Grab a free £5 M&S voucher

You can nab a free £5 Marks & Spencer voucher just for requesting a no-strings insurance quote. Simply contact Direct Line home insurance by phone or online, request a quote and mention the code MS Press, and you’ll get a voucher without needing to actually take out the insurance.

External Links: Read the £5 M&S Voucher Loophole note for full information, plus see Martin's daily updated list of Shopping Vouchers for more MoneySaving coupons, including 30% off at Gap.

Act now to stay financially afloat

The bankruptcy of US bank Lehman Brothers, collapse of travel firm XL, and the need to rescue Wall Street bastion Merrill Lynch isn’t the prettiest financial picture. While there’s no need to panic, we can still help to protect ourselves from sinking into the financial abyss.

• Savings
  
  In the unlikely event your bank went bust, the Government guarantees you get back £35,000 per person, per financial institution. Those with more should consider spreading cash around.
  
  External Links: For full info read Martin’s detailed Are Your Savings Safe? guide and for where to spread cash, see the Top Savings Accounts guide.
  
  With investments, a volatile market by its nature means some win, some lose. Only if the investment company managing the fund goes bust will you get compensation, not if the underlying assets drop in value.
  
  
• Pre-ordered goods, e.g. sofas, kitchens & tickets
  
  If you've ordered something & the company goes kaput before you get it, you lose the cash. To protect against this, buy anything over £100 on a CREDIT card - not debit cards, cash or cheques - as the Section 75 law means the card issuer's jointly liable if things go wrong, so you can get the money back from it. To avoid interest though, ensure you repay the card in full.
  
  External Links: For more info and how to make money by doing this read Martin’s detailed Cashback Credit Card guide.
  
  
• Flights and Holidays
  
  Book a package holiday from a tour operator and, provided it has ATOL protection, if it goes bust, you’ll either get a refund or a flight home if you’re already there.
  
  Yet there’s no protection for scheduled airline flights. To help, provided the ticket’s over £100, book it on a CREDIT card as explained above.
  

Beat the BT price hikes

BT has increased some of its prices to make calls. Connection charges are up from 6p to 7p plus if you dial 1471 and reply to a call, it'll now cost 10p rather than 7p.

But there is a solution and the trick is to get more calls for free. If you're on the basic package you can stay with BT and move to its free weekends and evening calls at no extra cost provided you’re willing to sign up for a 12 month contract.

Alternatively, keep your BT line and opt for Primus Saver 2 as it gives you evening and weekend calls for free.

External Links: To slash the cost of landlines read Martin's full Cheapest Home Phones guide.