The holiday season is round the corner, and with so many of us struggling with
the rising cost of food, fuel and mortgages, it is more important than ever
to cut your costs. We have come up with 10 top tips which, when taken
together, could cut the cost of your holiday by £600.
1 Knock off hidden extras online
If you are booking a package holiday, using the internet will usually save you
money compared with going to a travel agent, and also gives you the chance
to get rid of hidden extras.
For example, if you go for a two-week self-catering holiday for a family of
four to Majorca flying from Gatwick with First Choice on June 30, the price
is £2,177 if you book it as standard through its website.
If you exclude flight meals and cut baggage from 20kg to 15kg each through the
site, you get a £5 reduction on each bag - and anyone should be able to do
this. Removing these two items alone gives an immediate online saving of
£58.
You can also make your own transfer arrangements and, by taking that off the
bill, save another £60 - £118 on one website without any research.
Also, if you remove your “world care fund” contribution, which is essentially
the optional carbon-offset charge, you knock off another £4.50 - saving
£122.50 in total. This “carbon footprint offsetting” is one to watch on many
flight and holiday websites as it may be included automatically, but you can
usually remove it if you wish.
Saving: £122.50
2 Beware the no-frills surcharges
No-frills airlines often have add-ons that you do not expect. For example,
Easyjet will charge £15 for “speedy boarding plus” on the way out to
Majorca, and £11 for the return journey - upping the price by £26 a head.
Travel insurance costing £7.50 is added automatically, which puts costs up
by another £15 for a couple.
With all of these add-ons, you are looking at £273 - including speedy boarding
plus - to fly two people return to Majorca. By taking them off, you would
pay £206 in total, a saving of £67.
Saving: £67
3 Plan your parking
If you fail to book at all and go to the long-stay car park, you would pay £9
a day - or a total of £126 for your holiday. If you go to the short-stay car
park, you will pay a whopping £20.50 a day, according to BAA Advance, which
deals with car park pre-booking for Gatwick - £287 for your two-week break.
However, sites such as holiday extras.co.uk and simplyparking. co.uk offer a
range of options. For example, through Simply Parking, you can park at
Cophall Farm Parking, a secure site 10 minutes from the Gatwick terminals,
for £98 - a saving of £28 against the long-stay option.
Saving: £28
4 Don't get currency at the airport
If you leave your currency purchase until you reach the airport, you will get
about 10% less than if you buy it elsewhere. You should also make sure you
are not taken in by “no commission” deals as they often have a worse
exchange rate.
For example, if you took out £1,000 of spending money at the TTT Moneycorp
bureau de change at Gatwick airport, you would get just ¤1,180 compared with
¤1,235 if you ordered the money from Travelmoney services.co.uk before you
left.
Pre-paid cards let you load up with cash before you go. If you loaded up the
Caxton FX prepaid card with £1,000 before you went, you would get ¤1,232.50.
Saving: £44
5 Cut transfer costs
Our couple going to Majorca can get a resorthoppa.com
service from Palma airport to Alcudia for £22.50 per person return. Private
transfers both ways would cost £158.50.
Saving: £136
6 Use the right card
Debit and credit cards typically charge a foreign-loading fee of 2.75% plus 2%
to 3% on withdrawals.
The new Abbey Zero credit card, however, does not charge a fee, will not
charge you for foreign usage, and will enable you to withdraw up to £300 a
day.
If you are making purchases abroad, you will also not be charged a
foreign-usage fee by Nationwide or the Post Office Classic Mastercard, but
you would be charged for withdrawing cash from an ATM at 2.5% and 2%
respectively.
If you made a ¤100 purchase with a credit card, it would cost you £79.51 with
the Abbey and Nationwide credit cards compared with £83.76 if you used
Halifax’s credit card — a saving of £42.50 on £1,000 of purchases.
Saving: £42.50
7 Get the best cover
If you travel abroad more than once a year, you would probably benefit from
taking out annual rather than single-trip cover.
Data from Travelsupermarket shows that for a couple on a multi-trip policy
covering Europe, the annual premium is £40 with Top Dog Insurance, which
covers you for £10m medical expenses, £2m personal liability cover, £1,250
cancellation cover, and £500 for baggage cover. At the other end of the
scale, you have Cheap Travel which is £125 for the same cover as above,
£1,000 for cancellation fees and £550 for lost baggage.
Saving: £85
8 Get cheaper calls
Charges for making and receiving calls in the European Union have been capped
at 38p and 19p since last summer.
However, 3 charges just 25p and 10p per minute.
So if you spent 60 minutes calling home, and 60 minutes receiving calls, it
would charge you £21, compared with £34.20 with the other operators.
Saving: £13.20
9 Cut car hire costs
The cheapest car for Majorca we found was at arguscarhire.com at £151.91 for
14 days’ hire of a Ford Ka. If you went for Avis, then you would bump up
that cost to £229.87 — nearly £78 more.
Saving: £78
10 Beware travel surcharges
Your travel company could ask for a surcharge even after you have booked to
cover the cost of the soaring euro. A total of 18 firms — mostly operating
to Spain — are demanding up to 10% of the holiday
.
Major operators such as Thomas Cook have so far ruled out any extra charges.
Total saving: £616.20
ZOE LEIGHTON, 28, is an advertising executive with a passion for travel who
shops around for the best credit card to use abroad.
Leighton chose to take out the Abbey Zero credit card to avoid paying a fee
when she uses her card abroad.
She said: “I have had quite a few foreign trips and when I have taken out
¤150 (£119) from the ATM, because of where the euro is, £130 has come out of
my account with commission. It’s a bit crazy.
“If you can save even £15 on a trip, it is worth it when you travel abroad
as much as I do.”
Leighton always cuts costs by booking her trips through the internet.
