Here are 20 useful tips for making and saving money. Some are a must, others quirky, while a few are risky, but all of them could help to line your pockets.

Change your mortgage

This should be a priority for anybody paying the standard variable rate, typically 8.95 per cent. Borrowers could wipe hundreds of pounds off monthly repayments by remortgaging to a fixed, discounted or capped-rate loan. A switch from 8.95 per cent to a two-year fixed rate of 5.85 per cent, with all fees paid by Chase de Vere, the mortgage adviser, will save 258 pounds on the monthly repayments of a 100,000 pounds interest-only mortgage.

Avoid estate agents

Estate agents do nothing when selling your property that you could not do perfectly well yourself. You could save thousands ofpounds by advertising privately. Loot, the advertising paper, runs a private property sales service that, for 59.95 pounds, provides for-sale boards, box advertisements that run every week day for nine weeks and a free help-line to guide you through the sales process. Call 0171-372 7262.

Talk to builders

If you are looking to move, stop and ask builders about properties they are working on. If you get in early, you can usually save a small fortune since developers are always happy to secure a few advance sales.

Switch credit cards

If you do not clear your card debt every month, then you pay interest on the balance. So choose the cheapest rate. Co-operative Bank's Advantage Card charges just 12.6 per cent a year as compared with 22.9 per cent on Barclaycard, the most popular choice. Switching will save 79 pounds a year on borrowings of 1,000 pounds.

Choose your car wisely

Most new cars lose more than half their value within three years. German cars generally hold on totheir value best; Cap Motor Research has projected that the new Mercedes SLK Roadster will retain 60 per cent of its value after three years and 60,000 miles. It also tips the BMW Z3 Roadster to hold 51 per cent of its value after the same period and mileage.

The VW Polo is a good buy for a more modest budget, also retaining 51 per cent of its value. Based on price, servicing, miles per gallon and depreciation, the Perodua Nippa, a Malaysian hatchback, is the cheapest car on the market, costing just 13.1 pence every mile to run. Close behind is the Seat Arosa Hatchback at 13.6 pence.

Invest in a unit trust

If you had invested 50 pounds every month for the past 15 years in the average UK fund, it would now be worth 28,800 pounds, compared with 13,303 pounds if left in your bank or building society. Unit trusts invest in a spread of stocks and shares. Get one.

Take out a PEP

Personal Equity Plans (PEPs) are a way of protecting your stock market investments, such as unit trusts, from tax.You can put up to 6,000 pounds ayear in a general PEP, which will hold a unit trust or individual shares, plus 3,000 pounds in a single-company PEP for shares in just one firm. They will be replaced next year by Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs), which have cut the investment limit to 5,000 pounds. So pile in now.

Be a human guinea pig

Drug companies are always on the look-out for healthy people willing to act as guinea pigs for between 50 pounds and 120 pounds a day, depending on how painful or intrusive the tests are. If it requires a tube in an orifice, they will probably pay more. Call the Association of Independent Clinical Research Contractors on 0116-271 9727.

Shop for car insurance

Never renew your cover with your existing insurer without checking the competition first. Several people who insured their car with Direct Line have saved between 130 pounds and 400 pounds by switching to another company, usually through a broker.

It is worth trying some other over-the-phonecompanies, too. Our suggestions are: Churchill (0181-313 3030), Hastings Direct (0800 001066), and Prospero Direct (0800 747576).

Buy a run-down property

Houses or flats in bad repair are heavily discounted because most buyers want somewhere that is ready to live in. If you can handle the trauma, buy a place that needs plenty of work. You will probably see an immediate profit if you do a place up and sell. Mortgages on run-down properties are sometimes hard to come by, but the Ecology Building Society (01535 635933) specialises in loans on dilapidated homes.

Buy your house at auction

This is the most frightening way of buying a home, but it can reap great rewards. There are great deals on repossessed homes and from people wanting a quick sale. You will need a 10 per cent deposit on the day, but auctioneers reckon that properties sell for an average discount of 10 per cent-20 per cent. Be careful not to get carried away with your bidding or scratch your nose at the wrong time. TheIncorporated Society of Valuers and Auctioneers (0171-235 2282) has details.

Buy a car at the right time

All car dealers have to meet tough targets and deadlines. Walk in at the end of the calendar month when they are struggling to meet them and haggle hard.

Mobile phones

Networks are looking for sites to place transmitters--such as your garden perhaps?--to improve coverage. However, most sites will now have to be in rural areas. Orange says how much it pays varies widely, but starts from about 500 pounds a year and is negotiable upward.

Buy a sought-after car

The new Volkswagen Beetle is already on sale in America and buyers who signed up two years ago and paid 10,000 pounds are now selling for 16,000 pounds. The car is due on sale here next summer, but the number of people on the waiting list already outstrips the number of cars planned for import. However, the BMW Z3M Roadster, the Mercedes SLK and CLK and the souped-up AMG are all likely to sell at a premium to the retailprice, as is the Porsche Boxster.

Buy annual travel cover

Walk into a travel agency and book a holiday and the chances are it will try to sell you insurance, too. Never accept. It is always cheaper from direct providers such as Home & Overseas, Columbus and Worldcover Direct. If you travel more than twice a year, make sure you get an annual policy. Starting at about 90 pounds for an individual or 120 pounds for a family, it is far cheaper than buying cover every time you travel.

Invest in the theatre

Risky, but it can pay huge dividends. You can buy ``units'' in West End productions for about 1,000 pounds, sometimes less. In return, you get a share of the profits. But if the show flops, you lose it all. People who invested 750 pounds in Cats have received more than 20,000 pounds. Contact the Legal Officer at the Society of London Theatre, Bedford Chambers, The Piazza, Covent Garden, London WC2E 8HQ.

Put up a billboard

You could lease part of your garden or the side of yourhouse for advertising hoardings. Advertising companies usually start with an offer of about 1,000 pounds. The best sites can earn up to 20,000 pounds a year. Call Mills & Allen 0171-298 8000.

Check building cover

Everybody has to have a building policy when they take out a mortgage, but one in five pay too much. Call the Association of British Insurers (0171-600 3333) to work out the true cost for yourself. Better still, employ a surveyor to check the rebuilding cost for you.

Build your own house

More than 20,000 people built their own homes last year with self-build mortgages from Bradford & Bingley, Norwich & Peterborough and TSB Scotland. Michael Holmes, editor of Individual Homes magazine, spent 210,000 pounds on the land and building his home. It was valued at 350,000 pounds on completion.

Get married

With the advent of independent taxation in 1990, you can now pass assets between husband and wife to mitigate any capital gains tax (CGT) liabilities. This is known asinter-spousal roll-over relief. You also have two lots of CGT allowance of 6,800 pounds a year each and you can pass on anything to your spouse without them incurring inheritance tax if you die. The main drawback is the cost of divorce if things go wrong.

Check out in your own country whether any of these ideas could possibly work for you!