Martin's deals: Free winter car check
Martin Lewis brings us his weekly deals, including cheap wills, how to get a year's tube overcharges back plus his quickies, including a half term activity week for 16-17 year-olds for £50 (that's free for some).
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.
Web exclusive: Free winter car check at Halfords
Drive to any Halfords or Halfords Autocentre this winter and get a free five-point car check – which is valued at around £15. The car check includes checks to your battery, bulbs, wiper blades, oil and screenwash levels. You don’t need to book in advance, though you can online if you want, and the check should take about 15 minutes. There is no obligation to buy anything, but be prepared that staff might try to upsell you. The winter car check is on until spring next year.
Get a cheap will drafted through Will Aid
Will Aid, held every November, is one of the three big charity will-schemes that enable you to have a solicitor-drafted will, which is the gold standard. The strength of this one is it’s UK wide, and is for anyone regardless of age, not just over 55s.
Though the date of your appointment has to be in November, I strongly suggest you register and book now via the Will Aid website or phone 0300 0309 558, as it books up very quickly.
There’s no set fee for the will but it has a suggested donation of around £95 for a single will and £150 for a couple – cheaper than what you’d usually pay a solicitor. The money is split between nine charities including ActionAid, Age UK, NSPCC, and Sightsavers. You can donate online before the appointment (then take a print out to show you have) or do it with the solicitor. Some can get sniffy if you haven’t donated, as they do it for charity, but if you can’t afford the suggested donation do what you can.
As for who should get a will – if you haven’t already got one, you should seriously consider it, if you want to decide what happens to your assets if the worst happens. This is especially important for cohabiting couples who live together, as if one of you were to die without a will, the other has no status in law and may not get the house.
Overcharged on the Tube? Get it refunded back
If you travel on the Tube or another Transport for London service (eg, Docklands Light Railway or London Overground) and don’t tap out your Oyster or contactless payment card, you will be charged the maximum fare. In the last year there were on average 40,000 ‘incomplete journeys’ a day, meaning a total of £73m was overcharged. Full info in Martin’s Tube & TfL refundsguide.
But in brief, if you check on the TfL website under ‘View journeys and payment history’ it will show you a yellow warning triangle if your journey was incomplete. You can go back as far as a year with contactless cards and eight weeks with Oyster (if it’s registered on the site).
Click on this journey and enter the correct journey details as well as the reason you didn’t complete the journey – it mainly gives refunds if it was out of your control eg, power cuts, broken machines or station evacuations, but I’ve heard of people getting them when they admit they forgot. Remember to be honest, and never lie, as this is fraud.
TfL should then email you within a few days to let you know if your claim was successful. I’ve heard of some people getting up to £72 back.
Martin’s Quickies
- October half-term activity trip £50 (or free for some) for teens. This England and Northern Ireland scheme gets 16-17-year-olds abseiling, canoeing and learning life skills in the October half-term (including a three-night activity trip away and 30 hours’ voluntary work in the community). It’s £50 or less, or even free for some as part of the National Citizen Service programme backed by the Government.
It doesn't matter if your kids are at school or not. If a teenager's been on a course before, they unfortunately can't go again. To apply, enter your details on the National Citizen Service registration page and it will contact you to explain more. Register as soon as possible as once places are gone, they’re gone.
I’ve had great feedback on this about previous years such as “The change has been wonderful; it’s something that a parent only hopes to witness, their child growing into a better person."
- Molton Brown £15 off £30 in £4ish magazine: Pick up November’s edition of Good Housekeeping magazine (£4ish with Nigella Lawson on the front) and on page 164 is a voucher to get £15 off a £30 spend in-store and online at Molton Brown (delivery is £4.95, plus you’ll get a free 30ml body wash or lotion sample). The magazine will only be on sale until Friday 30 October and the voucher expires Saturday 31 October. So this means you could get a Travel Body Wash set which is £30 for £15.
- You do have to show your boarding pass at duty-free shops. In summer a scandal was revealed that most airport retailers were wrongly forcing people to show their boarding passes. Many complained thinking it was done for security but in reality, it allowed shops to claim back VAT on goods bought by those travelling outside the EU, so there was uproar that the savings weren’t being passed on to customers.
At the time, I was very vocal on the subject, and urged passengers not to show their boarding passes at shops such as WHSmith, Boots and others. Yet while I mentioned it at the time, many people missed the point that this is about airport retailers not duty free. Lots of duty-free staff have contacted me saying they get abuse from people who won’t show their boarding passes. So to clear it up – if you’re buying any goods, specifically from the duty-free stores, you do need to show your boarding pass, but in airport shops like Boots, WHSmith, you don’t.