90-Second Savers
PPI warning, five Odeon tickets for £20, free £50 wine with top 0% Virgin cards, and £30 Jawbone fitness tracker device. 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.
Warning: Deadline on PPI claims may be imposed – don’t wait
Worrying newspaper rumours suggest the regulators may agree to impose a time bar to help banks. If there’s a chance you’re owed, urgently check if you were mis-sold.
You don’t need to pay a claims firm to do this, you can do it yourself for free and there’s lots of help and template letters available on the internet.
Five Odeon tickets for £20
You can get five Odeon cinema tickets for £20, or two for £10, online at daily deals site Groupon. Better still, you don't have to use them in one go and they can be used by different people (great for families), until they expire on 15 October. There are a few exclusions and obviously if you’re in an area where cinema tickets are cheap, don’t do this, but in some areas they can cost up to £14.75.
Free £50 of wine on two top 0% cards
Get selected Virgin Money credit cards until 20 August and either spend or transfer (or combined) £1,000 to it within 60 days and it’ll give you six bottles of red, white or mixed wine (usually £50). Better still, two of its cards are best buys anyway, so if you need to cut the cost of existing debts or (carefully) do new borrowing, they’re winners.
Don’t apply willy-nilly though, as that marks your credit file – instead find your odds of getting each card via Martin’s eligibility calculator first.
The Virgin 3in1 card is the top all-rounder card and a best-buy in three separate categories, giving 24 months 0% on spending, balance transfers (for 1% fee) and money transfers (for a 1.9% fee) followed by 18.9% rep APR after.
Another Virgin card gives a longer 36 months 0% on balance transfers (for a 2.5% fee) and the same on money transfers (for a 4% fee) followed by 18.9% rep APR after. Its 0% spending offer isn’t great though so don’t use it for that.
Yet always follow the golden rules…a) Don't getnew borrowing unless you have to. If so, always budget and plan to repay before the 0% ends. b) Never miss minimum monthly repayments, or the bank can end your 0% deal and charge far more.c) Clear the card or balance transfer before the 0% ends, or the rate rockets to your card's standard APR.d) Never withdraw cash. It's not at the 0% rate. It's often far more, and just doing it can hurt your creditworthiness.
£30 Jawbone fitness and sleep tracker
It looks like Boots has put the price back up to £69.99 so this £30 deal has now ended but we are confirming this with Boots
If you go online to Boots you can get a small, medium or large orange or black Jawbone UP24 activity tracker for £30 (collect in store for free or it's £33.50 including delivery). RRP for this Jawbone model is £99.99 and the next cheapest I found was £49.99 at Argos (collect in store for free or it's £53.94 with delivery), so this is a decent deal. It’s online only and stock’s limited so go quick if you want one. You wear it round your wrist and it connects to your iOS or Android device to monitor your eating, moving and sleeping habits.