Today I have another great giveaway to share with you.
I’ve joined forces with some of my fellow UK Money Bloggers to put together a giveaway of FIVE Marks & Spencer ‘Afternoon Tea with Flowers’ Hampers.
These hampers sell for £50 apiece on the M&S website. The full contents are as follows:
Pure origin Assam teabags (125g/50 bags)
British raspberry soft set jam (113g)
British strawberry soft set jam (113g)
All butter shortbread fingers (28g/pack of 2) x 3
Cherry and sultana bar cake (520g)
Swiss chocolate extra smooth milk chocolate truffles (62g/pack of 5)
19 x Mixed pink roses
Two Reusable gift boxes
In the event of supply difficulties, or with discontinued products, M&S say they reserve the right to offer alternative goods or packaging of equal quality and value. If you need to know about any possible allergens in the contents, full information can be found on the M&S website.
Here then are all the details you need to enter, provided by my colleague Emma Drew (who is co-ordinating this event). Good luck! It would be great if a Pounds and Sense reader wins one (or more) of the prizes 🙂
This summer, some of the UK Money Bloggers have come together to offer you the chance to win one of six great prizes from Marks and Spencer. We have five hampers worth £50 each plus one £20 gift bag to give away. Keep reading to find out how you can enter.
Who are the bloggers behind this giveaway?
The UK Money Bloggers are a group of bloggers, podcasters, and influencers in the UK who are passionate about helping you to improve your finances. Whether you want to make more money, spend less, understand investing or pay off debts, we all contribute something unique to the community. Here’s who we are:
You can win one of five M&S ‘Afternoon Tea with Flowers’ hampers worth £50 each, or the runner-up prize of a £20 M&S ‘You’re the Bees Knees’ gift bag.
The rules
The giveaway is open until midnight on 31st August 2019, when the winners will be chosen.
The giveaway is open to UK residents only.
Winners will be contacted by email from hello@emmadrew.info
How to enter
You can enter by completing as many of the Rafflecopter widget entry options below as you would like. You can also enter daily by tweeting from the Rafflecopter widget.
One small point is that if a winning entry comes from following someone on social media, Emma will check before awarding the prize that the winner is still following the account in question. If they aren’t, they will be disqualified and a new winner drawn. So, please, don’t follow and immediately unfollow, as your entry won’t then count.
Once again, good luck, and I really do hope you win a hamper!
There are under five months left for consumers to reclaim Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). 29th August 2019 is the official cut-off date for all people to submit PPI claims to their banks. This date was chosen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to encourage those who have not yet made claims to do so.
Since the announcement of the deadline nearly two years ago, thousands of people have made successful PPI claims. With the deadline approaching, if you haven’t yet submitted a claim, you must act now before August.
Do You Have a PPI policy?
The first thing to establish is whether you had a PPI policy. Most PPI policies were sold in the 1990s alongside mortgages, loans and credit cards, but some successful cases date back to the 1980s. As a general rule, the older the policy, the harder it can be to prove you were mis-sold PPI.
You may remember being mis-sold a policy. If this is the case, you will need to find the old paperwork with evidence of this. If you can’t remember whether you had a policy, old statements and documents should be able to highlight if this is the case.
On the paperwork, PPI may be listed under a few different names. Here are just a selection of the other names for PPI (this list is not exhaustive):
Accident, Sickness and Unemployment (ASU)
Account cover
Loan protection
Payment cover
If you can’t remember whether you had a PPI policy or you can’t locate the paperwork, there are a couple of ways to find out. You can either contact the bank or lender and ask if they have a record of any PPI policies attached to your previous accounts, or you can use the services of a PPI claims company.
There is no guarantee that the bank will have a record of previous PPI policies, but if they do confirm a policy, you can then submit a PPI claim. Alternatively, a claims company can investigate any old accounts and seek to identify policies on your behalf.
Claim PPI before August
Once you find evidence of your PPI policy, it’s time to make a claim. Again, there are two different ways to submit a PPI claim. You can make a claim yourself by contacting the bank or lender that mis-sold you the policy or ask a reputable PPI claims company to do it for you.
Whether you submit a claim yourself or use a PPI claims company, you must explain how the policy was mis-sold to you. Here are just a few ways that policies were mis-sold to customers:
You were told it was compulsory with your credit card, loan or mortgage purchase
You weren’t told about the policy — it was added automatically and without your knowledge and consent
The terms and conditions were not explained — this includes not being asked about medical conditions and employment
You were promised a lower price if you bought the PPI policy
If any of these apply to you, you could be eligible for a refund. You may also be eligible for a refund if you were charged a high level of commission. Due to a landmark PPI case, individuals can claim PPI if a policy had over 50% commission and this was not disclosed — even if you knowingly bought a PPI policy. This is known as the Plevin rule and means thousands’ more people can make PPI claims.
Some banks allow you to claim PPI online by submitting a form (though you may need to also send evidence with your application). For others, you will need to write a letter and complete any relevant paperwork. Once the bank has acknowledged your claim, it should respond with an outcome within eight weeks. However, be aware that some cases can take longer, especially if they’re older or more complex.
The alternative option is to use the services of a PPI claims company. Some essential details will be required for them to act on your behalf, but they will handle all communication with the bank. If you don’t have the time or don’t want to deal with the process yourself, it can be beneficial using a claims company. Always check the fees involved and read the terms and conditions.
What if Your Claim Is Rejected?
If your claim is successful, you’ll receive notification from the bank and receive the payment shortly afterwards. If, however, the bank rejects your claim, but you think that the decision is wrong, you can refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FOS will independently review your PPI case and either uphold the decision made by the bank or decide that you are due the PPI refund. It’s important to be aware that PPI claims at the FOS can take up to two years to be resolved due to a severe backlog.
Whether you remember having PPI or not, now is the time to check. In four months, you will no longer have the chance to reclaim PPI. Act now before it’s too late.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored guest post on behalf of Canary Claims.
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Today I have another great giveaway to share with you. I’ve joined forces with some of my fellow UK Money Bloggers to put together a giveaway of not one, not two, but three Marks & Spencer Easter Hampers.
These hampers sell for £50 apiece on the M&S website. They contain an assortment of Easter goodies, beautifully presented in a stylish dark brown hamper. The full contents are as follows:
Assam tea (25g/10 bags)
Caramel eggs (120g)
Simnel cake bar (400g)
Cheeky chicks (120g/pack of 6)
Mini luxury hot cross buns (325g/pack of 9)
Hide and seek egg hunt bag (135g)
British strawberry soft set jam (113g)
Chicky choccy speckled eggs (100g)
8 Easter biscuits (200g)
Bubbly bunny (23g) x 4
Presented in a dark-stained wicker hamper with brown faux-leather handle and straps
In the event of supply difficulties, or with discontinued products, M&S say they reserve the right to offer alternative goods or packaging of equal quality and value. If you need to know about any possible allergens in the contents, full information can be found on the M&S website.
Here then are all the details you need to enter, provided by my colleague Emma Drew (who is co-ordinating this event). Good luck! It would be great if a Pounds and Sense reader wins one (or more) of the prizes 🙂
This Easter, some of the UK Money Bloggers have come together to offer you the chance to win one of three M&S Easter hampers. Three lucky winners will win an Easter hamper delivered before Easter. Keep reading to find out how you can enter.
Who are the bloggers behind the giveaway?
The UK Money Bloggers are a group of bloggers, podcasters, and influencers in the UK who are passionate about helping you to improve your finances. Whether you want to make more money, spend less, understand investing or pay off debts, we all contribute something unique to the community. Here’s who we are:
The giveaway is open until midnight on 14th April 2019, when the winners will be chosen.
The giveaway is open to UK residents only.
Winners will be contacted by email from hello@emmadrew.info
Should the Easter hampers be out of stock then a suitable replacement will be found.
How to enter
You can enter by completing as many of the Rafflecopter widget entry options below as you would like. You can also enter daily by tweeting from the Rafflecopter widget.
Comment with your best money saving tip to unlock more entry options.
All of us who wear glasses know how annoying it is when one of the small screws that hold the frames or arms in place comes loose and falls out.
Even assuming you can find the tiny screw, reinserting it is no joke, especially if your eyesight isn’t great (which of course is likely to be the case if you need glasses!).
So I was delighted to receive a free review copy of the SnapIt Glasses Repair Kit, pictured below.
The clever thing about this inexpensive kit is that it includes screws with a long ‘tail’ that are easy to insert into the spectacle frame. You then tighten the screw and snap off the protruding tail (hence the name, of course) for a perfect quick repair.
Here’s a step by step illustration of the process. Please excuse the fact that I used an old pair of glasses for this demonstration, so they aren’t exactly in pristine condition!
As you can see, I’m repairing an arm which has come loose. The first step is to insert the screw into the appropriate hole in the frame. You get five different screw sizes to choose from. The long tail on the screw makes doing this a doddle.
Next you use the little screwdriver provided in the kit to screw it in. Here’s a picture with a 20p coin beside it to give you an idea of the size.
It takes just a few moments to tighten the screw, so it looks like this.
Finally you just snap off the tail (easy again). Hey presto, a perfect repair!
Giveaway
As you can tell, I was very impressed with the SnapIt Glasses Repair Kit, so I was delighted to be offered one to give away to my readers. To enter the competition, just follow the steps on the Gleam form below. The more ways you enter, the better your chances of winning!
Good luck in the giveaway. If you have any comments or questions about this article, as always, please post them below.
And if you are a company or agency interested in running a giveaway like this on Pounds and Sense, please do drop me a line.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf on SnapIt, who were kind enough to provide a kit to me free of charge and are also providing the prize in my giveaway.
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In this post last month I set out a contest/giveaway to win six packets of the new Bahlsen Choco Moments biscuits. To enter, you simply had to comment on the post in question, saying why Bahlsen biscuits cheer you up.
For whatever reason there weren’t as many entries to this competition as my previous one. In fact only five people had entered by the closing date of Friday 1st February.
Still, those biscuits won’t eat themselves, so I used the random number generator at Random.org to pick the winner. Unfortunately the original winner failed to come forward, so in accordance with the rules set out in my original post I have gone back to Random.org to select another winner. I am therefore pleased to confirm that this was entry number 3 from Sally Jenkins (who is, coincidentally, a friend and near-neighbour of mine). Congratulations, Sally!
Thank you to everyone who entered, and commiserations to the entrants who didn’t win this time. A particular mention for Nicola, who came up with the best rhyme, and for the eventual winner, Sally Jenkins, who clearly went to some effort to create a catchy slogan. In this competition the winner was selected at random according to the rules set out in my original post, but I did appreciate the effort you both made with these entries!
You can, of course, buy delicious Bahlsen Choco Moments biscuits in Waitrose and Sainsbury’s supermarkets (and at the online store Amazon).
And finally, thanks again to Bahlsen Biscuits for sponsoring this contest. Watch out for more contests and giveaways on Pounds and Sense soon!
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Today I want to share an unusual opportunity to earn a bit of extra cash. It should appeal particularly if you are:
interested in writing
have a good sense of humour (especially the satirical type)
are interested in the news stories and issues of today
The BBC’s satirical radio comedy show Newsjack is back for a new run. They describe is as, ‘The scrapbook sketch show written entirely by the Great British public’ and anyone is welcome to submit short topical sketches and one-liners for it.
This is primarily an opportunity for UK residents, though if you live outside the UK (and understand the British sense of humour!) there is nothing to stop you submitting work as well.
Submissions are open now, with a weekly deadline of noon on Mondays for sketches and noon on Tuesday for one-liners. Last submissions for this series are Tuesday 12th March 2019.
This is, as mentioned, a paying opportunity. Payments are as follows:
£45.50 per minute for sketches £22.75 per 30 seconds for sketches £22.75 per one-liner
They say this fee will take in all rights for the work on a non-exclusive basis (so no repeat fees, unfortunately!).
Obviously there will be a lot of competition, so it’s important to study the guidelines carefully and listen to the show itself (it’s broadcast at 11 pm on BBC Radio 4 Extra). Although it’s primarily a bit of fun with a chance to earn some cash and have your work (and name) broadcast on national radio, this can also be a good entry-level opportunity for anyone hoping to get into radio comedy writing. If you consistently submit work that gets noticed, you may be invited to join the show’s team of commissioned writers, which in turn will present all sorts of further networking opportunities.
It’s also an opportunity I have a soft spot for, as many years ago I had a number of sketches and one-liners accepted by the long-running predecessor of Newsjack, Weekending. I was invited to meet the show’s producer and was sounded out about joining the writing team, but in the end decided against as it would have meant relocating to London.
Good luck if you decide to try submitting work to Newsjack. Please do leave a comment below if you are successful!
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I’ve talked about matched betting on various occasions on this blog. To recap, it’s a way of making risk-free (and tax-free) cash by taking advantage of bookmaker special offers and promotions, in conjunction with the facility to ‘lay’ bets offered by betting exchanges.
I am writing about it again now because in a few weeks (12-15 March 2019) the Cheltenham Festival will be upon us. This is arguably the best week for matched betting in the entire year. Last year I made around £500 profit taking advantage of bookmaker offers. Others I know made thousands.
For those who don’t know, the Cheltenham Festival is one of the highlights of the racing calendar, with large, top-quality fields competing for some of the biggest prizes in racing, culminating in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. And the bookmakers pull out all the stops at this time to attract new clients and get current and former clients fully involved. I expect to see a stream of offers in the coming weeks, increasing to a torrent during the Festival itself. This gives us the potential to make substantial tax-free profits by applying matched betting principles.
If you’re already a matched bettor, therefore, now is the time to ensure you have plenty of money in your exchanges (I mostly use Smarkets for its low commission fees but others prefer Betfair). And keep watching your email for offers sent by bookmakers you have accounts with.
If you’re new to matched betting, I strongly recommend joining up with a matched betting advisory service. As well as providing tutorials to get you up to speed, these services provide essential online tools, including odds-matching software and calculators. They will also alert you to a wide range of money-making opportunities, and offer support and advice if needed.
There are various advisory services you can use. I cut my teeth with Profit Accumulator and still recommend this very popular service. It’s suitable both for those brand new to matched betting and for experienced matched bettors. You can join PA free initially and they will provide details of two bookmaker offers you can take advantage of. These should make you around £45 in net profit. If you wish to proceed further, you can then pay to become a Platinum member and get access to the full range of offers and services. Platinum membership currently costs £17.99 a month, with the first month half-price.
Joining MatchedBets.com currently costs £18 a month or a best value £99 a year. You can also sign up for a 14-day trial for £1, which gives complete access to all tools and information on the site during that time..
If you think matched betting may be for you, I highly recommend that you sign up with either of these services today. You will then be perfectly placed to take advantage of the many money-making opportunities the Cheltenham Festival 2019 presents.
As ever, if you have any questions or comments about matched betting, Profit Accumulator or MatchedBets.com, please do post them below.
Disclosure: As well as being a member of Matchedbets.com and former member of Profit Accumulator I am also an affiliate for them. If you join and become a paying member after following any of the links in this post, I will receive a commission for introducing you. This does not affect in any way the cost of the service to you or the benefits you receive.
Note: this is an updated repost from 2018.
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NOTE: This competition is now closed. The winner has been announcedin this blog post!
The third Monday in January has been dubbed Blue Monday. It’s meant to be the most depressing day of the year, with cold days, dark nights, and a payday that still feels a million miles away.
So today, to cheer everyone up, I am running a giveaway for some delicious Bahlsen Choco Moments biscuits. This is – of course – a sponsored post.
Choco Moments are the ultimate indulgent snack. With a thick coating of rich chocolate over a crunchy biscuit base, they are the perfect melt-in-your-mouth treat to pick you up on a bad day.
They are available in two delicious flavours: Choco Moments Crunchy Hazelnut (my favourite) combines smooth, creamy milk chocolate with warm hazelnut crunch and is mouth-wateringly more-ish; while Choco Moments Crunchy Mint perfectly balances deep notes of dark chocolate with lively and refreshing crunchy mint.
To be in with a chance of winning A WHOLE SIX PACKETS of Choco Moments biscuits (both flavours included) just leave a comment below by 9 am on Friday 31st January 2019 saying why Bahlsen biscuits cheer you up. I will pick a winner at random and arrange to send them the prize.
Just one comment per person, please, and allow a few hours for me to approve your comment if you haven’t commented on my blog before. This competition is open to UK residents only.
Please check back here (or on the PAS Facebook page) after 1st February 2019 to see if you are the winner and claim your prize (you could also subscribe via the box in the right-hand column to be notified about all new posts). Due to online privacy rules I won’t be able to contact you otherwise. Note also that once the competition has closed it will not be possible to leave any further comments on this post.
If the winner doesn’t claim their prize within seven days, I reserve the right to pick another winner at random instead.
Finally, even if you don’t win this time, don’t be blue. Bahlsen Choco Moments biscuits are available at an RRP of just £1.99 in Sainsbury’s and Waitrose supermarkets!
Good luck, enjoy your coffee/tea and Bahlsen Choco Moments, and remember that from today onward the year can only improve 🙂
Disclosure: as stated above, this is a sponsored post. I am receiving some delicious Bahlsen Choco Moments biscuits as a thank-you for posting it
Comments on this post are now closed.
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By courtesy of my friends at Wow Free Stuff, I’d like to offer you the chance to win a Burt’s Bees Natural Gift Set just like the one below.
This attractive gift set contains beeswax-based natural skin-care products, including lip salve and hand salve. On average, Burt’s Bees products are 99% natural, with over half their products 100% natural. They contain no petrochemicals, phthalates, parabens or sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), and are not tested on animals.
I thought today I’d share some of my favourite ways of making a bit of extra cash.
These are methods I have discussed previously on Pounds and Sense, so I have linked to some other relevant posts from the blog where appropriate.
1. Prolific Academic
Prolific Academic is a platform used by academic researchers world-wide to recruit participants for online studies and surveys. These are varied and interesting, and I’ve earned almost £300 to date by doing them. For more information, see my blog post Make Money and Help Academic Researchers With Prolific Academic.
2. Matched Betting
Don’t be put off by the name. Matched betting isn’t gambling. Rather, it’s a way of taking advantage of bookmaker special offers (mostly online) to generate a risk-free profit. I’ve made about £2,000 (tax-free) from matched betting, and know of other people who have made five-figure sums.
I’ve written about matched betting on various occasions on Pounds and Sense. You can read my introductory article Can You Make Money From Matched Betting? here. Note that for beginners I highly recommend subscribing to the Profit Accumulator advisory service, which has in-depth video tutorials and valuable (arguably essential) online tools for matched bettors, such as calculators and odds-matchers.
3. Online Auction Selling
There are lots of ways to make money from online auctions, generally using the world’s favourite online auction site eBay. The simplest method is to sell items from around the house you no longer need, from children’s toys and games to clothing and collectables. If you want to go beyond this, though, you can buy items cheaply from wholesalers or other sources and sell them on for profit (note that income generated this way is potentially taxable). Check out this guest post Twelve Top Tips for Selling on eBay by my fellow money blogger Luci Oliver.
4. Renting Out a Room
This is undoubtedly an old-school method, but if you have a room in your home you’re not currently using, you could make steady money from it by taking in a lodger. The government encourages this through its Rent a Room Scheme, which lets you make up to £7,500 a year tax-free by renting out a room in your home. If you don’t want a full-time lodger, another option is to take people on short stays using the well-known Airbnb platform or one of its rivals. See my blog post Boost Your Income by Renting Out a Room for more information.
5. Blogging
Could 2019 be the year you start your own money-making blog? I do, and there’s no reason you couldn’t as well!
If you’re not quite sure what to blog about, ask yourself the following two questions:
1) Are you at least curious about the topic?
You don’t have to be an expert or 100% passionate about your blog topic to generate income. But you do need to be at least curious to learn, because if you don’t enjoy learning about your blogging topic, it’ll show in your writing, and you’ll run out of ideas. Nobody reads blogs that have no character or point of view.
2) Are other bloggers already making money in your niche?
It’s important to pick a niche that is proven to make money. The easiest way to see which blog niches are profitable is to see how many other bloggers are active in the niche in question. If nobody is competing in your space, there’s a very good chance the market is too small or unprofitable. Don’t be afraid of competition. Your experiences and distinct voice will make your blog unique. You can stand out even in a saturated market.
This is another thing I do myself – indeed, for many years I was a full-time freelance writer (I’m semi-retired now). It’s a competitive field, but there is still plenty of money to be made. You don’t need to be Shakespeare either, just have a reasonable grasp of written English and be willing and able to write what the market wants. Check out My Top Ten Tips for Making Money as a Freelance Writer here. You can also read my posts Should You Write a Book? and How to Publish Your Own E-book on Kindle.
7. MobileXpression App
If you have a smartphone, this is a really easy way to make money from it. Just install this app (which tracks your browsing anonymously) and every few weeks you will receive a £20 Amazon voucher for your trouble (Amazon vouchers are pretty much as good as money, as you can buy almost anything there!). You can read my full review of the MobileXpression app in this post.
8. Become a Viewing Agent with Viewber
If you have a bit of time available in the day and/or at weekends, you could earn a sideline income as a viewing agent for Viewber. This company recruits freelance viewing agents to conduct property viewings on behalf of local estate agents who don’t have the staff available to do it themselves. As a Viewber (the name is also used by the company to describe its viewing agents) you will be asked to attend a property at a specified date and time to show a potential buyer or tenant round. You will receive a set fee and travel expenses for doing this. This opportunity is open to anyone and you don’t need any experience in estate agency. For full details, see my post Earn a Sideline Income as a Viewing Agent With Viewber.
9. Be a TV or Movie Extra
This is another opportunity that won’t make you rich but can certainly generate a useful sideline income and provide a lot of fun into the bargain. As an extra, you’ll make some money, get a chance to see how movies and TV shows are made, and even become immortalized on screen. For more information (including my own experiences!) see my post Earn a Sideline Income as a TV or Movie Extra.
10. Offer Your Home as a TV or Movie Location
If you don’t fancy appearing in films or TV shows yourself, maybe your home could do the job for you? Obviously this opportunity won’t be suitable for everyone. You need to live somewhere with characteristics or features that might be in demand by a production company. You definitely don’t need to live in a stately home, though. A huge range of properties is required, so wherever you live there’s a chance it could be the perfect location for an upcoming project. Read my blog post Lights! Camera! Action! How to Make Money Offering Your Home as a TV or Film Location for the full scoop!
So there you are – twelve great ways you can generate a sideline income in 2019. For many other sideline (or in some cases full-time) earning opportunities, just click through this link to the Making Money category on Pounds and Sense.
Good luck, and as always if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.
Disclosure: This post (and others on Pounds and Sense) includes affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase at the website in question, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This has no effect whatsoever on the terms or benefits you will receive.
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