How To Save Money On Your Summer Holiday

By Ali Steed and Liz King

HOLIDAYMAKERS are expected to pay a whopping £754m in credit and debit card fees this year, according to uSwitch, but there are plenty of ways to save money.

1. Is it cheaper to book your holiday yourself?
Before you even go, you should look at how you book your holiday. Is it really cheaper to use a travel agent than to book a deal piecemeal through the internet? If you are prepared to spend a bit of time trawling the web, you are likely to find ways that you can make savings. Websites such as www.quickrooms.com, or www.alpharooms.com can help you get cheaper accommodation.
2. Don’t be stung by budget airlines.
With budget airlines, be sure you are only paying for what you need, and don’t be tempted to opt out of something like extra baggage when you are booking online if you really need to take it. You would save yourself money by booking it at the outset rather than paying the excess baggage charge at the airport.
Easyjet would fly two adults to Rome on June 24 returning on July 1 for £263.36 return just for the flights. But without taking out any of the extras included automatically in the booking, such as two hold bags of 20kgs each at £8 per bag each way, adding £32 to your booking, plus single trip travel insurance for Europe at £12 per passenger, adding another £24, the total cost is already at £319.36.
3. Be realistic about what you need to take with you.
Think, do you really need hold baggage, or could you get by with hand luggage? You would probably find your travel insurance cheaper too if you look around, so that £24 can come off the price too.
4. Check out the cheapest way to get from the airport to your resort.
Many travel companies will include the transfer as an add-on when you book your trip, but often it is cheaper to make your own way from the airport by sourcing a local taxi firm or by asking the hotel you are staying at if they have a transfer service.
If you are holidaying with a number of friends, you might even find it cost effective to hire your own minibus or coach, especially if you have a lot of luggage between you.
5. Get the cheapest package available for using your mobile abroad.
If you intend to use your phone abroad, you may be able to save money by adding a bundle which will give you a set amount of calls for the time you are away, which will be charged at a lower rate than your normal overseas tariff.
Orange, for example, will allow you to choose a favourite country from France, Greece, Ireland, Spain or Belgium where you can get 60 minutes of free incoming and the same of free outgoing calls for £5. For £8, you can get 200 minutes, split the same way, for all five countries but this would have to be added as a recurring bundle, whereas the £5 bundle can be used as a one-off for a month.
Vodafone has gone one stage further, and abolished all roaming charges for the summer through its Vodafone Passport, so you would pay the same amount whether you are making or receiving calls abroad as you do in the UK. If you sign up between June 1 and August 31, then the 75p roaming charge has been wiped out for 35 European countries, plus Australia and New Zealand. It will be interesting to see if other mobile providers follow suit.
From July, under European legislation, the cost of texting from Europe will be capped at 10p, and to download one megabyte of information will cost no more than 92p if you are paying standard mobile call rates.
6. Travel insurance
Hoping for the best when you are abroad is all well and good, but if the worst happens and you are involved in an accident that means you need to be helicoptered to hospital, or even flown home on a special medical flight, then it could end up costing you your home.
You can get single trip insurance for a couple going to Europe for a week for just over £9 with Top Dog on its Emerald Single Trip policy. Taking that instead of the Easyjet cover would save you £15 – enough to get at least a couple of decent cocktails.
Travel insurance also usually covers loss of luggage, flight cancellations and loss of personal money, but check the terms and conditions before you buy it. Exclusions can include any existing medical conditions – which must be declared, otherwise the policy could be invalidated – or claims arising from drinking or drug use, unless those drugs are prescribed by a doctor.
If you want to take part in any ‘dangerous’ activities, such as paragliding, windsurfing or white water rafting, you may need to pay an extra premium. Best to check before you go. Small print can be a chore, but it could save you thousands of pounds if you read it carefully.
7. Prepaid cards
If you are holidaying on a budget, it might be worth looking at prepaid cards. These are cards that you load a set amount of money onto before you leave, in the currency of the country you are going to, say euros. You can then use the card to pay bills and withdraw cash if you need to while you are away. The Moneycorp Mastercard Prepaid Card in euros, for example, has no monthly fee and no card application fee.
However, do not think it is free to use. It will cost you around £2 a month if you do make one reload of £310 at the cheapest rate, five separate purchases of £50 each, and two ATM withdrawals of £30. What it does do is ensure you are sticking to the budget you have set yourself while you are away, so you do not end up overspending on sun and sangria.
Remember though, that if you use a prepaid card abroad, you should not use it to secure your hotel room, as that will mean you will effectively prevent yourself from being able to use the money on the card for anything else.
8. Credit cards
If you want to use a credit card abroad, then the Abbey Zero card does not charge you a foreign exchange fee. Nationwide’s credit cards used to be free of foreign usage charges, but now it costs you 0.84 per cent to use your card abroad, which will rise to 1 per cent from July.
9. Currency exchange
Of course, some companies, such as the Post Office, offer you 0 per cent commission on your currency exchange. But in reality, that is meaningless if you are getting a worse exchange rate than you could get elsewhere.
10. Check out the local supermarkets
By making sure you seek out the local supermarkets, rather than buying from the tourist traps near the beach or the apartment complexes, you can make any money that you have with you for your break away go even further.