Pay Less For Goods

One of the easiest ways to make big savings is to buy online, but to anyone without a credit card this can be almost impossible. Now however there is a solution for anyone too young or lacking the creditworthiness required to get a card, or simply doesn’t want the temptation. Extrem Cred is a new Maestro card that can be used just like a credit card but only with money added to the card, much like a pay as you go phone card. You pay only a small fee to buy the card (currently £8.95) and thereafter you just pay 70p each time you top up the card at your local post office. (You can also top up online or at paypoint terminals, but loading fees are higher.) There are no fees for using the card, other than overseas transactions and cash withdrawals – see site for full details.

Alternatively, if you are simply completely new to credit, are self-employed or have a low income a Vanquis Visa Card could be a solution for you. With no annual fee, up to 56 days interest free on purchases and a free additional cardholder they offer the possibility of a Credit Card to the people that most financial institutions won’t even consider. Typical APR 39.9% variable. Vanquis is wholly owned a subsidiary of Provident Financial plc. Full details are available from the Vanquis web site.

Price comparison Sites

www.pricerunner.co.uk provides consumers with the best prices of consumer goods. After only a few minutes visiting the site, the consumer is in a good position to make an informed choice before making a purchase. Take for example a TV – you can quickly work out which model best meets your requirements, where it is available, and at what price. Whether you wish to purchase on or offline, www.pricerunner.co.uk points you to the best deal.

One Day Deals

If you’re looking for a great deal, rather than a particular item, you must bookmark these sites. Each one has one item on sale at a hugely reduced price but just for 24 hours or until stocks run out, if sooner.

Periodically they have special deals eg £20 items for £20 (generally worth in excess of £150) or sell off days when they give away items free(eg. USB novelties, memory cards, MP3 players and accessories etc.) replacing each item as it runs out until the 24 hours (or set number of days) are up. In some cases even delivery is free.

* GrabItNow.com – make no delivery charges and recent offers have included a Weather Station for £1.80 (Saving: £18.19), Wireless Headphones for £8.27 (Saving: £21.72) plus 24 hour deal days with a different product every hour.
* Boffer.co.uk – Don’t miss their free boff sell offs where everything is free. In the last one I picked up some completely free novelty items, plus a memory card, 3 MP3 players, laptop wallet and a few

other items for delivery costs only (flat £2.99 per order)
* ibood.com – wide range of products from USB telephones at under a tenner to 40 inch Samsung LCD tvs at over £600. My recent purchases have included £50+ headphones for £11 and a 15 minute battery charger reduced from £50 to £8.95

Entertainment Products

When it comes to DVDs, CDs and computer games, the internet offers huge saving on high street prices, especially as most of the top sites now offer free delivery. Make a point of bookmarking the following three sites as between them you’re virtually guaranteed to find whatever you’re looking for at the best price available.

If you’re looking for a bargain, you won’t do better than Savapoint. Not only do they offer a large selection of electronic goods and computer software, DVDs etc. at incredible prices (e.g. portable DVD player under £40) and ex-demo items at around half price or less, but they have pages of free items, where you only pay a token delivery cost of up to £2.99. These items usually retail for between £10 and £30 but some actually have retail prices in excess of £100 so are well worth checking out. Stock varies regularly so remember to visit often.

Play.com is always my first port of call, particularly for DVDs as their prices are consistently lower than anywhere else. With free delivery on all orders, 24 hour dispatch on all in-stock titles and over 500 000 products to choose from, this has to be my favourite site. In addition to DVDs, you’ll find Cds, games and books.

If you’re looking for the latest CDs, check out CD-Wow where the latest releases and top 75 albums are just £6.99 or £7.99 (and sometimes even less), or £10.99 for double albums. They also offer free worldwide delivery, and a “bargain basement” of older titles at even better prices. DVDs and games are also available. CD WOW! Pre-Christmas Sale!

With free postage on orders over £15, and probably the biggest catalogue of products in one place, together with customer reviews on most items, Amazon.co.uk is always worth checking out. In addition to the enormous book shop that made their name, they now offer videos, DVDs, CDs, games, electronic equipment,toys and even home and garden equipment as well as an amazing marketplace where you can pick up new or secondhand goods for greater savings. Bestseller books at 50% off, Chart CDs at £8.49 and new release DVDs at least 25% off mean their prices are extremely competitive.
Renting and Downloading

Alternatively, instead of looking for the cheapest outlet to buy the latest films etc. why not download them for a fraction of the price or rent them. Here are the best in each sector:

Downloading

Metaboli offer the chance to save a small fortune if you or any of your family regularly spend money on computer games. Metaboli is a new subscription service that allows you to legally download and play full versions of over 130 of the latest PC games for just a few pounds a month, with more added every month. I found several games my eldest son had been badgering me to buy. You can even download onto as many computers as you wish within the same subscription. Check out the list of current titles at

Renting

LOVEFiLM is a subscription service where for a monthly fee as little as £4.99 you select a wishlist of DVDs and games online, receive them by 1st class post, watch them in your own time, return them in the Freepost envelope provided and receive your next DVDs in exactly the same way. It’s a rolling exchange of DVDs and you can have up to 3 at home at a time. 65,000 titles to choose from. FREE 14 day trial available from LOVEFiLM

Save 75% on Perfume Prices

If you like perfume, but not the accompanying prices then Fragrance Direct could be the place for you. Not only can you get great discounts on standard boxed perfumes, but they also have stocks of shop testers the contents of which are identical, but without the packaging and with the word “tester” stamped somewhere on the bottle, and at greatly reduced prices. Everything on the site is clearly marked so you know which are testers, and which are boxed products. Prices start at under £10 and can be gift wrapped and shipped worldwide.