The things they don't want you to know
The things they don’t want us to know… A company’s job is to make money, nowt wrong with that, but our job though is to keep it, so here’s our Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis with six of the best tricks to redress the balance.
Whether it’s by 'price differentiation', ie, aiming to charge each customer as much as they'll pay - often done using what's called 'white labels', where the same thing is sold under different names, or by keeping schtum about terms and conditions, often routes to save may be hidden.
1. British Gas customer? It also operates under the name Sainsbury's Energy but there it's £200/year cheaper.
British Gas runs Sainsbury's Energy for the supermarket, yet there you pay it far less. Based on typical dual fuel usage (at the time of writing)...
- On British Gas’ standard tariff you pay an average £1,156/year. - On British Gas’ Price Promise March 16, its cheapest deal, you pay average £1,099/year. - On Sainsbury Fixed Price March 16, you pay average £949/year (£30 exit fees).
Sainsbury's Energy does have separate call centres, but it's still operated by British Gas and in my most recent poll 43% rated its service 'great', British Gas 37%. So if for some reason you're brand loyal and want to stick with British Gas, huge savings are still possible.
However as always price varies by region and usage, so do a comparison to see how it stacks up for you (and check if anyone else is cheaper). To do this use Martin’s Cheap Energy Club or an Ofgemconfidence code approved comparison site.
2. Zara sells its clothes at a fraction of the price...
If you’re one of millions planning a trip to Spain (not France, not Germany) this summer, you may want to stop shopping at Zara here in the UK right now. Spain is Zara's home country and it sells its clothes at vastly lower prices there. Better still, as the Zara Spain website has an English language option, so you can compare prices before you go.
Clothes there are often cheaper in euros than in pounds, even before the currency conversion. For example this jacket with piped pockets is £129 in the UK but just €99.95 in Spain, which after conversion is just £72, so that’s £57 cheaper. In fact, on a basket of goods (five items) it was on average 38% cheaper to buy in Spain.
Some of you may think ‘ah yes I’ve seen the euro price on some labels in the UK’, but that’s usually the French price, which is usually more expensive. This same trick works for others in the same group, Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear and Uterque.
In fact, the price difference is so big that if you were doing a big shop, the savings can easily cover the cost of a budget flight at the moment.
3. If a loan's advertised at 3.9% rep APR, they're allowed to charge 20%.
Every loan these days is listed as a 'representative' or 'rep' APR - that means by law only 51% of accepted applicants need to get the advertised rate. The rest can be and usually are charged more, and there's no cap on how much more. Worse, the only way to know is to apply, and that leaves a footprint on your credit file. So be very careful.
The best thing to do is to use one of the eligibility tools out there, which tell you your odds of being accepted without marking your credit file. Also, the higher your acceptance odds listed by the tools, the more likely you are to get the advertised rate, although they won’t be able to tell you the definite APR rate you’ll get.
4. Amazon shopper? You're entitled to music going back 16 years.
If you've bought CDs or vinyl, you're entitled to the downloads for nowt back to 1999. Here's how to check Amazon music player to recover 16 years of lost music. To be fair Amazon doesn’t hide that can do this, but it’s a good trick.
Just login to your Amazon Music library to see if you’ve any past tracks available.
As JHL1959 told me: "Crikey, it's given me 182 albums, that's 2,367 tracks. Amazingly, I still like a lot of them - cheered me up."
It’s not always such a success though, GingerJuice said: "Just did this - thought it was brilliant then realised I'd bought the mother-in-law the Susan Boyle CD last year... ugh."
5. Only get good mobile signal with one network? Switch to a piggyback.
When I talked about shifting mobile provider to save, many reply saying something like: "I wish I could but only Vodafone/EE works in my home." Yet there's a way to switch provider but keep the same signal...
Only EE, Vodafone, Three and O2 are actual mobile networks, yet there are many cheap virtual networks piggybacking on the same signal. E.g. Giffgaff is O2, Asda is EE, TalkMobile is Vodafone and Shebang is Three. So check which other providers piggyback on your existing network and see if they’re cheaper.
6. Energy firms can't charge exit penalties within 49 days of a fix ending.
If you’re on a cheap fixed energy deal you needn't wait until the last day to switch to avoid exit fees as rules state that 49 days before your fix ends, you're allowed to switch without penalty.
So don’t delay, and always compare in advance of your cheap deal ending to ensure you don’t automatically jump onto your provider’s more expensive rate.