Question Time: How to escape a joint account? When not to claim child benefit? Who is Martin’s successor?

In our Question Time podcast, Martin Lewis gives you answers on anything and everything, including: how do I escape a joint account? If I cancel a Direct Debit, do I have to tell the company? When isn’t it worth claiming child benefit? Where do I put the money from my house sale? And, who’s going to take over from Martin when he retires? 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 if he’s got a favourite musical, if he’s any good at building flat-pack furniture, or have a very complicated question about your personal 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

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• 1:47Martin Lewis?

  You're looking at the top three easy access savings accounts. You should be earning over 4% in them. The lesson that we all learn from that is make sure you're clear with the provider that you stopped using the service at the time. It's not that difficult. It's easy access. The good news is you will still benefit from child benefit. Hello and welcome to The Cunningly Name, the Martin Lewis podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is our Question Time episode, where you get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything, open brackets within reason, close brackets. This week, you ask me, how do I escape a joint account? If I cancel a direct debit, do I have to tell the firm? When isn't it worth claiming child benefit? Where do I put the money from my house sale?

• 2:32Martin Lewis?

  And, Martin, who's going to take over when you retire? Play the theme tune.

• 2:51Martin Lewis?

  Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Question Time podcast. Now, normally at this point, I do a big build-up for our podcast producer and presenter, which I'm now calling our prodzenter, Mr. Matt Burnham. I call him a squire. I do a big build-up. But you're not having that this week, Matt.

• 3:11Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 3:12Martin Lewis?

  Because you did a very, very silly boo-boo last week.

• 3:15Speaker 04

  Oh, I think I know what you're going to say.

• 3:18Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, and I would like you to have the bravery that you're going to put the boo-boo in at this point. I want you to edit the clip in. So I need to tell everybody what Matt did last week. So Matt edits the podcast, and he was editing the main podcast too. And as those of you who listen regularly will know, there's a money mastermind in the main podcast, and the money mastermind in the main podcast was about section 75. And the trick in the question, it was asking Adrian, you'd paid £10 on a credit card and the item cost £100, does section 75 count? And the normal rule would be, if you put any on a credit card, then section 75 is applicable for the entire amount. The credit card company is jointly liable for the entire amount. But the trick in the question was that the item cost £100. And section 75 only applies if items cost more than £100.

• 4:02Martin Lewis?

  So the minimum is £100 and a penny. And that was the denouement to the mastermind. That was the big answer, and Adrian got it wrong, and that was the whole setup. Now, Matt, when he was choosing the clips to go at the start of the pod, the very first clip he did in the sort of music bed thing that we have at the start, was me going, section 75 only applies if you've got £100 and a penny. Section 75 only applies for things that cost £100 and a penny or more. So the very first clip was literally the answer to the mastermind that gave everything away, Mr Burner.

• 4:36Speaker 04

  In my defence, it was, because what I do is go through and I find the best little bits and the bits that I think are going to get people to really want to listen to the podcast and tease what we're doing. And I was like, wow, that's a great clip. And then I think I sent it to you, didn't I?

• 4:48Martin Lewis?

  You sent it to me and I listened through and I normally come back with a few little, oh, could you tweet that or do that here and there? And I was like, I got, I called you after, after 30 seconds. And I was like, okay, the whole of the start doesn't work because you've given the answer to the mastermind out. So that your punishment is you don't get your big build up today.

• 5:06Speaker 04

  Okay, that's fair enough.

• 5:07Martin Lewis?

  Okay. Are you well otherwise, mate?

• 5:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, I'm well. Let me tell you about my stress dream I had the other day. I know people don't like talking about dreams, but I dreamt that I was walking through, I think it was like a shopping centre, someone came up to me and was like, I recognise your voice. Where have I heard your voice before? And I panicked and I woke up then, I think, or whatever. But I'm assuming.

• 5:23Martin Lewis?

  You should have bathed in the reflected glory. Anyway, shall we get on with some actual questions?

• 5:29Speaker 04

  Yeah, let's do it. I've got an email from Greg here. He sent it to [email protected]. He says, hello, Martin, Matt, no Martin, no Matt. I think he had a bit of a panic of who to address it to.

• 5:43Martin Lewis?

  Fine, your question's being read out. You're good. Don't worry, Greg.

• 5:46Speaker 04

  He says, I have a question on behalf of a friend of my wife's. She, the friend, split from her long time partner recently. They had separate bank accounts, but a joint account for bills, et cetera, which had an overdraft, overdraft facility. The account was at zero, but hadn't been closed and was still registered to the house that they shared where she still lives. Recently, she's noticed that the account has gone overdrawn with her ex spending money on his debit card. She repaid this, but before she could close the account or get herself removed, he spent more money to the extent that she doesn't have enough money to clear it. What can she do about this as the overdraft is obviously costing her per day? Can she get the bank to stop any future transactions from his card? She's panicking over this and initially the bank said there was nothing they could

• 6:29Speaker 04

  do as he has the right to use the account. However, it's quite clear he isn't going to contribute any money towards clearing the overdraft.

• 6:37Martin Lewis?

  This is not the first time I've heard of this scenario, and it is a very difficult scenario, and it's something that the Economic Abuse Charity looks into. Now, I'm not saying in this case, you know, because let's be plain, in some cases, economic abuse is a form of domestic abuse. That's not what we're saying in this case at all. But this has really serious repercussions on people, especially if they can't talk to their ex-partner. Now, the actual rule is, it depends on the bank account, I'm afraid to say. Some banks will allow one person to close a joint account, but then typically, that's where it is a want-to-sign joint account, while others require you both to complete a form and submit it. So the simplest thing is if there is still an amicable relationship, or at least

• 7:20Martin Lewis?

  a cordial relationship, between your friend and her ex-partner, that they should have the conversation, and they should agree some formula, and agree to close the account together. I'm suspecting from the way that you've written this, that is not going to happen. Now, you can usually remove yourself from a joint account without permission from the other party, but that's only if the account is in credit, so that's not going to work here. Which makes me think probably the strongest thing that she could ask to do at this point, and you're not going to like this, and I find it uncomfortable that I haven't got a better solution, is that she could ask for the account to be frozen. Now, that wouldn't deal with

• 7:58Martin Lewis?

  the existing debt, but it should stop more transactions. I think what she should do is she should call the bank again, tell them that she's feeling vulnerable in this situation because she's disempowered from her finances and doesn't know what to do, and would like to know if they have someone she can talk to about her options to try and extricate herself from this situation, which is not a good one, and what her rights are. If she feels she isn't being dealt with adequately, and she's notified the bank, then I'd do it as a formal complaint. I don't like what I'm saying, I just need to be honest. I don't like that I'm having to come up with this type. This type of solution, because it's not a solution. She needs to make a formal complaint and then take them to the ombudsman that she has not,

• 8:43Martin Lewis?

  they have not followed the computer, the consumer duty, that debt is being run up in her name, that she's asked them not to allow it to be run up. And it's continued to be run up after she has notified them. And I would put it as a consumer duty. I wish I had a stronger answer. I think, I'm sorry for doing it as a reflective lesson, because that really is no help to your friend whatsoever. But the reflective lesson is only have joint accounts with someone you absolutely trust and is there for the long term. And if it's not going to happen, then get yourself out of it before that you're splitting up. And just as an afterthought, you are hearing me right subtly. If she feels vulnerable or that she, her, the situation is being abused in this context,

• 9:27Martin Lewis?

  then being classed like that tends to give the bank more powers to act. Now, clearly, I'm not suggesting that anyone pretends they are being abused. Abuse is a very wide term. But clearly, this, her ex-partner is abusing financial trust by spending money and building up a debt. I presume she has asked him not to when they shouldn't be doing so. So the definitions are pretty difficult here. But I think it is a problem that we have with joint bank accounts. For me, it seems that you should have a unilateral right to close down a joint bank account, or at least remove yourself from the joint bank account, because in these type of eventualities. That doesn't mean that you, you abrogate responsibility for debts built up before you did so, because that's the nature of a joint bank account. But there should be a point where you could say, I don't want to be linked with this person in a bank anymore, and that should stop. And that you should have a right.

• 10:12Martin Lewis?

  But as far as I'm aware, you don't have a right. Although, the argument on this is that consumer duty that you now have, that they, that you could argue under the consumer duty, potentially, they should do it. But that's a tough one to fight. On the back of that question, I'm going to speak to the Economic Abuse Charity to see if they've got anything that I don't have, and I will cover it in a future week.

• 10:34Martin Lewis?

  Are you sitting there thinking, oh, I know what I wanted to ask him? Well, this is your opportunity. If you've got a question, then just send them in to [email protected]. And please do start them, Dear Martin.

• 10:48Speaker 04

  No, Dear Matt.

• 10:49Martin Lewis?

  Dear Martin.

• 10:50Speaker 04

  Dear Matt.

• 10:53Martin Lewis?

  Now, at that point, Matt, I think it's probably time that we went into a caller, surely?

• 10:57Speaker 04

  Let's do it. We've got Steve, he's in Devon. Hi, Steve.

• 11:01Speaker 05

  Hi, Matt. Hi, Martin.

• 11:02Martin Lewis?

  Hello, Steve.

• 11:04Speaker 05

  Hello, how are you?

• 11:05Martin Lewis?

  Very well, thank you very much. What can I do for you today?

• 11:10Speaker 05

  Yeah, well, thanks. Lovely to speak to you, Martin. Thanks for taking my call. My question's around direct debits and particularly the cancellation of them. So the background to this is that I set up a direct debit with an organisation back in September 23 and received confirmation, including direct debit guarantee that you'd expect. The final statement on a DD guarantee states that you can cancel a DD at any time by simply contacting your bank or building society. Written confirmation may be required. Please also notify us. So I'm in a situation where I've received a letter from an organisation after cancelling a DD at my bank and been informed that I'm in breach of their DD agreement and they intend to actively pursue the debt, which may include legal action. So my question really is this, what does please also notify us or any organisation

• 11:56Speaker 05

  actually mean when cancelling? What is meant by notify us? And when can and can't a consumer cancel a DD at the bank? And should this be ignored by the organisation?

• 12:06Martin Lewis?

  So you always have a legal right to cancel your direct debit with the bank. That's what the direct debit guarantee means. It's the same as if you dispute a payment, they should they should stop the payment and give you the dispute before talking to the other party. But that is totally separate from what is going on here. Right, so that literally means you have a right to tell the bank, don't pay these people. But in the same way, I'm going to try and do an analogy that I'm thinking of the top of my head. In the same way, if you went to a builder...

• 12:39Martin Lewis?

  And the builder came and did some building work on your house. And you chose not to tell your bank to pay the builder. You still have a dispute with the builder. And this is sort of a bit like that. So you can cancel your direct debit, you can stop the payment, you can not utilise the bank for making the payment. But if you have a contractual obligation with the firm that you were paying. And that they think you owe them money, then you still owe them money if they're right. I don't know whether they're right or not. And so this, where I would commonly say you have to be careful, for example, if you have a two year mobile phone contract that you're paying by direct debit, you're entitled to cancel the direct debit anytime you like, but you've still got a two year contract. And if you're in breach of your contract, you're in breach of your contract. And that's separate to the direct debit.

• 13:24Martin Lewis?

  I think that's what's going on here. Have I interpreted that right?

• 13:28Speaker 05

  Yes, that is right. Albeit that I can't really see a contract outside of the direct debit and the start date really, and an ongoing direct debit. But I guess.

• 13:36Martin Lewis?

  Are they providing, did they continue to provide you with the service after you cancelled the direct debit? Or had you not paid for a service you would already had before the direct debit?

• 13:46Speaker 05

  They, I cancelled the direct debit and stopped using their service. So I guess they would argue that I could have used it, but I wasn't using it.

• 13:56Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, they see, that's quite interesting because. So I think the way to philosophically think of this is there are two separate elements here. There's a contract and we can argue whether there's a written contract and what was in the contract or not. And there's a direct debit. And you've cancelled the direct debit, but you've not said to them, I'm not using your service anymore. Which is not a part of the direct debit, that's a part of the agreement that you have with them. So again, if we take the really simple analogy, you've got a window cleaner coming. And you decide, and you were paying your window cleaner by direct debit. And then you decide to cancel the direct debit, that's not the same as telling the window cleaner, I don't want you to come anymore. That's just the same as saying, I'm not going to pay you by direct debit anymore. And I think that's sort of what's going on here. Is it a lot of money that's outstanding?

• 14:41Speaker 05

  It's £114 and it's more the fact that the threat of legal action and obviously I don't want that hitting my credit report.

• 14:49Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, well, I think you should get back to them and say, I believe by cancelling the direct debit, I was cancelling your service. Clearly you don't believe that. Rather than this all stepping up, is there an accommodation we can come to that meets somewhere in the middle?

• 15:01Speaker 05

  Right, okay.

• 15:02Martin Lewis?

  But I'm giving you that, I just need to be really clear to protect myself and to protect you, I'm not a lawyer. And this, you know, you have a contractual dispute, you could go to a lawyer for that. Not sure you're going to want to for £140 quid or whatever it was. But, but my, and I haven't got the documents in front of me and all of that, I'm giving you the, you know, if, this is the, you ask a sensible friend in the pub answer, rather than anything more than that, if that, if you get what I'm trying to say. But I think there's an issue here that they think you had an ongoing relationship and you said, I'm not going to pay you through direct debit, that's not quite the same as I don't want your service anymore. And I suppose the lesson that we all learn from that is make sure you're clear with the provider that you've stopped using the service at the time.

• 15:42Speaker 05

  Okay, yeah, that makes sense.

• 15:43Martin Lewis?

  And especially because their argument would be, we've put in our notice to you that you need to notify us as well.

• 15:49Speaker 05

  Yes, correct, which I acknowledge, yeah, yeah, agreed, yeah, I understood. That's great, thanks for everything you do for everyone, Martin, great to speak to you.

• 15:56Martin Lewis?

  Cheers, buddy.

• 15:57Speaker 04

  Let's do one from Scott in North Finchley. He says, hey, Martin and curator of questions, can you update people on my new title, please? So when they email in, they'll...

• 16:08Martin Lewis?

  What is your new title?

• 16:09Speaker 04

  Proz...

• 16:10Martin Lewis?

  No, no, no.

• 16:12Speaker 04

  Is that a name?

• 16:13Martin Lewis?

  That's a name.

• 16:14Speaker 04

  Right.

• 16:15Martin Lewis?

  Your role on the show...

• 16:16Speaker 04

  Esquire?

• 16:17Martin Lewis?

  Your role on the show is you are the Prozenter.

• 16:18Speaker 04

  Prozenter.

• 16:19Martin Lewis?

  Your title is you are the curator of questions.

• 16:21Speaker 04

  And what about the Esquire?

• 16:22Martin Lewis?

  Slightly different. Esquire, Esquire was just me being, giving you an honorific, that's, that's not something you can claim as a regular.

• 16:28Speaker 04

  So curator of questions?

• 16:30Martin Lewis?

  Curator of questions is your role.

• 16:32Speaker 04

  Esquire.

• 16:33Martin Lewis?

  Your job is Prozenter.

• 16:34Speaker 04

  Right, okay. Anyway, let's get into Scott's question. He has emailed in, he says, my wife is pregnant, we found out, and I've started looking into everything going forward.

• 16:43Martin Lewis?

  Congratulations, can I just say? As a dad, it's one of the things that gives me most joy in my life. I hope everything goes well for both of you and it gives you much happiness too. Carry on.

• 16:54Speaker 04

  Oh, that's nice. He says, my question is regarding child benefit. I earn 45K and my wife earns 68K. Would I be able to claim child benefit for us or would her being over the 60K affect us both or only if she claimed?

• 17:08Martin Lewis?

  Okay, the good news is you will still benefit from child benefit. There is the high income child benefit tax charge that effectively recoups what you were given in child benefit if one of you is a higher earner. So your question's right. It isn't about your total earnings, slightly unjust system, I campaigned on it in the past, but I'm not going to go into that. It is about the highest earner's earnings. The threshold was put up a couple of years ago. So the way it now works is you net effectively start to lose child benefit if the highest earner earns over 60,000 and you lose all the benefit of child benefit if the highest earner earns over 80,000.

• 17:52Martin Lewis?

  Your wife is the highest earner, she earns 68,000 pounds, which is two fifths or 40% of the way through the child benefit threshold between the 60 and the 80. So she will lose 40% of the gain of child benefit. It's linear. So, but the key point is you will still gain from child benefit. So for every 10 pounds you're given in child benefit, you will gain six pounds as opposed to someone who earned less would gain the full 10 pounds. That's what I'm saying. So you still want to get child benefit. That's still absolutely worthwhile for you to do and you should claim it. The way you repay it, well, if your wife does self-assessment, then she will repay it through her self-assessment tax form. If she doesn't

• 18:34Martin Lewis?

  do self-assessment, she's PAYE, you can now request to have your tax code changed so that the amount that comes out of the payroll and PAYE actually takes into account the child benefit and re-claws back that little bit that you're going to have to claw back. But it is still a net gain for you both. As an aside, if you'd been saying, we earned 85,000, or your wife earned 85,000, should she claim it and I said there wouldn't be a gain, I would still be telling you to claim child benefit. And the reason for that is it is the claiming of child benefit that triggers the possibility that you get national insurance credits for childcare. And those national insurance credits for childcare go towards the combined national insurance credits that get you the state pension entitlements.

• 19:19Martin Lewis?

  If one of you were to stop working, or whoever's claiming stopped working... But they would still get the national insurance credits for childcare. But if you don't claim child benefit, that doesn't happen. So what you would do if you earned over 80,000, and I'm sorry, Scott, this isn't for you, but I'm generalising it for other people listening, then you would still want to claim it, but you'd claim it at the zero rate. So you claim child benefit, but say, pay me nothing. Then you don't have to have it clawed back, which is a little bit complicated. But hopefully you get through what I'm talking about. And as a further aside, so that's two aside, so it's an aside aside, it's probably an offside, but I'll carry on. If you have some, a grandparent or close relative who looks after your child unpaid for you while you're at work, because you're both working and therefore earning national insurance

• 20:01Martin Lewis?

  credit from work, you can generally, there is a scheme where you can transfer your national insurance childcare credit to them if they are looking after a child. You need to go and look it up. I'm not going to dot all the i's and cross all the t's on it for you. But it's just worth saying, we've had a lot of successes on that. And it's been that the grandparents who've been doing this, who might not have been working for the last few years of their life and weren't entitled to their full state pension, suddenly find that they're entitled to a few more years and that builds up and they get to the full state pension and it's worth thousands or tens of thousands of pounds. So that's just worth everybody having in the back of their head.

• 20:35Martin Lewis?

  So now, Matt, following our normal structure and format, you're going to read out a question you think is a fun one.

• 20:42Speaker 04

  I have a different question for you. It's not quite the funny, but it's not quite the normal one that you do. It's a caller.

• 20:48Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 20:49Speaker 04

  Tom is-

• 20:50Martin Lewis?

  It's not, it's not snakes versus bear again, or snakes versus dragon, is it?

• 20:53Speaker 04

  No, it's, it's fish versus, no, it's not. It's Tom in London. Hi, Tom.

• 20:57Speaker 00

  Hello.

• 20:58Martin Lewis?

  What can I do for you, Tom?

• 21:00Speaker 00

  So my question is, is, is a bit out there. So as much as we've probably got 20 odd years left of Martin Lewis, have you given any thought as to what might happen when the day comes that you decide you want to spend more time in your garden than, than on the telly or the radio? Is there someone else, is there someone else out there that's on the horizon or in the wings that you know of that would pick up the good work that you do?

• 21:25Martin Lewis?

  This is a really interesting question and it's something I have thought a lot about over the years. I don't know how long I've got left. It is quite hard keeping up on an update on everything. That's the really challenging thing. And also, social media can be quite a cesspit and it's quite nasty, if I'm honest. And sometimes, there are days I wake up, Tom, I'll be honest with you, and I think, why on earth do I bother? But anyway, that's not the point. So look, I actually went through this at the point that I sold Money Saving Expert. You'll know I'm still executive chair, I'm still in charge of strategy and content of the site and everything that goes on that. And at the time, some of the suits in the corporate were like, you know, where's our replacement person? And we went through a lot of talking

• 22:05Martin Lewis?

  about it. And I say this without self aggrandizement. I'm one of those people who happen to be right person, right place, right time, right situation. Right? Everything came, I started doing what I was doing just at the growth of the internet. I built a website in a way no one could ever build a website of that size now. You know, I only spent 80 quid on it. Now you'd need two million pounds of content advertising, because when I was starting out on Google, if you were top of natural search, you were top of the page. And these days, you know, there are 10 or 12 adverts ahead of you at top of the page in natural search, which means if you really want to get your message out there, you're going to have to pay for advertising. And you couldn't build a site in the same way under those circumstances as you could when I

• 22:49Martin Lewis?

  started. And I did it by word of mouth. And it was at the same time when I could say my website on television when I first started in a way I couldn't now. And all of that confluence, and I had come up with this whole new thing about giving answers rather than, you know, methods. And all of that was, I was, you know, very lucky, but happened to, everything flew together. And the difficulty when we've discussed succession planning, and what we would do, is I don't think that's recreatable, because, gosh, I don't want to sound horrible, but I'm going to try and be blunt. I'm the money person who's broken out of money. Yeah, so, and a lot of my television stuff, if I'm really honest with you, they tend not to be money slots, they're

• 23:32Martin Lewis?

  Martin Lewis money slots. And if I'm not there, they don't do them. Does that make sense?

• 23:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, absolutely. I think we need a Martin Lewis, don't we? I think that's the thing.

• 23:41Martin Lewis?

  But there wasn't one before me. There were different iterations. There was Watchdog and there was there was That's Life. And I'm not sure that a direct replica will happen. Because one of the things that I have that is different from another commentator is I've been there all that time and I'm a player rather than a commentator. As you'll know when I talk, you know, I've met this person, I asked for this, I've written that letter, I've done this. Rather than here's what's going on. And I think that's a difficult bit to replicate. So my suspicion is when I do have, I mean, listen. It would be great if there are other voices out there that could get the reach that I have. And they might come up in the next 10 and 15 years and I'll be wrong. And if they're doing the right thing and they're helping consumers, I will be patting them on the back and say, go for it. And it'll allow me to put my feet up, which I'd be quite happy with.

• 24:26Martin Lewis?

  But on the other hand, if not, I think that I will be replaced by a collection of people. And I think also the social media rage will probably throw up someone who does it in a different way. Who's the right person, right place, right time in their social media age for coming up and getting messages out in a different way to younger people. But I think it is unlikely, and I say this again without wanting to sound like a prat or self aggrandizing. I think it's unlikely there will be a direct replica. I think it will come in a different fashion, a different version, and it might be two or three people in different sectors. What do you think? What's your view?

• 24:59Speaker 00

  I think you're right. I think there will be, there's some very good social media educators on personal finance. There's lots of people out there, but I don't think, you know, like you say, I don't think there is one person. I just don't think there's anyone who's on a level. I don't think there's anyone out there that has the trust in the public like you do.

• 25:18Martin Lewis?

  No, well, that's, it's kind of you to say so. I think it is that reach and it is, it's the sort of 20 years of doing it and that mix of, you know. Someone said it to me the other day, the building the website, which says, I'm not just. Somebody employed, I actually, this was my passion and this is what I put together and I built this and we've still got that platform intermixed with everything else I do. It's very difficult and we certainly internally at M S E have never found a way to replicate in this and it's still me who's driving the content. It's still me who's coming, I dictate the editorial line, so I'm invested in it. So I, I think there will be different iterations and there will be someone, but in the way there wasn't me before, but there were other things and they were more curative and it was a different age. I think there will be something different that comes in future and I hope there will be anyway.

• 26:00Martin Lewis?

  And maybe, maybe I need to think in my retirement plan about how I bring along a whole host of young, new people who can talk about money in a way. And make sure that they understand from day one that you've got to have the ethics right.

• 26:09Speaker 00

  Yeah, and come with a Martin Lewis stamp of approval.

• 26:12Martin Lewis?

  Maybe so. There you go. You don't want the job, do you?

• 26:15Speaker 00

  No, no, I'm good.

• 26:16Martin Lewis?

  You sound like you're my age anyway, are you? I'm guessing.

• 26:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, I'm late thirties.

• 26:20Martin Lewis?

  Oh no, you're much younger than me. You're much younger. No.

• 26:23Speaker 04

  Ouch.

• 26:24Martin Lewis?

  I, Zach, you can't tell, you've, you had a very mature, rich tones. That was why. It was beautiful, rich tones. I'm digging myself. Thank you for your question. I hope I've answered it.

• 26:34Speaker 00

  You have. Thank you.

• 26:35Martin Lewis?

  Thank you. Cheers, mate. Appreciate it.

• 26:37Speaker 04

  Cheers, Tom.

• 26:37Speaker 00

  Bye bye.

• 26:40Martin Lewis?

  So I think we're on to final question type that. What's our last one?

• 26:43Speaker 04

  Final question has been emailed in, but this person wants to remain anonymous.

• 26:48Martin Lewis?

  Ooh. Well, we can call them, we can, we can make up their name for them. Eileen Dover?

• 26:54Speaker 04

  Inappropriate.

• 26:56Martin Lewis?

  No, it's not. I didn't mean it wasn't meant to be rude. Eileen Dover. It's a good name. Irma Saver?

• 27:02Speaker 04

  Oh, I like that one.

• 27:04Martin Lewis?

  Ann Onimus.

• 27:06Speaker 04

  Ann Onimus, yeah.

• 27:07Martin Lewis?

  Let's do that one. So this is Ann. This is Ann. You have a question from Ann Onimus. I hope it's not a difficult or sad question. I'm just hoping, I hope it's a nice fun one and I haven't just gone all, right.

• 27:18Speaker 04

  Don't worry.

• 27:19Martin Lewis?

  What is, what is Ann asking?

• 27:21Speaker 04

  Ann has a nice question. So she sold her property and she completes on the 30th of Jan. So she's already completed.

• 27:30Speaker 04

  However, she's got nowhere to go, so she's moving in with her daughter for a bit. So she says she's just wondering, what should she do with the proceeds of the sale, which is about £250,000? Okay. She says, I've already, I already have an account which has a balance of £87,000. I could put some in there to top it up to £115,000, but that would still leave me with more than the maximum the banks would guarantee in my current account. Should I open another savings or current account to put the money in? I'm looking to use the money to buy another property, but as yet I just haven't found one, so I need to have some advice as to what best to do with this large sum of money, which is easily accessible for when I purchase my next property.

• 28:09Martin Lewis?

  Perfect. Right. So, misere anonymous. My, my answer to you is you, you have clearly defined that we need to be talking about savings here, because you need this money readily accessible at any time you want in the near future for you to use that money to buy a house. So we're not talking the investment category that this is money for longer term use and it's money that you will need. The first thing I don't like, and I can tell you, I like you being anonymous because I can tell you off. And I don't like you saying I already have an account. I mean, this is about, you have a real amount of money, £250,000. We need to make sure that while you are temporary custodian of it as cash, it is in a safe place earning you the maximum amount of interest possible.

• 28:51Martin Lewis?

  And now you're slight close on the protection, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme Protection for Money in Deposit Savings Account has gone up to £120,000 per person per financial institution. Actually, as you've got money from the sale and completion of a house, you are actually covered by the lifetime event rule that says you're covered for up to £1.4 million per financial institution, per person for six months. But still, because we don't know whether you're going to do this for six months, I would, I would be looking at this and going, you got, you have a total of, so you've already got the capital, you've got your sale proceeds, so you have a total of £360,000. Well, that's three accounts.

• 29:34Martin Lewis?

  And when I say accounts, it's actually three separate financial institutions. And now if we're talking 10, it starts to get quite difficult to get a good rate, but when you're talking three, there are lots of decent rates out there. You could put some in an easy access cash ISA, like Trading 212. You can only put 20 grand in there, but that's tax free because you're going to be paying tax on this interest because of the amount that you've got. So you want to protect as much as you can from tax. I don't know if you have a partner. I'm pausing because I'm trying to think of a good name for an onimus's partner. Ollie. Okay, so if Ollie, Ollie onimus.

• 30:07Martin Lewis?

  I don't know if that makes any sense, but I enjoy myself. So if you have a partner, then you could give them, and you have a trusted relationship, depending on the lines of what we talked about earlier, then you could give them £20,000 to go into their cash ISA and use their cash ISA allowance too. But in general, you're looking at probably the top three easy access savings accounts. You should be earning over 4% in them. You've got the likes of Chase, which is paying newbies and is owned by JP Morgan, so a giant American bank, which should give you some peace of mind. You could put £120,000 in there at 4.5% interest.

• 30:43Martin Lewis?

  Others that are payers, high payers at the moment, you've got West Brom Building Society at 4.15%. Shawbrook, Spring, part of Paragon Bank, all of those are protected up to £120,000 per person, per financial institution. Now, just to say, I'm giving you a list of example accounts, but the best accounts change every day. So you need to go on to a trusted website where you can find a list of top savings accounts and look at what the top payers are. They should all be UK regulated if it's a decent website. So don't keep it sitting in a current account. Current accounts don't pay you very much interest on large amounts of money. You want to get these in savings accounts with financial institutions that are fully UK regulated. And you'll probably want to have it in three different accounts. It's not that difficult, it's easy access.

• 31:25Martin Lewis?

  And on that, then with what, £360,000 at 4% interest, you're talking, you know, if you had it in there for a year while you're waiting, you're talking an extra 12 grand, ignoring tax roughly, of interest that you would have on top. And that is not worth sniffing at. Keep it in a current account, you're going to get zero grand. So that is an improvement of 12 grands, my maths is good. And I hope that gives you an idea. But basically, simple answer, three different institutions, top savings account, maximise your interest, leave it sitting in there until you need it, which will hopefully you'll be accessing the money at some time in the next six months or a year is the impression I'm getting.

• 31:59Martin 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 each Monday alongside the Podcast with Adrian on Thursdays. Aren't you lucky? Two doses of money-saving tips and tricks a week. Do make sure you send in any questions you have. Just email [email protected] and address it to Dear Martin.

• 32:39Speaker 06

  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.

• 33:15Speaker 07

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• 34:00Speaker 07

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• 34:30Speaker 08

  Welcome to The Haunted Library.

• 34:34Speaker 08

  Join me, Colin Morgan, as I read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. A story of science and ambition, loneliness and longing, and what it truly means to be human.

• 34:50Speaker 08

  Listen to The Haunted Library wherever you get your podcasts, or find us on YouTube.