Money-off vouchers

A NEW tribe of high street warriors are roaming the country, snaffling huge bargains in stores and restaurants.

They are the VOUCHERISTAS -whose decisions about where to eat and shop are based on who's giving the biggest and best money-off voucher deals.

Businesses love vouchers too. With recession looming, companies are desperate to pull in business.

Yet if they simply have sales or offer cheaper meals to ALL customers, it means the people who would have gone there to spend anyway pay less too.

By using vouchers, or internet discount codes, stores instead attract NEW people into their shops. Yet they can still charge walk-in trade the SAME full price.

This is known in economics as 'price differentiation'. To really maximise profits, the aim's to charge EACH customer the MAXIMUM they're willing to pay. And vouchers go a way to doing that.

Dangers

There are dangers with vouchers though, such as fake offers sent out by spam email-and sometimes unwittingily passed on by family and friends. These risk leaving you red-faced when presenting them at a till-and finding they are worthless.

Others are of restricted use-the terms say they are ONLY for those who received the company's original email or offer-and you would be acting fradulently to take advantage of them.

But as long as the voucher comes from a reputable source that you can check yourself, you should be fine.

2 FOR1 EATING OUT VOUCHERS

Most vouchers give two main meals for the price of one. Deals flit in and out in the blink of an eye, so here's are my list of my faves today.

And for a list of ALL legit vouchers updated daily go to www.money savingexpert.com/restaurantvouchers

GOURMET BURGER KITCHEN. Go to www.gbkinfo.com and check out the 'Daily Bun' voucher deal, available Sundays to Thursdays and valid until November 27.

ZIZZI. Zip to lifestyle website www.handbag.com and click onto the 'competitions and offers' icon to print out the voucher. Valid Sundays to Thursdays until Nov 23. Even better, there's NO limit to voucher numbers per table.

YO! SUSHI. Buy five plates of sushi, get five free, from Sundays to Thursdays, by logging onto www. yosushi.com, clicking through to the 'promos' icon and searching for 'the plate giveaway' voucher to print off.

HA! HA! PUBS. Head for this pub/ restaurant chain website www.haha online.co.uk and the voucher's valid for any weekday until Nov 23.

ASK. A 2-for-1 special at this Italian pizza chain. Find its click 'n' print voucher at www.handbag.com. Sundays to Thursdays only, valid until Nov 27. One voucher per party of up to six.

TOP SHOPPING VOUCHERS

H&M 20 per cent off. Sign up to fashion chain H&M's electronic newsletter at www.hm.com/gb and you'll get a voucher to get a fifth off by email. Valid for roughly a month.

WAREHOUSE ONLINE 15 per cent off. Register at pub chain www. revolution-bars.co.uk, and you'll get a code to knock 15 per cent off purchases at fashion chain Warehouse's website until Nov 14.

These are just a snapshot. To get the best new deals each week, emailed for free, go to www.moneysaving expert.com/tips

RATE CUT A RED FLAG

NOON on Thursday-and my jaw DROPPED. I was holding on the phone to Radio 2, a minute away from being interviewed about the expected 0.5 per cent base rate cut, when I heard it was down 1.5 per cent.

It was an unprecedented moment of financial history-a RED FLAG flying to warn that "we're entering recession and desperate to stop it". Even now, we're only just digesting the full impact of this monster cut.

SHOCK: How news broke

SAVINGS

IT'S a nightmare as returns across the board will likely be slashed. Yet it's incredibly difficult to do a comparison to find the top payer since the current best-buys are those who haven't YET dropped their rates.

Yet if you're super-quick and prepared to lock your cash away, there is a chance to FIX your savings at the pre-cut level, but these are disappearing by the minute; see www.money savingexpert.com/fixsavings for the latest.

MORTGAGES

THERE should be a deafening cheer from many mortgage holders. After government pushing and kicking, most big lenders including Halifax, Nationwide and Abbey are passing on the rate cut. It means:

• STANDARD variable rate (SVR) and discount: Most big lenders will cut their rates by 1.5%

• FIXED mortgage. It's fixed, so NO change to your rate.

• TRACKER mortgage. You automatically benefit from rate cuts in full, unless you hit a "minimum rate" condition.

For every £100,000 of outstanding interest only mortgage a 0.5 per cent cut saves roughly £40 a month, so 1.5 percent would save £120- though it's less for repayment mortgage holders.

Yet its not as bright for NEW mortgage hunters, some better deals may start to trickle out, especially if you're borrowing less than 80 per cent of your home's value. But give the market a few days to adjust.

Will it work? The aim is to encourage people and businesses to spend more, stimulating the economy to fight off recression. Yet the jury is out on whether it'll do the job.

While mortgages will get cheaper quickly, such a huge cut is frightening, and the "batten down the hatches" message it gives could make people rightly clam up more.

ASK MARTIN: Send questions to notw@moneysavingexpert.com

VISIT MARTIN'S WEBSITE: www.moneysavingexpert.com

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