✔️ No set-up or connection fees ✔️ Highly competitive prices ✔️ Unlimited usage ✔️ Exclusive rewards with Shell Go+ ✔️ Award-winning service
Switching is now easier than ever and a Which? report recently highlighted that 72% of UK customers have been with the same broadband provider for over 2 years and are overpaying for their service.
New industry rules have made it simpler than ever to switch, so now’s the time to make the most of this amazing deal from Shell Energy Broadband
Christmas is coming fast, as excitement builds, weather cools and evenings get darker, many will also be concerned about the cost of this year’s festivities.
The cost-of-living crisis is certainly going to make this Christmas another different one, just like Covid did the last couple of years.
So, how can you shop smarter and save some pennies this year?
Earn Cashback When You Shop
Basically your way of earning free money on your Christmas shopping.
Sites such as TopCashback are completely free to use and give you money back for your online purchases.
Some of the best Christmas cashback deals include:
15% at JD Sports
11% at Asda
12% at M&S
10% at Wilko
12% at Iceland
6% at Boohoo
Plus 10,000s more! But best of all you can get £10 cashback on a £10 spend and a massive £40 cashback when you refer a friend!
No matter where you’re shopping online, there’s a high chance a discount code is available. It’s worth joining newsletters of your favourite retailers to get exclusive email discount codes.
Hunting down codes can be a painful task but Swapi brings them all in to one place for you, with 1000s of brands, discount codes and cashback you can save on just about anything.
The 100% free app also has a handy online wallet also brings all your loyalty cards into one place, meaning you never miss those valuable points!
Christmas is a great time to spend those points you’ve been saving all year. Many of the top loyalty cards give you bonuses for spending the points at certain retailers, restaurants or venues.
For example, Tesco Clubcard points for every 50p worth of points you get £1.50 to spend in Pizza Express, TodayTix Theatre Tickets, Cineworld and many more.
Be Wary of Gift Cards
Whilst gift cards are often the easy-option, they are a particularly risky purchase. If the retailer was to go bust or into administration there’s a very high chance that you will be unable to spend the gift card.
Some gift cards also have surprisingly early expiry dates, we’ve seen as short as 6 months, if not spent in time, again you lose the balance.
Win-Win with Charity Shopping
Charity shops have made a great effort of “getting with the times”, many now stock brand-new items and are getting inundated with higher-quality donations.
Not only can you pick up great products at even better prices, you can support charities, many of whom are in desperate need during the current times.
Charities such as Oxfam now have online stores making it easier than ever to grab a bargain and support a great cause.
Don’t Break the Bank
Budgeting can be your best friend, we like to make a list (and check it twice) of everyone we need to buy a gift for, work out an appropriate budget and stick to it.
It’s also great to agree budgets with friends and family, many of us are looking to cut spends and people won’t be offended!
Secret Santa is another great way of saving some money, having a good laugh and keeping everyone happy. Use DrawNames to secretly select who everyone is buying for!
As costs rise on just about everything, especially energy bills, it’s now more important than ever to find cost-saving hacks that can help bring down those big bills.
So we want to help you find solutions, money-saving habits, products and help to manage the cost of pricey energy bills. We’ve put together a few tips and tricks we’ve picked up to try and help you save where you can.
They typically last for years so you shouldn’t have to replace them anytime soon making them an excellent investment, they’re also incredibly cheap to run at around 3p per hour.
In my experience I have found putting it on for a couple of hours is plenty to keep you warm for an evening, and you can turn it down or off and it’ll retain some heat for a while, and save even more on those bills.
You can also buy hoodie blankets to wear around the house, these are guaranteed to keep you warm!
Heaters & Radiators
Rather than powering up the costly boiler and heating the entire house, which is a huge cost on your energy bills, you might consider an Oil Filled Radiator.
According to Bennett; Oil Filled Radiators are the most efficient heating method as a whole, you can also just heat the room that you’re in or using. Which is great for if you work from home!
The EnergySavingTrust highlighted that draught-proofing your home can save around £125 per year, with the majority of this saving being made in the colder months.
Whilst professional proofing costs around £225, you can easily do it yourself with these draught kits from Amazon, available right here. Simply apply the self-adhesive strips around your doors and windows to help keep that heat in! This pack of 3 is the best price we can find online and will cover 15m of doors or windows.
Laundry
Investing in a heated clothes dryer could also be another solution for you. I recently purchased one from Aldi for around £40, they are also sold at Dunelm for the same price.
They may be a bit pricey at first but they are really cost-effective at around 50p for 8 hours of use, making them a great alternative to tumble dryers. They are also great for heating the room at the same time, so they really are worth the initial cost.
A bit of organisation can go a long way, so if you can, try and time your laundry days with the better-weather days. Drying your washing on a clothesline outside rather than using the tumble dryer will save you money, especially in Spring and Summer when your clothes will dry in a few hours on the line, maybe even quicker on a breezy day!
Electricity
Remember to switch things off at the plug! Many appliances still consume energy even if they are switched off (or left on standby), perhaps set a reminder on your phone before you go to bed to switch off your main appliances like your television, toaster, and lamps, it may only help you save a little but it’s a good habit to get into and every little helps!
It’s proven that this simple habit can save around £65 a year.
Washing Clothes – Washing at 30C rather than 40C can save you £34 per year.
Tumble Dryer: One of the least efficient appliances in the house, we try to avoid unless it’s very necessary.
Kettles – Another non-efficient appliance – avoid boiling more water than you require.
Remember, only use these tips and tricks if it is safe for you to do so, not everyone will be in a position to do all of these tips but hopefully, everyone will be able to try a couple of them to save a bit of money on bills.
**This money saving guide contains affiliate links from which SmartMoneySaver can earn commission on sales.
Broadband customers who fail to shop around at the end of their contracts can end up overpaying by as much as £220 a year*.
A Which? report found 72% of the broadband customers it questioned had been with their provider for more than two years and many were overpaying as a result.
They concluded, “switching providers was the best way to ensure a good value tariff”.
A message shared by the Ofgem, the government regulator who have said:
“We have been concerned about some broadband customers who pay high prices when their introductory offer has ended, meaning they are ‘out of contract’. Many of these customers could save money by negotiating a new deal with their existing provider or switching to a new one.”
While the broadband companies enjoy charging out of contract customers a ‘loyalty premium’, many consumers don’t make the switch as they think it will be time consuming or complicated.
But that is not the case.
Industry rules have made it simpler than ever to switch.
Most of the time your new Internet Service Provider will do the hard work.
Then the provider will automatically handover your service to the new supplier and cancel your old suppliers’ billings. Your existing landline number can be transferred and most times you won’t even need an engineer to visit.
✔️ Switching can save you money (or provide you with a new faster service)
✔️ If you are outside of contract then switching is usually free
✔️Industry rules make switching quick and easy
How does 3 Months FREE Broadband sound?
Simply click Start Saving Now to find out if you qualify for 3 Months Free Broadband with Shell Energy Broadband. Not only can you enjoy 90 days of totally free broadband, but the monthly costs after are highly competitive, making them a no-brainer for your new provider.
Checking and caring for your credit score is more important than ever as the cost-of-living crisis shows no signs of slowing down. The world of credit scores and checking has changed dramatically over the last few years with new companies making it easier than ever to check, protect and improve your rating.
Should I be paying to check my Credit Score?
The short answer, really, is no. There’s plenty of free services now available, whether that’s taking advantage of free trials or using entirely free services. The level of service and functionalities do vary between each provider so we’ve broken down some of our favourites here.
Enjoy a Free 30 Day trial to Experian’s most comprehensive service. With feature including Credit Boost, where you can boost your score, eligibility checker and real time access.
The free trial is only available once per member and can be cancelled any time within the 30 Day Trial. You can also downgrade to the Basic package, outlined below.
Great little free service for if you want to check up on your score less regularly. It’s free forever but will only update your score every 30 days and doesn’t include the extra features of the Expert account.
Their simple platform makes it easier than ever to check your score and this is often the checking platform that lenders will use. This means you can get accurate predictions on whether you’ll be accepted on loans and mortgages.
Once you know your score you may feel the need to either improve or protect it. We’ve outlined the quickest and most effective ways to do just this.
Avoid Multiple Loan or Credit Card Applications
Applying for credit cards and loans will often leave a negative mark against your credit score, doing many will ultimately harm your chances of being approved.
We’d strongly recommend using “soft search” tools such as GoCompare and Compare the Market, they take a lot of the hard work out of searching. You can quickly scan all the best deals whilst not damaging your overall credit rating. Best of all it will only show you loans/credit cards that are likely to approve you, in some cases you may even be ‘Pre-Approved’.
Never Miss Payments
It’s the easiest and most effective way of improving your credit score, even if it’s simply covering the minimum payment, always pay on time.
Credit Karma is a fantastic, 100% FREE service that we at SmartMoneySaver can’t recommend enough. This is especially the case if you’re credit score isn’t where you want it to be. It’s now home to over 100 million members.
Detailed analysis will show you what impacts your personal score and how you can improve it.
Know how you’re doing with it’s traffic light system analysis
Be notified of any changes to your score to help you quickly identify and combar the rising number of credit fraud attacks.
Personalise money-saving tips
Compare loans and credit cards that are likely to be approved based on your score
In the midst of rising energy bills, how can you save money in the kitchen?
With the rising energy costs, millions of us are looking at various ways of saving money on a daily basis. We find making small changes is often the best way to save money over longer periods of time.
At SmartMoneySaver we’ve broken down some of our favourite kitchen gadgets, tips and tricks that can help you save the pennies!
Reduce Oven Usage
The oven is easily the most expensive way of cooking your food, in terms of it’s energy consumption, with the microwave being the cheapest! Whilst you’ll always need your oven as your main cooking appliance, you can save a lot of money by introducing other products such as a slow cooker or air fryer.
This helpful table shows just how much you can save, with air fryer and slow cookers starting at around £30, you’ll still be making a massive saving over a period of time.
Air Fryers
AirFryers are quickly becoming a kitchen staple for millions of people, as shown above they’re fantastic energy savers, but they also provide a healthier way to cook. Using considerably less oil than regular frying, they help reduce fat and calorie intake, whilst still producing delicious results.
Automatic shut off feature for safety and power saving
Free Access to NutriU app, with over 200 recipes
Slow Cookers
Like we showed above, slow cookers use just 20% of the energy that a standard oven uses, but it can save you money in more ways. Because of the low and slow cooking method, you can make cheaper cuts of meat go much further as they’ll fully tenderise, some of my favourite dishes are Beef Bourguignon and Chicken Thigh Curry, both using more budget-friendly meat options and perfect meals as we come into the Autumn months!
Slow cookers are also incredibly cheap to buy, we wouldn’t recommend buying the very cheapest on the market as they often have very low cooking capacity (although they’re still great if it’s just for 1 person), there’s also very little point in spending over £50.
Cooking your meals in larger batches can save money and time in multiple ways.
First of all, bulk buying or buying in larger pack sizes is always cheaper by weight, not only that, you’ll only need to use your oven or appliance once, when you reheat, simply chuck the meal in the microwave (the most energy efficient cooking appliance).
We often have “use up weeks” in our house and can make a week’s worth of dinners just using leftovers. Note that meat should generally only be kept frozen for up to 3 months and always store & defrost safely.
Make the Most of Online Shopping Deals
Shopping online has it’s pros and cons, but if you’re smart about it, you can certainly save money. One of the better deals at the moment comes from Iceland who are offering Free Next Day Delivery on orders over £40, this is considerably better than other supermarkets. They’re also stacked with online exclusive offers and deals. Check them out here.
Defrost Fridge & Freezer
All the extra ice on the inside of the doors means your fridge and freezer have to work extra hard to keep things cold. You could save yourself over £100 a year by ensuring there’s as little excess ice as possible.
Wash on a Lower Temperature
Washing at 30C still ensures great results for general clothes washing and can use up to 40% less energy, with the current prices this equates to a huge annual saving.
Most machines and capsules work effectively at 30C, our current favourite is Smol and you can get a FREE pack of their environmentally friendly laundry tablets right here.
On Day 1 you save 1p, Day 2 you save 2p, 3p on Day 3 and so on. By the end of the year you could have a very nice £667.95 saved! Download the quick and easy guide by clicking right here.
2. Earn Cashback when you Shop Online
Always consider if you need to make online purchases if you’re looking to save money. But, if you do, then use an app or website like TopCashback, they receive a commission for you making a purchase, but share that commission very generously with you.
We find it particularly good for those purchases no one wants to make. This year alone, I earnt £45 cashback on broadband, £50 on my car insurance and just over £100 on my energy bills!
Best of all you can get £10 cashback on a £10 spend right here, choose from thousands of retailers. It’s a particularly good way of recouping some of the Christmas spending.
3. Switch your current account to earn cashback rewards
In the UK, on average, we stay with our bank for 17 years! This bizarre loyalty means that millions of us are missing out on the best deals as well as generous rewards.
Right now there’s some fantastic incentives to switch bank, our favourite currently is the Santander 123 Current Account. They’re offering £175 cashback for switching as well as 4% cashback on all utility bills!
Halifax are also offering a brilliant £150 to switch your current account to them, which is paid into your account within 10 working days! Their accounts also give you the chance to earn cashback when you shop across popular high street brands as well as 0% Interest Overdraft for the first 6 months of having the account.
4. Is it time to switch supermarket?
Just like bank accounts, us Brits become supermarket loyalists, with 38% of us remaining loyal to the same supermarket for longer than 5 years. The supermarket industry is more competitive than ever with Lidl and Aldi fully disrupting the traditional stores.
Which? Run monthly comparisons across all the major UK supermarkets, August 2022 average basket price is shown below, with Lidl and Aldi leading the race. The recent price-hikes have impacted all supermarkets, but Aldi & Lidl showed an average increase of 4%, whilst Waitrose was a massive 9%.
5. Free or Discounted Food App
Who said there’s no such thing as a free lunch? These apps are changing the old ways, by reducing food waste and helping people get free or heavily discounted food that’s close to expiry or use-by-date.
Our favourite 2 are:
Olio – Install the app now, home to 200 milion meals, in partnership with Tesco and many more huge retailers.
TooGoodToGo – Install the app now and start browsing 100s of discounted & free meals
6. Smart Money Saving Apps
Apps such as Snoop feature smart savings tools help you track your money, improve personal savings, cut your costs and achieve your savings goals.
Simply install the app using the links above, connect to your bank account in a couple of easy steps and watch your finances grow. With features such as automatic saving, budgeting to show where you spend your money and so much more. Snoop’s made it easier than ever to keep control of your finances.
All of these apps are financially regulated meaning you’re 100% safe and secure all of the time, making them great way to start saving now.
7. Top up your Income Online
There’s 100s of ways to top up your income online, from selling your unwanted items to completing online surveys, we’ve broken down a few of our favourites below.
Branded Surveys – Earn money completing fun and simple online surveys.
8. Don’t Overpay for your Phone Contract
We’ve become guilty of “needing” the latest smart phone over recent years, these come with extremely high costs and inflated contract deals. If you’re at the end of a long term deal, try not to be tempted by the latest phone and don’t allow your network to keep you tied down.
Sim Only deals are now better than ever, in our eyes VOXI (Vodafone) is leading the way, with huge data bundles, generous perks, monthly rewards and the best prices on the market for it all.
Perks of Sim Only Deals
Complete freedom of your package, cancel any time with no fixed terms
On average much cheaper than fixed contracts, helping you save money
Easily customise your monthly package to suit you, add data and other add-ons
Enjoy all the perks of regular contracts from the network provider
Change phone whenever you want
Easy to switch and keep your existing number
If you do wish to get the latest phone, it’s always worth checking how much you could get for your current handset with MusicMagpie!
In 2022 the FCA closed a case worth millions in compensation to the UK public, all to do with how car finance was sold to approximately 95% of UK car PCP (Personal Contract Purchase) agreements.
It was uncovered that thousands of car salesman were receiving commission from the finance companies who were behind the PCP Finance agreement, which often resulted in the sales person not pushing you the best deal, as they’d often earn more commission doing the opposite.
This resulted in hundreds-of-thousands of customers overpaying on their PCP deal, whilst the salesperson received inflated commissions. FCA Director, Jonathan Davidson, revealed that many customers would have overpaid by “over £1000” on their total deal. It is estimated that this mis-selling has cost the UK public around £300 million per year.
When the FCA conducted private mystery shopping inspections, they found only 11 of 122 dealers declared that they’d receive commission for the PCP agreement.
Whilst it’s not illegal for a salesperson to earn commission on these deals, under FCA regulations, it is illegal for them not to disclose the fact they earn off this.
Can I make a claim?
If you bought your car on a PCP Finance Agreement between January 2007 & October 2019, then you may be eligible to make a claim.
Your PCP agreement is considered as mis-sold if it matches any of the following:
The commission for the sales person was not fully disclosed
The lender or bank did not explain the commission
You (the customer) felt pressurised into a specific finance agreement
The PCP Payments were unrealistic and no background or finance check was completed
The salesperson skipped the Terms & Conditions of the finance agreement
This is very dependent of the loan and how much it is predicted that you have overpaid by. The larger the loan, the larger the compensation that you are owed, the longer you have been paying, the more you’re owed and the higher the interest rate, the more you’re owed.
If you believe that you have been mis-sold, then it’s important to act quickly. SmartMoneySaver’s simple claim checker helps you quickly find if you’re eligible to make a claim.
We’ll help you get in touch with the legal advisors who can handle the whole case for you, it’s highly recommended you seek professional legal help like this, to help you ensure you get the full compensation you deserve. Best of all, it involved no upfront fees and is a no-win-no-fee claims process.
Click the button below to get started with your claim today.
The half-term saw lots of people flock to the airports for much-needed holidays, for many this will have been the first chance to get on holiday since the pandemic first started. However, airlines have struggled to deliver on-time flights and it’s clear the airline industry was ill-prepared for a return to business as usual and is still feeling the effects of the pandemic. EasyJet, British Airways and Wizz Air all had to cancel numerous departing flights across various UK airports.
With flights getting cancelled with very little notice – some whilst holiday goers were waiting to check-in – there was a lot of disruption in airports. Those who were able to get on their flights may have faced long delays amid all the chaos at the airport.
If this was the case for you then it’s worth checking if you’re eligible for compensation as there’s a chance you may be able to claim back the cost of your flights and maybe even more, depending on how long you were delayed and how much notice you were given.
If you do plan on going on holiday during busy times, make sure you are prepared to expect potential delays or cancellations and disruptions to your holiday plans, and if you do face any delays, make sure to check your compensation eligibility, or see if you are due a refund.
Also, make sure you have travel insurance, you can check the best deals right here.
How much compensation am I entitled to?
If your flight was Delayed or Cancelled 7-14 days before departure:
Flight length
Time of alternative flight vs original light
Compensation amount
0 – 1,500km, for example, London to Paris
Leaves 2hrs+ before, Lands up to 2hrs after Lands 4hrs late. Or leaves 2hrs+ before, lands 2hrs+ after
£105
£210
1,500 – 3,500km, for example, London to Istanbul
Leaves 2hrs+ before, lands late -up to 3 hours after Lands 4hrs+ late. Or leaves 2hrs+ before, lands 3-4hrs after
£168
£337
3,500km+, for example, London to New York
Leaves 2hrs+ before, lands late – up to 4hrs after Lands 4hrs+ late
£253
£505
If your flight was Delayed or Cancelled less than 7 days before departure:
Flight Length
Time of alternative flight vs original flight
Compensation amount
0 – 1,500km, for example, London to Paris
Leaves 1hr+ before, lands up to 2hrs after Lands 2hrs+ late
£105
£210
1,500 – 3,500km, for example, London to Istanbul
Leaves 1hr+ before, lands late (up to 3hrs after) Lands 3hrs+ late
£168
£337
3,500km+, for example, London to New York
Leaves 1hr+ before, lands late (up to 4hrs after) Lands 4hrs+ late