FROM Russia with love, I fly to you . . . for FREE, business class.

Let James Bond's classic theme inspire you to exploit loopholes even Britain's greatest spy would be proud of.

Some credit card companies have amazing freebies for new card applications, letting you fly return for free on a host of airlines to Russia, Turkey and Majorca, or Paris TWICE.

CREDIT CARD FREEBIE FLIGHTS

Credit cards have traditionally been willing to pay £40 to £80 in freebies to acquire a new customer. Various airlines have jumped into bed with card issuers to launch own-brand credit cards.

To encourage you to sign up, they offer free flights-while their retail value may be £100, the cost to THEM is much less.

HOW TO BAG THEM

Of course our aim is just to get you the trip, not credit or to incur cost-and so here's my crammer course in freebie flights . . .

HIT THE TRIGGER THEN CANCEL

Each card will have a certain trigger 'spend' to pocket the free flight-it may be £250, £10 or even 'any spending'. So do your NORMAL day-to-day spending on the card until you hit that trigger. Even if this is £500, it's not costing you anything providing you're NOT buying extra to reach the trigger.

If it's an 'any spending' card, just nip into the supermarket and buy some sweets. After that, unless you need it for something else, wait until you've used the freebie then cancel.

ALWAYS REPAY IN FULL

Pay the card off in full each month, preferably by direct debit and, with rare exceptions, you'll never be charged a penny interest. Avoid cards with annual fees (no cards below carry them).

WATCH YOUR CREDIT SCORE

Every new credit card application is recorded on your credit files-the more you make in a short space of time, the harder it hits your score. Those with already poor scores won't be accepted anyway; however, if you need a good score because you're planning to apply for a mortgage or personal loan it's not worth applying for a freebie card first.

If this isn't an issue, then you should be fine applying for a couple of cards. And possibly more if you spread out your applications every few months.

FREE FLIGHT PICKS

Here's the best of the current deals.

Free Flybe European flight. The Flybe.com card makes my list as the trigger is 'any spending'. Use it once and you get a voucher for a return flight on any of its European routes but you will have to pay the taxes and charges yourself.

Free BA European return inc. taxes. Get a LloydsTSB Airmiles Duo card specifically via the airmiles.co.uk website before 31 March and you can get a voucher for 1,500 free Airmiles. The trigger is just £10 spending.

These Airmiles will grab you a BA return flight, including all taxes and charges, to 'Zone 2' destinations like Budapest, Stockholm, Ibiza or Cagliari.

Alternatively you can nab TWO all-in return flights to 'Zone 1' cities such as Paris, Dublin or Amsterdam. The big negative here is you MUST book at least one night in a hotel via the Airmiles' website, and these tend to be a tad higher-end. But there's nothing stopping you going for a week, but only staying one night in the Airmiles hotel.

Free BMI business flight to Russia or Turkey. Get a BMI American Express card (NOT the BMI Plus card) from flybmi.com , hit the £250 trigger spend within 90 days of acceptance and receive 20,000 BMI 'Destination Miles' which can be redeemed for a return business-class flight to Russia, Turkey, Majorca and elsewhere.

You'll pay taxes and charges on top but it's a STONKING deal.

And these are just the start. Others include Easyjet and BMI baby return, and non-flight freebies like DVDs, and CDs. For a full list, visit www.moneysavingexpert.com/ccfreebies

Your questions answered

Q IN 2001 I wanted to invest some of my redundancy, nothing high risk, just something that in five or 10 years will have made a small profit.

My bank, Lloyds TSB, advised me to invest my £7,000 in an American Growth ISA. Now its worth £3,500. I've tried to complain but no-one's interested. Can I make a claim?

JAKKI BARRETT by e-mail

A LLOYDS should've said "shares can go down as well as up" and warned about the chance of losing money.

Frankly, I'd be shocked if its documentation didn't say that, and would hope the adviser did in person too. In the extremely unlikely event it didn't, you have a case.

Historically the markets have outperformed savings in the long run, yet at any one point in time your investment could be seriously down. With markets currently at six-year lows, many are trying to find a way out. Yet investing is by definition a GAMBLE-you take the risk of losing in the hope of gaining more.

Even low risk isn't no risk. That's why you should never invest in shares, property, or anything else, if you can't afford to lose.

While investing isn't my speciality, the only real argument I suspect you have, isn't that you lost money, but that a US growth fund is certainly quite high risk, and if you defined your needs as you said you did, you may have been misadvised.

In which case put in a complaint that the fund choice was inappropriate at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Q YOU said in last Sunday's paper that bank charges might soon be able to be refunded.

Does this apply to credit card companies' late fees charges too?

ANDY ASHTON, by email

A NO, but in a good way! Bank charges reclaiming is on hold, but credit card reclaiming has NEVER been on hold.

In April 2006, the Office of Fair Trading said it would investigate any card fees above £12. Most were £35-ish, so all card companies hastily cut them.

This is VERY strong evidence that £35 fees were unfair. So it's quite easy to reclaim anything above £12 per charge from before then, and many thousands of people have got back hundreds of pounds.

Don't worry if you don't have details of all your charges, you've a legal right to the info. Full details and template letters at moneysavingexpert.com/ccreclaim

QUESTIONS for publication to notw@ moneysavingexpert.com

TV Money Guru Martin Lewis is the creator of the Consumer Revenge website www.MoneySavingExpert.com which is packed with info on how to get more money in your pocket.

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