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Why I Donj't Promote or Recommend 20 Cogs

January 22, 2020

Why I Don’t Promote or Recommend 20 COGS

Over the last few weeks I’ve received several queries about 20 COGS. I’ve also seen people asking about it on Facebook. Some of my fellow UK money bloggers have been promoting it as well.

I did try 20 COGS myself about 18 months ago. I didn’t like it and have therefore never written about it or promoted it (and I’m not now, so there are no affiliate links in this post). As it still seems to be generating a lot of interest, however, I thought I’d share my experiences (and opinions) about it here.

I guess I’d better start with a word of explanation, though…

What is 20 COGS?

For those who don’t know, 20 COGS is a home money-making opportunity. The way it works is that you undertake a set of twenty online tasks. Once you have completed all twenty as specified – and not before – you receive a cash reward. This is generally between £150 and £200, but you are likely to incur some costs in completing the tasks (e.g. paying for trial subscriptions) and these will need to be deducted from your reward to calculate your net profit.

The tasks are, of course, the twenty COGS in the name. COGS stands for Competitions, Offers, Gaming, Surveys. A typical task might involve signing up with an advertiser for a free or low-cost trial subscription (which you have to remember to cancel before they start charging the full monthly amount). Or it might involve signing up to an online casino site and wagering a set amount of money on their slot machines. It might also just involve filling in a (long) survey, but quite a few tasks do involve some financial outlay (with the risk of more if you don’t cancel in time).

My Experience

I saw 20 COGS recommended by a few bloggers I generally trust, so decided to give it a go. Unfortunately I didn’t prepare as well as I could have done, which was my first big mistake. In particular, I made the rookie error of giving out my own email address and mobile phone number.

I soon discovered that this was a serious mistake, as after the first few tasks I began getting spammed mercilessly. The spam emails weren’t so bad, as they were generally filtered out by my email program. However, my mobile phone became unusable due to the torrent of marketing calls and text messages I received. In the end I had no alternative but to bite the bullet, cancel my mobile number and get a new one. In my defence, I naively assumed that this wouldn’t happen due to GDPR and data protection rules – but when you sign up with 20 COGS these appear to go out the window.

I also had problems with some of the tasks. To start with, I couldn’t do quite a few of the gaming ones due to previously being a matched bettor. This meant I had already signed up with many of the websites concerned so I wasn’t eligible for the tasks in question. In those circumstances you can ask for a substitute task but this all takes time and in my case there weren’t enough replacement tasks available (although over time new ones do of course get added). As I mentioned earlier. this was about 18 months ago, so it’s possible there are more alternative choices available now.

I also had major reservations about the amount of personal information some of the survey-related tasks asked for – from holiday plans to dates of renewal for home and car insurance. Pretty obviously, this information was likely to be used for (unwanted and intrusive) marketing purposes.

Eventually, after completing about half a dozen cogs, I decided enough was enough and closed my account. That didn’t stop the spam, but at least I could breathe a sigh of relief that I didn’t have to do any more tasks. Of course, I got no money for the ones I had done, which I assume is one major way 20 COGS make their profits.

My Recommendations

As I said at the start, based on my experiences I don’t recommend signing up with 20 COGS at all.

It is an awful lot of hassle to go through for a probable net profit of £100 or so after costs are deducted. And you can easily end up with less than this if you forget to cancel a subscription (which is very easy to do).

If, despite all this, you are still tempted to give it a try, here are my recommendations…

1. Sign up via the link on Top Cashback. This will earn you an extra £1.20 cashback (at the time of writing).

2. Before starting, create a disposable email address and use this for all tasks. You could set up a new email address on Gmail or use a free disposable email service like ThrowAwayMail.

3. In addition, don’t use your real mobile number. You could use a pay-as-you-go SIM, or pick a number from https://fakenumber.org/united-kingdom. They have a list of UK mobile numbers that are not in use currently.

4. Keep detailed records of everything you do and when you do it. To avoid unwanted charges, it is clearly essential to cancel subscriptions before you have to pay the full amount (but after the qualifying period required by the advertiser). You might also want to set up automated reminders on your phone or computer to do this.

5. Read and follow all instructions carefully. Every advertiser on 20 COGS has its own specific requirements and you need to follow these carefully or you may not be credited for the task in question.

6. Take screenshots as you complete your tasks. If an advertiser disputes whether you completed a task correctly, you will then have visual proof that you did.

Finally, bear in mind that 20 COGS is a once-only scheme. After you have completed it, you won’t be able to do it again. It is not an ongoing money-making opportunity like matched betting or Prolific Academic, to take two random examples from the many I have covered on Pounds and Sense.

In Conclusion

As I said above, based on my experiences with 20 COGS I am not a fan and don’t recommend it.

It’s an awful lot of hassle to go through in order to earn £100 or so. And there is a very real risk of earning less than this if you make a mistake such as forgetting to cancel a subscription. There are also privacy issues, and you are potentially opening the door to a torrent of spam emails, texts, phone calls and more (though using fake/disposable mobile numbers and email addresses as recommended can reduce this).

Of course, this is just my opinion. I do know of people who have completed 20 COGS and (eventually) received a payout. If you are still on the fence about it, I recommend reading this comprehensive 20 COGS review by my colleague Adam who blogs at Money Savvy Daddy. Adam did actually complete 20 COGS and says he made about £100 from it. He is honest in his review about the time it took and the obstacles he faced along the way, however.

As always, if you have any comments about this post – or 20 COGS more generally – please do leave them below.

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January 16, 2020

Why I Switched My Santander 123 Account to 123 Lite

Nick Saving Money events, reviews 4 Comments

As you may have heard by now, the Spanish-owned bank Santander recently announced that they are cutting the interest paid on their popular 123 current account by a third.

From 5th May 2020 they are paying just 1% a year interest up to £20,000. That’s a big drop from the maximum 3% on offer when the account was launched (to great fanfare) in 2012. At that time the account topped the best-buy tables and many thousands of people (including me) switched to it as a result. As well as offering market-leading interest rates, they also paid cashback of up to 3% on a range of household bills if paid by direct debit from the account.

Since the heady days of 2012, though, Santander have steadily watered down the benefits of this account. They introduced a monthly fee that was originally £2 and then went up to £5. They also cut the interest rate in 2016 to 1.5%, and now – as mentioned above – to 1%. They are still charging £5 a month, though, which means you need to have an average balance of £6,000 in your account just to cover the fee (which works out as £60 a year).

Cashback is still on offer, but from being unlimited it has now been capped at £15 a month maximum. The 123 account currently pays 1% cashback on water bills, council tax and Santander mortgage payments, 2% on gas and electricity and Santander home insurance, and 3% on phone, broadband, mobile and TV packages. From 5th May onwards each of these three tiers will be capped at £5.

All this means that if you are one of the millions of customers who still have a Santander 123 account, you need to look carefully at whether it is still the best option for you.

Crunching the Numbers

Although Santander is no longer the clear market leader among current accounts, it may still be a good (and possibly the best) choice for some people. But you do need to look carefully at how you use the account and what alternatives are on offer. That’s what I did, and in the end I stayed with Santander, but switched my account to 123 Lite.

Here how I worked this out…

I started by looking at what I currently get from my Santander 123 account in terms of cashback and interest and setting this against the monthly charge. I have already cut down the amount of money I keep in my account due to the falling interest rates, so I now hold an average balance of around £1,800 in it. Here is a screengrab of the relevant section of my latest bank statement.

Adding this up, you can see that in January 2020 I received a total of £5.83 in cashback and £2.55 in interest. That’s a total of £8.38. Subtract the £5 monthly fee from this, and my net returns from the account are £3.38 a month or about £40 a year. On an average balance of £1,800, that works out as a return of about 2.25% – not great, but still better than most bank accounts currently (I am obviously counting cashback and interest together in this calculation – it’s all money, after all).

With the reduction in interest rates from 1.5 to 1%, though, that would have cut my monthly interest by a third to around £1.70. This would reduce my monthly ‘profit’ to £2.53, or about £30 a year. That works out as a rate of return on an average balance of £1,800 of about 1.7%. That’s obviously significantly worse than the previous 2.25%. Although again – taking into account the cashback as well as the interest – it still beats most ordinary current accounts.

The 123 Lite Alternative

With the potential rate of return on my 123 account falling to around 1.7%, I wanted to see if there were any better alternatives for me. Other things being equal, though, I didn’t want the hassle of switching to a different bank if the returns weren’t going be appreciably better for me.

So I looked into what alternative accounts Santander offer and learned about the Santander 123 Lite account. This doesn’t pay interest at all, but it offers the same cashback as a standard 123 account. And, very importantly, the monthly charge is only £1 instead of £5.

Looking at my potential returns with this account, I came up with the following: total cashback £5.83 minus £1.00 monthly charge = £4.83 a month net profit. Multiplying that by 12 gives a total annual return of £57.96. On an average £1,800 balance that works out as a notional interest rate of 3.22%, which was obviously a lot better than staying with a standard 123 account. So I decided to do that. Even at the current 1.5% interest rate which applies till 5th May 2020, I realized I would still be better off switching to 123 Lite, so there was no reason to delay.

As a matter of interest, if I reduce the average balance in my Santander account to £900 while still earning the same cashback, that will effectively double the rate of return I receive. Perversely, with the Santander Lite account, the lower the balance you can keep in it while still servicing your direct debits, the better the percentage return on your capital you will get 🙂

The other advantage of switching to a Santander 123 Lite account is that, as I discovered, it is a very simple process. I logged in to my account and selected the option to ‘upgrade’ my account. I had to answer a few simple questions and click to confirm my application. The next day I received an email confirming that I was now the proud owner of a Santander 123 Lite account. The account still has the same sort code and account number, the same PIN card number, and I can log in in exactly the same way. But at a stroke I have effectively doubled the returns I will be making from my account!

Other Alternatives

I strongly recommend that anyone with a Santander 123 account performs a similar calculation to the one I described above (bearing in mind there is now a cap of £5 a month on cashback in each of the three tiers). This will reveal if you would be better off switching to a 123 Lite account (and by how much per year). If you choose this option, switching is – I promise – a quick and painless process.

There are, of course, other alternatives, though. For example, HSBC have just introduced (or actually reintroduced) a one-off £175 bonus for anyone switching to their Advance current account. Note that to qualify for this you have to pay at least £1,750 into the account each month (or £10,500 every six months) and set up at least two direct debits or standing orders. More information about this can be found in this article from Which?

There are also still a few other current accounts that pay interest. An example is Nationwide’s FlexDirect account, which pays 5% interest on balances of £2,500 a year for the first 12 months (reducing to 1% a year after that). You have to pay in a minimum of £1,000 a month to qualify for this. Neither HSBC nor Nationwide offers cashback as well, so it is important to take that into account when deciding whether switching to them will be worth your while.

I hope you found this post of value if you have a Santander 123 account. I wish you every success in deciding how best to proceed. As ever, if you have any comments or questions, please do post them below..

UPDATE 5th MAY 2020 – I have just heard that Santander are cutting the interest rate on their 123 account AGAIN to 0.6% in August 2020. That makes the case for changing to a 123 Lite account – or switching away from Santander entirely – even more compelling.

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January 8, 2020

Get the Best Cashback Deal Every Time With CashbackAngel

Nick Making Money reviews 0 Comments

Regular readers will know I’m a big fan of cashback websites (see my post on How to Save Money With Cashback Sites, for example).

Cashback sites give you money back when you shop with a wide range of online retailers. In the UK the two best known are Quidco and Top Cashback, but there are others as well.

All cashback sites offer different deals which change frequently, so it can be hard to assess which has the best offer at any time. However, a new comparison website called CashbackAngel promises to make this task much easier.

CashbackAngel

CashbackAngel allows you to quickly check and compare deals on offer from cashback sites for any online retailer you may be planning to purchase from. It is therefore much more than just a website that lists and compares cashback sites.

I have posted a screen capture of the CashbackAngel front page below.

The main search box is at the top of the screen and lets you search for any merchant. Below this are example merchants showing the best deal currently available for each one, both in terms of percentage cashback and travel points (should this interest you).

Let’s say you want to find which cashback site offers the best deal for purchasing from Marks & Spencer. Enter the retailer’s name in the search box and click on the search icon. When I did this, the results below were displayed.

As you will see, in this instance CashbackAngel displays results from four different cashback websites: Top Cashback, Quidco, Kidstart and Virgin Money Back (If you’re not familiar with Kidstart – I wasn’t – it’s a site that pays cashback into a dedicated children’s savings account).

In this example, Top Cashback (along with Kidstart) looks as though it might offer the best deal, with cashback of up to 2%. Obviously you would need to check on the Top Cashback site to find out their exact terms. You can do this by clicking through the link on the CashbackAngel results page (shown above). When I did this myself, I found that new M&S customers arriving via Top Cashback get 2%, returning customers 1%.

As you can also see from the screenshot above, cashback is by no means the end of it. If you are collecting Air Miles, CashbackAngel lists a number of providers who are offering these in exchange for shopping with the retailer in question. And you can also earn Hotel Points for various hotel chains if that is your preference.

My Verdict

Overall, I was impressed with CashbackAngel. In particular, I like the way it compares offers in real time, so you can always see which cashback site has the best deal at the time of asking.

It is also good to see a wide range of cashback and rewards sites included – though slightly disappointing that the new My Money Pocket website (which I reviewed here) doesn’t appear to be included currently. Hopefully this will be added soon. [UPDATE: I just heard from CashbackAngel that they intend to add My Money Pocket by the end of January 2020.]

If you use cashback sites – and in my view everyone should! – CashbackAngel is well worth checking out and adding to your online bookmarks.

As ever, if you have any comments or queries about this post, please do leave them below.

Disclosure: Some links in this article include my affiliate code. If you click through and make a transaction, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect any rewards you receive or terms you are offered.

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January 1, 2020

Set Money Aside With Chip and Get a £10 Bonus!

Nick Saving Money reviews 0 Comments

PLEASE NOTE: This promotion is now closed.

Happy New Year to all Pounds and Sense readers!

I’m starting 2020 by highlighting a banking app called Chip. This is designed to help you put money aside painlessly for any purpose – from holidays to major purchases, or just for a ‘rainy day’ fund.

Chip is one of a growing range of apps that make use of so-called Open Banking. This allows third-party apps to access your bank details – so long as you provide the necessary authorization, of course – and perform certain transactions on your behalf.

Open banking is now becoming well established in the UK, and safeguards are in place to ensure that your security isn’t compromised. Even so, this is something you need to be aware of – and comfortable with – before signing up with Chip or similar apps.

How It Works

Chip is an iOS and Android app that moves money for you in an intelligent way.

Every few days, Chip’s algorithm calculates what you can afford to stash away based on your spending habits. It then transfers that money automatically from your current account to your Chip account. In this way you put money aside regularly while barely being aware of it – so it builds up, and in due course you can spend it on things that really matter to you.

You can change the amounts the app takes at any time, and also pause the service if you wish. This means you don’t have to worry about Chip pushing you into the red (although you do have the option to let it do this if you wish). You always stay in control and are guided by the Chip ‘chatbot’ (see below) through every step.

Chip currently fully connects with Halifax, Lloyds, Nationwide, Barclays, First Direct, Santander, TSB, Metro Bank and Co-operative Bank. If you bank with Monzo, Starling, Revolut, NatWest, HSBC, RBS and N26 (and soon any bank in the UK), you can connect using just your bank card.

How to Get Started

Start by clicking through to my dedicated sign-up page and click on the Download Chip Today button, then follow the on-screen instructions. This page includes my unique referral code which is POUNDS10, so please don’t alter this or you won’t be eligible for the £10 bonus offer (see below).

Once you’ve downloaded the app to your mobile and signed up, you will begin a dialogue with the Chip chatbot to help you set up your account. This includes plenty of cheery repartee, stickers and emoticons. The app is obviously aimed especially at younger adults – who I guess like this sort of thing – but there is no reason older people can’t use it as well.

In any event, it’s relatively straightforward to connect the app to your bank (you will of course need to have your bank account details to hand). Once it’s set up, turn notifications on. This will allow the app to alert you when it wants to start saving for you.

There is an option to speak to a real person if you need to. You can also increase or decrease the level of saving, set savings goals, and even pause saving for up to 90 days.

Do You Get Interest?

The answer to this question – at present anyway – is no. The app is free and helps you set money aside painlessly, but Chip don’t pay interest on this. It is therefore sensible to withdraw money at intervals as it builds up and place it in an interest-paying savings account (assuming you don’t have any immediate requirement for it).

You can withdraw money from your Chip account any time without charge. Tap the ‘withdraw’ button on the app before 5pm on a working day and the money will be back in your current account the same day. If you ask to withdraw your money over the weekend, or after 5pm, it’ll be with you the next working day.

Note though that if you’ve just moved money into your Chip account (either manually or with an auto-save), it may take up to 48 hours for this money to be cleared for withdrawal.

Where Do Chip Keep Your Money?

The app puts money away in your Chip account, which is a new account you open when you sign up. You can access the money in this account at any time but it’s important to note that it is not a savings account and doesn’t have FSCS protection. Rather, your cash is stored as e-money.

Chip work in partnership with electronic-money specialists PFS (Prepaid Financial Services) to store your cash. PFS store the money with a major retail bank (currently Barclays) in a ring-fenced account, which means it’s never used for any trading activities. Chip also boasts 128-bit encryption to ensure your data is safe.

Welcome Bonus

Currently I am able to offer Pounds and Sense readers a special offer for trying Chip out. If you sign up now using my unique referral code of POUNDS10, you can get a £10 bonus credited to your account.

After just two auto-saves using the app, you will be eligible for the £10 bonus. This will usually happen within two weeks. The bonus will then be credited to your Chip account within 30 days.

The £10 Welcome Bonus is available from today (1st January 2020). I am not sure how long this offer will remain open, however. So if you don’t want to miss out, I highly recommend that you sign up as soon as possible.

Final Thoughts

If your new year’s resolution is to put a bit more aside – or you just need a little help and encouragement doing so – Chip is well worth a look.

I like the way it stashes money away automatically, so in all probability you won’t even notice it. You can set it to take as much or as little as you like, and you can also make one-off additional payments if you are feeling particularly flush. You can also withdraw some or all of your money back to your bank account at any time.

Admittedly Chip doesn’t (currently) pay interest, but it doesn’t impose any charges either. Even so, it is obviously sensible to move money from your Chip account to a savings account at intervals rather than letting it build up too much.

In my view Chip is likely to work best for people with a regular monthly (or weekly) income. If you receive income more irregularly – e.g. you’re self-employed – it might not work quite as well. Even so, Chip say that their algorithm can detect patterns in your income and expenditure and adjust your transfers accordingly.

In any event, there’s no reason not to try Chip yourself to see if it can help you put aside more and take advantage of the current £10 welcome bonus. Just click through this link for more information and to sign up.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate for Chip so if you click through any link in this article and sign up using my referral code, I will receive a modest commission. This will not affect the service or benefits you receive. Indeed, clicking through a referral link such as mine is the only way you can get your hands on the £10 Welcome Bonus!

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November 29, 2019

Is a Friendly Society a Good Home for Your Savings?

Nick Saving Money, Investing reviews, sponsored post 7 Comments

If you’re looking for a home for your savings (or some of them), a friendly society might not be the first thought that occurs to you. Nonetheless, it may well be worth considering.

Friendly societies are one of a number of UK institutions called ‘mutuals’. These were originally set up by groups of people for a common financial or social purpose. Before modern insurance and the welfare state, friendly societies provided financial and social services to individuals, often according to their religious, political, or trade affiliations.

Friendly societies today typically provide a range of savings and insurance services. Along with other mutuals, they are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Why Save With a Friendly Society?

One big attraction of friendly societies is that they are owned by the members themselves. This means any profits generated go to members (directly or indirectly) rather than shareholders, as is the case with banks.

A good example is Shepherds Friendly, which offers a range of savings, investments and insurance products. These include a highly rated Stocks and Shares ISA. There is a minimum investment in this of £30 a month or a minimum lump sum of £100.

The Shepherds Friendly Stocks and Shares ISA is an actively managed fund and rated medium to low risk. The fund invests in a mixture of UK and overseas company shares, property, government and company bonds, and cash deposits. Most of the fund is normally invested in stocks and shares for greatest growth potential, but at times of economic turbulence some may be switched to safer investments such as bonds and deposits.

Investors in the Shepherds Friendly ‘With Profits’ Stocks and Shares ISA receive an annual bonus based on how the fund has performed in the year in question. Shepherds Friendly say that this has worked out at 3% for the last five financial years after all management fees and costs are deducted. Members may also receive a final bonus when they exit their investment. Note that annual and final bonuses depend entirely on how well the fund has performed, and are not guaranteed.

As with all ISAs, any profits are free of income tax and capital gains tax. Everyone has an annual ISA allowance, which is currently a generous £20,000 a year. This may be divided as you wish among a Stocks and Shares ISA, a Cash ISA and an Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA). However, you may only invest in one ISA of each type per financial year.

A major attraction of the Shepherds Friendly ISA is that it is covered under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £85,000 per person. That means if the society were to collapse in a worst-case scenario, your capital would be protected and returned to you by the FSCS.

Bonus Fund

A further benefit of saving with a friendly society is that because of their special status they can offer additional tax-free savings over and above the ISA limit. In the case of Shepherds Friendly, you can save from £10 a month to £25 a month tax-free in their Tax Exempt Bonus Fund. This is also an alternative option if you have already invested in another Stocks and Shares ISA in the current tax year and are therefore excluded from the Shepherds Friendly ISA.

Voucher Offer

Shepherds Friendly are currently offering investors in their Stocks and Shares ISA a Love2Shop voucher worth up to £50 once you’ve made your first deposit. I’ve copied the actual amount you would receive for Stocks and Shares ISA investments below from the Shepherds Friendly website:

Many of the other financial products sold by Shepherds Friendly include a Love2Shop voucher as well – see this Terms & Conditions page on their website for more info.

Closing Thoughts

If you are looking for a home for some of your savings, Shepherds Friendly offers an interesting option. The society has over 100,000 members, so it is also one that is very popular.

The potential returns from the Shepherds Friendly Stocks and Shares ISA are higher than those currently on offer from banks, though not as high as the potential returns from P2P lending and property crowdfunding (among others). But those investment opportunities do of course tend to be riskier, and your money may not be as easy to access in an emergency. They are also not generally covered by the FSCS guarantee.

As with all stock-market-based investments, there are still risks involved, and past performance is no guarantee of what will happen in the future. Shepherds Friendly is at the lower-risk end of the spectrum, but you should still regard it as a medium to long-term investment (five years at least). With the Shepherds Friendly Stocks and Shares ISA, however, you can at least access some or all of your money at any time if you need it. As stated above, this is not the case with many P2P/property crowdfunding platforms.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below. I’d also be interested to hear from anyone who has invested with a friendly society – be it Shepherds Friendly or another one – what your experience has been and whether you would recommend this method of saving to others.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post on behalf of Shepherds Friendly. If you click through one of the links in it and make an investment, I may receive a commission. Please note that I am not a qualified financial adviser and nothing in this article should be construed as individual financial advice. You should always do your own ‘due diligence’ before investing, and take professional advice if in any doubt how best to proceed.

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November 25, 2019

Make Money From Your Shopping With ShopandScan

Nick Making Money reviews 2 Comments

For about three years now I have been a panelist with ShopandScan. This is an ongoing market research programme run by a company called Kantar Worldpanel.

I got an invitation to join ShopandScan in the post, but you can also apply directly if you wish (see below). I now receive £10 reward vouchers every few weeks just for scanning my shopping and my till receipts.

How it Works

After accepting the invitation to join ShopandScan, you receive a membership pack in the mail. This includes a User Guide and a barcode scanning device or ‘clicker’ (see picture above).

As a panelist, you use this to scan all shopping with barcodes coming into your home. You also scan barcodes in the User Guide to indicate who in your household did the shopping, the store concerned, and how much was spent.

There are also barcodes to scan for items that don’t have codes themselves, e.g. loose fruit and vegetables. Finally, there are barcodes to scan when an item is on special offer or part of a multi-buy offer. You can see a sample page of the User Guide below…

You have to upload the scanned data via the ShopandScan website once a week (at least). Full instructions are provided, but it isn’t rocket science. Basically you plug the clicker into a USB port on your computer and follow the instructions in the User Guide.

For doing this, you receive points. You get 1100 points a week for uploading the data from the clicker. In addition, you get 500 points a week for uploading scans of all your till receipts (unfortunately you don’t get points for each individual receipt). So each week that you do these things, you earn a total of 1600 points. Occasionally (e.g. at Christmas) they award extra points, to allow for the fact that it’s easy to forget at busy times of year.

The points accumulate in your account and once you get to 10,000 you can redeem them for a £10 electronic gift voucher. These are available for a variety of online retailers. I normally choose Amazon, as I buy stuff there all the time. However, you can also get vouchers for Waterstone’s, Halfords, W.H. Smith, and many more.

As well as getting points for uploading your data and submitting till receipts, you can get them in various other ways. One is by completing questionnaires about some aspect of your shopping.

Recently, I was offered a questionnaire regarding my purchase of own-brand almond milk from Morrison’s. They wanted to know why I bought it and when and how I intended to consume it. It only took a few minutes to complete and I got 300 points for this (equivalent to 30p).

There are other point-earning opportunities as well. Right now I am signed up to another project which involves allowing access to the browsing history on my smartphone. I know not everyone would feel comfortable about this but I don’t object personally (all data is anonymised) and it means I get an extra 500 points every week for no effort (it’s all done via an app).

You may also be offered the opportunity to take part in other studies. I did one a few months ago that involved completing a food diary listing everything I ate and drank for a week. Although I got points for this I found the task rather tedious, and declined when they offered me the opportunity to do it again. There is never any problem if you decide to turn down an invitation in this way.

How to Apply

As I said earlier, I got my invitation to join ShopandScan in the mail. I don’t know how they chose me or got my name and address.

However, you don’t have to wait for an invitation. If you wish to join ShopandScan, you can register for free at https://www.volunteer4panels.com. There is no guarantee that your application will be accepted immediately, as they aim to keep the panel balanced across age groups, locations, domestic circumstances, and so on. From what I have heard, though, once you have applied there is a good chance you will receive an invitation within a few weeks, or months at most..

Closing Thoughts

Clearly nobody is going to make a fortune from ShopandScan but it can be a great addition to your portfolio of sideline-earning opportunities. Once you get used to scanning your shopping before putting it away, it really isn’t much of a hassle. If you do some questionnaires and so forth as well, you can easily make over £100 a year.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post (or ShopandScan in general), please do leave them below.

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October 24, 2019

Review: Make a Will Online – A Solicitor-Checked Online Will Writing Service

Nick Everything Else reviews 0 Comments

I was recently invited by a company called Make a Will Online to review their solicitor-checked online will writing service.

I have written before on Pounds and Sense about the importance of making a will, and the dangers (of which I have first-hand experience) of not doing it properly. In particular, I am very dubious about using ‘DIY wills’ and non-legally-trained will-writers, as I know all too well the problems that can occur when mistakes are made.

Make a Will Online (MAWO) offers solicitor-checked wills starting from just £29.95 for a single will or £39.50 for a pair. This is substantially cheaper than most similar services, e.g. FareWill charge £90 for a single will and £140 for a pair. MAWO also have mostly five-star reviews on TrustPilot. I was therefore keen to find out more about the service they offer.

How It Works

Creating a will with Make a Will Online involves a three-step process as follows…

1. Complete an Online Questionnaire

At the start of this you are asked to provide your address and contact details. These are used for the production of the will, to allow you to log in if you don’t complete your will in a single session, and to send you the completed document (via email).

You then answer a series of questions about whom you want to manage your estate (your executors, in other words), whom you would like to look after your children (if you have any), whom you would like to inherit your possessions, any special gifts or bequests you want to make, and any conditions you wish to attach to your will. You can also specify whether you prefer to be buried or cremated, and any special instructions you may have about the funeral.

2. Review, Confirm and Pay

At the end of the online questionnaire you are shown a summary of the information you have entered and can go back and make any amendments you wish. You then make a secure payment of £29.50 for a single will or £39.50 for a pair of wills. You can pay by credit/debit card or via your PayPal account if you have one.

3. Receive Your Will, Sign and Witness

Once you have made your secure payment, the will document is emailed to you, along with detailed instructions for making the will legal and a receipt for payment. Shortly afterwards, a solicitor will check the document to make sure that everything is in order. If anything is unclear, a member of the MAWO team will contact you by email.

The main thing you have to do to make the will legal is (of course) get it signed and witnessed. This has to be done by two adults who are not beneficiaries in the will. Full instructions for doing this are included in the email you receive once you have completed your payment.

You can choose to receive a printed version by post for £15.00 for a single will or £20 for a pair (though see below for a £5 discount voucher). Alternatively you can simply print out the emailed version of the will, staple the pages together as per the instructions provided, and have it signed and witnessed as above. Either way, you will then have a legal will which needs to be kept somewhere safe and secure until such time as it has to be referred to. Again, information about all this is included in the email you receive.

When you have finished making your will online, you can log in and make free changes to the document for 28 days. After that you can sign up for an optional lifetime updates service, which allows you to update your will at any time. This is free for the first year and then £10 per will per year (so in the case of a couple it would cost £20 a year).

My Experience

I created what was basically a duplicate of my existing will in order to try out the MAWO system.

I found the step-by-step process for completing the online questionnaire generally quick and intuitive. There are six main pages: Your Details, Executors, Guardians, Residuaries, Specific Gifts, and Funeral.

The Guardians section (see picture below) is only relevant if you have children; it allows you to specify whom you would like to look after them following your death.

Residuaries is where you name the people who are to receive the balance of your estate once any specific gifts (including donations to charity) have been disbursed. By default this is divided equally among the beneficiaries, but you can specify different proportions if you want.

The Funeral section is where you state whether you want to be buried or cremated, and any instructions surrounding the arrangements. You don’t have to complete this section if you don’t want to, though personally I think it’s wise to say whether you prefer to be buried or cremated at least, so your next of kin don’t have to agonize over this.

One thing I liked about all the pages is that there are ‘More Info’ buttons you can click on for more detail about the topic in question if you need it.

It’s also worth mentioning that different boxes open according to the selections you make. If you click on ‘Yes’ on the Guardians page (above), for example, new boxes will open allowing you to enter details of the person or persons concerned.

Finally, you are taken to a page where you can review what you have put, alter this if necessary, and proceed to payment. As already mentioned you can pay with a credit or debit card or via PayPal.

Once I had paid I received an email almost immediately with my will attached and a page of instructions for making it legal. About two hours later I received an email confirming that a solicitor had checked my will and not found any issues with it. Had I so wished, I could then have printed out the will document, stapled it together, and got it signed and witnessed. It would then have been fully legal.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I was impressed with the speed and simplicity of Make a Will Online. If you have a fairly straightforward will (as most people do) I see no reason not to recommend it. Of course, if your personal circumstances are complicated, or you have a substantial estate which may incur death duties, there is no substitute for seeing a solicitor face to face. This will inevitably cost quite a bit more, however.

One small reservation is that it’s still up to you to arrange to have your will signed and witnessed to make it legal. Full instructions are provided for doing this, and it’s not exactly rocket science. It is up to you, though, to ensure that you follow the rules correctly – no-one else will check this for you.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post or Make a Will Online, please feel free to post them below as usual. If I can’t answer a query myself, I will ask my contacts at MAWO for their response.

Special Offer – As an affiliate for Make a Will Online I can offer a discount code to anyone signing up via this blog post. Just enter the code MAWO5 at the checkout to get £5 off the price of a printed will. That’s a letter O in the code, not a number zero, by the way!

Disclosure: Make A Will Online kindly gave me the opportunity to try out their service free of charge. In addition, this post includes affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission for introducing you. This will not affect the price you pay or the service you receive.

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October 15, 2019

Ratesetter Rings the Changes

Nick Saving Money, Investing reviews, crowdfunding 2 Comments

Updated 30th March 2020

I have mentioned P2P lending platform Ratesetter a few times on Pounds and Sense – most notably in my Ratesetter review.

Ratesetter is one of my favorite lower-risk P2P lending sites. It lets you save via a tax-efficient IFISA and/or an ordinary (taxable) Everyday account.

Although their rates aren’t the highest – currently 3% to 4% – I like the fact that risk is spread across all loans on the platform, with a provision fund to cover any defaults. This means that if someone you have lent money to via the platform defaults, it shouldn’t affect your returns. It also means that – unlike some other P2P lending platforms – there is no need to diversify your lending across the platform in order to control risk.

The Changes

Originally you could invest in Ratesetter in a choice of three different products: Rolling Market, One Year and Five Year.

The Rolling Market was the closest to an ordinary savings account, letting you withdraw some or all of your money any time without penalty. With the 1-year and 5-year products you could still request withdrawals before the full term of the loan, but in those cases a percentage charge was applied. This was 0.3% with the 1-year product and 1.5% with the 5-year product.

Under the new system, loans are spread across all three types of product. What was called the Rolling Market is now an Access account. As before, you can withdraw money from this at any time without penalty. There is just a ‘fair usage’ clause, which prevents investors from lending new money for 14 days after a withdrawal.

Instead of the 1-year and 5-year products, there are now the Plus and the Max. The Plus product pays more interest, but if you want to withdraw you have to pay a ‘release fee’ of 30 days’ worth of interest based on Going Rate at the time of release. And with the Max product, which pays more still, you are charged a release fee comprising 90 days of interest, again based on Going Rate at the time of release.

The Going Rate is the current interest rate for loans in the three product categories. Previously this was set by the market, based on supply and demand. That meant it could fluctuate, sometimes considerably, from day to day and even hour to hour. The interest rate you received could therefore vary a lot.according to when you invested (and when any returns were reinvested).

Under the new system, interest rates are set by Ratesetter themselves. This makes Ratesetter feel more like an ordinary savings provider. Currently the Going Rates are as follows:

Access: 3.0%

Plus: 3.5%

Max 4.0%

If you are already a Ratesetter investor, you may therefore want to reassess the type of product in which your money is held.

If – like me and many others – you put your money into a Rolling Market (now Access) product, you may want to think about transferring some to a Plus or Max account to take advantage of the higher interest rates. There is no greater risk in these accounts, and the only downside is that you will lose 30 or 90 days’ interest if you withdraw early. Doing this is likely to deliver better overall returns, so long as you remain in for at least six months in the case of a Plus account and a year in the case of a Max account. (These are only very approximate figures, as the interest rates paid can change.)

If you want to do this, you can’t (unfortunately) transfer money directly from one type of product to another. Rather – and I have confirmed this with Ratesetter – you will need to start by withdrawing your money from the product it is in currently (e.g. Access) so it goes into your holding account. You can then invest from your holding account into the new product (e.g. Max) that you want. Bear in mind though the 14-day rule mentioned above.

My Thoughts

Overall, I like these changes to Ratesetter. The new Going Rates are admittedly a little lower than the previous market rates. However, I think the greater stability and certainty over the interest rate you will be getting more than make up for this. I also like the new, simpler terms for withdrawing money from your account. I will continue to invest in Ratesetter and regard it as one of the safer (if less exciting) components of my portfolio.

As I’ve noted before on Pounds and Sense, P2P lending does not enjoy the same level of protection as bank and building society savings, which are covered (up to £85,000) by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Nonetheless, the rates on offer at Ratesetter are significantly better than those from most banks and building societies. And the existence of a substantial across-the-board provision fund with a strong record of protecting investors from losses clearly offers reassurance.

It’s also reassuring that with all three products you can access your money if needed at any time, even though in the case of Plus and Max you will be charged a release fee for this. Obviously, you shouldn’t therefore put money into the Plus or Max products if you think there is any likelihood you will need it back within a month or two.

Clearly, no-one should put all their spare cash into Ratesetter (or any other P2P lending platform). Nonetheless, it is certainly worth considering as part of a diversified portfolio. Not only are the rates of return higher than those offered by banks and building societies, they are relatively unaffected by ups and downs in the stock market. P2P lending isn’t a way of hedging your equity-based investments directly, but it does definitely help spread the risk.

If you would like more information about Ratesetter, please see my original Ratesetter review (which I will be fully updating soon).

Welcome Offer

Currently if you are new to RateSetter you can get £100 added to your account for free just by signing up and depositing £1,000. Full terms of the offer are reproduced below, and you can also find them on the RateSetter website.

You can take advantage of this offer so long as you

have not previously registered with RateSetter;
register after 27th March 2020; and
deposit a minimum of £1,000 through the RateSetter ISA or Everyday account and this is matched within 56 calendar days of opening an account.

Your bonus will be credited to your Everyday Account and invested in RateSetter’s Access (instant access) product at the going rate (currently 3%) within 30 working days of qualifying. From here you can transfer it to your ISA account if you like or simply withdraw it.

My Thoughts: This is a great offer from RateSetter if you are new to the platform. If you invest £1,000 and keep it there for a year, then including the £100 welcome bonus you will get a total return of between 13 and 14 percent for the first year (depending on whether you opt to invest your money in the Access, Plus or Max product). As a matter of interest, this is the same welcome offer I took advantage of when I signed up with RateSetter two years ago, and my bonus £100 was credited without any issues (or prompting from me) twelve months later.

Obviously if you need your £1,000 at any time, you can withdraw it (normally within 24 hours). This will though mean you don’t receive the £100 welcome bonus at the end of the first year.

Clearly, this is a generous promotional offer by RateSetter and I assume it won’t be available forever. If you want to take advantage, therefore, don’t wait too long. I will remove this information if/when I hear the offer is no longer valid.

If you have any comments or questions about this post, as always, please do leave them below.

Disclosure: As stated above, this post includes my referral link. If you click through and make an investment, I will receive a bonus for introducing you. This has no effect on the terms or benefits you will receive. Please be aware also that I am not a qualified financial adviser and nothing in this post should be construed as individual financial advice. You should do your own ‘due diligence’ before making any investment, and take professional advice if at all unsure how best to proceed.

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October 9, 2019

Review: My Money Pocket – A New UK Cashback Website

Nick Making Money, Saving Money reviews 0 Comments

I recently received an email telling me about a new (free) cashback site called My Money Pocket. As a fan of cashback sites I was very happy to check it out.

My Money Pocket is a UK site. It is therefore entering an arena currently dominated by what might be called the Big Two here, Quidco and Top Cashback.

As with those two sites, My Money Pocket offers members the chance to earn cashback by following links to a variety of online retailers. These are affiliate/referral links, and My Money Pocket receives commission for any purchases made by people clicking through them. My Money Pocket then shares this commission with the member concerned.

Getting Started

Before you can use My Money Pocket to get cashback, you do (of course) need to register on the site. All they require for this is your email address and a password. On the plus side, that makes signing up very quick and easy. On the minus side, I find it slightly odd that they don’t ask for your name, which means you can’t see this when you are signed in. That could be problematic if you share your computer with other family members, as you may not know which of you is actually logged in!

I did ask My Money Pocket why they don’t ask for a name when registering, and they said it was to avoid privacy issues. Personally, though, I would much sooner see “Welcome, Nick” (or whatever) at the top of the screen to reassure me that I am actually signed in to my own account.

Once you are logged in you can start earning cashback by clicking through the links provided to a wide range of online stores. Most of these are also available with Top Cashback and Quidco, but the cashback rates (and terms) are different – better in some cases, worse in others. As with all things shopping related, it really does pay to shop around!

The website looks bright and welcoming, but a large area at the top is taken up by an offers carousel, which personally I find a bit obtrusive. I thought the site navigation was okay, but not quite as intuitive as the Big Two. I would prefer a traditional tabbed navigation menu of the sort that is used on Top Cashback and Quidco (and many other websites), but maybe I am just being a bit old-fashioned.

There is a drop-down Categories menu at the top left of the screen. This takes you to cashback offers in the following categories:

Fashion
Food and Drink
Health and Beauty
Electricals
Travel
Broadband
Entertainment and Leisure
Utilities
Gifts
Mobile
Home and Garden
Free Cashback
Gaming
Shopping
Office and Business
Sport
Gambling

Within most of these categories there are sub-categories as well. Incidentally, ‘Free Cashback’ lists offers where you don’t have to spend money to get cashback – for example, you might just have to request a quotation for your car insurance.

As with Top Cashback and Quidco, once you have made a purchase with one of the merchants on My Money Pocket, you will then have to wait for your cashback to be tracked, approved, paid and credited to your My Money Pocket account. You will then be able to withdraw this money, either to your bank account (through BACS) or via PayPal.

One other feature is that you can refer other people to My Money Pocket and receive £5 cashback yourself when they have earned a minimum of £10 in cashback. Note that all links in this blog post include my referral code 🙂

Final Thoughts

It’s early days for My Money Pocket and the site is still to some extent a work in progress. Nonetheless, there is nothing to lose by signing up for free now and checking out the deals on offer. As I said earlier, I would recommend checking and comparing My Money Pocket, Top Cashback and Quidco to see which site is currently offering the best terms for any retailer you intend to buy from.

As always, if you have any questions or comments about this post, please do leave them below.

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October 3, 2019

Review: The Best 10 Low Cost Home Business Plans

Nick Making Money reviews 0 Comments

Today I am reviewing an e-book (and bonuses) titled The Best 10 Low Cost Home Business Plans by my UK blogging colleague Gerri Spiers. Gerri was kind enough to send me a free review copy.

As the name suggests, this is a guide for anyone hoping to set up their own business, whether to escape a job they dislike or simply to provide a route out of unemployment. Many of these businesses could also be run part-time to provide a sideline income and/or to fit in with childcare or other caring responsibilities. They could also work for older people or people with disabilities who may not want (or be able to cope with) a full-time job.

The Best 10 Low Cost Home Business Plans is a downloadable 112-page ebook in the standard PDF format. It is professionally written and presented, with illustrations where appropriate. There are also clickable hyperlinks to relevant websites and resources (this is a particular benefit of the ebook format, of course).

It wouldn’t be fair to Gerri to reveal exactly what all the businesses are. However, what I can say is that they are generally the type of business I see many ordinary people in my area running today, and they address a large target audience that clearly needs such services. These are not, for the most part, online businesses, but real-world local services for which there is a proven demand. They are definitely not get-rich-quick schemes. You will need to be prepared to roll up your sleeves and put in some hard yards – but if you do this, the rewards should definitely come.

Although (as per the title) these can be run as home-based businesses, many will also involve going out and about to meet clients, provide services, negotiate with suppliers, and so forth. As the title indicates, none of these businesses would be expensive to set up.

For each plan, Gerri sets out what the business involves, whom it is best suited for, the skills and/or qualifications required, and how much you may be able to earn. She also sets out a range of useful resources, organisations to join, and so on. The resources are predominantly UK based – not surprisingly, as Gerri lives here – but many of the plans would work just as well in other parts of the world too.

Gerri also goes into some detail about how to market the business in question. The book is particularly strong on this, with sensible, practical suggestions that will raise awareness of your business and help attract more clients to it.

In the opening chapter the book sets out some general advice about setting up a business. This is concise but sensible, and links are provided to additional resources for further information. Finally, the book closes with a chapter of useful websites, and some inspirational final thoughts that will have you champing at the bit to get started 🙂

One small criticism is that, while there is a table of contents at the front of the ebook, it is not hyperlinked to the chapters in question. For ease of reference and navigation this would have been helpful.

Bonuses

In addition to the main ebook, buyers get two bonus items.

The first of these is a 92-page PDF ebook titled 50 Tried and Tested Hacks to Help Grow Your Online Business (see picture below).

I was slightly surprised that the title of this ebook refers to online business, whereas the main guide is more about running a ‘real world’ business. It is, however an in-depth guide to promotional techniques that can be used to promote any type of business.

Each of the 50 ‘Hacks’ takes up one to three pages. In them Gerri sets out a particular marketing strategy or tactic followed by a single paragraph ‘takeaway’ which sums it up. For example, one suggested strategy is to offer a number of differently priced upsells. The takeaway for this is: ‘Offer a range of differently priced upsells to customers to increase the total of each sale. Upsells are complimentary or additional options on an offer a customer is already purchasing. Include at least one.’

I thought there were some great tips in this bonus guide, and some – such as using the word ‘only’ when quoting prices – that seemed to me rather stating the obvious. But then again, I am a 63-year-old semi-retired copywriter, so maybe what is obvious to me isn’t as obvious to someone who is just starting out!

One thing I did like about the bonus guide is that (unlike the main ebook) the table of contents at the front has active links.

The third and final bonus is a downloadable cashflow forecast spreadsheet, in Microsoft Excel format. Anyone who is planning on starting a new business should have one of these, as it will indicate the predicted flow of money in and out of the business, and highlight when and how any possible cashflow problems may occur. In addition, if you are applying for a loan from your bank or a grant (if you can find anyone offering these now!) you will need to provide one of these as part of your business plan.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I was very impressed with The Best 10 Low Cost Home Business Plans. If you are considering setting up a business from home and looking for some realistic ideas that won’t cost a fortune, there is no doubt you will find much to inspire you here. The plans are varied and don’t generally require any special skills or training. Whatever your background, whether you are male or female, old or young, you are bound to find one idea – and probably more – that could form the basis of a successful, money-making business for you.

The guide (and bonuses) should also represent a valuable resource once you have started your business, with lots of practical tips and techniques you can use to attract more clients for your business and grow your income.

For more information, click on any of the links in this review or click here to go to Gerri’s website.

As always, if you have any comments or questions about this post, please do leave them below.

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