Fund-raising via money-saving

G,day all,

I emailed the following message today to my contacts in various campaign groups, praising this website, and suggesting some tips.  (Feel free to pass this on if you find it useful )

I also added a tip at the bottom of the page about 'moderation' in money-saving. (I'm speaking from experience here ;-)

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Useful Tips ..for consumers, campaigners and fund-raisers

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Please circulate
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Dear All,

The following money-saving tips may be of interest to yourself and/or your organisation.

Tip: If you are into fund-raising, then the money that you and/or your organisation could save by using some of these tips could perhaps be donated to your specific project or charitable cause, year after year.

Best regards,

RB

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Money Saving Tips

"The 0870 rip-off"

[Extract]

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1086555604,78422,

There’s an outrageous scam being played by household names such as Comet, Tesco and Barclaycard – they earn revenue from calls to their customer service lines, meaning you could be paying to complain. Dialling numbers starting 0870 costs up to eight times a normal call’s cost. Find out how to fight back with a loophole to prevent their profits and possibly save yourself over a £100 a year.

The cost of calling.  

0870 numbers are known as NationalCall numbers, and along with 0845 Lo-Call numbers, have their own special pricing arrangements.  Although the name suggests otherwise 0870 NationalCall numbers are vastly more expensive than national calls made to normal phone numbers. Worst still, anyone paying a monthly fee for ‘free calls to landlines’ at certain times from their home phone, will find 0845 and 0870 numbers aren’t included.

To put the problem in perspective – on BT’s Together discount package, a normal national call costs 3p/min daytimes, while an 0870 number is well over twice that at 7.5p/min. Other providers are similar, and One-Tel is even worse, on some tariffs it charges 8p/min to make 0870 calls at all times, yet make a normal call at weekends and it’s just 1p  !!!!  

Full story >
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1086555604,78422

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"Say-No-to-0870" (This is an excellent website for sourcing non-0870 "alternative" numbers)

http://www.saynoto0870.com/

Extract:

Alternatives to 0870

Many companies advertise a separate number that can be used when calling from abroad - This usually begins in the format +44 - There is nothing to stop you using this number from the UK (as it is a normal rate telephone call), and will be included in any inclusive minutes provided by your landline or mobile phone provider. Many others will give you a standard number if you ask.

(i.e. By phoning a companies "alternative" number to the 0870 or 0845 that they would like you to use, you will not only save money but would not be charged for the call if you pay a fixed monthly rate to your phone provider and receive unlimited "free" calls as part of the deal).

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Other ways to save you and your organisation money

Cashback credit cards.

Receive around £100 per year by paying for large and small purchases (including phone bills and fuel bills etc) with a CashBack credit card. Details >
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1087717218,37843,
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Find the best way to lower your mortgage and insurance costs, etc. See >

Martin Lewis: Money-Saving-Expert (An award-winning website)
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

Tip: This is a useful website with lots of money-saving tips and consumer info. However, since there are so many options on this website, I personally try and avoid getting caught up in the "quest" for saving money, as this can obviously be counter productive(e.g. you can spend a lot of time phoning around stores for that elusive discount offer - such as £10 off a particular product - only to find that you've wasted a lot of time, energy and money getting there. (So, moderation is the key in money-saving, as well as life

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PS: If you ARE using alternative numbers to 0870, don't forget to inform the company in question that you are boycotting their 0870 number (scam) ...along with thousands of other consumers).

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CC: Martin's Money-Saving website

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