Money & Rights

Five online services to save you money before Christmas

Each year, December seems to come around faster and faster and before you know it, it's already Christmas. Last minute presents, train tickets and flights can quickly leave you out of pocket. However, with so many platforms and apps available to help you cut down to cost we've highlighted five if the best apps to get you ahead of the Christmas mayhem and save you (and your bank account) from the unnecessary stress.

Santa's Bag

Buying Christams presents can be quite an ordeal, especially if you have a large family. Trying to set yourself a budget, so you don't overspend on all of those fantastiac gifts can leave you feeling less like Santa Claus and more like the Grinch. However, with the app, Santa's Bag, you can allocate a budget for each person you're planning on treating this year and leep a track of how much you're spending. You can also log everyone's wish lists in an easy to use tracker.

VoucherCodes

If you're one to look for a good deal (probably why you're reading this), then you'll already know about the many sites that host a reange of offers available in high street stores. VoucherCodes allows you to scour through all of the current discounts of your favourite ships, and also includes a list of expired voucher codes which still work! However, as with all codes, it can be a hame of trial and error, bu the differrence with VoucherCodes is that thay aim to make sure that whatever code you use still works, saving you th epotential hours of internet sleuthing; leaving you more time to pick out the perfect gifts.

Ticketclever

It's well known that the best time to book a train ticket is 12 weeks before you supposed travel date, however, what fo you do if you've got three days to go and you've forgotten to buy yourself a ticket.? Platforms such as Ticketclever can help you bag a cheap train ticket at a fraction of the price. Using a unique alogorithm created by soime very intelligent physicists and data scientists, Ticketclever works out the cheapest routes by splitting your ticketsm normally netting you about 20% off. The service can even save you up to 60% off the original ticket cost depending in the distance of your journey. I you're a bit last minute when it comes to booking train tickets home for Christmas at keast you can have some peace of mind kowing you won't be paying a fortune.

Kayak

If you're travelling overseas and need to boook a plae ticket to see you loved ones for Christmas, you'll already know that plane tickets are notoriously hiked up to eye watering prices around the festive season. As one of the first industries to monopolise the comparison tool, there are hundreds of sites created to help you find he cheapest flight. Kayak not only shows you and aray of flights provided by most airlines but also allows you to hunt for 'hacker fares', whcih find the cheapest single lfights on both legs of your journey. Howver, some 'hacker fares' show you a range of airports; so be careful not to end up in the other side of the country on your way back.

Monito

Sometimes, the best gift you can give is cold hard cash, howeverm if you are planning on gifting money abroad to a friend travelling Europe or back home to your family while you are overseas this Christmas you will see that international money transfers can come with expensive, and often hidden, costs. Monito is a free online money transfer comparison tool that is a new way for people to find, compare and review money transfer services and fees when sending money to show you the best deal available. You have booked your flights with a comparison site before, right> This handy money transfer comparison site will help you to save money with money transfers, so more of your money gets where it needs to go.

What do you think to these tips? Have any of your own to share?

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