Gas and electricity prices: more rises to come? Predictions…

The last twelve months have been an annus horribilis when it comes to energy prices. The first big jumps came in January then there was a huge tranche of in some cases 30% plus rises around August. As I explain in the Compare Gas & Electricity guide one of the major ways to prevent your bill for...

This site saved me £50…

The nature of TV means clothes have a relatively short life span and I often need identical items, as if I’m filming long hours for a number of days in a row, I have to wear the same things. As I needed a couple of new pairs of jeans, that actually meant four. Before shopping I nipped...

It’s a typical day…. arrrgh

Thursdays are meant to be a slightly more relaxed day for me. On Tuesday I have my GMTV slots and the mammoth work behind the weekly e-mail on Wednesdays it’s full paced scripting, rehearsing then filming It Pays To Watch, and Thursday is meant to be catch up day. Sadly my easy Thursdays are long gone. So...

2,500,000 now get the email: 1,030,000 new recipients in the last 12 months.

HOORAH! At 18:28 today, the 2,500,000 person joined this site’s weekly tips email. That’s 1,027,000 more than at the same time 365 days ago. What do you call 2,500,000? It feels like it should be a special number with its own name… like a quarter of a Tenmillion. This landmark means MoneySavingExpert.com’s now at a scale similar...

Tesco plaudits: Well done on the section 75 mention.

Well done Tesco credit card. A MoneySaver, Simon, has just forwarded an e-mail he got from it about the XL holiday firm collapse. Rather surprisingly, the company is actually informing its customers they can claim from it under Section 75 of the consumer credit act (see Consumer Rights guide) that says the card issuer is jointly liable...

Asking others to give up their bus seat…

I’m currently bussing into the office, as with my broken ribs, cycling is out of the question. This morning, I sat in the ‘give priority to disabled/elderly passengers’ seat and at the first stop an elderly lady got on, so I stood up for her and went to the front.

Political reporters: are you out of touch?

I watched the government’s gas and electricity press conference on Sky news yesterday. It’s a massively important subject that’s blighting the lives of many across the UK, so the prime minister and cabinet ministers were there to answer for their strategy. As I listened to the announcement, I was met by a raft of good and bad,...

The Credit Card Science Experiment.

The new series of It Pays To Watch starts next week, and one of the first few programmes is about credit cards. As part of it, I’ve been racking my brains to come up with a new way to describe the Credit Card Shuffle; one of the most powerful but tough-to-explain systems for saving money on cards....

Does the Prime Minister understand Direct Debit?

The government’s just announced a massive, billion-pound push towards energy efficiency. A key tenet of its plan’s a massive advertising campaign to get people to switch to Direct Debit repayments as it’ll save them money. Now while I agree with this, after all it’s a top point in my Compare Gas & Elecriticity guide, since it’ll cut...

Breaking my ribs by not braking properly.

On holiday about ten days ago, I met up one day with my Uncle (Tax Tony) and his family who were staying nearby in Spain. Then Tony, my 18 year old cousin and I went Go-Karting. The problem being, young Boff (as he bizarrely likes to be known) is a bit of a petrol head; he loves...