Were you the perfect money saver of 2014? According to TV guru Martin Lewis of MoneySavingExpert.com, the savviest consumers have probably already fixed their energy tariffs, have a current account with Santander and a credit card with Halifax – and snapped up Cadbury creme eggs for just 1p.
Next year the perfect money saver should be considering remortgaging to avoid the risk of a rise in interest rates, predicts Lewis – who issued an unusually stern rebuke to banks “profiteering” with current mortgage rates.
“I have huge worries about the mortgage market. My concern – and I’ve raised it with George Osborne – is that mortgages are the most expensive they have ever been. Yes, the Bank of England base rate is 0.5%, but the standard variable rate (SVR) at lots of lenders is 3%, 4% or even 5% above base rate. If the Bank of England base rate goes back anywhere near to where it was before the crisis, you could see people on 9%.”
For example, the SVR at Nottingham building society is 5.99%, while Santander’s is 4.75% and Nationwide has two: a 2.5% base rate and a 3.99% standard rate.
Normally, Lewis prefers to stick to the minutiae of personal finance – the best gas or electricity deal, how to save on insurance, and so on – but he says that for the first time he’s making a “macro prudential” call for 2015.
“Anyone with a mortgage should be thinking long and hard. Right now, rates are at the lowest, possibly for all time. But at some point, they will rise. That means everyone on an SVR should be checking if it’s the right deal and deciding if it’s the time to fix. What I’m saying is check and not necessarily switch. But this could be your last chance to grab a good deal.”
He berates the banks for overcharging. “Partly it’s because they have new capital requirements. But some of it is plain profiteering.”
Lewis says the best money and consumer deals of 2014 did not change enormously. “The best gas and electricity deal was those people who took out a fixed tariff two or three years ago.
“The perfect credit card for cashback has been the Amex Platinum Everyday, while Halifax Clarity is the top card for spending and ATM withdrawals abroad. Santander’s 1-2-3 current account beats the best savings account, paying 3% interest on the whole balance for those with £3,000 to £20,000.”
But it’s often the small things that excite Lewis’s vast number of fans online. In September he revealed how spending £1.50 on a Dr Oetker pizza in effect gave you unlimited free pizza until early October using a “sneaky loophole” in a promotion. Using “code stacking”, he found champagne at Sainsbury’s for £7.50, while a “ghoulish glitch” at Morrisons left the tills scanning Cadbury’s creme Eggs at 1p instead of 65p.
