Question Time: Do I pay tax if I sell on eBay? How to start a credit score? Plus, how a budget can change your life!

In our Question Time podcast, Martin Lewis gives you answers on anything and everything, including: do I have to pay tax if I sell things on eBay? I’m new to the country, how do I start to build my credit score? I’m an additional rate taxpayer, and as we’re rarely mentioned, what should I be aware of? Which currency should I pay in on Eurostar? Plus, how a budget can change your life, and how does Martin feel about sauces on his food? If you want to ask Martin a question, you now can! His Question Time podcast lets you ask Martin absolutely anything and everything (within reason!). So, if you’ve always wanted to know which golf club he likes best, if he stands or walks on an escalator, or you have a very complicated question about your finances, email it to [email protected] mailto:[email protected].

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

• 0:06Speaker 01

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• 1:45Speaker 03

  If someone had just moved to the UK, what would you advise for getting their credit score started?

• 1:50Martin Lewis?

  We live in one of the world's most competitive consumer economies.

• 1:53Speaker 05

  Spectacular spreadsheet. I am a regular and avid listener, so as soon as you start mentioning formats, I break out into a huge smile. But I just like to know what I should be looking out for.

• 2:03Martin Lewis?

  The answer, very simply, short answer, you're fine. I genuinely have a problem with drizzling ketchup over chips. Hello and welcome to the cunningly named the Martin Lewis podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is our Question Time episode where you are Esquires, extremely savvy questioners. Get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything, open brackets, within reason, close brackets. This week, you ask me, do I have to pay tax if I sell things on eBay? I'm new to the country, how do I start to build my credit score? I'm an additional rate taxpayer, we're rarely mentioned, what should I be aware of? Then how a budget can change your life, coupled with a question about Eurostar.

• 2:47Martin Lewis?

  And finally, you ask me whether I like ketchup splodged on my chips or I prefer dippy wippy on the side. Play the theme tune.

• 3:10Martin Lewis?

  Hello and welcome to this week's Question Time pod. Yes, this is the one where you get to ask me anything and everything. Let's all say it together, open brackets, within reason, close brackets. And of course, for Question Time, I'm joined by the one, the only, the curator of questions himself, Professor Dr Sir Matthew Burnham Esquire. Cue applause!

• 3:36Martin Lewis?

  That's my applause noise.

• 3:37Speaker 06

  That's me applauding myself as well.

• 3:39Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, yeah. And so I was having a think about curator of questions before because I often doc you a title or two if you've been naughty in some way, like being off or, you know, having put an Easter egg in that I hadn't approved or not closing brackets or things like that.

• 3:52Speaker 06

  Of course.

• 3:52Martin Lewis?

  You know, the serious things in life.

• 3:55Speaker 06

  Absolutely.

• 3:56Martin Lewis?

  What I realised is, I was debating with myself, because I have a very interesting life, while walking at one point, whether I could, I'm allowed to doc you curator of questions as a title? Or is that actually your role and not a title?

• 4:12Speaker 06

  I think that is the role, isn't it? That's my role, that's what I do. I curate the questions.

• 4:16Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, so you could be a bad curator of questions, but you're still the curator of, yeah, I think. So yeah, I decided it would be unfair that it's only the professor, the sir, the doctor that are docable amongst, and again, as I always say, they are all perfectly legal titles within the canon of the podcast.

• 4:35Speaker 06

  Yeah, so if I was on a flight and someone said, is there a doctor on this flight? I would not put my hand up and say yes.

• 4:40Martin Lewis?

  No, I actually have some honorary doctorates.

• 4:43Speaker 06

  Yeah. So do you put your hand up and then they say, is it in medicine? And then you, oh no, sorry.

• 4:47Martin Lewis?

  I do not call myself a doctor. Yeah, I'm not sure that my honorary doctorate in law or in various other ones I've got. I'm not sure, or my doctor of letters, I'm not sure how a doctor of letters would help unless if someone was ill, I could probably write to their family and telling them what was going on. It's not really going to help very much, is it? So, no, I don't do that and I don't put the title I have after my name, I don't use afterwards either. I think they're nice to know that you've got, but I think if you're telling people you've got them, then I don't know. I feel a little embarrassed to do it.

• 5:16Speaker 06

  We need to do some housekeeping.

• 5:18Martin Lewis?

  Oh dear.

• 5:18Speaker 06

  We do. It's not you, don't worry.

• 5:20Martin Lewis?

  It's very clean in this studio.

• 5:22Speaker 06

  You had a little dust before you came in. So we've had a few people email in saying, where's my badge? And so I've been looking into it and it's not people who've come on the podcast. It's people whose questions we have read out. And they've been saying, well, you've read my questions, so where's my badge? So do you want to go over?

• 5:40Martin Lewis?

  We need to go over the rules here.

• 5:42Speaker 06

  What earns you a badge and what doesn't?

• 5:45Martin Lewis?

  If you are a listener and you have never contributed at all, we love you, but you don't have a title.

• 5:53Speaker 06

  You are the backbone of this podcast, though.

• 5:55Martin Lewis?

  If you are a listener who's written in, but your question has not been on air, we love you and you are a potential Esquire. If you are a listener who has written in and your question has been read out on air, then within the canon of the podcast, you are legally an Esquire, an extremely savvy questioner. If you have come on air with your own voice, be it a voicemail note that has been recorded and arranged with Matt or that you've actually come on live, not that it's live, that it's recorded, but live when we're talking to you as an individual, then you get a badge. A badge is the pinnacle. It is the Mount Everest of the pyramid of this podcast.

• 6:39Martin Lewis?

  So I'm afraid your question's been read out. We love you, you're an Esquire, you're part of the family, but you're not quite at badge calibre. So this is, and the reason, why do we do this? Well, shall we be honest, Matt? The honest reason is, we want you to come on because it's really good to have callers on. So we like to give the people who come on and actually come on on the time we do it, that little bit of extra sweetie, which is the badge.

• 7:00Speaker 06

  Yeah, it's a lot. Thank you. Thanks for coming on, chatting to us.

• 7:02Martin Lewis?

  So that is the rules, but we don't want any of our Esquires to be upset.

• 7:05Speaker 06

  No.

• 7:05Martin Lewis?

  Maybe, I'm going to invent something now.

• 7:08Speaker 06

  Oh no.

• 7:09Martin Lewis?

  You don't like it when I do this live, do you?

• 7:12Martin Lewis?

  So every three months, we will randomly pick one person whose question's been read out to send them a badge.

• 7:20Speaker 06

  Oh, that is complicated.

• 7:21Martin Lewis?

  I know, I like it though, that's what we do.

• 7:23Speaker 06

  A bit of jeopardy.

• 7:24Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. So there is a, so if you're an Esquire, you go into the badge lottery.

• 7:30Speaker 06

  Are we allowed to do that?

• 7:31Martin Lewis?

  I have no idea. Let's just do it.

• 7:32Speaker 06

  I have no idea.

• 7:33Martin Lewis?

  I think we're allowed to do it until someone tells us we can't.

• 7:36Speaker 06

  Until the BBC editorial gods say no.

• 7:38Martin Lewis?

  I would like to say, my, what general way of doing things is if someone wanted to attack me and put it on the front page of a tabloid newspaper, do I think it's defensible? And I'm not sure anyone is going to spend the resource saying that they decided to go slightly beyond the badge and give one badge to one person who had written in based on purely random chance.

• 7:57Speaker 06

  True. Also, you said voicemail note?

• 8:00Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, you know what to mean.

• 8:02Speaker 06

  Grandpa, shall we do a question?

• 8:05Martin Lewis?

  I can't believe you just said that, Matthew. That is so rude. So rude. Yes, let's.

• 8:14Martin Lewis?

  Voicemail does still exist, by the way.

• 8:16Speaker 06

  Voicemail, but it's not a voicemail note.

• 8:18Martin Lewis?

  It was a voice note.

• 8:18Speaker 06

  It's a voice note. There you go.

• 8:19Martin Lewis?

  I know, I know. I can't believe that. You've totally thrown me now. What's your first question?

• 8:25Speaker 06

  Good. Question from Craig, who has emailed in to Martin Lewis.

• 8:29Martin Lewis?

  Sapphire, who's listening, what do you think of that? And just, you know, that's my daughter. She likes you, Matt, but you might have crossed the line there. I'll report back next week.

• 8:39Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 8:39Martin Lewis?

  Okay, carry on.

• 8:40Speaker 06

  Question from Craig. Good afternoon, Martin. Hope you're well, he says.

• 8:43Martin Lewis?

  Good. And you don't deserve an "and Matt", although Isabel, I'm sorry, you're missed out. Carry on.

• 8:48Speaker 06

  He says, I'm a 55-year-old man who's had four back operations and I'm waiting for a fifth. I'm looking for part-time work, hopefully a job that I can sit or stand when I want and won't put too much strain on my back.

• 9:00Martin Lewis?

  I've had back problems in my life, had a discectomy at 17. It is not fun. I'm so sorry to hear that.

• 9:05Speaker 06

  He did also note that he isn't actually disabled though, so he's looking for work, but he's not disabled. I've been told I don't qualify for any benefits because my wife works, but I do get national insurance credits.

• 9:17Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so just for those, that means that it will continue to contribute towards his pension. So we will still be able to hopefully get the full state pension once he gets to that age, yeah.

• 9:24Speaker 06

  I run our house and do a little bit of eBay selling, just so I can contribute a bit. I'm told that I can earn £12,000 from this before I start paying tax. But eBay have launched their 30 items or £1,000 a year before they pass your details on to HMRC. So my question is, once I've reached that threshold with eBay, will I get chased for tax if I go over that? Or because I can earn £12,000 before tax, will I be okay? If you or one of your podcast team could help, that would be amazing.

• 9:54Martin Lewis?

  Okay, well, I'm going to help on this one. The answer, very simply, short answer, you're fine. That's the most important thing to say to you, you're fine. So now let me explain the complexity because I know people often worry. So we'll just get the it's all good. This is something there's a lot of confusion about. And lots of people out there are selling on eBay or Vinted or Facebook Marketplace. And they've heard about these various, the thousand pound rule or the 30 item rule. And it all gets confused or mixed up. So let's just start what we're really talking about. The first thing is we are only talking about money you make from these sites as a trader. Selling unwanted personal belongings does not need reporting.

• 10:37Martin Lewis?

  You know, if you bought stuff years ago and you're selling it now, it is not reporting. It is not taxable. You are absolutely fine. The definition of a trader is broadly, it refers to operations of a commercial kind where the trader provides to customers for some kind of reward for some sort of goods and service. So to put that into really simple terms, you are probably trading if you sell goods that you have either bought intending to sell for a profit or made, including items that you made, make for a hobby for a profit. That would be trading. Selling stuff that was yours as used secondhand items is not trading, does not count towards

• 11:19Martin Lewis?

  this and does not count as income for the tax terms. So that's the first thing. And you haven't said in your question, I think, can you go, Matt, what did he say he was doing exactly?

• 11:28Speaker 06

  Just doing a little bit of eBay selling.

• 11:30Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, so a little bit of eBay selling could just mean selling your old stuff, which would be fine. But if you're buying stuff in to sell on eBay or you're making stuff to sell on eBay, then it would probably count as trading. So hopefully everyone's got the definition from this point onwards, when I'm talking about income, I'm only referring to income from trading. I'm not referring to income from selling personal items. Now, the thousand pound rule, there is a confusion here. You have a thing called a trading allowance. There is a thousand pound rule that you are allowed to earn a thousand pounds from trading. That's gross sales before costs over a tax year, tax free. So if you're earning less than a thousand pounds from trading, even if you've got other income, even if you're paying tax on it, it doesn't matter. It is tax free.

• 12:13Martin Lewis?

  Alternatively, if you're earning more, you can deduct expenses from the amount that you're making from trading. You can have one or the other. So you could either have the sort of thousand pound flat rate, or you can say, I want to deduct expenses from my trading. So if you were, you know, let's just make it up. If you're earning 30,000 pounds a year from trading, you might have 15,000 pounds of expenses. You would want to deduct your expenses rather than taking the thousand pound flat rate. So that's the first thing we'll look at. So now it's only from trading and you're allowed to earn a thousand pounds a year from trading without being taxed. Totally separate to this is the reporting rules. This is HMRC's reporting requirements. I think it came in at the beginning of, was it about 2024, Isabel? Yeah, Isabel's nodding, good.

• 12:58Martin Lewis?

  For eBay, Vinted, Airbnb and various others, they have to report if you have earned over roughly 2,000 euros, so that's about 1,700 quid, or if you sell 30 items or more, they're reporting it to the revenue. But again, the fact that they report it to the revenue doesn't mean it's taxable if what you are doing is clearly just selling your old stuff. If you're trading, then it would be reportable. But even if you report it, and even if you're earning a thousand pounds from trading, you are allowed to earn, or most people are allowed to earn 12,570 pounds a year without paying tax. It's the tax free personal allowance. It's the amount that we're all allowed to earn. You only pay tax above it.

• 13:42Martin Lewis?

  So if you earn under 12,570 pounds a year, and clearly HMRC will see that you don't have any employment income coming in, that you don't have any other self employment income coming in, I presume your age, you won't have a pension coming in. So as long as you have income, income under 12,570 pounds anyway, you're not going to be paying tax on it. So hopefully I cleared it up for you with my very first answer. And hopefully I've helped other people understand it. I'm just going to do a really quick summary. It's only income from if you're actually deliberately buying or selling or making for profit. You have a thousand pounds allowance. So if it's less than a thousand pounds, it doesn't count anyway. If it's more than a thousand pounds, it's only if it takes you over the personal allowance that it would be taxable on top.

• 14:27Martin Lewis?

  I hope that clears it up. Did you get that, Matt?

• 14:29Speaker 06

  Yeah, that makes sense.

• 14:30Martin Lewis?

  So good news for you. I mean, not good news that you're not earning that much and it's obviously difficult at the time for you. I hope that your back improves and I hope you get better. But carry on with your eBay selling. You're perfectly entitled to do it and it shouldn't be taxable. I hope it becomes taxable because I hope you make enough money to take you over the personal allowance from it because I think that'd be a good thing for you. And we should always remember that in this country, there's still too many people, and not you, Craig, but who think that tax is an absolute, tax is marginal. If you start paying tax, you know, the personal allowance is 12,570 pounds. If you earn 12,580 pounds, you become a 20% rate taxpayer, we'll ignore sort of starting savings rate, but you only pay 20% tax on the amount above 12,570.

• 15:11Martin Lewis?

  So you pay 20% tax on the 10 pounds, not 20% tax on the whole 12,580 pounds. So it would always be beneficial for you to earn more. There are cases where it's not very beneficial, especially if you're earning over 100,000 pounds in the threshold there, when the marginal tax rate is high. But it is always beneficial for you to earn more generally.

• 15:29Speaker 06

  He also asks in his question about being chased for tax.

• 15:33Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I mean, you can have a tax investigation. My honest answer is you're not doing anything wrong. You're earning under the allowance. Chill and get on with your life. If they come and ask you, you just say, I haven't got any earnings. This is what I'm making from eBay. It's well under 12,570. I don't have any savings interest that takes me over. I mean, that's it. You know, the people who worry are the people who should be doing something wrong. I mean, clearly anyone who has a tax investigation, even if you've done nothing wrong, because they do select people at random, I hear it's hell on earth. I know people who've been through it. It can be a nightmare. But actually, in your case, you've got very limited income and limited income sources. It's quite easy to prove where the money's coming from because there isn't much of it to be investigating, if you see what I mean.

• 16:16Speaker 06

  Makes sense.

• 16:18Martin Lewis?

  So Matt, who do you have next for me?

• 16:21Speaker 06

  I have a caller.

• 16:22Martin Lewis?

  Of course.

• 16:23Speaker 06

  Of course. I've got Will, he's in Bow in East London. Hi, Will.

• 16:26Martin Lewis?

  Hello, Will.

• 16:27Speaker 03

  Hi, I'm Martin. Hi, I'm Matt. Hi, Isabel.

• 16:30Martin Lewis?

  Oh, nice, nice.

• 16:31Speaker 06

  He listens.

• 16:32Martin Lewis?

  No, it's like a test, isn't it? It's a test. But you know, he's going to be getting his badge. So I mean, he knows he's part of the club, so he's allowed, he's allowed to do that. Will, what can we do for you, mate?

• 16:42Speaker 03

  Well, I have a question. Basically, I don't know, can you tell by my accent?

• 16:45Martin Lewis?

  But I'm guessing you're from, you're from Rakhkony.

• 16:50Speaker 03

  Oh, close, close.

• 16:53Martin Lewis?

  That sounds like a southern Irish accent to me.

• 16:55Speaker 03

  It is, yes. I'm from a place called Waterford in Ireland. But I moved to London about a year ago, just under a year ago. And I've been settling in nicely, but a couple of months ago, I went to go and try and get a bill pay phone and was rejected many times. And I suddenly discovered credit scores and everything like that. And was asking friends around and discovered that it's quite a big thing over here back in Ireland. People my age, no one really has credit cards or is thinking about credit at all or anything. So I was just wondering if you had any tips for someone who's quite new to credit entirely?

• 17:36Speaker 03

  Or if maybe, for example, if someone had just moved to the UK, what would you advise for getting their credit score started?

• 17:45Martin Lewis?

  So there is a catch 22 situation for someone who's just moved to the country. My normal advice for someone who'd been in the UK and had a poor credit history would be to get yourself some form of credit card, something like a credit rebuild card. Those are cards that deliberately, or builder card that give you credit when you've got a poor credit score. The problem is they all require two years of a UK address history, which is, I think, where you're going to be falling foul. Do you have any UK banking facility at the moment?

• 18:15Speaker 03

  I've just, since discovering all of this, I have signed up for a Monzo. Because I had been using a GBP account on my Irish Revolut, thinking it was, thinking it was a UK bank account, but discovered after months of using it that it actually wasn't.

• 18:28Martin Lewis?

  It was an Irish, no, it sounds like it's an Irish account denominated in UK currency.

• 18:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:34Martin Lewis?

  So have you got Monzo?

• 18:36Speaker 03

  I do.

• 18:37Martin Lewis?

  So this is very perverse. I don't want you to be overdrawn, obviously, but I would quite like you to have an overdraft facility if they will give you one.

• 18:46Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 18:47Martin Lewis?

  Right, so having an overdraft facility would, you know, at least gives you a borrowing facility. The fact you're not using it, you would still go in your credit file that you have an overdraft facility. Do you see what I mean? So therefore you're using it responsibly. So that may be a route in. If they're willing to give you an overdraft, then take an overdraft from them, just don't use it.

• 19:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 19:09Martin Lewis?

  Then with, in terms of what you want to do after that, is when will you have been here two years?

• 19:16Speaker 03

  November next year.

• 19:18Martin Lewis?

  It's a pain in the bum, isn't it?

• 19:19Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 19:20Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I mean, just looking at the terms, people like Ocean Finance and Capital One, who specialize helping people with limited credit histories, both require two years UK address history.

• 19:30Speaker 03

  Right.

• 19:30Martin Lewis?

  I think once you get the overdraft, it may help you somewhat. It is very difficult. There are other things you need to do. I'm trying, you'll probably know better than me. Do you know what you're? Irish citizens and right to vote in the UK. Do you have a right to vote in local elections?

• 19:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, I have a full, full right to vote actually. So I'm on the electoral register.

• 19:49Martin Lewis?

  That was a tip Monzo gave me. Yeah, that's very helpful. That's where I was going next. You're on the electoral. That will help. So I, I think if you got the overdraft from Monzo, it wouldn't surprise me. Once that's beds in in a few months' time, you might be able to get something like, you know, a mobile, mobile phone credit for getting a monthly contract mobile phone or something at the low end of the credit side.

• 20:10Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 20:10Martin Lewis?

  And then it can take up to two years to get credit cards. What I'm going to do though, I just want to open this out to anybody listening who's been in this situation. Is there anything I'm missing? Because I tend to focus on UK finance and, well, this is UK finance. It's technically coming from overseas. So I haven't looked into it in that much detail. Is there anything any of you have done that will be able to help Will? And if you come up with good stuff, we'll put it in the pod and hopefully it will help Will in future, that can get, start to get him access to credit. I mean, he's not looking to borrow. He's looking, you know, this can affect whether you can, what energy deal you can get, what mobile phone deal you can get. And that can help him start to build his credit score more quickly because the normal solution of credit rebuild cards aren't available to him for another 18 months.

• 20:53Martin Lewis?

  So that's what I'm going to do for Will because I haven't really got a better answer at the moment.

• 20:56Speaker 03

  Oh, brilliant.

• 20:57Martin Lewis?

  So we'll see what comes in on that. It's really useful. But in the meantime, obviously, I'm, I'm, I'm going to state the bleeding obvious here. You know, if you do get an overdraft, make sure you use it. You don't bust your overdraft limit. Don't, you know, actually get into any form of debt. Make sure all payments are made on time for everything that you do. All of those things are important. And the other thing I'd ask you, how, just as a thought, are, are you renting? And I guess you're renting if you're new to the country, you haven't bought.

• 21:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, I'm renting, yeah.

• 21:25Martin Lewis?

  Big landlord or small landlord?

• 21:28Speaker 03

  Uh, big, I think.

• 21:30Martin Lewis?

  So it, it may be a member of what's called the Rental Exchange Scheme.

• 21:36Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 21:37Martin Lewis?

  If it is, then you are a, as long as it's not a social council, if it's social council, you're being automatically. If it is, then you will be able to, it will offer, you should ask if you can opt into the Rental Exchange Scheme, which would mean that you paying your rent on time would count towards your credit file. If not, then there's an Experian scheme and another scheme. One's Credit Ladder. What's the other one called? Can you check? It's called Canopy. So there's Canopy, which is part of Experian. And if you pay your rent on time, and of course you must pay your rent on time, it would be a bad credit mark, then they will put that data on your Experian credit file and it will be positive for you. And then there's another one. Isabel, you can talk now. What's the other one called? Credit Ladder.

• 22:18Martin Lewis?

  Credit Ladder. Thank you for that. Credit Ladder is, allows you to pick one of three credit reference agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Well, you've already got Experian if you do Canopy. So you'd pick Equifax or TransUnion. You could pay £60 a year for all three via Credit Ladder. I wouldn't bother. I'd just get one. I'd probably, I'd go for one of the other two. And I think that would probably, that would also help you as long as you're paying your rent on time. And, you know, it, it, it's about bringing in, just because obviously you come from a different, different system. The, the way I always suggest credit scoring works is they are looking at your past behaviour to predict your future behaviour.

• 22:59Martin Lewis?

  So if you can have a history as a good credit citizen, then you are more likely for them to lend to you or give you the product that you want. Your problem isn't that you have a history of being a bad citizen. It's that you're just a blank slate. They haven't got a clue who you are. And just like any of us, if someone you'd never met came up to you and said, let, let me some money, you, you, you probably wouldn't do it. So what we have to do is, is, is make them see you as much as possible. So you, Monzo and an overdraft and, and the Rental Exchange schemes and in time a credit rebuild card that you paid off in full every month. So there's no interest. All of that is just about building data, good data, that makes you look a good credit citizen.

• 23:34Speaker 03

  Brilliant.

• 23:35Martin Lewis?

  And as, as I say to everybody listening, if you have a way that I have missed that can help somebody who is new to the country start to build a good credit history, I'd love to hear it. Thank you. Will, thanks for your call.

• 23:46Speaker 03

  Thanks very much, man.

• 23:47Martin Lewis?

  Sorry I haven't managed to solve it. I hope it takes a step further.

• 23:49Speaker 03

  I, I got an info, so that'll do me.

• 23:52Martin Lewis?

  Quite right.

• 23:52Speaker 06

  And a badge?

• 23:54Speaker 03

  And a badge, brilliant.

• 23:55Martin Lewis?

  You must be new to, so you've only been in the UK a year. So this is all a learning in the, in a year, you've picked up the whole info and the podcast stuff. Is that right?

• 24:03Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, sure. I, I had to, I, I want to, I want to get started quickly, you know, so.

• 24:08Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. Oh, brilliant. I think fantastic. I'm very flattered. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming on the show.

• 24:13Speaker 03

  No worries at all.

• 24:13Martin Lewis?

  Cheers, mate.

• 24:14Speaker 06

  Cheers, Will.

• 24:15Speaker 03

  Thanks very much.

• 24:17Martin Lewis?

  Okay, Matt, it's a read. What do you have for me next?

• 24:20Speaker 06

  It is a read. I have a thank you and a question. Not from me, from Caroline.

• 24:27Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, maybe Caroline doesn't think I'm a grandpa.

• 24:29Speaker 06

  No, you're not going to forget that, are you?

• 24:33Martin Lewis?

  I am, I'm, I'm, I'm older. My elder sister, who's only two years older than me, has four grandchildren. But my daughter's 13, so I, I sort of, I feel my, I'm in a different category.

• 24:42Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 24:43Martin Lewis?

  But actually, I am old enough to be a grandpa. Technically, you probably are at the age of, I don't know, 32 or something, aren't you really? Um, well, two 16s. Yeah.

• 24:52Speaker 06

  True.

• 24:53Martin Lewis?

  Let's move on.

• 24:53Speaker 06

  Let's move on. So Caroline.

• 24:56Martin Lewis?

  So you're not far from grandpa age, Matt?

• 24:59Speaker 06

  Three years.

• 24:59Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 25:00Speaker 06

  Yep, three years. And then you can call me grandpa.

• 25:03Martin Lewis?

  And grandma Isabel here in a decade.

• 25:07Speaker 06

  Right. Caroline emailed this in to [email protected]. She says, dearest Martin and the team who genuinely saved my sanity.

• 25:18Martin Lewis?

  Oh, that's nice.

• 25:19Speaker 06

  First time writer, but longtime listener. A very, very long time ago, I came across your spectacular spreadsheet. That's hard to say. Spectacular spreadsheet.

• 25:29Martin Lewis?

  Spectacular spreadsheet.

• 25:30Speaker 06

  Spectacular spreadsheet. That helped me understand what and where I was spending my money on. I cannot exaggerate just what a change it made to my life, my mental health and my relationship with money.

• 25:41Martin Lewis?

  Oh, and my eyes just went a bit watery there. That's so lovely. Thank you. Just to explain to people what it's about. So I, when I started doing this, I, I hated the way that most budgets were, they were based on a month, right? And, and so they just looked, first of all, they just did expenditure. They didn't do income. And I'm like, budget is about matching income and expenditure. And they were based on a month. And the problem with a month is it is not an accurate reflection of how you spend. First of all, there are some things that you spend by the week. Then there are some things that you spend by, you know, you do, you're shopping by the week, not by the month. Then there are some things that you spend by the month. Then there are some things that are biannual or annual, you know, you might have a holiday, you've got Christmas coming up. You've got your, you know, you might need the tyres replacing on your car. You've got your insurance, your MOT.

• 26:25Martin Lewis?

  All of these things that come up on an annual basis. And secondly, they would be really, you know, they'd have 10 things on a list. Whereas my version of budgeting is I would really delineate. So you heard me mentioning there, motoring. I wouldn't have motoring. I would have MOTs, tyre replacement, car insurance, breakdown cover. I would really itemize it because the more specificity you have, the more accurate it becomes. And then I would have categories where you could put it in what you're spending over a year and it would proportionate over a month. Because what most people find when they were doing a budget, when they use these old month type ones, you know, thankfully we've got apps and more sophisticated things now, is it would tell them, oh, you're spending less than you earn. No, no, you're not because you've missed out all the annual things that don't come in a month's expenditure,

• 27:08Martin Lewis?

  which is actually the stuff that really hurts and takes you over. And, and people are going, I don't understand. It's telling me I'm, I'm spending less than I earn, but, but then I'm building up debt or I'm spending my savings. So that can't be right. And so this spreadsheet, I spent ages really trying to think what is wrong with the way that most people do a budget and because of most of the sort of very pro forma budgeting tools out there. And I, it, back in those days, you know, putting on the web is difficult. So I built a spreadsheet and then somebody actually very kindly, I built a, a budgeting system and someone kindly turned it into a really good spreadsheet for me and I made it available. So, but this is way back in the noughties. There are still similar systems out there now, but things have got better, thankfully. Carry on, Matt.

• 27:46Speaker 06

  So longtime listener.

• 27:47Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. Well, longtime, well, follower, shall we say?

• 27:51Speaker 06

  Yeah, okay.

• 27:52Martin Lewis?

  Follower.

• 27:53Speaker 06

  So she's passed it on to her daughter. She, her daughter started working at 16, moved out at 22 and bought her own property at 24. She says, admittedly with some help from an inheritance, but she made full use of a first time buyer's ISA.

• 28:08Martin Lewis?

  Lovely.

• 28:08Speaker 06

  She's never come to me needing money and has been self-sufficient her whole adult life. She says in brackets, it took me till I was well into my 30s to have a calm night's sleep where I wasn't waking up in financial panic. So I'm proud of her.

• 28:20Martin Lewis?

  Ah, and I'm proud of you. What a wonderful thing to do that you recognized that you felt that you didn't have financial capability that when you were young, you built it when you were an adult and you passed it on to your child. And it's an incredibly, you'll know that I campaign strongly for financial education. The curriculum will be improving. So it's moving into part of the core curriculum, I hope, next year so that every child in every school will at least get some basic financial education. But we live in one of the world's most competitive consumer economies. And out there, we send children out into the world as independent adults for the first time at 18 in a world full of scams and dodgy dealing and debt. And we don't give them any buyer's training or financial training.

• 29:01Martin Lewis?

  And it's absolutely in our hugely competitive consumer economy at the core that we do do that. I am more than delighted that you've taken that responsibility as a parent. It'd be great if many parents did. But many parents lack the capability or the knowledge themselves, which is why I think it's crucial that we educate in schools on it. Anyway, I digress, Matt. Carry on.

• 29:20Speaker 06

  Maybe we should do a whole podcast episode dedicated to it.

• 29:22Martin Lewis?

  It'd be great to do kids and young peoples one day. We should do kids and young people question time. If you've got that, if you're listening, send it in and put it, put brackets, kids and young people and we'll, we'll, we'll save them up until we get a, a good selection. Or Matt will save them up. He is a curator of questions.

• 29:36Speaker 06

  That is my job.

• 29:37Martin Lewis?

  And we will see what we do on that. Anyway.

• 29:39Speaker 06

  Anyway.

• 29:39Martin Lewis?

  Is there a question?

• 29:40Speaker 06

  There is a question. There's a question as well.

• 29:41Martin Lewis?

  I've enjoyed the journey. So yes.

• 29:43Speaker 06

  Um, she says, I was on Eurostar yesterday.

• 29:46Martin Lewis?

  I am. Thank you very much. I think that's right. I always do that on my show. I do it to the audience every time. I go, I go, what is that? What's that train thing that takes you to France?

• 29:56Speaker 06

  And they go, Eurostar.

• 29:57Martin Lewis?

  And I go, I am. Thank you very much. I enjoy it. Carry on.

• 30:03Martin Lewis?

  Grandpa.

• 30:06Speaker 06

  She was on Eurostar yesterday, travelling back to London from Brussels. And she was a bit thirsty, so she went to the cafe. In brackets, she says, I know, expensive, but it was a late night.

• 30:15Martin Lewis?

  No judging.

• 30:15Speaker 06

  That's fair enough. She says, I was paying with my card and got into a real flap about which currency I should pay with. I went with Euro, but thought it was interesting to find out which currency I should have chosen. She finishes by saying, thank you for everything you do and thank you, Martin, for being there when I was at rock bottom.

• 30:31Martin Lewis?

  Oh, Caroline, thank you. I think it wonderful, what a wonderful thing to get. You know, I have a lot of stresses in my life, but messages like that and many people who stop me and say things like that, they are a real joy. But you could tell, is but my eyes have gone, haven't they? They have. They have, I've gone. That's why I do it. That's what gets me out of bed and still doing it after these years. So, let's do the Eurostar answer. It's a really interesting one. Regular listeners will all know that the general rule is you pay in the local currency when you're abroad. Because even if you don't have one of the specialist overseas cards, which you should get if you're going abroad regularly, then the currency rate that your card gives you will be a maximum 2.75% added on top of the spot rate on the day.

• 31:15Martin Lewis?

  Whereas when you're generally, if you do it through the overseas ATM or an overseas shop, they're adding even more on top. So the safest thing to do is always pay in the local currency. So it's your card doing the conversion, not the retailer that you're buying from doing the conversion. Eurostar is a little bit different though. From memory, it operates dual currencies. So when you pay, if you pay in pounds, you're paying in pounds. If you're paying in euros, well, if you have a pound card and you're paying in euros, then it will be convert, your card will convert it back into pounds. As for which one you should pay in, well, because it has dual pricing, it lists the price both, that is simply a question of you first have to calculate what exchange rate it's using based on the spot exchange rate of the day.

• 31:59Martin Lewis?

  Now, clearly we're getting into very nerdy detail and we're probably only talking a few pence here on a small amount built in a cafe, but let's just do it as a theoretical exercise anyway. Here's what I would do. I would take the two rates. I would convert the Euro rate that you've got into pounds using a spot FX calculation. That means you go and look at the spot FX rate, that means the actual hard, nothing added on top, market-based exchange rate at that moment. And then if the Euro rate is cheaper when converted into pounds than the amount that you would pay in pounds, and then you add a couple of percent on top of it, and it's still cheaper than the amount you're paying pounds, then you'd pay in euros, but let your card do the conversion currency.

• 32:43Martin Lewis?

  If it's very close, assuming that you have a pound-dilapidated bank account, you would just pay in pounds and then there would be no currency conversion and the pounds would win. So that, if I were doing it myself as an exercise, that's how I would do the exercise. Then again, I think, because I suspect, I don't know, I'd have to travel on the Eurostar to find out. Anyone going, by the way? If you're listening, if you're going on the Eurostar soon, if you're a proper nerd and you know what I'm going on about, please can you do this calculation and send it, you know, itemize what the items were in pounds and in euros, do the calculation of the spot rate on the day and work out which is best and send it to us. Matt, am I allowed to offer some of the first person who does that properly a badge?

• 33:24Speaker 06

  Yeah, go on then.

• 33:25Martin Lewis?

  So the first person who does that properly and gets it back to me will get a badge on that basis because I would like to know how their exchange rate is setting. Honest truth though, even I would say it's not that big a deal on the Eurostar.

• 33:38Speaker 06

  Great.

• 33:39Martin Lewis?

  What, what's, sorry, what, what were we talking about again?

• 33:41Speaker 06

  I'm not saying it. I'm not saying it. I'm not giving you it twice.

• 33:49Martin Lewis?

  So Matt, even number, we're following format. Who is our caller?

• 33:54Speaker 06

  Should I break format?

• 33:56Martin Lewis?

  No, no.

• 33:57Speaker 06

  No, stay with the format, stay with the format.

• 33:58Martin Lewis?

  No, just, just let me have it, let me have it.

• 34:00Speaker 06

  Okay, fine.

• 34:01Martin Lewis?

  Let me take you through.

• 34:02Speaker 06

  Fine, well, it's a good job. I've got Joe in Walthamstow here, isn't it?

• 34:05Martin Lewis?

  Hello, Joe.

• 34:05Speaker 05

  Hello, Martin.

• 34:06Martin Lewis?

  And you see, Joe, Joe, are you a regular listener to the podcast?

• 34:11Speaker 05

  I am a regular and avid listener, so as soon as you start mentioning formats, I break out into a huge smile.

• 34:18Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so in which case, Joe, you would have probably been offended if Matt had put you on an odd number, which is where we do the reads, because it just doesn't work, does it?

• 34:26Speaker 05

  Massively so.

• 34:27Martin Lewis?

  Exactly. You see, Matt, it's not just me. All the listeners know how it works. So Joe, now we've, now we've just put Matt in his place, as he deserves, what can I do for you?

• 34:37Speaker 05

  Can I just give a shout out to Isabel as well? Hello, Isabel. I'm delighted that women get a voice on the podcast as well now.

• 34:43Martin Lewis?

  Hello, thank you. Yeah, it is wonderful to have Isabel on. And IBAN, we haven't been using IBAN, have we?

• 34:49Speaker 06

  No, we haven't. I was thinking about that.

• 34:50Martin Lewis?

  Now, can you remind us what IBAN is, Isabel? Isabel, oh god.

• 34:56Speaker 06

  You can't remember your own title.

• 34:57Martin Lewis?

  Okay, we'll have to look that up. We'll let it that in later. I'm just gonna check, is Isabel's mic in the right place?

• 35:01Speaker 06

  No, I don't think so.

• 35:02Martin Lewis?

  I'm just gonna move. Is it red or green? So Isabel is new to this. I'm just going to fix Isabel's mic, everybody. Hold on. Bizarrely, so I, I just realised we had the wrong faders. I'd like to explain something to everybody listening. Isabel, what colour is your microphone? It's red. And what colour is the other microphone next to you? Green. Okay, so on the fader desk in front of me, I have a black fader, which is my microphone, and there is a red fader and a green fader, and they're in the order, the red is on the right, just as the red microphone is on the right and the green is on the left. So for some bizarre reason, I had faded up Isabel's red microphone by putting the red fader on the right, like the microphone's on the right up. But actually, the red microphone on the right is actually the green fader on the left

• 35:47Martin Lewis?

  and the green microphone on the left is actually the red fader on the right, which is why I had the wrong one up. Clearly crackers, but anyway, there we go. Do you remember what IBAN is, Isabel? I do. It is Isabel Bad Answer Negator. Bad Answer Negator, we like that. Yes, Isabel's live fact checking, for those who don't know, she's live fact checking as we go along. So Joe, what is your question after a big delay? I'm sure you like that if you're a regular listener though.

• 36:14Speaker 05

  Well, I feel like I've got a BSc in broadcast journalism now with the red and the green faders, so.

• 36:20Martin Lewis?

  What, what do, what can we do?

• 36:22Speaker 05

  Thank you very much. I, I was somewhat hesitant to ask this question. I'm very aware that it's only going to be relevant to a small number of very privileged people.

• 36:32Martin Lewis?

  Yep.

• 36:33Speaker 05

  But I, I grew up working class. My dad never entered the higher tax bracket. But I have done well in my career and through a mix of good fortune and fiscal drag, I'm now fortunate enough to be an additional rate taxpayer, so the 45% rate.

• 36:50Martin Lewis?

  Yep.

• 36:52Speaker 05

  I'm, you know, very happy and grateful for this, but what I do find is that things keep popping up that I don't realise. So tax allowances that disappear, like savings allowance or support, I'm not entitled to have. I'm, I'm five months pregnant, so I know there's no child benefit, there's no free childcare hours until my baby's three.

• 37:13Martin Lewis?

  There's no tax-free childcare, yeah.

• 37:15Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah.

• 37:15Martin Lewis?

  All of it, all of it stops at a hundred grand. I do indeed, I want to rename it the Working Families' Childcare Top-Up, because I think that's what it actually does. But yes, you are excluded from that because you have a single earner who earns over £100,000 in the household. Correct?

• 37:30Speaker 05

  Yeah. And most financial information is not targeted at people like me or there's an assumption that I will be paying a wealth manager or a finance manager for that. And actually, you know, East London, my mortgage is very high, nursery is still crazy expensive. I am absolutely not complaining.

• 37:49Martin Lewis?

  No.

• 37:50Speaker 05

  I'm very proud to pay my contribution in taxes, it's a sort of civic duty and I'm quite patriotic about it.

• 37:56Martin Lewis?

  I see taxes as the cost of living in a legitimate civil society, yes.

• 38:00Speaker 05

  Hundred percent. But I'd just like to know what, what's going on and what I should be looking out for.

• 38:06Martin Lewis?

  Really interesting, really interesting question and absolutely, you know, well done. You're paying your contribution to society and helping other people go on that. Isabel, will you check for me what, what percentage of people pay the additional tax rate? I think it's about 3%, 3% of earners or 2% of earners. So you're right in the top bracket. You're right, you lose most of those allowances because the state is not looking to help people who are earning over £100,000 effectively. And I will leave the political arguments of whether it should or it shouldn't to other people. Let me just think about what, so really the question is, what should you know as a top rate taxpayer that isn't being discussed because the general guidance out there isn't available for you? Is, is that a fair summary?

• 38:46Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 38:47Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so let me just run through off the top of my head what comes up. I'd start with, for someone like you, ISAs and premium bonds become even far better value. ISAs, far better value, premium bonds become decent value. And the reason is, of course, you do not have a personal savings allowance. A basic rate taxpayer can earn £1,000 of interest a year without paying tax on it. A higher rate taxpayer can earn £500 of interest a year without paying tax on it. An additional rate taxpayer does not get that, so you don't get one. So all of your savings interest is taxable. So therefore, obviously, an ISA, whether you're using it for shares and investing and if you've got money to put away for the long term, that would be your priority to use an ISA, or you're using it for cash for your savings, is absolutely more important

• 39:31Martin Lewis?

  because instantly, you know, you're getting 45% taken off any savings interest that's outside of an ISA. Equally too, premium bonds are also tax-free. Now, when I, you'll have heard me talk about premiums bond before because you're a regular listener and you'll know I'm not generally the biggest fan. But the premium bond price done rate is 4.35%. If you're putting a decent whack in, so getting close to 50,000, but really anything above 5, 6, 7,000, then you're going to be earning roughly, based on typical luck, the median average payout will be somewhere in 3.5, 3.6, 3.7%, which actually, compared to normal savings, which would be taxable for you.

• 40:12Martin Lewis?

  Is actually a much better, is a better rate than you're going to be getting elsewhere barring an ISA, if you're using savings for an ISA. Equally, I don't know if you heard the podcast we did last week. It's on short dated guilts. Actually, I think they become more valuable for you too, as they're especially good for people who are on the higher tax rates. It's a complicated explainer, so I'll let you listen to it back all the way through that one. I would think, how are you doing on your pension? Are you getting, maxing out your pension contributions, at least your employer's contribution to that?

• 40:45Speaker 05

  Oh, absolutely, yes. And trying to make the most of that, because obviously, a pound that goes into my pension versus, you know, a best 55 that comes into my account, it seems worth it.

• 40:58Martin Lewis?

  Exactly. I mean, it's, yeah, 55p is what it costs you to invest a pound in your pension, and you get the employer's contribution on top. And you can put up to 60,000 pounds a year into your pension and may even have carryover. Extra gift aid, extra pension relief. Just checking, your pension, are you doing it through your employer rather than that source, rather than just doing it straight into a pension plan?

• 41:19Speaker 05

  Yes, it's salary sacrifice.

• 41:21Martin Lewis?

  Fine, perfect. So you're getting the absolute maximum gain on that. I don't know if you give to charity, but if you do, you know you can claim anything above the normal 20% back in tax, don't you?

• 41:30Speaker 05

  Yes, I used to do that via my tax code, and I called up HMRC, but actually, my work now has something where they can pay that directly. So it's, again, relief at source.

• 41:41Martin Lewis?

  Fine, you do. So you're basically, it's basically like a charity chequebook scheme, where you pay in the money and you get the whole pound, including the tax. Perfect, that works really well. Partners allowance, I don't know what your relationship situation is. It's not a chat up line. But where are you on that?

• 41:57Speaker 05

  Full disclosure, because I am such a fan, my partner did say a couple of days ago, please don't run off with Martin Lewis. I pointed out that you're a very good runner, and I don't think we'd be running anywhere.

• 42:09Martin Lewis?

  But maybe it was a chat up line in that case. Laura, if you're listening, it wasn't. So.

• 42:18Speaker 05

  Love you, Laura.

• 42:20Martin Lewis?

  So your partner, obviously, you know, what's your relationship? Are you married? Is civil partnership? Cohab? Where are you on that? Because it makes a difference.

• 42:29Speaker 05

  We're cohabiting at the moment, but we are seriously considering your advice to get the legal protections through inheritance tax by going for something a little bit more serious.

• 42:38Martin Lewis?

  Well, more so as well, that if you are, if you're together, both within inheritance tax, but also it means you can move assets between you without capital gains tax. Yeah? And so that you can effectively utilise, as long as you're in a loving, trusting relationship, and it's all good, I don't want to get into that, but it's very important, obviously, we always must, economic coercion is terrible. But then you can then utilise all of your partner's allowances without any risk, and money can be moved freely between the two of you. But whilst you're not in a legal relationship, which is, I've just defined as marriage or civil partnership, then you can't do that at the moment in the same way without triggering inheritance tax or potentially capital gains tax. So certainly, if you're going to continue to earn at this nice, high level, and therefore hopefully be able to

• 43:20Martin Lewis?

  build up more assets over time, that's worth looking at. Other things, I mean, have a read, I don't know if you've read about EIS's Enterprise Investment Schemes and VCT's Venture Capital Trusts, which are sort of investment schemes that have tax advantages to you. They're a way of basically encouraging people to invest in smaller, slightly riskier investments, but with big tax incentives. There are useful things that you could be looking at too. And that's the type of thing that an independent financial advisor or financial planner would be getting into with you, which isn't, you know, I would also suggest you do. I mean, they cover different areas to me. And I do think, once you're starting to build up assets in your position, actually paying for someone to have a retained relationship and financial advice would be worthwhile. That's where I've got off the top of my head. I think you had

• 44:04Martin Lewis?

  most of that, didn't you, if we're honest?

• 44:06Speaker 05

  No, short dated guilts and EIS are definitely ones for me to investigate further. I think, like a lot of millennials, I don't have wealth, I don't have a lot of assets. But it's something that I'm hoping to build over the next, you know, 20 years, 30 years.

• 44:23Martin Lewis?

  Absolutely, should be your aim, and you should be investing, and I suspect you are as well, you know, and you should be looking to be building that nest because you have that. Because obviously, the truth is, when you're earning what you're earning, even if you can only put aside a couple of percent of it, that couple of percent is bigger than other people are putting aside by the nature of it. What do you do for a living, can I ask you? If you don't want it on air, we won't put it on air.

• 44:43Speaker 05

  No, I'm an in-house lawyer.

• 44:45Martin Lewis?

  Okay, fine. So you're a lawyer, you've spent your time, you had your student loan, you qualified for law, you've been through there, and you're starting to reap the benefits at 39 now, with the salary coming in. My answer to that is, well done to you.

• 44:56Speaker 05

  Thank you very much.

• 44:58Martin Lewis?

  Thank you. Thank you so much for your call. It's really interesting. And it's really interesting to think about the other. And you're right, I think, I'm guilty of, I tend to only mention basic and higher rate tax, I don't mention additional rate tax. And actually, I should, because what we're trying to do is get everybody to improve their financial capability and the way it works best, and that helps the economy and it helps the society. So maybe it's a little note to myself on the back of this and your call. But most importantly, no salary, nothing is going to come close to the fact that you're now going to get your ESQ badge, Joe.

• 45:33Speaker 05

  I mean, what can I say? It's a gift beyond words. It's a gift beyond price. I have looked on eBay to see if anyone is selling them. Nobody is doing that.

• 45:43Martin Lewis?

  Who would do, apart from Matt? Matt, who's got a box and is thinking, I could supplement my income here. I'll just put a few online, I'll drip feed them in, I'll pretend to be annoyed that somebody else is doing it. Yeah, it is. And Matt, where are you? Let's remind everybody, where are you in the badge? Obviously, my face is in the middle, where are you?

• 46:00Speaker 06

  I'm in the, how do you pronounce that? Ellipse?

• 46:03Martin Lewis?

  The ellipse, the three dots.

• 46:04Speaker 06

  Yeah. So have a look in there, and you'll see a tiny, tiny version of my head.

• 46:10Martin Lewis?

  And you see, Joe, you're 39, which is good, because your eyes, you start to get presbyopia at 45. So if you were 49, you probably wouldn't be able to see Matt, but your eyesight is still probably sharp enough to be able to pick Matt up in the badge, which is, you know, a pleasure or a curse? I'm not quite sure which.

• 46:26Speaker 06

  I'd say a pleasure. Where are you going to put the badge, Joe? I want to know. Are you going to wear it? Are you going to frame it?

• 46:31Speaker 05

  Well, as I get increasingly large with my pregnancy bump, I think of just putting it on the bump.

• 46:36Martin Lewis?

  Oh, yeah, nice.

• 46:37Speaker 05

  Yeah. Being like the most prominent part, and also to stop anyone from trying to touch my tummy.

• 46:43Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. Both are good, both are good things, yes. Yeah, the badge, if you put the badge on the bump, I mean, that could arguably counter sort of our youngest podcast listener, the youngest Esquire.

• 46:52Speaker 06

  Well, yeah, in your email, Joe.

• 46:54Martin Lewis?

  I mean, we've not had prenatal before. I mean, that's pretty impressive.

• 46:56Speaker 05

  We do say my unborn child will emerge from the womb recognising its mum's voice, its dad's voice, and the inadmissible voice of Martin Lewis, because twice a week, you are, your tones are filling our house and my womb.

• 47:12Martin Lewis?

  Oh, I'm delighted. How lovely. And what a lovely to play at that part in your journey. I wish, I wish you and your partner, and, well, we won't tempt fate, but I wish everything goes well and much happiness and joy in the next stage of your life that you have coming.

• 47:26Speaker 05

  Thank you so much for all your help.

• 47:28Martin Lewis?

  It's a pleasure. Take care, Joe. Thank you. Oh, and just a note, Isabel tells me it is about 3% of income taxpayers who pay the additional top rate. It comes in at earnings of 125,000 pounds and more. Question number five. Sometimes a success, sometimes an askance slash funny question. Which is it today? What are you doing, oh curator of questions?

• 47:50Speaker 06

  I think we should do a fun question.

• 47:52Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 47:53Speaker 06

  A nice one to end.

• 47:54Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 47:54Speaker 06

  One that teaches people a little bit more about you.

• 47:57Martin Lewis?

  Okay, well, in that case, you and Isabel have to answer as well.

• 48:00Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 48:01Martin Lewis?

  Okay. So it teaches people more about?

• 48:03Speaker 06

  Us.

• 48:03Martin Lewis?

  Us.

• 48:04Speaker 06

  Okay. So this one was from Will, who came on the podcast, oh god, a few months ago now. He said this in as a backup.

• 48:10Martin Lewis?

  He's a badge holder.

• 48:11Speaker 06

  He's got a badge.

• 48:12Martin Lewis?

  Okay. He's part of the family.

• 48:14Speaker 06

  I saw this, and I was like, I need to know the answer. He says, do you drizzle ketchup over chips? Or do you make a splodge of ketchup in the corner and then dip each chip in individually? And why?

• 48:24Martin Lewis?

  I genuinely have a problem with drizzling ketchup over chips. Absolutely. Isabel's nodding and smiling.

• 48:30Speaker 05

  Over your fingers.

• 48:31Martin Lewis?

  It was not even that, I just, so when I was, this is going to tell you everything about me.

• 48:36Speaker 06

  Oh, no.

• 48:37Martin Lewis?

  And know this is not a diagnosable condition before anybody starts, all right? When I was, when I was young, a boy, before I was 10, and I would get soup, and you know, soup has stuff in. I would do it so that I would get the soup out first, I'd hold the bowl up on the side so I could drain the soup out, and I'd eat all the soup, and then I would eat the stuff. I wouldn't like them together. I have moved past that in my adult life, but I did not like the combination of the two. When I even now, if I'm lucky enough to get an apple or rhubarb crumble, my wife, by the way, makes a very good crumble, and did one of those TV cooking shows once where her crumble got her into the semi-final. She makes a very good crumble, I should say. And I like my custard, but I don't want my

• 49:21Martin Lewis?

  custard on my crumble. Everybody else is having a bowl of crumble, if she's made it, we've got people around for dinner or something, and some custard on it. I'm like, I want a bowl of crumble and a bowl of custard. I will decide which bits I'm eating together. Don't force them together. So you can clearly see, whether it is my ketchup or my HP sauce, or my mayonnaise, or my garlic mayo, or my barbecue sauce, or mint sauce, which I will have not just on land, because mint sauce is the sauce of the gods.

• 49:49Speaker 06

  I do love mint sauce.

• 49:50Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, mint sauce should just be on everything. I want it on the side. I don't want it drizzled over. I want to choose how much I put on. I want to choose which side of the chip I'm putting it on. I want to dip it in. That is all part of it for me. So no, I have an issue with ketchup on the chips. I have an issue with it being drizzled on top. I'm just like, no, I want them separate. I want to make that, yeah, it's clearly, I'm getting quite upset about it.

• 50:13Speaker 06

  I think we've all just learned a lot about you, or we've had our suspicions confirmed about you.

• 50:18Martin Lewis?

  So where are you on this, Matt?

• 50:19Speaker 06

  Me? I am a splodge in the corner and dip. I think if you drizzle it on, you get ketchup. If you've got nothing to, I have a thing with sticky fingers. I don't like touching food. I like to use a utensil, which maybe says something about me as well.

• 50:33Martin Lewis?

  Isabel?

• 50:35Martin Lewis?

  But how, how, mayo, yeah, mayo, mayo, straight or garlic? Or truffle occasionally.

• 50:42Speaker 06

  Garlic mayo stinks. It's so garlicky. You can smell it instantly on someone's breath.

• 50:47Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, it's true.

• 50:49Speaker 06

  Too garlicky.

• 50:49Martin Lewis?

  And Lara can't eat garlic or onion, so I like my garlic mayo because often our food has no garlic.

• 50:53Speaker 06

  Is she low FODMAP?

• 50:54Martin Lewis?

  Uh, no, it's not low FODMAP. Let's not get into it.

• 50:57Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 50:58Martin Lewis?

  But this is it, but I think there is a difference. You two would be fine with it being slodged on, you would just prefer it not. Is that the correct interpretation?

• 51:05Speaker 06

  Yeah, if it was drizzled on, I wouldn't mind. I just need a fork.

• 51:07Martin Lewis?

  I would have a problem. I would, you know, if I was in polite company and I'd been served it, I could get myself through it. But I would really, I'm, my legs have cro- I've genuinely

• 51:15Speaker 06

  Really?

• 51:16Martin Lewis?

  Crossed my legs and I don't like the concept. It feels wrong.

• 51:19Speaker 06

  So.

• 51:19Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I am a bit obsessive.

• 51:20Speaker 06

  So if I invite you around for dinner, I will remember to.

• 51:23Martin Lewis?

  Just, just put the, put all the sauces. I love sauces, loads of bo- I mean, yeah, give me eight different sauces to choose from and then give me my chips and allow me the agency. I want the agency. I want to be in control of my own chip destiny. I don't need to be dictated to how much ketchup I should have, which chips is going to have what ketchup. Give me control of my life. Give me freedom. Can you play Braveheart music? Let's stop.

• 51:50Martin Lewis?

  There's definitely a place to stop there.

• 51:52Speaker 06

  Definitely.

• 51:53Martin Lewis?

  Thanks for listening, everybody. Take care.

• 51:57Martin Lewis?

  That's it for this week's Question Time. Don't forget to subscribe so you know when we release a new episode. We put out a new Question Time episode each Monday alongside the Big Topic Podcast with Adrian on Thursdays. Aren't you lucky? Two doses of money-saving tips and tricks a week. Do make sure you're sending your questions. You can email [email protected] and do address it to Dear Martin.

• 52:20Speaker 06

  Dear Matt.

• 52:21Martin Lewis?

  Dear Isabel. You're a bit slow, Isabel. You're a bit slow. Forgot I was involved.

• 52:27Martin Lewis?

  And don't forget, if you come on the show, we'll send you an exclusive Martin Lewis Question Time ESQ badge. Who wouldn't want that?

• 52:50Speaker 07

  Martin Lewis is the founder of MoneySavingExpert.com. But of course, other consumer and price comparison websites are available. You can get in touch with Martin's podcast production team by emailing [email protected]. The offers and rates mentioned in the podcast are correct at the time of recording. However, if you are listening on demand, it's worth double checking as details can date. Remember to subscribe on BBC Sounds and leave us a review however you listen.

• 53:23Speaker 06

  Did you mention gravy?

• 53:24Martin Lewis?

  I didn't, I do like gravy.

• 53:25Speaker 06

  You like gravy, you pour gravy on top and that's fine.

• 53:27Martin Lewis?

  I would still like to pour it on myself, but if, if it's, you know, if you've got some roast beef and it's got some gravy around the side of it, and that's an implicit part. So if it's an implicit part of the food, I am much more content with it being there. You know, if it's beefing gravy, whereas I feel like a ketchup is not, so here, so

• 53:50Martin Lewis?

  there's a Japanese, there's a Japanese place which does these incredible Japanese omelets, where basically you get noodles and they're wrapped in an omelet, an egg omelet. And then they have, and in a very delicate style, they put a mixture of barbecue sauce and mayonnaise with a squiggle on top, right over the top. I can't remember what it's called. It's absolutely fantastic. You know, it's quite a high-endy type place that does it. And for me, there, that's an implicit part of the, of the substance of the dish. Whereas the sauce that you're being given with chips is an added extra that is an extra of choice. And I think psychologically that makes a difference to me.

• 54:27Speaker 06

  True, true. I was, uh, this is completely random. I was, um, I was at some friends and we had pie, mash and mushy peas. And I said I didn't want gravy because there's, there's like a sauce in the, in the pie, right? And everyone laughed at me and said, no, you have to have gravy.

• 54:42Martin Lewis?

  I know, you see, we need to have our own food choices. But I would probably have the gravy, but I don't think it's something, I don't think it's risible that you didn't.

• 54:48Speaker 06

  Okay, good.

• 54:49Martin Lewis?

  Okay, you, you have permission.

• 54:50Speaker 06

  Thank you.

• 54:51Martin Lewis?

  Let's go.

• 54:54Speaker 07

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• 55:39Speaker 07

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• 56:23Speaker 07

  But the truth might actually be a lot scarier. For our take, join me, Jess Maddox. And me, Thomas Germain, for The Interface. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.