Martin: The truth about credit scoring, new 5.18% savings, new Compare+ Home Insurance, free £2 crisps, long low-fee 0% debt shift

Plus... 50p photocard, £140 air fryer £100, Christmas consumer rights, 12x wine £60, 120GB Sim £4/mth

                                                           

03 December 2024 | View in browser

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THE TOP TIPS IN THIS EMAIL Martin: The truth about credit scores... - Perfect score DOESN'T = acceptance - The trio of measures lenders assess - Need credit / loan? Don't just apply! - Phwoar... make yourself fiscally fitter New. Cheap home insurance tool 12 must-know Xmas consumer rights New. Top 5.18% easy-access savings 50p photocard delivered How much do Xmas lights cost to run? Coupons: free £2 crisps, £2 off pizza etc New. Longest LOW-FEE balance transfer 12 bottles of wine £60 delivered £140 Instant Pot air fryer £100 £367 beauty box £60 8pm tonight: The Martin Lewis Money Show Live Martin's Pod: Must listen if you're married / a pensioner / parent / on a low income... Nationwide upping packaged bank account fee by £60/yr - ditch & switch? Ends Thu. 120GB Sim £4/mth Beware Martin scammers on Bluesky Support foodbanks via the reverse Advent calendar This week's best buys, incl free £200 to switch bank, 132Mb fibre £18/mth Poll: Have you haggled with Sky, BT, the AA & more this year? Money Moral Dilemma: Should I repay my mum after she replaced my aunt's gift without asking? BEST BUYS & TOOLS MSE Cheap Mobile Finder Credit Club including free credit report 0% balance transfers Compare broadband deals MSE Car Insurance Compare+ Best bank accounts Top savings accounts Credit cards for bad credit Credit Card Eligibility Calculator Loans Eligibility Calculator Mortgage comparison Compare travel money Cheap Energy Club Best Sim-only deals

Martin: The truth about credit scores Seven need-knows to become more irresistible to mortgage, credit card, overdraft, loan, mobile contract providers & more There's a lot of nonsense spoken about credit scores - the biggest being that you actually have one. You don't! Yet the rising cost of living has left fiscal bags under many eyes. Worse, the Catch-22 is less disposable income makes you less attractive to lenders, making acceptance for top financial products tougher, which adds to your costs. Rinse & repeat. That means it's crucial to understand how creditworthiness works and how to manage & boost it. Among many other things, the free MSE Credit Club gives you a personal assessment (or it's even easier to join & use via the MSE App on Apple or Android), so look at that in conjunction with my 7 need-to-knows below. The ITV Martin Lewis Money Show LIVE tonight (Tue) 8pm The truth about credit scoring... Watch as well as read. I'll talk through it & take your questions 1. You DO NOT have a credit rating or credit score. In the UK, there's no single number that dictates whether a lender will accept you. Each does its own credit score based on its specific wish list of what makes a profitable customer. Usually, profitability correlates to low risk, but some specialist lenders see higher risk, and therefore higher rate, as profitable. 'What you talking about? I've paid for a credit score!' Each of the three big UK credit reference agencies gives you its 'credit score' - but that's not an official thing, it's just their view of how a typical lender may see things - a useful indication (get one free in Credit Club), but it's neither definitive, nor used by most lenders - the fact each agency gives a different score illustrates that. So, don't sweat small 'credit score' changes. I often hear: "My score's dropped seven points because I did x, y or z. Help." In reality, it's pretty meaningless, there's an element of art as well as science, so don't try to micromanage it (yet do take note of big falls) as each lender is different. Eg, close a credit card and your score may rise as you've less available credit, yet it makes you less attractive to some lenders as they like signs of product longevity. 2. Your credit FILE does matter - check it for errors at least annually, and before any big application. Credit reference agencies' files - aka credit reports - contain much of the data lenders use to assess applications including electoral roll info, your credit products and whether you pay them on time, court judgments, and more (but not speeding points or criminal records, see what credit reference agencies know about you). Check yours regularly, line by line. For a general check, you can just look at one agency, as the data is usually similar, but check all three before a major application. Full info in free credit reports (including how to get cashback when doing this) but in brief... a) Free TransUnion file & score: Via MSE's free Credit Club (which also shows you how to get the other agencies' files too). b) Free Equifax file & score: Via Clearscore*. c) Free Experian file: Use Experian's basic statutory file. It's closed down all the bells & whistles free options, however newbies signing up to its CreditExpert* service get their file & score free for a month, after that it's £15/mth so be ready to cancel. When you're checking, look for any error, even a simple error, such as an unused, but still open, credit card account at the wrong address, or a default unfairly marked as paid late, as these can torpedo future applications - see how to dispute defaults. It's worth noting, as well as your file, lenders will also look at any past dealings you've had with them. So a lender you've banked with knows you better. If it's good, applying there can boost acceptance. And your application form information is also used, including your income. 3. A perfect credit score DOESN'T mean acceptance, instead check your Credit Eligibility Rating. Credit scores miss the key information lenders look at... your income. Someone with a good credit history won't get a £200,000 loan on a £10,000 income, as they'd fail on affordability. So, earlier this year I designed a new measure, your Credit Eligibility Rating, available as part of the free MSE Credit Club (link takes you there, or easier, go via the MSE App), to solve that. It combines the THREE crucial real-world factors that dictate whether a lender will accept you... a) Your credit score from TransUnion: One of the big three. b) Your MSE Affordability Score (see your Affordability Score separately too): Lenders use the income on application forms to work out your affordability based on income & outgoings. So we've mimicked what they do in our Affordability Score. c) Current market conditions: To ground the Credit Eligibility Rating in the real world, it also looks at how easy it is currently to be accepted (meaning your rating can change when your situation doesn't, simply as acceptance overall has got easier or harder). Which of these matters most is product-dependent. Credit history is weighted heavily in credit card acceptance, as with a good history but poor affordability you may still get a card, just with a low credit limit. While loan acceptance is weighted towards affordability, as you specify the amount to borrow, so poor affordability may lead to rejection, especially for bigger borrowing. 4. The trio of measures lenders assess you on. First a graphical overview, then the detail... A) Debt ratio: the percentage you owe compared with annual income. This is generally for unsecured debt such as cards & loans (so not mortgages). Eg, £10,000 of credit card debt on a £40,000 income is 25% on the debt ratio scale. In general, the lower the debt ratio, the better. So, to try and improve it, pay down any debt if possible (or increase your income, though if you could you'd probably be doing that anyway). Yet as a quirk, at the very low end, lenders do like to see some debt used, so they can see you're doing it responsibly and paying it off - meaning a debt ratio under 1%, especially if with little data, can be negative. Though often just having a cashback credit card paid off fully each month counts as debt - as at the date lenders report to the agencies, there can be some debt on it - so that's an easy way to do it. Conversely, if your ratio's too high, that means if you have a card you clear each month, best not to use it at all in the couple of months before a big application. B) Credit utilisation: the percentage of available credit you currently use. Eg, if you've spent £100 on a credit card and you've got a £1,000 limit, that's 10% credit utilisation. Again, lower is better. How significant this is depends on your debt ratio. If your utilisation is high, but debt ratio low (so you're using most of your credit, but it's only a small part of your income) it's unlikely to be a big deal. Yet if it's a significant chunk of income, it matters. To cut it, again pay off some debt if possible. Perversely, technically, you could also cut it by getting a credit card and not using it (as it increases your credit) yet it's unlikely to make the difference between acceptance or not, so I wouldn't bother. C) Disposable income: the percentage of spare cash left over each month after essentials. This time, higher is better. Essentials include housing costs, debt repayments, and other bills you and your dependants must pay. As for how to improve it, other than increasing income, it depends... 5. With mortgages what you actually spend matters, with credit cards and loans it often doesn't. For affordability scoring, they know your income but also need to know what you spend. With mortgage applications, lenders look at your personal disposable income - so going frugal in the lead-up helps (use the MSE Credit Club mortgage affordability tool to see how much you may be able to borrow). However, with cards and loans, lenders look at statistical modelling for what disposable income somebody in your situation is likely to have, rather than what you actually have - so frustratingly going frugal doesn't usually actually help. Need a credit card or loan? DON'T just 'apply'! That hits your file, use an eligibility calculator instead Almost every credit application goes on your credit file as a 'hard search'. Too many applications, especially in a short space of time, is negative - meaning the system is effectively anti-shopping around, as get rejected or accepted for a worse rate than advertised, and you'll need to apply elsewhere. Instead, use an eligibility checker first, which shows your acceptance odds (& sometimes pre-approval). Using one such as ours, rather than an individual firm's, means you can see chances for a whole range of different top products, so can home in on where you've the best chance of getting a good deal. Eligibility calcs do 'soft searches' which go on your file but lenders can't factor them in, so it doesn't impact your future creditworthiness. The current MSE eligibility calcs include... Cheap loans (lowest cost personal loans) | 0% balance transfer credit cards (shift debt to 0%) | 0% spending credit card (new 0% borrowing) | Reward credit card (cashback, points etc) | Travel credit card eligibility (cheap spending overseas) Low eligibility chance? Don't let it scare you off applying for important products such as balance transfers. I often hear: "I didn't apply. I only got a 20% chance, and didn't want to risk a rejection." Yet if your best chance is 20% and it's a crucial product such as shifting expensive debt to 0%, then 20% means two in 10 in your situation WILL be accepted, and you may be one of those. Think of building your creditworthiness a bit like savings for when you need it, of course one search may have a minor effect, but this is exactly what you've been saving for, to cut debt costs, so spend an application and hope you're accepted. 6. The top cards to (re)build your creditworthiness. The two big reasons people get rejected for credit are: - Their history makes them look a bad credit citizen, or - There's not enough data on them. After all, would you lend to someone you knew nothing about, even if all seemed good? In both cases, the best thing to do is get some borrowing and - carefully - use it well. In other words... You need credit to get credit, but how do you get credit when you don't have credit?  Our Credit (re)Build Card Eligibility Calc lists easier-to-get fee-free cards designed for this, with high interest rates (to avoid these, always follow the instructions below). Top cards include some that reward spending such as the Tesco Foundation card*, which gives Clubcard points on spending, but is 29.9% rep APR if you don't fully repay, and Asda Money, which gives 'Asda Pounds', but is 34.9% rep APR if you don't fully repay. Yet it all depends on acceptance, so use the eligibility calc, which includes most cards (though not Asda). How to use these to maximum impact & minimum cost... - Do £50 to £100/mth of normal spending on it. - Repay IN FULL each month, preferably by Direct Debit. That way there's no interest (if you fully clear the balance, there's no charge). - Never miss a repayment, or withdraw cash, or bust your limit. - After up to a year or so, provided you never miss a payment (and don't have issues elsewhere), your creditworthiness should improve. 7. Student loans don't count as debt on your credit file. When I write about loans above, this doesn't include student loans - while in some very rare default circumstances they can go on credit files, they don't usually. In practice, as I often say, student loans work more like a form of additional graduate income tax. And that's how lenders view them. It's not an issue of creditworthiness. Yet this doesn't mean there's no impact. Instead, just like if taxes rose, repaying a student loan reduces your disposable income, and that's how it feeds into lending decisions. Phwoar... how to make yourself fiscally fitter so you're financially more attractive... Credit scoring is a bit like going on the pull. There are things to try to make yourself more attractive in general, but different people and lenders have different tastes, so there's no one universal fix. Yet let's go through some simple cosmetic changes that will work for most... - Use consistent answers on every application (eg, job title). Evidence of stability's good, so don't alter your job title or put different bank details or mobile numbers down (unless the number's actually changed). Consistency is also important for fraud scoring, where external agencies filter applications to check for inconsistencies - they can cause you problems. - You can hold hands, snog, live with or marry who you like... just be careful if you get joint products. Even marriage won't link your credit file with someone else, ONLY joint products can - such as a joint mortgage, loan or even bills bank account with flatmates (credit cards are never joint, the other card is just a 2nd card on the 1st account). If you're joined, lenders may see their history when you're assessed, so beware of joint-producting if someone has a bad history. No longer with someone you were linked to? How to de-link your finances. - Get on the electoral roll. If not, getting credit is tough, as not being on the electoral roll can cause ID and tracing issues, so sign up to it (you can still opt out of the 'open register' to avoid junk mail). If you can't get on it, see help for foreign nationals. - Never miss, or be late with, repayments. Use a Direct Debit to be sure, even if just the minimum (then manually repay more on top). - Don't withdraw cash on credit cards. It's expensive & evidence of poor money management. See What about withdrawing cash abroad? - Ensure you time it right. Major problems, such as county court judgments, defaults or bankruptcy, stay on your file for six years. Applications for products stay on for one year. So if things will soon lapse, try holding off applying until they do. - Use rent to boost your ability to get credit (& thus possibly a mortgage). Sadly, paying £1,500/mth rent doesn't help much to prove you can afford a £1,500/mth mortgage. Yet if you always pay rent on time, there are ways for renters to improve their creditworthiness. Canopy and CreditLadder allow tenants to sign up. Canopy reports rental payments to Experian for free, CreditLadder lets you choose one of the big three credit reference agencies to report to for free. So use them both and you've two agencies covered. To get all three, CreditLadder is cheapest at £5/mth (though you must pay upfront for a year to get this price).  A few big landlords are members of Experian's Rental Exchange Initiative* which reports to Experian for free too.  - Don't do little applications just before big ones. Too many applications too quickly can be negative, so space out and prioritise applications, eg, if you're soon applying for a mortgage, don't apply for trivial things such as cashback credit cards for the month or two before. - Experian Boost can give a limited boost. The free Experian Boost* add-on uses Open Banking data to show lenders you are making on-time repayments for things such as council tax, Netflix, Spotify and even regular savings transactions. It's only used by a few lenders so far though, so isn't a must-do. For far more help, see 39 tips to boost your credit file.

 

 

DON'T believe the fake 'Martin Lewis' or 'MSE' ads Lots of scam ads litter social media and even newspaper websites - some of these lie that we or Martin promote Bitcoin, binary trading etc. See Fake ads warning.

 

 

 

New MSE tool launches today... Cheap Compare+ Home Insurance For years we've said follow key tricks - don't just use one comparison site, combine 'em, and more. Now our new tool easily, speedily does much of that for you and far more... We launched Compare+ Car Insurance in 2022 and since then estimate 100,000s of people have saved millions with it. Today we launch Compare+ Home Insurance in an early, beta version, because many people messaged us to say: "Do the same for home insurance." We were in two minds, so surveyed 18,000 of you, and 85% replied with a strong yes. So, you asked - and we built it. In early testing 89% gave it five stars, so we thought we'd get it out in beta, even though there's still a little bit of polishing to do. Your feedback & suggestions are welcome. The best way to understand is to try it, but here's a quick briefing on what it does... The tool includes our unique Price Impact Indicator... At the start of the Home Compare+ tool, you answer MoneySupermarket's question set. If you've filled it in before, you can log in and it can auto-fill your details for you. And a totally new innovation of Martin's is our MSE Price Impact buttons, which tell you how much impact each answer is likely to have on your final cost (and is clickable for an in-depth explanation), eg, you may be surprised that what type of locks you have generally has little impact. As one trial user said: "Really useful to know how worried [or not] I should be about stuff. Keep up the good work MSE!" You then get your benchmark quote to start the saving. This is your cheapest quote from the MoneySupermarket comparison, so you can see a price straightaway, but of course we want you to beat it... We show you which other comparisons to add in, and in what order. We've always told you to use as many comparisons as you've time for, and the fact we've a new tool doesn't change that. Different comparison sites include different insurers, and even where the same firms are listed, they can have different prices for them - as Lizzie's email to us last week shows: "I've found exactly the same policy on two different comparisons recommended by MSE, and one has it for £60 a year cheaper. Glad I read your suggestions!" And as one user said in the tool feedback: "Having the main sites available on one screen encouraged me to get the extra quotes." Timing it right can save you - we'll tell you if you're too early, too late or pure Goldilocks. How early before renewal you get a quote can impact how much insurers charge you. Timing it right cuts costs. If you're too early, we'll tell you when to come back. If you're too late, we'll be adding calendar and email reminders so we can alert you at the right time next year (we did say the tool's in beta). And there are more personalised tips on how YOU can cut your costs. From our analysis of your data, we will show you other things you should try to cut costs further (all are trial and error though), such as... - Will upping the voluntary excess (the amount you pay towards a claim) save you money? - Can you pay annually rather than monthly? - Can you save by combining your home and car insurance? To see how it works, give our new MSE Compare+ Home Insurance tool a go (and see the Compare+ Home Insurance FAQs).

 

New. Top 5.18% easy-access savings (up to £20,000). A cash ISA's just a savings account you never pay tax on and current top rates clearly beat top normal easy-access savings. There's a new top payer - Plum's 5.18% AER variable* - made up of 3.79% interest paid monthly and a 1.39% bonus paid after 12mths. It lets you put in up to £20,000, and allows three annual penalty-free withdrawals. Like all top cash ISAs at the moment, it has a complex structure. Full info in Top savings. 50p personalised A5 photocard (Christmas or otherwise) including delivery. MSE Blagged. Cheaper than a stamp! Via our exclusive code. 15,000 available. Card Factory How much do Christmas lights cost to run? Many have asked, so we've crunched the numbers. Coupons: free £2 crisps, free £2 caramel & choc dessert, £2 off pizzas & more. See 80+ December coupons. New. Longest LOW-FEE balance transfer: shift card debt for a guaranteed 18mths 0% for just a 1% fee. Shift debt to a 0% card and you usually pay a one-off fee on the amount moved. For those who can repay debt quickly, there's a new low-fee card, Tesco's 18mth 0% (0.99% fee) - which went under the radar in last week's longest 0% balance transfer review. Crucially, with this card, all accepted get the full 0% period. If you can repay even quicker, NatWest's up to 12mth 0% is the longest no-fee, though some accepted get just 10mths. Golden rules: Repay at least the monthly min & clear the card before the 0% ends or they jump to 24.9% rep APR interest. 12 bottles of wine £60 delivered - no subscription. MSE Blagged. 5,000 cases available - red, white or mixed. Warehouse Wines. Please be Drinkaware. Related: £10 one-litre Baileys. £140 Instant Pot air fryer £100 (4,000 available). MSE Blagged. This air fryer has six functions, including air fry, roast & grill - and our code makes it the cheapest we've seen this model. Instant Pot £60 beauty box with £367 of Shiseido, Laura Mercier, Philip Kingsley & more. MSE Blagged. Also includes 12mth digital Good Housekeeping mag (normally £30; doesn't auto-renew). Beauty box The Truth Behind Credit Scoring: The Martin Lewis Money Show LIVE, ITV1, 8pm tonight (Tue). Martin: "Want to know how credit scoring really works, how to boost it, to dispute arrears, or to cut debt costs? I'm taking on credit scoring tonight, showing you how it works and taking your questions live via X (Twitter) using #MartinLewis or via Bluesky. This and loads more news you can use - do watch or at least set the VHS."

 

 

BLAGGED FOR MSE - 50p Card Factory personalised A5 photocard 15,000 available - 12 bottles of wine £60 delivered 5,000 cases available - £140 Instant Pot air fryer £100 4,000 available - £60 beauty box with £367 of contents Ends Saturday	DID YOU MISS? - £10 to £60 London theatre tickets across 2025: Wicked & more - Premium Bond prize rate to fall to 4% in Jan - are they worth it? - Free letters from Santa - £400 Apple Watch for £10 via private medical insurance trick - Martin: Will they cut energy standing charges?

 

 

On the first day of Christmas, MSE gave to me... 12 must-know consumer rights so you can shop wisely OK, it ain't as romantic as true love and turtle doves, but here's our carol's worth of consumer rights need-to-knows. It's more important than ever at this time of year, as shops can alter their policies (for full info, see consumer rights help)... You DON'T have a legal right to return goods bought in store if you change your mind. Buy something in store (not online) and you have statutory (legal) rights to return them only if items are faulty. So buy it and change your mind, or it doesn't fit, or you want a different colour... and you have no rights. Only 50% of people knew this in Martin's last poll on it. Of course when we say, "it doesn't fit", we mean it's not quite the right size for you. If it were labelled XS but in reality was an XXL, that's clearly faulty. Yet if a store publishes a returns policy, that DOES form part of the purchase contract. Many stores have overt published policies, eg, John Lewis has free returns for up to 30 days (or longer over Christmas), in which case they're contractually enforceable. But if items aren't faulty and the shop says, "You need a receipt, must ask while waving, and we only give credit notes," then it's right, as you don't have any legal status to enforce it otherwise. Beware - return rights CAN be suspended during sales. Just because a store normally publishes its return rights, don't assume it does at this time of year. Do double-check in the sales before you buy, as you may want to return it later. It's different online - then you DO have a legal right to change your mind. To protect you when buying items remotely, you can return goods bought online, though there are exceptions: eg personalised and perishable items. You HAVE 14 days to notify online stores of a return and up to 14 days after that to send it back. So a maximum 28 days to return most items. If their websites say you must be quicker - as the likes of The Range, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols do - they're wrong. BEWARE buying items online from abroad - you have to pay to send returns back. With online returns, you get back the price you paid, plus the minimum delivery cost (ie, if it's free delivery but you paid £10 for express, you don't get the tenner back). However, there is NO right to a refund on the cost of returning items to them. So beware, if goods come from abroad, sending them back can cost you more than you paid in the first place, so do check, especially on Amazon and eBay, where they're coming from. Knowing what counts as faulty is all about being a SAD FART. If items are faulty, then the law kicks in. However you bought them, you've up to 30 days to return goods for a full refund if they're faulty - after that it's repair or replacement (or if that doesn't work, then a refund, or partial refund if you choose to keep the item). So the big question is: what counts as faulty? Years ago Martin came up with the SAD FART mnemonic to make it easy to remember (see returning faulty goods help for more). When returning faulty items, remember your rights are with the STORE you bought them from. Don't let it say, "You need to go to the manufacturer" - the retailer is the one to push to sort it out. As Martin says, 'WARRANTY SCHMARANTY' - don't let 'em fob you off. Martin gets particularly vexed when people say to him they've taken tech back and people are fobbed off with, "sorry, you're out of warranty". His warranty schmaranty rule explains you have rights sometimes even if it's a couple of years after you bought the item. Anna emailed recently, having succeeded with this...  "My son saved up to buy a PlayStation 5 that developed a fault just outside the warranty. Sony wanted a huge amount to fix it and Argos said it wasn't their problem. Then I saw Martin's Instagram post on this, which said it was unreasonable that an expensive electrical should break after a year. So I complained again and Argos gave us a £430 refund. A huge thank you. You've helped make a 13-year-old very happy and shown him he can stand up against big companies!" If items are faulty, you ONLY need proof of purchase. If you're returning something that's faulty, by law you don't need a receipt, just proof of purchase (eg, credit card statement). Always spend a penny... on a credit card for bigger purchases. Buy something costing £100.01 to £30,000 and pay for any of it, even a penny, on a credit card, and the card firm is jointly liable with the retailer for the WHOLE amount. So if you can, put at least some of it on a credit card (paid off IN FULL to avoid interest). Then if the retailer goes bust, won't play fair with faulty items, or you buy abroad and can't take the item back, you can go to the card firm. Full info, including when it doesn't work & how to claim, in our Section 75 guide. PS: Debit card spends & credit card purchases under £100 have the lesser, though still decent, chargeback protection. Cash, cheques, bank transfers have none!   YOU don't have a right to return the gift you got, even if it is faulty. Return rights, whether legally enforced or voluntary, generally apply only to the person who actually paid for the item, so gift recipients have no right of return themselves. While most shops do allow it if you have the receipt, to be watertight, get a gift receipt as that transfers the rights to the gift recipient (or write on the receipt that you're doing this). Full help in Christmas gift rights. Sadly, if it all goes wrong, enforcing your rights is tough. If you end up in dispute with a store, go to the Citizens Advice consumer helpline in England/Wales (or similar in Scotland & Northern Ireland) for help. Yet ultimately the only way to get adjudication is to go to do a money claim online court case, which can be a faff and feels scary for some. It's one reason the credit card protection route is so helpful, because then you can go to the ombudsman instead.

 

Martin's New Pod: Are you missing out on £1,000s? If you're married OR have children OR on a low income OR are a pensioner - listen up... This and lots more in the new Martin Lewis Podcast. Listen via BBC Sounds | Spotify | Apple or wherever you get your Martin fix. Should you ditch Nationwide FlexPlus packaged bank account as it's upping fee by £60/yr? Our analysis. Ends Thu. Cheapest 100GB+ Sim - '£4.38/mth'. With unlimited mins & texts, this 120GB iD Mobile Sim is £2.50/mth for the first 3mths, then £10/mth. But you can CLAIM (don't forget) a £45 Amazon or Currys voucher within 4mths. Factor that in over the 1yr contract & it's equivalent to £4.38/mth. Want less data or a different network? Cheap Mobile Finder. Beware Martin scammers on Bluesky. To stop copycats, Martin's handle's now @martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com. New. Support your local foodbank with the Reverse Advent Calendar Challenge. It's not too late to start using our topsy-turvy Advent calendar - built with help from foodbank charity Trussell - which suggests an item to donate each day based on what foodbanks typically need at this time of year PLUS where you can find 'em cheapest. Reverse Advent calendar

 

 

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AT A GLANCE BEST BUYS 0% balance transfers Longest 0%: Barclaycard (check eligibility) up to 30mths 0%, 3.45% fee, 24.9% rep APR No-fee 0%: NatWest (check eligibility) up to 12mths 0%, 24.9% rep APR Both lenders asked us to only link via our eligibility calc Best bank accounts Free £180 + £36/yr cashback: NatWest Reward Free £200 + perks: Club Lloyds Broadband top picks Fast fibre (100Mb+): Virgin '£18.27/mth' Superfast fibre (500Mb+): Vodafone '£24.21/mth' On Universal Credit or similar? Check all discounted social tariffs Car insurance Try our Compare+ Car Insurance tool Cheap loans Cheapest for £5,000 to £7,499: Santander (check eligibility / apply*), 7.2% rep APR Cheapest for £7,500 to £15,000: Tesco Bank (check eligibility / apply*), 6.1% rep APR (for Clubcard holders) Top savings accounts Top cash ISA: Plum (app-only) 5.18%, min £100 Top standard easy-access: Atom Bank 4.85%, no min Top one-year fix: SmartSave 4.77%, min £10,000 Top energy deals Try our relaunched Cheap Energy Club Cheap Sims Up to 3GB data: Lebara, '£2.83/mth' for 3GB 4GB to 9GB data: Lebara, '£3.13/mth' for 5GB 10GB to 30GB data: iD Mobile, '£3.22/mth' for 25GB 31GB+ data: iD Mobile, '£4.38/mth' for 120GB

 

THIS WEEK'S POLL Have you haggled with Sky, BT, the AA or any others this year? Did you succeed? Haggling can result in big savings - whether it's on digital TV, broadband or breakdown cover. Each year we try to gauge the success rates of those who have done it. So if you've got cheaper prices, extra goods or better deals, let us know in this week's poll. Most MoneySavers don't haggle on the high street - but those who do are often successful. Last week, we asked if you'd tried high-street haggling in the last year (as opposed to haggling with a service provider, see above). While almost nine in 10 of you said you hadn't, many of the minority who had were successful, eg, more than 90% of hagglers at Currys had some success. See full poll results.

 

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA Should I pay my mum back after she replaced my gift to my aunt without asking me? I gave my mum a present to take to my aunt, as she was seeing her before Christmas and I wasn't. But instead of giving my gift, she bought a different one without consulting me and gave it to my aunt on my behalf. I'm upset as she obviously thought my gift was inadequate or unsuitable. Mum returned the original gift to me and wants me to reimburse her for the new one, which was of roughly equal value. Should I take it on the chin and pay her back, or hold off and tell her how I feel? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should I pay mum back for her replacement gift? | Suggest a Money Moral Dilemma (MMD) | View past MMDs

 

 

MSE TEAM BLOG - MSE Forum highlights: Teachers, thermal cameras & tomatoes

 

 

MARTIN'S APPEARANCES (TUE 3 DEC ONWARDS) Tue 3 Dec - The Martin Lewis Money Show Live, ITV1, 8pm Thu 5 Dec - Ask Martin Lewis, BBC Radio 5 Live, 1pm Tue 10 Dec - This Morning, phone-in, ITV1, 10.20am

 

 

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