Cheap broadband deals... and are you entitled to benefits?

Cheap broadband deals, Free wills month, 15% off Tesco gift cards and urgently check you’re entitled to benefits. These are our Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis’ Quick Deals.

Remember, deals can change quickly, even while I’m on the programme. So always double-check the terms and conditions before spending. Plus, while I hope these deals will save you cash, don’t spend if you can’t afford it, don’t need it, or won’t use it.

Cheap broadband. Now’s the time to pounce

Most people on standard broadband contracts once you include line rental pay around £350/year before calls. Those getting fast fibre broadband are paying around £500/year. Yet I always say the best time to get your broadband is by waiting to pounce on short term cheap deals, and now’s the time as there are a couple of exceptionally good deals out there. But not everyone can get them – as broadband is a postcode lottery, so use Martin’s new free ‘Broadband Unbundled tool’ to find your cheapest deal, based on your address.

Newbies to EE broadband can get an 18mth contract that comes with up to 17Mb speed broadband with unlimited downloads.Pay the £299 line rental upfront, or it’s £18.50/mth (so £333 over the 18 months) and you’ll get free broadband for 18mths (after, it's £10/mth). You also need to pay £7 for the router and£30 fee if you've no line or are switching from cable. But you also get a £100 prepaid Mastercard, which you’ll receive an email within 30 days of paying your second bill with instructions on how to claim. So, if you don't need a new line, pay line rental upfront and use the Mastercard it works out to £206/year before calls (though weekend calls to UK landlines are included ) which is equivalent to £11.45/mth.

Or the same deal, if you want Superfast fibre broadband (up to 76Mb speed and unlimited downloads) but then you pay discounted £14/month for your broadband (after it’s £22/month ) and a £32 set-up fee. But again like the deal above, you get a £100 Mastercard, so use that, and all-in it's £483/year, equivalent to £26.84/mth.

Over 55? October is Free Wills Month

Solicitor-drafted wills are the gold standard, and normally cost £120 or more. Yet if you’re 55 or over, this October is Free Wills Month, where solicitors in over 60 locations in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will draft a will for you for free. Enter your postcode on the Free Wills Month website and call to book an appointment with one of the solicitors that are participating nearby. They tend to get busy so do this early, and you don't have to live in one of these areas to qualify, but you will be expected to travel to the solicitor's office for your appointment.

This is a charity-back the scheme and they pay for the solicitors' time, so be prepared for your solicitor to ask you to consider making a bequest to a charity in your will (leaving the charity something when you die). It's hoped you will in return for using the scheme, but you're under no obligation. Perhaps a good minimum is leaving enough that would cover the solicitors’ fees normally – though of course more is fine. There’s a range of charities to choose from including British Heart Foundation, British Legion Mencap, Guide Dogs and Great Ormond Street Hospital. Whatever your age, if you've assets eg, a house, savings, or a business, and people or others you'd like to look after, consider making a will.

Ends Sun. 15% off gift cards

Discounted gift cards are rare but till this Sunday, 8 October, at Tesco (online and in-store) you can get 15% off gift cards including Nando’s, Pizza Hut (both £20 denominations), Spotify (£10 denominations), Odeon and Gap gift cards (£25 denominations each). So for example, buy £20 worth of Nandos’s gift cards and it’ll only cost you £17. The gift cards last 18 months, and you can buy 10 cards at a time. Plus as they’re gift cards they work with other discounts and deals too if you get them.

Urgent. Are you entitled to benefits? Check now before the system changes

The new controversial universal credit system is being gradually rolled out across the UK– it's already in place for all single, unemployed people without children – that will replace the six existing social security payments (income support, jobseeker’s allowance, employment and support allowance, housing benefit, child tax credit and working tax credit).

Yet, if you haven’t been moved on to it yet, and you’re entitled to benefits which you’re not claiming, then you need to claim NOW – it’s thought around 1 million people entitled to working tax credit do not claim it. That’s because for some the new system wins, for others the current one; yet if you’re already claiming benefits, and the universal credit payment will be lower, you’ll still get the higher amount.

And if you’re claiming benefits and universal credit turns out to be higher, you’ll be able to move to the new higher payment – so either way you’ll be better off. And the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said it thinks over three million households will see lower entitlements from universal credit with an average loss of £1,800 a year.

The only people who will lose out are those who’d get more on benefits, but don’t start their claim until universal credit has been introduced, in which case they’ll get the new lower amount. So EVERYONE who thinks they’re eligible should check now – you can use this calculator from Entitledto, a company that provides online benefits calculators, to work out whether or not you would gain under universal credit based on your circumstances.