Today is the last day of the Barclaycard survey which for the last month has been giving all who complete it a Thomas Cook money-off voucher worth up to £150.

The Barclaycard survey takes just a few minutes to complete and asks participants about their spending habits both on and offline.

Once you have completed the survey, you just need to enter in your address details so we can send you the voucher.

The voucher will be worth £150 to a group of 2 people booking a holiday of 14 nights or more or £100 for a group of 2 people booking a holiday for 7 nights or more or a single person booking a holiday for 14 nights or more.

What’s more, if you use your Barclaycard to pay for your holiday, you won’t have to pay the usual 2.5% credit card fee.

Click on the link to take part in the Barclaycard survey

If you are going on holiday, don’t forget your Travel Insurance

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When you compare credit cards, you now have another great product to consider – the American Express Blue Sky credit card.

The American Express Blue Sky credit card is a new addition to our credit card top deals table and is currently offering 0% interest for 6 months on all purchases made using the card.

On top of this, you can earn reward points for every £1 spent on the card which can be used towards any type of travel including flights, car hire, rail services, hotels as long as the purchase is charged to the Blue Sky.

What’s more, you will also benefit from cover for lost or delayed luggage and missed or cancelled flights when you use the Blue Sky credit card to pay for your travel.

The card comes with a typical APR of 17.9% variable, 24 hour customer service worldwide and no annual fee.

Find out more about the American Express Blue Sky credit card

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From 27th May customers who buy Sainsbury’s Home Insurance online can now benefit from up to 20% off.

Additionally, Sainsbury’s Home Insurance policies now come with cover of up to £500 for any items you leave out in the open.

What’s more, with a Sainsbury’s Home Insurance policy you get unlimited buildings cover so your home will never be under insured.

Plus, you can earn up to 40% No Claims Discount with Sainsbury’s Home Insurance if you choose to buy ‘no claims discount protection.

To be eligible for the 20% online discount you need to be a new customer buying combined buildings and contents insurance cover online.

For more information about Sainsbury’s Home Insurance click on the link.
 

This offer is current as of 27th MAY 2008. Terms and Conditions apply. For more offers please refer to the Offers section of compareandsave.com’s ‘Your money matters blog’.

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In recent months our household finances have been squeezed by rising mortgage, utility, food and petrol prices.

For many, this will mean that a summer holiday this year is out of the equation because there won’t be any spare cash once all the bills are paid for.

However, as we all know, taking a break out from the stresses and strains of daily life can revitalise even the most tired soul and prepare it for another year of hard work.

So, if you have resigned yourself to the fact that you won’t be jetting off to warmer climes this summer, think again.

Here are our top tips to help you budget for a summer holiday including how to get your hands on a money-off voucher for Thomas Cook worth £150.

Thomas Cook voucher

Throughout May, compareandsave.com has been running a Barclaycard survey about spending. Each person who fills in the quick five minute survey will be sent out a money-off voucher for Thomas Cook worth £150.

Click on the link to enter the Barclaycard survey

Credit Card

If you don’t think you will be able to save enough money to pay for a holiday in just two or three months, but you could manage it in say six to 10 months, you could use a credit card to pay for your trip.

If you get a Barclaycard Purchases Credit Card, you will pay no interest on all purchases for 10 months.

This would work great for you if you are disciplined with your money and made a deal with yourself to pay the balance off before the 10 month interest-free period expired.

What’s more, when you pay for a Thomas Cook holiday using a Barclaycard or Thomas Cook credit card, you will not have to pay the usual credit card fee of 2.25% (up to a maximum of £50).

Typically, when someone uses an interest free credit card to make a purchase they will then save up the money they need to pay the bill off at the end of the free period in a high interest savings account. This money will then be earning interest which can go towards the money needed to pay off the credit card balance.

You can apply for the Barclaycard Purchases credit card here.

Travel Insurance

If you are going on holiday, you will need to buy travel insurance – don’t forget to account for this in your holiday budget.

If you compare travel insurance, you may be able to find better cover for a lot less money which will keep the overall price of your holiday down.

Click on the link to compare travel insurance.

Give up a habit

It is amazing how much we spend on regular luxuries without realising it. However, giving up these luxuries is most likely to give us the free cash we need to be able to afford a summer holiday.

It may be hard to leave behind these regular treats, but you really will be amazed at how much they cost you over the course of the year.

The most obvious expensive luxury is smoking. The average male smoker smokes 14 cigarettes a day and is set to save over £100 a month if they quit.

If you don’t smoke, you may well be a regular coffee drinker. If you spend £1.50 on a coffee each morning, you are spending £7.50 in a working week and £30 a month on your caffeine kick.

Another common way people haemorrhage money is by buying lunch every day instead of bringing food from home.

If you spend £3.00 a day on lunch, you are spending £15 in a working week and £45 a month on a meal that could cost a third of the price if you make it yourself.

No matter what your vice is, there is certainly money to be saved if you can give it up. If you put this money in your savings account each month, your holiday fund will soon grow.

Use our calculators to see how much you could save

Savings accounts

The Thomas Cook holiday voucher will be a good start to your holiday fund however, you are probably going to need to save to pay for the rest.

Do some research and see how much you will need to be able to afford a holiday in two or three months. If you can, hold off until the end of the peak holiday season and you will get much more for your money.

Once you have an idea of how much your holiday will set you back, work out how much you will need to save each week or month to meet your target.

If you put this money into one of the market leading savings accounts you could earn a substantial amount of interest which should help to boost your funds further.

Online Savings Accounts usually pay higher rates of interest than accounts opened in branch.

If you need to save for your holiday, you probably won’t be able to book your holiday straight away because travel agents usually require full payment if you are travelling within 6 weeks of the date of booking.

Click on the link to compare high interest savings accounts

More ways to cut the cost of your holiday

• Pack light – save yourself money on new clothes and baggage costs
• Buy an all inclusive holiday package – by paying a little extra you can eat and drink all you like and keep any spending money you have for souvenirs
• Go self catering and shop in local supermarkets – self catering holidays are generally cheaper and if you can find a local supermarket you will be able to buy your food for less than you would in the UK. You would have to buy food if you were still at home anyway
• Find free child places – A lot of travel agents and tour operators offer free child places so if you have children this can seriously reduce the overall cost of your holiday

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If you are going on holiday in the UK, you will probably still benefit from buying travel insurance to cover you for unexpected events such as lost or damaged luggage.

Generally speaking, holidays in the UK are covered by annual multi-trip travel insurance so long as you have at least two night of accommodation pre-booked.

If you don’t have an annual multi trip travel insurance policy, it is best if you speak to travel insurance companies about what cover you will need when you go on holiday in the UK because then you will get the travel insurance that best suits your individual needs.

It is likely that the policy you buy will be for European travel insurance cover, so you will still get medical cover. Obviously, if you are a UK resident you will be covered under the NHS anyway so you probably won’t need this medical cover. Some insurers will not give you the option to remove this in place of a lower premium, but some might.

Either way, there are still risks involved when travelling in the UK so travel insurance may well be a beneficial purchase.

Click on the link to compare cheap travel insurance

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If you are thinking about taking your children on holiday with you, don’t forget to get them travel insurance cover as they will only be covered if they are named on travel insurance policy documents.

If your child were to need emergency medical treatment while on holiday, and they weren’t covered by a travel insurance policy, you could end up footing a medical bill for thousands of pounds.

Travel insurance cover for children varies from provider to provider. Different companies have varying ways of defining a ‘child’ in terms of its age, different rules on who the child must travel with in order to be covered by the travel insurance policy and different limits for the number of children covered per policy.

Some travel insurance providers will insure your children for free when you buy travel insurance for yourself and others will cover children for half price.

If the provider does not offer a free or half-price deal, they will generally offer cheaper ‘family travel insurance policies’ which will provide cover for you, your spouse or partner and your children. Some providers will cover your step children or foster children under a family policy or on the adult’s single trip or annual multi trip travel insurance policy.

Age

The usual age range for children is 0-17, although some companies classify 0 to 2 year olds as infants and 2 to 17 year olds as children. Some providers will only classify 0 to 14 year olds as children.

Most companies will classify 19 to 23 year olds in full-time education as children for travel insurance purposes.

Who must the child travel with to be covered?

Generally speaking, you must be the parent or legal guardian of the children travelling on your travel insurance policy in order for them to be covered however some insurers will cover children travelling with Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles if the family member has at least a single trip travel insurance policy.

Others providers specify that the policy that the child is named on must belong to a parent or guardian who lives at the same address as the child.

Number of children covered

Insurance providers vary when it comes to the number of children eligible for free or reduced price travel insurance. Some offer unlimited child places and others offer a set number of children per adult insured.

If you are jetting off soon, compare travel insurance to find the best deals for you and your children
 

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Today is the last chance to enter our Barclaycard survey to be in with the chance of winning an iPod.

For the last 19 days, we have been offering our readers the chance to be one of our daily iPod winners.

On top of this, each reader who enters the competition will automatically receive a £150 Thomas Cook voucher to go towards a holiday from the travel agent.

All you need to do is fill in a very short survey about credit cards for Barclaycard and enter your address details so that you can be sent your Thomas Cook money off voucher.

After today, and until the end of May, you can still complete the survey to earn the £150 Thomas Cook voucher.

To be in with a chance of winning and to earn your £150 Thomas Cook voucher, click on the link to complete the Barclaycard survey.

Braclaycard offer a range of products including the Barclaycard Platinum Credit Card, which offers 0% for 14 months on balance transfers, and the Barclaycard Long Term Credit Card, whcih offers a low APR of 6.3% for the life of any balance transferred to it.

This offer is current as of 20th MAY 2008. Terms and Conditions apply. For more offers please refer to the Offers section of compareandsave.com’s ‘Your money matters blog’.

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The Barclaycard Cashback Credit Card is offering 4% cashback on all spending until 31 July 2008, with a limit on the amount of cashback you can receive set at £30 per month.

On top of this, you will benefit from a competitive typical APR of 15.9% per annum and 0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months.

The offer is replacing the old deal of 1% cashback on petrol and supermarket shopping paid for on the Barclaycard Cashback Credit Card.

When this offer ends on 31 July 2008, the cashback rate will drop to 0.5% until 1 January 2010. However, this lower cashback rate will apply to all spending and not just to petrol and shopping paid for with the credit card and so, although the rate is lower, you will have more opportunity to earn some cashback.

To apply for a Barclaycard Cashback Credit Card you need to be at least 21 years of age and have a minimum gross annual income of £10,000.

Click on the link for more information about the Barclaycard Cashback Credit Card offer.

This offer is current as of 20th MAY 2008. Please check the provider’s product page for more information and conditions. For more offers please refer to the Offers section of compareandsave.com’s ‘Your money matters blog’.

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According to the Abbey, 3.4 million households don’t know whether or not their home contents insurance policy provides cover for the full value of their possessions.

If you are one of these and ever need to claim on your home insurance you run the risk of having your claim reduced or even rejected by your insurance provider.

This also applies to other types of insurance too, so it is well worth taking some time to check how covered you really are.

To check your level of cover you will need to dig out your policy documents and note down the sum insured.

After you have done this, work out how much it would cost you if you have to replace all of your possessions and rebuild your home (if applicable).

Make an inventory of your possessions

The typical family home contains contents worth as much as £40,000.

Go room to room and make a list of everything in your home that you choose to take with you if you were to pack up and move. Don’t forget clothes, jewellery and items in the loft, garage and shed.

This is especially important at the moment when it comes to jewellery because the price of gold is on the up and, for many, personal jewellery is now worth substantially more than it was a year ago.

When you make your list, note down how much it would cost you to replace each item if you had to buy it new.

You will need to get valuable antiques and pieces of jewellery valued by an expert.

Don’t underestimate the value of your contents

Be realistic about how much it would cost you to buy your possessions and remember to individually list particularly expensive items, for instance expensive items of clothing like suits and coats and rare DVDs, records and books.

Don’t forget to update the list

At key times of the year the value of contents in your home will increase. This mainly occurs around Christmas and birthdays when households typically spend hundreds of pounds on gifts which are then stored in the house until the big day. Taking photos will also help you if you ever need to claim.

Regular CD and DVD purchases will also push the value of your contents up – four DVDs a month could easily add over £600 to your total.

Don’t forget to insure engagement rings

The average engagement ring costs around £1,200 so, if you are one of the 1.8 million planning to pop the question in 2008, don’t forget to arrange insurance cover.

According to the Abbey, 73% of engagement rings are not covered by existing home contents insurance policies. Therefore, it is well worth checking whether or not your policy will pay out if anything were to happen to your rings.

Keep your contents list and valuations safe

Once you have completed your inventory and valuations, keep the list somewhere outside of the house in a safe place. This list will be useless to you if it gets destroyed along with the contents of your house. You could swap your list with a family member or friend so that you look after theirs and they look after yours.

Check how much it would cost to rebuild your home

Check to see if the amount of cover you have on your home buildings insurance policy is enough to pay for a full rebuild of your property. This could be different to the market value of the property.

Your mortgage survey may show this cost, or you can pay a surveyor to value the build cost of your property, or use an ‘online ready reckoner to help you. The Association of British Insurers has one on its website – www.abi.org.uk.

Act on any shortfalls

If the total value of your contents is more than the sum insured as stated on your home insurance contents policy, it is time to arrange to buy more cover from your insurer. If you don’t feel you could stretch to pay out any more on your home insurance cover, it may well be worth comparing quotes from other providers to see if you can get more cover for less money.

To start your search for a cheaper quote, click on the link to compare home insurance.

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If you live with your partner and you have home insurance that you hope will cover your possessions as well as your partner’s, it is likely that it will not extend to your partner’s things if it is in your name.

This means that in the event of damage occurring to your partner’s possessions, they will have to fork out to get them replaced which could cost them thousands of pounds.

However, you could prevent this by adding your partner to your home insurance policy as a ‘joint policy holder’.

Having another person named on your policy will entitle them to make a claim on the home insurance if something were to happen to their things.

If the reason for not adding your partner on the home insurance policy in the first place was because you were worried about the extra cost, then you will be interested to know that often insurance companies allow you to add a joint policy holder at no additional cost.

The only aspect of this that could be deemed as negative is that the cover you have bought will then be shared between the two of you.

Therefore, if you do add a joint policy holder to your home insurance policy, it is probably best to check how much cover you have by looking at your policy documents and work out if they cover you have will be enough to replace all of your, and your partner’s, possessions in the event of total loss in case of fire or theft.

If it turns out that the cover you have will not be enough, it will likely be a lot cheaper to increase the cover than for your partner to take out a policy of their own.

Click on the link to compare home insurance

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