2 for 1 visits to 340 gardens and free pet checks!
Look out for voting letters for the Sentinel redress scheme, Barclays customers can get £48 free a year, grab a year’s 2for1 visits to 340 gardens in £4ish mag, plus a ‘free’ Tesco pet check. These are our Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis’ 90 Second Savers.
Remember, deals can change quickly, even while I’m on the programme. So always double-check the terms and conditions before spending. Plus, while I hope these deals will save you cash, don’t spend if you can’t afford it, don’t need it, or won’t use it.
Look out for letters from AI scheme - Sentinel
From this week, two million people will start to receive letters asking them to vote for a compensation scheme for mis-sold card insurance policies. The letter will feature the AI Scheme Limited logo and must be sent back by 5pm on Tuesday 23 June, unless you can vote in person in London on 30 June. If the scheme is approved you can still claim compensation even if you don't vote. But remember, if not enough people vote 'yes', the scheme may not go ahead. So if you want the automatic compensation scheme to be set up, vote ‘yes’.
The scheme covers policies sold between 14 January 2005 and August 2013. If the scheme goes ahead, those mis-sold will get back every penny paid for the cover, which usually cost £25/year. You’ll also get interest, which is calculated at 8% per year, but you don’t get interest on the interest, ie it’s not compound interest.
Barclays customer? Get a free £48 a year
Barclays has launched a Blue Rewards option, which those with its main free current account, who pay in at least £800 a month, have two direct debits set up and bank online or via the app, can pay £3/month to join. The minimum you get back is £7/month – so you’re automatically £48 a year uponce you’ve taken into account the fee.
Now there are far better current account deals out there (see Martin’s full best bank account guide),with some giving up to £150 to sign up or 5% in credit interest, or a flat £5 a month as long as you’re in credit – so they usually smash this if you’re willing to switch.
But if you’re one of the 5-6 million who already have a Barclays account and aren’t going anywhere, it’s a winner.
If you also have its mortgage as well as a current account you get an extra £5/month, if you have its home insurance you get £3 extra a month – and it does make it competitive with other offers out there. But then again, only do that if the mortgage or home insurance deal you’re being offered is best as if not, the amount you waste on those would soon outweigh the gain of the scheme.
Once you have the rewards scheme, the maximum you can earn is £12/month (£144/year) after the £3 fee. The cashback is paid into a separate digital rewards wallet, which you can then transfer into any of your Barclays accounts. From there, you can spend it as you wish.
A year’s garden pass gets 2for1s for 340 UK gardens
From Friday 24 April buy May's BBC Gardeners’ World magazine (£4.25, out until Thursday 28 May) and you’ll get a card for 2for1 entry to 340 UK gardens valid until 12 April 2016. It's 2for1 on two adult tickets but call ahead to see if it will accept a child or concession as the second ticketholder. Sign the card and just turn up at any of the gardens. You can use it as many times as you like, so if you visited every single garden just once, you’d save up to £2,295.60! One of the biggest saving is on the Eden Project in Cornwall (£25), other examples include saving £15 at Kew Gardens and £12.15 at Powis Castle and Garden.
‘Free’ £35 pet vet check
Spend £10 on pet supplies in store or online at Tesco before Tuesday 5 May and you'll get a coupon for a free local vet check-up for your cat or dog (see the Free vet check site and enter the code FVC 0115, note the space in the code to check participating practices in England, Scotland and Wales, sadly not Northern Ireland). The check normally costs up to £35 and is a general 'MOT' for pets in good health (not for pets with known health problems) conducted by a vet or veterinary nurse. Once you've claimed your coupon, you have until Sunday 6 November to make and attend the appointment, just make sure to tell it you have a coupon and take it with you on the visit.