Cheltenham and Gloucester cuts mortgage rate: Another sign of a thaw in the frozen credit market today as the Cheltenham and Gloucester made its third cut in three to its mortgage rates in as many weeks. C&G cut the rate on its 1½-year and two-year fixed rate loans by 0.14% to 6.05% and 6.15% respectively, while the rate on its three-year fixed loans dropped 0.1% to 6.19%. These aren’t huge falls of course and aren’t much going to affect the affordability of your mortgage. Cutting 0.1% from a £100,000 mortgage will save borrowers £8.30 a month. But coming on the heels of cuts by Nationwide, HBOS and the Woolwich in recent weeks it comes as a reaction to drops in the interest rate swaps, a rather complex derivative, but which is crucially pegged to the interbank lending rate. All that suggests that banks, albeit slowly, are beginning to lend money to each other once again.

What it doesn’t mean is that lenders are touting for sub prime borrowers any more. The entry fee for mortgages is high, with all the C&G loans having a maximum loan to value of 75% and an arrangement fee of £995. Money may be getting marginally cheaper, but for those who really need a mortgage it’s still horribly hard to come by.

Tags: credit crunch, subprime mortgage, Cheltenham and Gloucester, UK mortgage rates

This week on the Wallet Watcher personal finance podcast John Rennie talks about:-

• Pixmania voucher codes
• Sound and Vision online discounts
• HifFiBitz online discounts
• How to save money on shopping

Always great to hear from you, our email address is walletwatcher@btpodshow.com with your personal finance questions. We also have fresh articles on the Wallet Watcher blog including the collapse of Inside Track, petrol prices in the UK , how to save on Royal Mail postage and independent financial advice investment . We’ve found some more secret promotional codes this week, so why not try Koodos voucher codes, Play.com voucher codes, Shoesdirect voucher codes and Littlewoods Direct voucher codes.

This episode of Wallet Watcher is brought to you with GoDaddy and offers you great discounts on hosting and domain names. Use the following Wallet Watcher August 2008 GoDaddy discount codes to save you money – wallet1 gets you 10% off domain name purchases and wallet2 gets you 20% off orders over £25. Some restrictions may apply, see the GoDaddy web site for more details.

Tags: hiffibitz online discounts, pixmania voucher codes, sound and vision online discounts, personal finance

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It’s a good time to go shopping. Yes, we’re all suffering from the highest inflation in years, our mortgages are spiralling upwards and the credit crunch is making many of us twitchy about our employment prospects. But if you have a little cash to spend, you’ll get bargains like never before. It’s all because the shops are suffering too. We’re not spending (June 2008 retail sales were the worst in 22 years) so there are some great deals out there. But let’s see how we can do even better … and get more for less. Here’s my six point plan for saving hundreds on your shopping.

1. Price comparison sites
   Of course you don’t have to rush round comparing prices yourself. That’s what price comparison websites such as pricechecker.co.uk, kelkoo.co.uk and pricegrabber.co.uk are for. The way to use them is this. Find the product you want to buy and be specific about what you’re looking for – it’s crucial that you’re comparing like for like – prices of Duracell AA four-packs, or the iPod nano in baby blue. If you’re looking for the Pirates of the Caribbean two-disc set you don’t end up with the one-disc set. Then type your spec into the comparison site and let the clever robot go off and search for you.
2. Be a late adopter
   Of course early adopters aren’t bothered about saving money, they want the new Playstation or the latest iPhone before everyone else … that’s the point for them. It does mean they occasionally end up with a LaserDisc system or a Betamax video, but hey. But for the rest of us it pays to wait. In fact, you don’t even have to wait these days. Technological change is so quick and so relentless, that you can simply buy the state of the art product from six months ago … and you’ll get a hefty discount.

   Take the example of the Canon EOS400 digital SLR camera, the market’s best seller. In July 07 it was selling for £700; this summer it’s literally half the price. There ARE newer and more expensive SLRs now of course … but ask yourself. How much SLR do you need to pay for?

3. Always haggle
   Brits hate doing it but haggling works – another reason to buy instore rather than online of course. I’ve got to admit I’m terrible at this, but I have an indefatigable sister in law who argues the price of everything … and she invariably gets a deal. Cars, electrical goods and other consumer durables are prime targets. In fact the salespeople are often given permission to knock 5% or 10% off without even speaking to their manager. Give it a go.
4. Travel to the shops
   And barmy as it may sound to fly halfway round the world to do your shopping, consider this. Americans generally pay less for jeans, cameras, iPods … in fact just about anything. Factor in the current strength of sterling against the dollar and the US is one big bargain bin just now.

   A great idea is to combine a shopping trip with a holiday – because your hotel room and eating out will be cheaper too of course. By the same token, we wouldn’t advise anyone to go shopping in the eurozone just now, as the euro is horribly expensive against the pound. In fact if you can avoid going ANYWHERE that uses the euro in the next few months you’ll do your wallet a favour.

5. Buy online … with care
   You can’t haggle on the internet of course, but the other side of the coin is that online shopping means you’re under no pressure to buy, with no pestering sales people. Compare prices, go away, have a cup of tea, come back to the screen and then push the ‘buy’ button. But do watch out for the online tempters. I’m not Amazon bashing here – they’re brilliant at what they do. But their little buying hints, the ‘if you liked that why not buy this’ are deadly to your bank balance. Again, buy at leisure, never on impulse.

   It might surprise regular listeners to know I have my reservations about online shopping. For CDs it’s great … for cauliflowers not so good. I know what I’m getting if I order the new Bob Dylan album or the Wall-E DVD, but I don’t know if those tomatoes are ripe when I order from Sainsbury’s. There are other downsides too. Delivery charges can rack a huge amount onto an online ‘bargain‘. Check that prices aren’t quoted net, with tax then added on (a killer with airfares of course).

   And if time IS money, then I’ve spent a fortune waiting in the house for deliveries to arrive – not to mention having to head off to the UPS depot to reclaim my stuff because I nipped out to the shops. Sometimes it’s just cheaper to get stuff at the store.

6. Voucher codes
   We had to mention them eventually. No matter how good a deal you’ve already snared for yourself, you can frequently get an extra 10% off, perhaps free delivery, or extra freebies, by tapping in a voucher code at checkout. A huge variety of retailers are using voucher codes now. The trick is to go to Google and do a search for the product you want, add a PLUS sign and then type in the phrase ‘voucher code’. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Tags: How to save money on shopping,  save money shopping, save money online, smarter shopping

Expedia voucher code August 2008: Not booked your summer holiday yet? Good! No, we don’t want you to spend your entire August reading about voucher codes on Walletwatcher, but we do want you to save a wad of cash for when you do go abroad. This Expedia voucher code is a real find, offering a £50 discount on tailor made packages purchases before 31 August 2008 and for travel up to 31 December 2008. The minimum purchase amount is £600.

Certain conditions apply of course. Purchases must be made online and include an Expedia Special Rate hotel stay. Obviously all purchases are also subject to availability and you can only use the voucher once. You can find all the terms and conditions at the Expedia website. The code you need for this Expedia voucher code August 2008 is AFF50B, and we’d advise that you get in quick. As ever, we want to know if it worked for you … so let us know!

For more on other voucher codes as well as this Expedia voucher code August 2008, go to our archive on the Walletwatcher pages.

Tags: Expedia, travel discounts, voucher code

The excellent HiFiBitz is slashing online prices. Bargains onsite include Boston DSi465 In-Ceiling Speakers only £189.99 and the Samsung DVD-SH871M HDD DVD Recorder for only £154.45 … some £25 below the listed price. Check out www.hifibitz.co.uk for more.

Tags: HifFiBitz, discounts

Sound and Vision have skipped the voucher code route, going straight to their summer sale. You can save 34% off The Yamaha 6.1 Channel Digital Home Theatre Receiver, which is now only £398.99. You can save 44% off The LG 5.1 DVD Home Cinema System, now only £76. And there is a whopping 63% off The JVC HD-65DS8DD system. Check out their site at www.soundandvisiononline.com.

Tags: Sound and Vision, discounts, finance tips

Pixmania has a storming voucher code deal on the Samsung LE52A559P – 52″ Widescreen TV. A portable TV this isn’t, delivering a superb home cinema experience. The Samsung usually ships for around £1250, but the Pixmania onsite price is just £1229 including VAT.

Tap in the Samsung LE52A559P voucher code Sam52 at checkout and you should receive a further £39 off. Check out dozens more goodies from Pixmania at www.pixmania.com.

Tags: Pixmania voucher codes, Pixmania, voucher codes, Samsung LE52A559P, Widescreen TV

The legend ‘Back to School’ always used to fill me with rage when I was a child. Plastered all over the windows of the local Co-Op it accompanied posters of happy, smiling children, clad in school uniforms, eager to get back to their desks … and this was in late July! Resisting the urge to cry ‘Hey, retailers leave those kids alone’ and let them enjoy their summer holiday, we bring you a ‘back to school’ offer with this Shoesdirect voucher code, which will give hard pressed parents a little financial relief.

Go to the shoesdirect website and type in BTS2008 when you purchase anything from the ‘Back to School’ section. You’ll receive a free school bag along with your order. There are some excellent deals for grown ups too, with 10% off all men’s and women’s Clarks shoes with the voucher code Clarks10. And Shoesdirect has a great range of brands – Birkenstock, Ecco, Barker, Timberland and loads more.

As ever, we’d like to know if the voucher code worked, so let us know here at Walletwatcher. For more on this Shoesdirect voucher code and lots more besides, see our archive of voucher codes.

More: www.shoesdirect.co.uk

Tags: Shoesdirect, Voucher Codes