Money saving thread

[Woodsey]

Just done a switch of my gas and electricity and switched to a new player in the market called Pure Planet which are not only just about the cheapest  I can see but are renewable and carbon offset energies, seem a win win all around.

Shameless spam- if anyone decides they want to join them use this link here and I get £25 amazon vouchers 

https://referme.to/9wVan8o

Even if you have no intention of using that link make sure you do a comparison every year of your energy or you are likley getting shafted to the tune of a few hundred quid on price.

Off to do, mortgage, Internet, mobile phones and house insurance next......I do this every year and I reckon if I didn’t I’d be paying ~£200 a month more for my household bills.

If anyone has spotted any great deals or has any tips please share on here 

[RED-DOG]

I hate this 'Shaft the loyal customer & reward the newbe' culture.

I used the same insurance company for the first 30 years of driving, I've been forced to change every year since.

[Omm]

Has anyone used the app MoneyBox? Essentially you can round up your purchases I.e buy a coffee for 2.70, round up to 3.00 and the extra 30p is put into “savings”. You can add top ups to the account, from what I can see you can then choose 1 of 3 ways it will get invested. Think they charge £1 a month after first 3 months. Promo vid says on average people save about a tenner a week from round ups.

Not a recommendation as I’m not using it, more of an enquiry if others think it’s worth using.

[EvilPie]

I hate this 'Shaft the loyal customer & reward the newbe' culture.

I used the same insurance company for the first 30 years of driving, I've been forced to change every year since.

I've had this with house insurance, car insurance and recently even a mortgage.

I have my main bank account, work banking and three mortgages all with NatWest. Recently I went for a re-mortgage and they have a great rate available but only to new customers. When I told then I was moving away to HSBC they actually said "we like to think our existing customers will show us some loyalty". What the f**k??? How dare they.

I had the option of paying off my mortgage completely then re-applying but I couldn't have that rate for a re-mortgage. Well thanks a f**king lot....

[EvilPie]

Just done a switch of my gas and electricity and switched to a new player in the market called Pure Planet which are not only just about the cheapest  I can see but are renewable and carbon offset energies, seem a win win all around.

Shameless spam- if anyone decides they want to join them use this link here and I get £25 amazon vouchers 

https://referme.to/9wVan8o

Even if you have no intention of using that link make sure you do a comparison every year of your energy or you are likley getting shafted to the tune of a few hundred quid on price.

Off to do, mortgage, Internet, mobile phones and house insurance next......I do this every year and I reckon if I didn’t I’d be paying ~£200 a month more for my household bills.

If anyone has spotted any great deals or has any tips please share on here 

£711 for me compared to the £360 I currently pay. Sorry mate but no voucher via me

Do you use MSE? I find they have pretty much everything covered. Vodaphone seems best for fibre broadband at the moment at less than £20 per month for 18months.

I just did my house insurance and got a great deal with co-op insurance. Insurance is always one I'm cautious with. I don't go for the cheapest as you need to know they'll pay out in the event of a claim. I've made two claims with LV and they were brilliant both times. If you get a decent price off them I'd go for it if I were you. I'd have happily paid an extra £50 to stick with LV because of how good they've been but the extra £400 they were after this time was a bit of a stretch....

[Woodsey]

Cheers mate, was looking at vodaphone internet but it’s reviews are a bit mixed. Virgin have pissed me off recently with crap service and am paying about £40 atm so they are getting binned.

I look at a few of the comparison sites including MSE as there are deals that are sometimes bespoke to one site and not another, so it’s worth looking at more than one imo.

Reckon I can save £70 on the mortgage this time around so that’s looking good 

Will get to the others in due course.....

[Graham C]

I hate this 'Shaft the loyal customer & reward the newbe' culture.

I used the same insurance company for the first 30 years of driving, I've been forced to change every year since.

My last car insurance letter had a note at the bottom of the (more expensive) quote saying that if I'd been with them for a few years I'd probably get it cheaper elsewhere.   

[ripple11]

Similar to Woodsey....switched to Bulb ( 100% renewable electricity, 10% Green Gas) via Money Saving Expert, and have a referal link too.

 £50 for you and me! 

bulb.co.uk/refer/nicholasj1226

[RED-DOG]

Why don't they just offer the incentive money to the person who's signing up?

[Skippy]

Be careful, with all this talk of Money Saving Expert, you might summon a camel....

[vegaslover]

I hate this 'Shaft the loyal customer & reward the newbe' culture.

I used the same insurance company for the first 30 years of driving, I've been forced to change every year since.

I've had this with house insurance, car insurance and recently even a mortgage.

I have my main bank account, work banking and three mortgages all with NatWest. Recently I went for a re-mortgage and they have a great rate available but only to new customers. When I told then I was moving away to HSBC they actually said "we like to think our existing customers will show us some loyalty". What the f**k??? How dare they.

I had the option of paying off my mortgage completely then re-applying but I couldn't have that rate for a re-mortgage. Well thanks a f**king lot....

Natwest are a fking joke.
I have had several mortgages with them over past few years and still have my home mortgage and buy-to-let with them. Was looking at a property to buy and do up and the morrtgage advisor couldn't even do basic maths. Offered me a mortgage that was less than the deposit I was considering.  Went on their online site and got offered the full amount and cert of offer immediately.

Only stayed with them for my current mortgage as I have been self employed last couple of years and they accept my income as listed when I was employed.  Now I have just taken an employed position I will be moving elsewhere next year.

[Woodsey]

Always batted away the PPI thing because I couldn’t be arsed. Decided to have a punt with one of the companies pestering me and managed to ship £850 today, didn’t expect that! 

It’s was actually only about £300 iin actual PPI, it was so long ago the rest was interest 

[EvilPie]

Always batted away the PPI thing because I couldn’t be arsed. Decided to have a punt with one of the companies pestering me and managed to ship £850 today, didn’t expect that! 

It’s was actually only about £300 iin actual PPI, it was so long ago the rest was interest 

Excellent mate. I think everybody who's had credit cards or loans should do this as you really have nothing to lose. One of the guys I work with replied to one of the random texts he got and ended up with over £6k. Sure the company took 25% (it was £8k he was owed) but he'd never have done it himself anyway.

You can do this yourself quite easily apparently but personally I think you have a better chance using a PPI company as the lenders know what they're up against. I have friends who've tried it themselves and the stock response is just 'no'. I think you have to pester a few times to actually get anywhere and most people will just give up as they can't be arsed spending 10 hours of their time for an hourly rate way in excess of anything they'll ever earn in their lifetime. Weird one that isn't it.

[Woodsey]

Always batted away the PPI thing because I couldn’t be arsed. Decided to have a punt with one of the companies pestering me and managed to ship £850 today, didn’t expect that! 

It’s was actually only about £300 iin actual PPI, it was so long ago the rest was interest 

Excellent mate. I think everybody who's had credit cards or loans should do this as you really have nothing to lose. One of the guys I work with replied to one of the random texts he got and ended up with over £6k. Sure the company took 25% (it was £8k he was owed) but he'd never have done it himself anyway.

You can do this yourself quite easily apparently but personally I think you have a better chance using a PPI company as the lenders know what they're up against. I have friends who've tried it themselves and the stock response is just 'no'. I think you have to pester a few times to actually get anywhere and most people will just give up as they can't be arsed spending 10 hours of their time for an hourly rate way in excess of anything they'll ever earn in their lifetime. Weird one that isn't it.

I looked into doing it myself and it was a pain in the arse, would never have done it. The good thing about the PPI companies is all you need to give them is the name of the banks/companies you’ve ever had credit cards/loans/mortgages with and the addresses you’ve lived at and that’s all they need, no account numbers or anything, it allows them to do a massive sweep on your behalf.

In fact the 2 companies that I thought were most likley drew a blank, the money I got back was from Natwest which is my main bank account and it was for a loan I don’t even remember having 

[vegaslover]

Me and the mrs did this after seeing someone on another forum doing so.
I got sod all but mrs got £350 for about an hours work filling out forms they sent us.