week for a year.

It’s possible you might be quoted more as age and other factors could change the quote. But most should see it for around £2.

>> LINK: Buy a one day travel policy from Compare the Market

Other ways to get the offer

The deal is backdated for the last 12 months, so if you’ve bought a policy through the site in that time, you’ll be able to use the app up until the one year anniversary of buying the policy. You cannot have previously claimed a meerkat toy.

The full eligible policies are:

  • bought car insurance, motorcycle insurance, van insurance, contents and/or buildings insurance, pet insurance, life insurance, landlord insurance or travel insurance;
  • switched energy (gas and/or electric), broadband, home telephone or digital TV;
  • obtained a credit card or loan.

 

March 24, 2015   |   Articles

Seven ways to get cheap cinema tickets

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If you’re a film fan, there’s nothing like watching on the big screen. But prices can be high. So here are my seven ways to get cheap cinema tickets.

1. Check for deals

Keep an eye on my special cinema deals page so keep an eye on there for the latest discounted offers! Recently there’s been five Odeon tickets for £25 and two tickets for independent cinemas for £11.

2. Get an extra discount

Student, pensioner or unemployed? You’ll probably get a discount, though not necessarily at peak times.

NUS card holders can get an additional 25% off student prices at Odeon. And you don’t have to be a student to get the card – here’s how!

Book Cineworld tickets online and you’ll save 10%.

For a full list of discounts at the different chains, read my Ultimate guide to cheap cinema tickets.

3. Go midweek

For just £1.37 you can buy a travel insurance policy that gives you access to Meerkat Movies – two for one tickets on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Here’s my full guide to this trick.

Vue, Odeon, Picturehouse and Cineworld all offer cheap tickets on Monday or Tuesday, cutting the price by up to 33%, while most cinemas have cheaper off peak prices. Other cinemas also often have something similar.

4. Be Loyal

Most of the time I’ll say shop around and don’t be loyal – but this time real savings can be made.

If you have a Picturehouse cinema near you, a membership gets you three free tickets then a discount on each further ticket you buy. Membership and ticket prices vary from venue to venue, but you could be even after six visits. You’ll also get money off at the bar and occasional free previews.

Curzon and independents such as London’s Prince Charles Cinema also have membership schemes.

Cineworld annual passes could be worth it if you go a lot, but not if you end up going for the sake of it.

5. Go for free

Sign up for ShowFilmFirst and keep an eye on papers and magazines for news of free previews. You’ve a better chance outside London as seats are like gold dust in the capital.

Students can join the E4 Slackers Club for monthly previews.

6. Use your points

Buy cheap tickets for Odeon and Cineworld with Tesco Clubcard points. Check terms and conditions as they might not be valid in all venues (especially London).

Other memberships, including Gourmet Society and Taste Card sell discounted tickets, while Times Plus and Sun+ members can get 2 for 1 Odeon at weekends. Times Plus also offers half price Picturehouse memberships.

7.  Watch new releases at home

If you’re a fan of indie, world and art house movies, you can now see many well reviewed films at home on the day of their release in the cinema! This is great if you’ve only got a multiplex showing the big mainstream releases.

You’ll pay between £6 and £10 on sites like Curzon and Blinkbox.com. Though you can get cinema tickets for less through the tips above, it’ll bring the costs down for a group.

March 21, 2015   |   Articles

Budget 2015 basics – the six things you need to know

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Will it make a difference to you?

Last Wednesday saw the chancellor reveal his fifth budget, and the last one before May’s General Election. It wasn’t the “giveaway” that many had predicted, and behind the gags aimed at Ed Milliband, most of the changes announced won’t be relevant to us normal folk, at least not on a day-to-day basis.

There were a few changes though that it’s worth knowing about – here are my top six.

1. Less tax for savers

At the moment you pay 20% tax on most of your savings (40% if you are a high earner). It gets automatically deducted by your bank and pretty much the only way to avoid this is with an ISA.

From April next year, everyone will be able to make £1,000 interest tax-free in normal accounts. I’m always going on about making sure you’re using the high interest bank accounts to get the most cash, and this means you’ll make even more.

The question is, will anyone need an ISA after this? £1,000 is a LOT of money to make on savings (eg you’d need £50,000 at 2%).

If you do have an ISA, another change this autumn will mean you’ll be able to withdraw money and then pay it back in without it affecting your £15,240 allowance. This is a good thing!

There’s also going to be a new Help-to-Buy ISA for any first-time home buyers. From the autumn, the government will top up savings in these accounts by 25%, up to a maximum of £3,000. You’ll only be able to save a maximum of £200 a month and it would take over four years to save the max possible. Still, it’s free money if you fit the criteria.

If you have money to save, you can read my thoughts about whether you should get an ISA or a high interest current account.

2. Less tax for workers

We already knew that the amount of money you earn before you pay Income Tax (called the Personal Allowance) will go up from £10,000 to £10,600 this April. In this Budget, the chancellor announced that it’ll go up by another £200 next April, and £200 again the year after. Each £100 it rises is worth £20, so by 2018, that’s an £200 we’ll all take home in our paypack.

The minimum wage will go up by 20p from October, good news for any low earners.

If you are a “Higher-earner” – basically anyone who currently earns more than £41,866 – you have to pay 40% tax on earnings over that amount. From April this won’t kick in until you earn above £42,385, which means you’ll pay £104 less in tax. It’ll go up again to £43,300 in April 2017.

If this all sounds confusing, I’ve written a guide to explain your payslip.

3. Less tax for drivers & drinks, more for smokers.

A planned petrol tax increase due in September has been cancelled. That’s meant to be worth around £10 a tank.

Beer will be 1p cheaper a pint, while the tax on cider and spirit will go down by 2%.

Just because both will be cheaper doesn’t mean you should be doing it at the same time!

Smokers though will still have to pay more as the already planned rise will go ahead.

4. There’s a new £1 coin

From 2017 we’ll all be using a 16 sided coin rather than the normal rounds ones. It’s to tackle forgeries. Though I’m pretty sure vending machine and supermarket trolley companies won’t be too happy!

5. More freedoms for people with a pension

From next year, anyone who has already cashing in their pension pot and bought an annuity will be able to sell it for a cash lump sum. Whether that’s a good idea or not is another matter!

6. Less hassle for anyone who fills in a Self-Assessment tax return

They’re going to gradually replace these with digital accounts, hopefully making it a lot easier for people to work out how much they owe. It’ll start in the new year but take five years to finish.

 

 

March 16, 2015   |   Articles

HSBC Advance current account – is it worth it?

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A new current account and linked accounts from HSBC offer up to £198 in extra interest payments over a year. Should you get one?

I’m a big believer that loyalty rarely pays in the banking sector, so if you can get a better deal with your current account elsewhere it’s worth looking in to. You can get switching bonuses, cashback and high interest  – read my 6 ways to make your bank pay you article for more details. So how does this new account measure up?

Pros

Open the HSBC Advance Bank Account and you’re eligible to open two customer only savings accounts.

1. High interest ISA

The first is the HSBC Loyalty Cash ISA. You get 1.5% AER which is good for instant access ISAs but not great compared to some current accounts from other banks. However, as long as you pay in a lump sum of £300 or a monthly payment of £25, you’ll have the account topped up by £10 every month for the first year. That’s a free £120.

If you miss a month, you won’t get the tenner for that month. Also, the 1.5% interest on the ISA will drop to 0.5% AER after the first year.

If have you already have an ISA with a low rate, you can transfer that money in. Read my ISA basics for a little more info.

2. High interest regular saver

You’ll also be able to open a 6% AER Regular Saver (it’s normally only 4%). This accounts let you pay in £250 every month for 12 months. If you do that for the whole year you’ll get £97.89 interest before tax on a final balance of £3,000, which is the equivalent of 3.26%.

It’s not a bad rate if you are saving month by month, though if you have a lump sum you can get better elsewhere.

In total that means at the end of a year you’ll have made around £198 in interest on £3,300 of cash, which works out as the equivalent of 6% after tax! Pretty good.

3. You don’t have to switch

Some accounts only give the free cash if you’ve switched and closed your old account. Here you don’t need to, so you can just open one as an extra account.

Cons

To get the HSBC Advance account you need first to pass a credit check (though that’s the case with all new accounts).

You also need to pay in £1,750 every month. That’s roughly an annual salary of £26,500 being paid in every month.

However you don’t need to keep that money in there. You can transfer it straight out again into another account (or to pay your rent and bills!) and have a balance of zero.

So is it any good?

I think it looks like a decent way to get some free cash, and all you need to do is remember to pay in the monthly minimum. I’m certainly going to sign up for one.

At the end of the 12 months I’ll either close it down or switch it to a bank that offers a £100 switching bonus!

There are lots of other accounts you can chose from though, so if you’re only planning on opening one you might be better with one of those.

Also I wouldn’t switch to this account. Halifax have a deal right now with a £125 bonus and £5 a month in interest. That’s going to be a lot easier!

 

 

March 12, 2015   |   Articles

Why my pub lunch proves checking your receipt can pay

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Are you paying too much from pricing errors?

Last month there was a story in the papers of a lady who’d not checked the total on the card reader when entering her pin. Rather than £35, she’d agreed to pay £35,000!!!

That was a freak event, but it’s easier than ever, especially for small amounts where you pay for contactless. How often do you actually check your receipts or bill totals when paying?

I’m admittedly a little bit anal when making sure I pay the right amount, but even I can get caught out.

A few weeks back I went for a ‘team lunch’ with some colleagues from my 9-5. I’ve written before about the awkwardness of splitting the bill evenly (and why you shouldn’t ever feel you have to if you can’t afford it), and fortunately I was with some like minded people.

What surprised us wasn’t that we’d been charged for things we didn’t order (something it’s worth always checking for). Checking the bill, we’d actually been charged more for most of the dishes!  Five of our seven dishes were all billed at higher prices than listed on the menu, ranging from 25p extra on a fish finger sandwich to a crazy £2 markup on a cheese board.

receipt

If we’d just looked at the total and split it seven ways, we’d all have paid extra. Ok, so it wasn’t a huge amount. Maybe just £4.50 total. But if we’d had starters, desert or drinks it could easily have been much more.

(Side note – the pub easily had 100 covers for lunch. If they overcharged everyone, they’d have made a decent cut over a whole day, week and more. Not good! For info it was The Last near Chancery Lane)

It can be hassle, but I’d recommend always asking for a receipt (including when you use contactless at the pub) and checking you’ve been charged the right amount.

If you find there’s a mistake, say as soon as you notice. It’s best if it’s before you pay or just after, but it’s worth following up even days or weeks after.

Again this was only small change, but a few times I’ve been caught out at supermarkets when reduced items have gone through full price. With one item that should have been 45p coming up as £4, I used online chat with Tesco to let them know what happened. Five minutes later I was offered a full refund and double the pricing error.

You might not want to bother with small amounts, but little savings are well worth getting if they’re not much hassle. They really can add up over the weeks and months.

>> It’s also worth checking your bank statements. Find out how there can be hundreds of pounds hidden for you to claim back

February 25, 2015   |   Articles

Do advert savings add up: Trainline

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When an advert promises you a better deal, can you trust it? From posters to papers, TV to tube,  I’ll be looking behind the slogans to see if there are savings. This week The Trainline.

There’s so much information out there that it’s easy to be overwhelmed, and even easier to be cynical. I don’t want to be cynical, but since I’m writing about money and consumer issues every day at work and then here on the blog, it’s easy for me to spot something that doesn’t ring true.

I saw this advert in the tube the other week. The Trainline.com promises you will “Save an average of 43% on train tickets with our app”. The clear message is that it’s the app that saves you money, and they have cheaper rail fares than anyone else.

Well it doesn’t and they don’t.

Pretty much any train website will save you money if you book in advance. That’s all it’s saying. There are no extra discounts for using the app or site.

>>Read my guide to saving money on train journeys 

If anything, the Trainline is one of the worst you can use due to its high booking and postage fees. It is the last train booking site that I would use to book a train ticket.

That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have uses. The app is free and easy to use. If you’re out and about and want to check train times or live departures it’s really good.

There’s also a very handy tool on their site which lets you register certain journeys you want to make. They’ll then email you as soon as tickets go on sale, helping you get the cheapest fare possible. I used this at Christmas, though I then booked elsewhere. Here’s my review.

My verdict? Bad ad!

February 24, 2015   |   Deals

Up to 25% off Debenhams Sale

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Debenhams are running an up to 25% off sale from Tuesday 24th February. It’s on most items in most departments, though some are at 20% off and beauty and electronics are limited to 10%.

It starts online today (Tuesday 24th) and in-store tomorrow (Wednesday 25th). It ends Sunday 1st March.

For an extra 10% off when you spend £30 try the code MZ46.

If you spend £40 or more, you’ll also get a £5 gift voucher to spend at a later date.

LINK: Save at Debenhams