We all know how expensive transport can be, whether it’s travelling locally to and from work or whether it’s flying abroad somewhere, hopefully warmer.
The price of getting from-here-to-there seems to have risen dramatically over the past couple of years and it’s set to rise even further.
The cost of transport can be a hugely negative factor when you are looking to book a holiday or simply just travel down South to visit your family.
The good thing is that there is now so much competition between transport companies that often they will offer discounts, offers and sales on their services. Therefore if you’re ready to book at the right time, you won’t have to pay an extortionate amount of money for travelling.
No matter what mode of transport you choose to take you could save money on all of them, here’s how.
Trains
If you are choosing between flights and trains you’d expect trains to be less expensive, right? They take longer and they’re not as comfortable.
Wrong, sometimes it can be cheaper to hop on a half-hour flight rather than take the train for three hours and it’s all down to when you get your tickets.
The first step to getting cheap train travel is to book well in advance. Train tickets get more expensive the closer it gets to the day of travel.
If you get your train tickets far enough in advance you’ll get them at a very reasonable price.
Secondly, get yourself a railcard. There are a variety of options including family and friends railcards, senior railcards and railcards for disabled persons.Young adults can also get a 16 - 25 railcard; all these offer 1/3 off the full price so can make a real difference to the price of your train ticket.
It’s also a really good idea to shop around for your train tickets, instead of heading straight to the National Rail Enquires or booking at the station check out other train ticket companies online. Redspottedhanky.com have a loyalty points system and don’t charge a booking fee, so nine times out of ten you’ll get a better deal here than you might elsewhere.
Planes
It’s a little more difficult to save money on plane travel as the majority of airlines don’t offer loyalty schemes or points programs.
The best way to save money on air travel is to look for flights from small, regional airports. These will often be with smaller, budget airlines but can be considerably cheaper than flying from larger airports such as Manchester or Heathrow.
Also if you are willing to make your journey a little longer, flights with stop-overs and changes are usually cheaper than flights that are direct.
To get the best deals on plane tickets make sure to check out price comparison websites such as Skyscanner. This way you can browse through thousands of flights and airlines to find the best deal.
You can also compare the price of flights on different days of the week, usually flights are cheaper Monday to Thursday as people tend to want to fly at the weekend.
Cars
Sometimes driving is unavoidable, especially if you live outside of the area you work in. There are however a couple of easy ways to save money with your car.
Are there a few people at work that come from the same destination? Why don’t you suggest a carpool? That way you could split the petrol money between yourselves and the extra can go towards your insurance.
Source: Uploaded by user via Jasmin on Pinterest
Another way to save money when you’re using a car is to never top-up at a motorway petrol station. Always make sure you fill up your car in town before you drive along the motorway for a period of time.
Motorway stations can sometimes charge up to twice the standard amount for fuel so it’s not worth wasting money when it can be avoided.
Hopefully you’ve learnt that you don’t have to pay full price for transport, there are ways around the cost of travelling. Preparation, organisation and forward thinking are the key to saving money everywhere!
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June 21, 2023
finance