Money Saving Expert Tips

Martin Lewis is a well known and respect financial commentator. Here are some of his latest thoughts.

An act of genuine kindness to warm the heart
Well, my tear ducts have just had a manly workout due to a beautiful post in the forum.  There’s something transcendent about strangers reaching out and helping each other… Below is my edited version of Easter65′s post about toniq in the comping board (see the comping guide if you don’t know what it is): Toniq…Words [...]

Moira Stuart and the Misfit…
Picture the scenario, you’ve seen someone off the telly, and for once got so excited you want to go have your picture taken with them, but feel a prat for doing so. The solution? Take Moira Stuart along as your photographer of course! Yesterday, thanks to the delightful invite from my agent, Mrs MSE and [...]

Bad joke but hilarious responses
Every Friday on my Facebook page it’s become a bit of a tradition that I write something a wee bit funny and wish everyone a good weekend.   This week’s was a rewrite of a good old groaner, but it’s the responses from some MoneySavers that are really roll on the floor funny… My status update [...]

Wow it actually types as I talk! Sadly my RSI is back
I’m writing this blog on my new speech dictation system, and quite deliberately I am not going to correct any mistakes it makes. Sadly my RSI is back, after a good nine or 10 months being completely clear its flared up again so my hand is swollen,there is a not in my right shoulder blade [...]

How many times? “If your bank says no to PPI reclaiming, it’s not a failure!”
How many times must something be said before it hits public consciousness? I’ve been campaigning about reclaiming PPI insurance for years, and have ALWAYS said to expect your bank to reject the claim as real justice comes at the next stage, the Ombudsman. Yet while I was at the restaurant with Mrs. MSE, the waiter [...]

I love my Energy Monitor, a definite MoneySaver. Do you have one?
Energy Monitors Sitting on the table by the sofa in the living room, is our energy monitor. I got this clever wee gizmo to test a few months ago, and was originally a sceptic about claims it could make a substantial difference to energy usage. These widgets are the new sexy ‘usp’ for certain energy [...]

I lost my rag in a Lloyds TSB branch
When a member of Lloyds TSB branch staff said loudly, “aren’t you the Money Saving Expert?”  the red mist flew and in a large and loud voice carrying through the busy Oxford street branch, I replied: “yes and I need to tell you, you work for the most abysmally run bank I’ve ever had the [...]

We already have a graduate tax – just a better version
The Government’s mooting a graduate tax for all UK students. Yet we already have that: in effect, it’s exactly what the student loan is; the only difference is once you’ve repaid, what you owe it stops. I often think calling the post-1998 student loan system a loan is a bit of a misnomer … It’s [...]

My Top Ten Summer Reads: Shardlake, Genghis, Sharpe and more
Sitting on the back of a motorbike taxi the other day, the driver Ceri, who also likes historic novels asked if I had any suggestions for his summer reading. The answers exploded from my gob quicker than I can recount credit card interest rates – so I thought I should note ‘em down… Don’t worry [...]

At Cost Energy – is it any good?
Update 27 July 2010. After writing this blog At Cost got in touch and agreed to an interview that we published today. See the full At Cost Energy Interview though do read this first for background. This is a question I’ve been asked a lot, and my simple answer is “I can’t tell you until [...]

Are banks killing the mortgage broker market forever?
There’s a worrying trend in the mortgage market, that’s dangerous for brokers and consumers alike.  Now over 50% of deals are ‘direct only’ meaning most mortgage brokers don’t access them – and often they’re the market leading offers. This is something we’re in the process of doing some more work on, but I wanted to [...]

The MSE Towers’ Budget Airline Jacket-Bag…
Ever since my ITV beat the budget airlines programme last week, I’ve been swamped with questions about my 22 pocket jacket,  which lets you carry additional laptops, books and more on budget airlines. In fact the MSE team like it so much I’ve agreed to buy an office one. What’s the point of the jackets? [...]

Tipsville USA: big apple instructions on how to tip
Having just returned from New York (see NYC biz class for ÂŁ500 blog) I thought I’d report back on the restaurant tipping system. There, rather sensibly, the receipts give instructions on how much you need to tip… The receipt pre-calulates the suggested tip amount, for example underneath a food and drink total of say $47.30 [...]

NYC Biz Class ÂŁ500 for 2 and you can use your mobile!
I’m writing this on a BA business class flight to New York, that cost ÂŁ500ish total for Mrs MSE and I combined. I’ve just been gobsmacked by the announcement just made saying you can use your mobile whilst in mid-flight… Let’s get the ridiculously cheap price out of the way first. These are ÂŁ2,500 flights, [...]

On air live telly maths secrets: the rule of 76
table.special { border-collapse:collapse; border:1px solid black; } table.special td { padding:5px; vertical-align:middle; } It’s time to give away one of my on air TV maths secrets.  It enables me to look like I’m doing whizz hot calculations in my head eg. when someone says “my debts are at 12%” I can instantly say “at that [...]

The AER interest rate: a blunt, flaccid tool
Trying to clearly communicate finance is tough enough, but sometimes rules intended to make things clearer do exactly the opposite.  I’ve ranted before about the problems with meaningless APR rates on credit cards. Now I want to focus on the AER rate on savings… What is the AER? It stands for the Annual EquivalentRate, and [...]

“Martin Lewis, BBC News” – younger, slower, more serious & in a suit
I just stumbled across a video of myself when I was doing freelance business reporting for the BBC back in 2001-2.  It was a strange time as I was just starting off as “Money Saving Expert”. But because there wasn’t a huge demand for that sort of journalism back then, I just filled in for [...]

Tangy Twiglets are coming back! 
For twiglet ignoramuses out there, tangy twiglets were the extremely yummy Worcester sauce version of the morish (usually marmite flavoured) crisp-esque snack. The following email from Fred Forse says it all… “Hello, I have recently discovered that Jacobs’ Tangy Twiglets are being re-released, starting this week. Searching the internet, I also noticed that Martin Lewis [...]

MSE breaks into world’s top 1,000 sites
It’s been a while since I last wrote the words “biggest day ever” but on Wednesday the site smashed its all time record for the most visits in a day with 1.15million  (and every other user metric too) and making it onto the WORLD’S biggest 1,000 sites list (well for the day)… The records are [...]

American Express you should be ashamed!
I received a letter from American Express yesterday promoting its “Express Cash Facility”; effectively trying to pump me to withdraw cash from an ATM on a credit card.  That’s bad enough in itself, but nowhere on the letter did it tell me it’d charge 27.9% interest for the privilege… For years we’ve had more and [...]