Welcome back to Savvy Shopper, where we’re staring down the barrel of another five weeks of lockdown.
As tempting as it is to pass the days shopping online and drinking negronis, we’re working hard to find ways to save you money.
Uber Pass saves you delivery fees
At Savvy Shopper HQ, we tend to go and pick up our takeaways, so our fave local venues don’t have to pay Uber their whopping 25-30% cut. However, if that’s not an option for you and you regularly order food delivery, you may want to consider Uber Pass.
For $14.99 a month, you get free delivery on orders of more than $20 from most restaurants in your area as well as groceries, convenience and alcohol orders. You also get 10% off Uber rides, which will be useful when we’re going places again.
Most restaurants and shops have delivery fees of $1.49 to $3.99 (a few are a bit more), so call it an average of $2.75. Say you get one takeaway a week plus a grocery order (which is conservative while we’re in lockdown), that’s about $22 a week – $7 more than you would spend if you got Uber Pass. That’s $364 a year. Right now you can get a two week free trial, so you can decide if it’s worth it for you.
Get a credit card with your home loan
Credit cards aren’t for everyone – if you aren’t on top of your finances, they can be a real liability and get you into a lot of trouble. But if you’re savvy, they can be a great tool. We like them for the frequent flyer points as well as the ability to pay a bill at the end of the month, leaving cash in the offset account for longer.
Something we learnt this week is that some banks will waive credit card annual fees for customers who have a home loan with them. ANZ, for example, will waive the $295 fee on their Frequent Flyer Platinum card for home loan customers, which also comes with 75,000 bonus Qantas Points and a cash back offer. Other banks offering a deal like this are NAB, Bank Australia, Citi, Bankwest, CommBank, Newcastle Permanent, Suncorp Bank and Westpac.
Don’t choose a home loan provider based on a credit card, but definitely consider switching your credit card to your home loan bank if it’ll save you annual fees.
Get a discount on car insurance in lockdown
A few weeks ago, we discussed how driving less could save your money on your vehicle insurance. Now, if you’re in NSW or Victoria and are in lockdown, car insurance provider Youi is offering discounts. Both new and existing customers will be able to take advantage of a 15% refund on their premiums (excluding CTP insurance) for two months from August 4. So, for example, the annual premiums for a Mitsubishi Mirage through Youi would be $814, saving us more than $20 over the two months. That’s not a huge amount, but since Finder claims the average cost of insuring this particular vehicle is around $2,460 a year, it might be worth the switch.
Now, if you’ll excuse us, there are negronis calling our name.