Hold your bank deal to account

family. Buying separately for a family of four, would cost more than £280. ●World family travel insurance including winter sports. For most this is worth around £70, but as it includes cover up to age 74, for older people it can be worth over £200. ●European breakdown cover: Covers all account holders in any car. So a family, paying £156 a year, who’d use all this cover, could save £400 on insurance elsewhere. ■■Top for couples and singles: Halifax Ultimate Reward. The halifax. co.uk Ultimate Reward account costs a monthly £15, but provided you’re in credit and have £750/month paid in you get £3 back each month – reducing it to £12/month or £144 a year. And, currently, accepted new switchers get a free £125. Insurance includes: ●Mobile cover for the account holder(s) smartphone. Worth £70 for one, £140 on a joint policy. ●World family travel insurance up to age 70. ●UK breakdown cover for the policy holder(s). ●Home emergency cover. Restoring, gas, electric or water if they fail. That’d cost around £80 per year on its own.

If you’ve a trusted partner, even if you don’t want a joint account, add them to it, so they get the cover too. They needn’t actually use the account; they can still use a separate bank. Then for two that’s £100s worth of insurance for £19 in the first year. the insurance you’d buy separately if you didn’t have it. If that’s less, ditch it for the bank’s fee-free account, or better still earn up to £200 to switch to a top fee-free account (moneysavingexpert.com/bankaccounts for the best buys). If you were mis-sold, even if the account is long closed, you’re due the fees back. But just being bad value isn’t enough, the key categories are: ●You weren’t covered, eg, it sold you travel insurance but you were over the age limit/ had pre-existing conditions. ●You were told you MuSt get it, to get a loan, mortgage or overdraft. ●You were upgraded without your permission, or without being told there were fee-free options.

You don’t need to pay anyone to reclaim. See my template at moneysavingexpert.com/reclaimbankfees. Martin says: With fixed rate savings, you usually lock away cash without access in return for higher interest. Currently, while the top paying two-year cash ISA pays 1.37%, you can get 2.05% fixed for two years in normal savings from paragonbank.co.uk. And as these days unless you’ve huge savings or are a huge earner you don’t pay tax on savings, so there’s no real gain of the ISA. Put it in the top fixed savings and over two years you’d earn nearly £1,200, put it in the top ISA it’s under £800. A no brainer. You could squeeze a little more if you’re willing to play by using multiple high-interest bank current accounts. Full help on that and updated best buys see mse.me/topsavings.