IF you’re counting down the days until you go, while sun cream and clothes may top the list, with a little bit of preprep action you can save serious cash and prevent problems, leaving more money and time to spend on the enjoyable bits…

Urgently check your EHIC card.

The free European Health Insurance Card gives you access to EU (plus a few other) staterun hospitals or GPs like a local. If it’s free for them, it’s free for you. Even if you’ve travel insurance, if going to Europe, get one and make sure you check the expiry date.

Four million expire this year, renew or they’re invalid. Remember to keep it on you.

Everyone (including kids) needs one. It helps if you can show it. Lastly, do not pay for it.

Many shyster sites disguise themselves as the real thing and charge £20 for bogus “fast track” applications. EHICs are always free, just go via nhs.uk/NHSEngland/ Healthcareabroad/EHIC

Slash the cost of airport parking.

Public transport usually wins, but not always, especially for families/groups. As my user forumite Bigdaddy1210 says: “Got a brilliant deal following your tips using for a four-day break – it’s costing just over £40 instead of £115.”

The speedy easy way is to check on comparison sites like HolidayExtras or Skyparksecure, or go via my full www.mse.me/airportparking guide – which has discount codes for comparison sites so your price is reduced further.

Don’t get your foreign cash at the airport.

They know you’re a captive customer and charge you far more because of it. If you’ve left it too late, at least pre-order online for airport pick up and you will get a better deal.

Or use the travelmoneymax.com comparison tool which finds you the best rates.

If you’ve more time, the very cheapest way to spend abroad is on a specialist credit card.

Once you’ve got one of those you get perfect exchange rates every time you go away (do pay it off in full each month to avoid interest).

Free holiday sat-nav and other tricks.

The navmii.com free iPhone/Android app turns your phone into a sat-nav. You can download maps for about 50 countries – though do it before you go so you aren’t charged data roaming costs once there.

If you want accessories like travel plug adapters, neck cushions and eye masks, don’t leave it until the airport, take a quick trip to your local pound stores to see what they’ve got.

Sort travel insurance now.

A quarter of people travel overseas without insurance. You should always book insurance as soon as you book the trip, or if it’s cancelled you won’t be covered.

If this trip is your only holiday of the year, then the two firms with reasonable cover levels vying to be cheapest are uk.protectyourbubble.com and holidaysafe.

co.uk. Cover for a week in Europe (age under 45) is as little as £6; rising to £54 for a fortnight in the US for a family (max age 55).

Drinking can invalidate travel insurance.

Losing something or having an accident after drinking – sometimes even just being merry – could kibosh medical and possessions cover.

Don’t take unnecessary valuables out and be careful.

Book car hire ASAP and save £100s.

If you’ve left it late, booking a couple of days in advance rather than doing it once there can still save you. Three quick steps: 1) Find cheapest via comparison sites my top picks are kayak.co.uk, carrentals.co.uk and travelsupermarket.com 2) Hire for three or more days and some firms make you pay for a full tank and return it empty, which can be £100 extra if you don’t drive far. Both auto-europe.co.uk and travelsupermarket.com let you filter by fuel policy to avoid this 3) When you pick up the car, the hire firm will try to fear sell you up to £20 a day excess cover on top of the standard insurance. Instead, you can get cheap excess insurance before you go for as little as a few quid a day, full best-buys at mse.me/carhire.

Don’t wait until touchdown to turn off smartphone data roaming.

Even if you don’t use the web, apps can download data in the background, racking up bills, especially outside the EU of £100s. So turn off data roaming before you go and only turn it on if you specifically need it.

20% off half-price perfume

BAG an extra 20 per cent off bargain beauty products in the Half Price Perfumes sale with code HPP20 till Thursday. Delivery ranges from £2.99 to £5.99, depending on the weight.

10% off railcards

RAILCARDS can save you a third off train travel if you’re eligible – that means if you’re spending over £90, even on a one-off trip, it’s worth getting one. And until Sunday, August 31, you can get an extra ten per cent off most railcards when you enter the code LONMID10 online at the railcard checkout.