Question Time: Am I due car finance payback? 9-year-old learns about interest! If my bank overpays me, can I keep it?

In our Question Time podcast, Martin Lewis answers your questions including: is my car finance agreement covered by the mis-selling redress scheme? Can my partner and I couple up to maximise cashback offers? I’ve told Monzo its overpaid me but it’s done nothing, can I keep the money? What can I do about a retailer that displays the wrong returns info online? Plus, we have a lovely success story involving a 9-year-old who’s doing jobs for her parents for pocket money! If you want to ask Martin a question, his Question Time podcast lets you do just that! You can ask him questions about absolutely anything and everything (within reason!) – so if you’ve always wanted to know which chocolate he prefers, how many sudokus he can solve in a day, 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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• 0:05Speaker 01

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• 0:16Speaker 02

  It's one of the first times really that you consistently see someone painting teeth. I know that sounds bonkers. If I was going to define mathematics, I would say it's the study of structure.

• 0:24Speaker 01

  As I was doing the research for the programme, my jaw just dropped further and further down. In Our Time is a world-class seminar every week. Watch the discussions unfold and explore over a thousand conversations in our archive. I'm Nisha Glennie and every week I'm joined by expert guests to explore the ideas that shape our world. In Our Time. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 0:54Speaker 01

  Coffee?

• 0:55Speaker 03

  Love a cup of tea. I'll have tea too.

• 0:57Speaker 01

  Tea for me, please.

• 1:04Martin Lewis?

  The name's Bond. Bank and building society, Bond. Licensed to save. We're going to hear exactly how it works sometime this month.

• 1:12Speaker 05

  The following day, there was a penny, which seems so insignificant to this little person. It was a free penny.

• 1:18Speaker 00

  Do I just leave it as it is or are they going to come clawing the money back in a few months' time?

• 1:21Martin Lewis?

  Hello and welcome to the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. 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. In this week's pod, you ask me, is my car finance agreement covered by the Misselling redress scheme? Can my partner and I couple up to ramp cash back offers? I've told Monzo it's overpaid me, it's done nothing. Do I get to keep the money? What can I do about a retailer that keeps displaying the wrong returns info online? And we've got a lovely success story involving a nine-year-old doing jobs for money. And a bit of singing too, not from me, don't worry. Play the theme tune.

• 2:18Martin Lewis?

  Welcome to our Question Time edition of the podcast where you can ask me anything and everything you like. Here's the brackets, within reason, close brackets. And of course, joining me and putting the whole thing together is the one, the only, the curator of questions, Professor Sir Matthew Burnham Esquire.

• 2:40Speaker 06

  Boo boo boo. I'll do it for myself.

• 2:43Martin Lewis?

  You didn't notice.

• 2:44Speaker 06

  You missed out doctor.

• 2:45Martin Lewis?

  I did miss out doctor.

• 2:46Speaker 06

  Oh, I noticed straight away.

• 2:48Martin Lewis?

  Okay, do you know why I missed out doctor?

• 2:50Speaker 06

  Oh, go on.

• 2:52Martin Lewis?

  What did you forget to bring to the studio that's causing you more difficulties in your production?

• 2:55Speaker 06

  I knew you'd mention this. So I left my laptop at home.

• 2:58Martin Lewis?

  Mm-hmm. And you've been fiddling around and been a little bit not quite sure where you're going because of that.

• 3:03Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah.

• 3:04Martin Lewis?

  The whole production's a little bit less, little bit less efficient.

• 3:06Speaker 06

  I know.

• 3:07Martin Lewis?

  So I'm afraid I didn't feel you could have your doctor in your title this week.

• 3:10Speaker 06

  My honorary doctorate has been revoked.

• 3:13Martin Lewis?

  You've kept your honorary professorship, you've kept your honorary knighthood and your honorary esquire-ness. And just to clarify for everyone listening, they are all honorary, none of them are real titles.

• 3:23Speaker 06

  No, I wish they were.

• 3:24Martin Lewis?

  They are titles within, within the canon of this podcast. That's, that's quite a good way to phrase it.

• 3:30Speaker 06

  Yeah, it is. Quite a nerdy way to phrase it as well.

• 3:32Martin Lewis?

  Well, it's also within the canon of this podcast, a nerdy way to phrase it. Now, I know what many listeners were waiting here is for any updates on the suggested name for people who have contacted and either get read out or call up the show. Have we had any suggestions in?

• 3:48Speaker 06

  Loads.

• 3:49Martin Lewis?

  Yes.

• 3:50Speaker 06

  Loads.

• 3:51Martin Lewis?

  Okay, give me them, give me them. I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you my instant reaction. I promise, I haven't heard any of these before. I'm gonna do this live on air. Or should, no, I tell you what, we're a proper podcast who's meant to be doing serious stuff. We're gonna save this till the end.

• 4:03Speaker 06

  Oh, are you sure? Do you want one now?

• 4:05Martin Lewis?

  All right, one.

• 4:06Speaker 06

  One, okay. So we've got Kiara, she says Savvy Sallys.

• 4:11Martin Lewis?

  Ooh.

• 4:13Speaker 06

  She's also given a few others. Budget conscious questioners.

• 4:15Martin Lewis?

  B C, B C Q.

• 4:17Speaker 06

  B C Q. The brilliant budget, brilliant budget conscious BBCs.

• 4:21Martin Lewis?

  Oh, yeah, no, not doing BBCs.

• 4:23Speaker 06

  No, spreadsheeters.

• 4:25Martin Lewis?

  I like spreadsheets, put that one on the spreadsheet.

• 4:27Speaker 06

  Okay, or inquisitive money-saving experts. I don't think we can use that one.

• 4:31Martin Lewis?

  No, we can't, there's trademark issues and all types of compliance, cross-promotional issues that go on with that. Go back to the first, Savvy Sally is very interesting.

• 4:37Speaker 06

  Savvy Sallys.

• 4:38Martin Lewis?

  I'll tell you why Savvy Sally is very interesting, because, again, regular listeners, and so we're going very niche, will know about Rosie, who works for me on the podcast. Well, Rosie is here this week, but because Rosie isn't going to be here next week, the wonderful Sally is going to be filling in for Rosie, and Sally is actually in the studio with me, and you've just suggested Savvy Sally, which does put it quite high up the list.

• 4:58Speaker 06

  Yeah, so we've got our own Sally.

• 5:00Martin Lewis?

  Sally, give me another a shake, whether you think it should be Savvy, Sally is supporting Savvy Sallys, but she's biased, so I'm not sure I'm going to take any notice of that, frankly. So, right, we're going to do the rest of those at the end of the pod. Shall we start with a proper question?

• 5:12Speaker 06

  Let's do a proper one.

• 5:13Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 5:16Martin Lewis?

  Matt, what's your first question for me, and who's it from?

• 5:18Speaker 06

  First, this one is from Margaret. She's emailed it in, [email protected]. She says, hello.

• 5:25Martin Lewis?

  Hello.

• 5:25Speaker 06

  No, no Martin or Matt, just hello.

• 5:27Martin Lewis?

  That's fine, she says hello, it's politeness.

• 5:29Speaker 06

  It's polite.

• 5:29Martin Lewis?

  Hello, Margaret.

• 5:30Speaker 06

  I have had several new Ford cars over a number of years, and have always used Ford Finance on a fixed-term contract, which gives me the choice of changing my car to another new Ford car during or at the end of the agreed term, keeping my car or giving it back. Does this type of contract, using Ford Credit, fall into the car finance redress scheme?

• 5:51Martin Lewis?

  Probably, is my answer. It sounds to me like it's Ford Options, which is a sort of PCP or HP agreement, depending on how they've worked it, and the two types of agreement that are covered under car finance redress are personal contract payments and hire purchase, PCP and HP. So, if it's what I think it is, and obviously I can't go any further than if it's what I think it is, to my ears, it sounds like it should be covered. And let's remember, there are up to 14 million agreements that are likely to be a typical £700 car finance payout, and we are going to hear the regulator's redress scheme, we're going to hear exactly how it works sometime this month, sometime in March. Now, when they

• 6:35Martin Lewis?

  say, "We will do this in March", it could last until Tuesday the 31st. I mean, they could be doing this at 5 o'clock on Tuesday the 31st, and I wouldn't be surprised, or maybe the Monday before, unlikely this Friday, but possible this Friday. And that's how these things tend to work. So what's this all about? Well, this is the fact that in three different ways, people, the regulator believes people may have been mis-sold car finance. Those three different ways, in a nutshell, the big one is what's called discretionary commission arrangements, DCAs. That's where the interest you paid was increased to pay the dealer or broker an extra commission. Now, they were banned on the 28th of January 2021, so that is only for agreements before that.

• 7:19Martin Lewis?

  The other two types can be for agreements after that, which is contractual ties, basically where a broker didn't tell you it was working primarily with one lender. So an example would be, yeah, we're going to put this to a panel of lenders, but they then only went to one lender. That lender wanted your business, so they only told you about that lender's business. And the other one is literally based on the rates of the commission. If the commission was above a certain level, it's deemed as unfairly high. Now, the most important thing you need to understand on all this, and the counterlogical thing, and the thing that confuses people, is there is no way to know if you were mis-sold without complaining. So to know if you have a complaint, you have to complain, which is, and I don't know, I

• 8:03Martin Lewis?

  can't tell you, because, you know, this is probably 40, 45% of car finance agreements, but the whole point is it wasn't disclosed, you just don't know. So you have to put in a complaint, and you can do that free. There are free tools online that will do this for you. You don't need to be going paying anybody to do it if you're going to go through the regulator's redress scheme. If you wanted to go to court, you'd probably want to pay somebody, and therefore you can do it yourself. So let's just go through the are you likely impacted checklist? This is for motor vehicle finance, so that's cars, vans, motorbikes, camper vans, but not caravans, because they don't have a motor. The eligible dates is any finance agreement from the 6th of April 2007 until the 1st of November 2024 is the last date.

• 8:45Martin Lewis?

  But I need to be honest, you are far more likely to have been mis-sold if it wasn't in the last few years, because they were improving their behaviours in those last few years. Although you could have been, but it is less likely. The finance types, as I've already mentioned, are PCP and HP if you leased a car that is not covered in this. Now, this is primarily for vehicles for personal use, although if you're a sole trader or a small partnership there and you got it for work, it could be covered if the finance is under 25 grand. If you've paid the vehicle off or you no longer own the vehicle, irrelevant. You could still have a claim. This was about the finance agreement you took being mis-sold to you. Whether you still have the car or not, whether you still have the agreement or not is irrelevant. If you were mis-sold, you were mis-sold.

• 9:31Martin Lewis?

  If the owner has passed away, then the primary beneficiary of the estate or the executor of the estate can claim on their behalf. And if you had multiple eligible car finance deals with the same firm, you can claim. If you had multiple eligible car finance deals with different firms, you can claim. But then each one would need to be a separate complaint because you're going to different firms. And the reason you want to get the complaint in, and I've done lots about this and I will be doing more when the announcement comes out. The reason I'd suggest you complain is this. While under this mass redress scheme from the regulator, firms will be tasked with trying to find everybody who had car finance and was mis-sold and getting in touch with them. It is going to be far quicker to get your payout if you've complained.

• 10:16Martin Lewis?

  They will definitely know your address and be able to track you if you've complained as opposed to if they're trying to track you and you've moved house and they can't contact you. And also, they may not have details of old finance agreements, but you may have those details. And therefore, it's best to complain and get that in touch. And there is a new tool on the Equifax app. It should always be free if you're paying and you haven't set it up right, which can try and find old car finance agreements back to 2007 for you. So hopefully that gives you a start. There are some great guides online where you can go through this in detail and free tools available. But that who is eligible. I turned what was a relatively short question into a very long answer there. Yes, you did. Maybe I was trying to broaden it for everybody listening. Hopefully it makes sense. And we'll know, we'll know way more detail within weeks. And then this is all going to start.

• 11:01Martin Lewis?

  And it's for those who've complained, you will hopefully get your payout within 2026. If you haven't complained, unlikely in 2026, probably sometime in 2027 if they're trying to find you.

• 11:15Martin Lewis?

  So Matt, we move from car finance into a caller, I am guessing, who do you have for me?

• 11:21Speaker 06

  Into a caller with a success. Julie in Cheshire. Hi Julie.

• 11:27Speaker 05

  Hi Matt.

• 11:28Martin Lewis?

  Hello Julie. Whereabouts in Cheshire? As a Cheshire man, whereabouts are you? Which part?

• 11:34Speaker 05

  I'm in Froddham.

• 11:36Martin Lewis?

  Oh, oh now, that we're already doing very well. I know Froddham very well. When I was growing up, Froddham was a village. I think it's a town now.

• 11:45Speaker 05

  It is, we're a market town.

• 11:47Martin Lewis?

  It used to have the widest village street, I think was the widest village street in the UK. Because I grew up about six, seven miles away from Froddham, which is not very far when you live in that part of the world. I was in Delamere Forest, so I was very near you. Yeah, very near you.

• 12:03Speaker 05

  Yeah, we've been up to Delamere a number of times. It's beautiful.

• 12:06Martin Lewis?

  Right, so it's lovely to have you on. What did we do? What's the success?

• 12:11Speaker 05

  Well, I thought I would tell you about my success with my little girl and changing the way we look at money, I suppose. So I grew up in quite a deprived household, so money was a big issue for us. And I was explaining to Matt some of your stories hit home quite hard for me. It means I've got a bit of a difficult relationship with money. I still check pounds per pence when I, you know, go and pick butter up in the market and I don't need to do that anymore. So it was quite important.

• 12:45Martin Lewis?

  That's not, I think that's not a bad relationship with money. I still do it too and I don't need to do it either. I think there's something, there's something about keeping your wits about you. There's a difference between you can afford it and you don't want to be ripped off.

• 13:01Speaker 05

  Yeah, that, yeah, I think that's fair. I think I find it a little bit controlling, I suppose. But I don't want my children to have that opinion. And but in the same respect, they're growing up in a very different world to me. So I don't want them to think that money's no issue either, which is easy done when, you know, everything kind of gets paid for you. So we've always given the children...

• 13:24Speaker 05

  You know, a bit of spend if they do the part, so if they're helping out, but it's always been a bit haphazard. So this year, um, we decided to give our nine year old some chores and said to her, right, if you do all your chores each day, you can earn a pound. If you've completed all of your chores all week, we will up that to ten pounds. So we'll give you the extra three pounds, but you've got to do them every day consistently. Um, so she's like, okay, well, you know, not really understanding money properly, I suppose. Um, so we'll give this a go. By the Sunday and we made a set and topped a cha-cha and so on. It's like, right, well, there's your seven pounds and actually you'll get these three pounds for free. Basically just for doing your job, bit like a brucy bonus, I suppose.

• 14:07Martin Lewis?

  Bonus for good work, yeah. It's a performance related bonus. I love it.

• 14:11Speaker 05

  Direct, correct. Yeah. So, um, so, so this went on for a couple of weeks, but she listens to your podcast in the car with me all the time.

• 14:20Speaker 05

  It is quite fun. Obviously a lot of the topics, Neve.

• 14:23Martin Lewis?

  Neve. Hello, Neve.

• 14:26Speaker 05

  Oh my God, she will explode.

• 14:30Speaker 05

  Um, so she, she listens to the podcast and obviously a lot of the topics go over her head, but, um, we, we were listening to one on interest specifically. And he was like, mommy, what is interest? And I was like, ah, how do I even begin to explain this?

• 14:43Martin Lewis?

  Fascinating question for parents. What did you say? I want to know.

• 14:47Speaker 05

  So what, what I said to her is it's, it's kind of, it's money that the bank gives to you because you're letting them look after your money. I was like, it's quite a difficult one. And, and the, the money that they give you depends on how much money you have in your bank at any one time. She's like, well, I don't. She has got a bank, but as far as she's concerned, she's like, well, I don't have a bank. My money all goes in my pot. I've got a pot full of pennies that, that adds up. So well. What we'll do, we'll open you a bank. So I've been listening to the podcast and, and about all the different children savers and so on. Um. And we do have an ISA for her. We've got an ISA for both our girls.

• 15:23Martin Lewis?

  Can I just tell you, I have such a big smile on my face. Please carry on.

• 15:28Speaker 05

  So we we've got another daughter, my eldest daughter, Robyn, um she's she works and she's got her own bank and she deals with her own money now. Um but we we said to her, we'll open your bank. So we opened a Revolut account, which has a reasonable interest savings account attached into it as well. Um but they pay.

• 15:47Martin Lewis?

  It's about three percent, isn't it?

• 15:48Speaker 05

  Yeah, three percent, yeah. Um but they pay their interest daily.

• 15:52Martin Lewis?

  Nice.

• 15:53Speaker 05

  So um so we put in some birthday money that she'd had, put all the pennies together and cashed them all up. And I took the pennies and gave her the cash. And I've got to deal with the pennies, the battle of pennies.

• 16:05Martin Lewis?

  Oh, someone in the supermarket is gonna love you.

• 16:07Speaker 05

  Oh, I know, I know. I'm not sure I'm gonna love it. But anyway, um so we we put all the money into her bank and there was just short of a couple of hundred pounds once we'd totted it all up and put it all in for her. Um and she's like, well, what happens now? When do I get this interest? I thought, well, it doesn't quite happen immediately, but let's, you know, see over the next couple of days. So there's an app that comes with a Revolut account. And when we logged in the the following day, there was a penny, one penny, which seems so insignificant to to grownups, but to this little person, it was a free penny, a penny that she didn't have yesterday.

• 16:42Martin Lewis?

  And not given by mummy and daddy, and given by the bank, given by someone else. Yeah, she earned it.

• 16:48Speaker 05

  Yeah. So by the following week, she tipped over. Um and she got poopy. It was like a revelation. But now it's just gonna sit there making her extra money. And she doesn't have to wash any pots for it.

• 17:03Martin Lewis?

  That's brilliant. And let me give Neve a couple of tips from me. I'll tell you how I would describe interest. I would say interest is the price of money, which sounds very strange. But this is what happens when you save. In a bank or a savings account, you're actually giving them your money and you're allowing them to use it as they want to use it while they're holding on to it. And they can use it to make money. They can use it to lend to people. They can use it to invest in companies and all of those things make them money. But they're making money on your money, so they have to pay you because that you are allowing them to use your money while they look after it for you.

• 17:48Martin Lewis?

  That's where the interest comes from. That's the price that they have to pay to use your money. And interestingly, there's another thing we talk about that's called debt. And that's where you owe someone money, which is almost exactly the same thing, just the other way around. That's where you go to your bank and you say to them, I need some money to buy something. Can you give it to me? Can you lend it to me? And when they lend it to you, they then charge you

• 18:19Martin Lewis?

  because you get to use their money. But here's the difference. Normally, when we give our money to the bank, they meant give us three or four percent, and I'll leave your mummy and daddy to talk about percents to you. But when the bank gives us money, it will charge us eighteen or nineteen percent. So you are always far better to save up for something that you want rather than to have to borrow it in advance. And you won't be able to borrow now, you're way too young, but this is a good thing to learn when you're older. And one thing you could practise now is instead of when you have your money and you're doing brilliantly, putting it all in the bank, I think it's absolutely fantastic. But when you have your money in the bank, you always have two choices. You can buy lots of little things with it, but then it doesn't grow. Or you could have an idea of a big thing you want to get later, something that'll be really exciting.

• 19:04Martin Lewis?

  And you keep it in there and you have your money and you have the money given to you by the bank and then you get to have the big thing quicker. I think Neve, it sounds like you're doing absolutely brilliantly. Well done. And thank you for listening to the podcast. You are probably our youngest regular listener. Sorry, I was talking to your daughter, not to you there, Julie.

• 19:21Speaker 05

  No, she loves it. She absolutely loves it. And she loves the theme tune. She sings the theme tune for us as well.

• 19:27Martin Lewis?

  Does she? Can we hear her sing the theme tune?

• 19:29Speaker 07

  I got this.

• 19:31Martin Lewis?

  Oh, you got it?

• 19:32Speaker 07

  I gotta pay, so I go work, work, work every day. I got mouths. I got mouths. I gotta feed, so I'm gonna make sure everybody eats.

• 19:45Martin Lewis?

  Oh, that was fantastic. I didn't know you had it. That's wonderful. Matt, was that you playing it in? How did that just work?

• 19:52Speaker 06

  It's magic. It's the magic of the podcast.

• 19:54Martin Lewis?

  Okay, that's, that's two producer points for you there, Matt.

• 19:57Speaker 06

  Thank you very much.

• 19:58Martin Lewis?

  Two. Oh, Julie, thank you so much for calling. What a lovely feel-good way, be it just with, in the run-up to Easter. That's absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much. And please, send my best wishes to your brilliant daughter. Daughters.

• 20:10Speaker 05

  I will do. Thank you so much for your time. I do appreciate it.

• 20:14Martin Lewis?

  That's a pleasure. Thank you for calling. We love that story. Thank you so much. But we're gonna have to put it out as a challenge now. Do we have any younger regular listeners than nine? We would love to know. Do get in touch, [email protected]. Thanks, Julie.

• 20:28Speaker 05

  Thanks, guys. Bye.

• 20:29Martin Lewis?

  Thanks. Now, just one quick note on that. A lot of that whole idea about giving pocket money of pay is something I've talked about before, because financial education is a big thing. And obviously, as adults, we have to go out to work mainly in order to get money. And I think the idea of pocket money of pay enables children to start to understand that sense, and gives them a sense of the value of money. You know, if I've spent half an hour to get this pound, half an hour doing whatever it is, tidying up the kitchen table, whatever you've chosen them to do, that starts to breed that understanding of the value of money much more quickly and getting it as a concept. And I think it works well. The really big question, and I'll leave it up to you, is do you reward them for doing things that they're supposed to do anyway, such as tidying your bedroom?

• 21:11Martin Lewis?

  Do you get paid for tidying your bedroom? Or is that your own responsibility? The choice is up to you as parents. It's an interesting one, though.

• 21:20Martin Lewis?

  Matt, I don't know if we can top that, so let's just do a question.

• 21:23Speaker 06

  Okay, a good one, though. Honestly, it was so good. A good one from Ben in Manchester. Martin, Buenas tardes, he starts.

• 21:33Martin Lewis?

  Buenas tardes.

• 21:34Speaker 06

  Martin and Co. Q. Matt?

• 21:36Martin Lewis?

  Fine, right.

• 21:37Speaker 06

  I have a question for the pod.

• 21:38Martin Lewis?

  Curator of questions, curator of questions.

• 21:39Speaker 06

  Yes, not the other thing. Um, I have a question for the pod, I was hoping you could answer. I've just signed up for the Lloyds Ultra credit card to get the 1% cash back for the first year. And there's an option to add a second cardholder. If I add my partner as a cardholder to my account, would they be able to set up their own Lloyds Ultra credit card in a year's time and add me as a cardholder to their account? I basically want to maximise the 1% cash back on my card this year and then next year we can have another 1% cash back on their account. Would that be a legit way to maximise the 1% cash back for two years on two different cards? Thanks for all your help over the years. I made over a thousand pound last year switching banks with a burner account, which will be a

• 22:22Speaker 06

  nice bonus towards our Spanish wedding later this year.

• 22:25Martin Lewis?

  Ah, well, first of all, congratulations on your wedding to come, Ben, and to your fiance. How brilliant for the two of you. Okay, so, yes, theoretically absolutely the right thing to do. If you are in a trusting relationship, and that's very important, and clearly you're about to get married, so you're in a good place, I hate to be the one to say it, but not all relationships always work through financially in the right way for people. So it is something, once you start to link your finances, you need to take that as a very clear decision that you're both understanding. Because especially with a credit card, there's no such thing as a joint credit card. Your, your, your partner would be the second cardholder.

• 23:08Martin Lewis?

  Everything spent on that card is legally your debt, not their debt. There is no, and I've been asked this question, you know, I'm not saying it's going to happen to you at all, you've got a marriage coming up, it's all going to be wonderful, but let's, we have to do this properly. I've been asked the question many times, you know, my partner's just spent this on, or my ex-partner spent this on the second credit card, it's their debt, do I have to pay it? Yes, it's your debt. That's the law, that's how it works. So you need to be very aware of that. With those caveats done, let's assume everything, I hope, is all rosy, wonderful, and you're both happy with it, at which point... Absolutely. When you have a limited period offer on a credit card like a 1% cash back or similar, you've got the Amex Everyday Card, which is similar. There you get 5% cash

• 23:51Martin Lewis?

  back for the first five months. It's currently boosted up to that. It's tiered rates afterwards. It's only for higher spenders because you've got to spend, I think it's a minimum £3,000 on the card in order to get any form of cash back on it, but that's the whole point. One of you getting it, putting the other as a second cardholder to use up that time period, and then when it ends, the other one of you getting it and swapping it the other way around is long been a strategy I've advocated. The only issue with the Lloyds card is, of course, there is a chance that in a year's time, they may no longer have that offer. So on the Lloyds card, you get 1% cash back on all spending for a year. You also get it in the UK and abroad. It also gives you near perfect exchange rates. So it is for those who aren't in debt and don't want debt because you're going to pay the card off in full

• 24:37Martin Lewis?

  every month to make sure there's no interest. It is one of the top pick cards for spending UK and abroad. And it's easy because you can have one card that you do both in the UK and abroad, set up your direct debit to repay it in full. But there is, of course, a chance it won't be around for your partner in a year. But that isn't actually any risk. You've lost nothing. You might have lost a slight bit of convenience that you could both have a card each rather than having a second cardholder. But still, if you're working your finances together, it doesn't matter. You'll get at least one year, 1% on it. And if it isn't around in a year, you've lost nothing. So you may as well give it again. Would be my answer. With all the caveats, we talked on the pod with Adrian recently about financial abuse and economic abuse as part of domestic abuse, which is why I'm very mindful on a question like this, that I have to put those caveats in, though I hope in your circumstances, it's all irrelevant. Thank you for your question, Ben.

• 25:23Martin Lewis?

  So Matt, I don't know why I make it like I'm some great enormous clairvoyant because I can predict what you're going to do because we do have a format. That means it's a caller.

• 25:31Speaker 06

  It is a caller.

• 25:32Martin Lewis?

  Obviously.

• 25:32Speaker 06

  Obviously.

• 25:33Martin Lewis?

  But hey, I'll take the question. I knew it. I knew it. Every time.

• 25:38Speaker 06

  It's Anthony in Devon, and he should be there. Hi, Anthony.

• 25:42Speaker 00

  Hello, hello Martin, hello Matt.

• 25:44Martin Lewis?

  Nice, well done, correct order, thank you. And the way you said it, Anthony, I know you had thought about what you were going to do there and making it the correct order, the Martin then the Matt, am I right?

• 25:55Speaker 00

  Absolutely, yes.

• 25:56Martin Lewis?

  Good, yes.

• 25:57Speaker 00

  Boo.

• 25:58Martin Lewis?

  No, regular listener, Matt, we never boo, a regular listener, if somebody knows about our entire who goes first, Martin or Matt, then they're a regular listener and we should be applauding them, hooray. Especially if you got it right. So Anthony, what can I do for you?

• 26:12Speaker 00

  So I've got a question relating to cash back. Now, I bank with Monzo, have done for many years, was one of their first customers and was given kind of early access to their original products in exchange for giving kind of constructive feedback on their services and their tech. And one of those things was, you know, when you get a transaction appear on your app, there's a little logo for the retailer next to it and things like that that'd be wrong, you kind of iron them out. And...

• 26:42Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, you're almost product testing to them, volunteer product testing.

• 26:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, so that's basically an example. Our local mechanic, who we've been using for years, has a very similar name and the initials of the owner to a well-known high street retailer. So when I went and got my MOT or whatever, the logo for the retailer would incorrectly appear next to the transaction for our local mechanic. So I fed that back maybe half a dozen times. And they're a much bigger bank now, so they haven't really got time to sort out little things like that. So it's not really changed.

• 27:18Martin Lewis?

  So I'm getting this is, you know, there's a WH Smyth near a WH Smith type thing, is that what we're talking?

• 27:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, kind of like that, which is absolutely fine, you know, these things happen, it's an independent garage. Until a few months ago, Monzo started offering cash back at the well-known high street retailer.

• 27:37Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 27:38Speaker 00

  We shop there anyway, my wife and I, and we're happy to... You know, to to get the cash back from there, we're not going out of our way to spend there. Um. But what we did notice is that when we went to get our servicing done or repair or new tyre, cash back would also be added to the transaction for the local mechanic. And I would say over the last few months, and we've got two cars within our family. So once you add up MOT, servicing, repairs, breakdowns, new wipers, et cetera, we've probably gained about fifty or sixty pounds in cash back just for those transactions.

• 28:13Martin Lewis?

  Fascinating.

• 28:13Speaker 00

  So my question really is, what do we do? Do I keep telling Monzo of their mistake? Is it down to them? Um. Do I just leave it as it is? Or are they going to come clawing the money back in a few months' time, once they realise what they've done?

• 28:27Martin Lewis?

  Clearly, I don't know, is the honest answer, because this is a one-off situation. You have done the right thing because you've notified them that they are giving you the cash back in error and they have not rectified their error. That in itself does not stop them coming back in future and clawing the money back, although I think it would be somewhat disingenuous if they did, because you've notified them and this is their fault. My instinct, and it's only instinct, and um, I I sometimes say this on on Question Time, um, maybe rather than considering I have any expertise in this, I would consider me, you know,

• 29:06Martin Lewis?

  your mate in the pub who's generally quite good with these issues, and I'm going to give you an answer in that tone, rather than the this is what you should be doing tone, because it's simply, it's not a precedent I've seen. I would contact them one more time. I would say, I am formally notifying you that you are making a mistake in this cash back categorisation. I would like you to formally acknowledge receipt of this. If you are going to want to claw it back, please do it now. If you don't respond to this, I will consider this money to be mine and incapable, you incapable of in clawing it back in future as I have notified for you, and therefore I feel I am perfectly entitled to spend it.

• 29:47Martin Lewis?

  And I would give them that, and I would put on that, you know, I I would need a response within twenty eight days, or or give them some timing, so that you have formalised this, you've notified this. I think if you were to do that, and Monzo were not to respond, I mean, you're never going to take it this far, but let but let's let's play it to its nth degree. And then you were to make a formal complaint to the ombudsman about it, that you had notified them and therefore, you know, if we're playing, and it's only 50, 60 quid, I'm not, let's not go too much, but therefore, their behaviour isn't treating you fairly because it's giving you uncertainty of finances because you don't know if that money is yours or not. I think you might actually have a chance of winning at the ombudsman if you did something like that. Now, while you wouldn't take it that far, I would hope a company like Monzo, which tries

• 30:32Martin Lewis?

  to be strong on customer service, would get the point that if it comes back in a year and you say, "Hold on, well, here's a copy of what I sent you, I tried twice, you didn't respond", I think they'll probably let you keep the money. So I would probably just do something formal to protect myself, and hopefully that will do enough. But that is, that is a, this is what I would do, answer, as opposed to, "This is definitely what you should do, Anthony", if you know what I mean. What do you think of that?

• 30:57Speaker 00

  Yeah, it sounds sensible. I mean, yeah, giving them a bit of notice, you know, with 28 days is great, otherwise it's going in the holiday pot. But I'm sure I'm not the only one this has happened to. There's going to be more retailers out there, they're making the same mistake with.

• 31:11Martin Lewis?

  No, and listen, you're doing, you're actually being going way above board. I suspect most people would simply go, "Great, thank you very much, I'll keep that, I'll keep my mouth shut", which is always a little bit dangerous because then they, then you have got a greater risk of them coming back. And it's the inconsistency and the uncertainty which is always difficult in finances. So I think, you put this in, you have done, you can sleep very well at night, that morally you have done absolutely everything right, and that's the way I would go. What an interesting question. Thank you so much, sir.

• 31:39Speaker 00

  All right, pleasure. Take care.

• 31:41Martin Lewis?

  Cheers. Cheers. Speaking of the sensible friend you would ask, Matt, what's your next question?

• 31:49Speaker 06

  Okay, this mouse is so...

• 31:57Martin Lewis?

  Okay, are you ready?

• 31:58Speaker 06

  I'm ready.

• 31:59Martin Lewis?

  Now, the reason there's a laughter in Matt's voice is he will have cut this out, or you might put it in. He just, as he was trying to move to the next question, he just went, "Oh, this mouse is just so..." And that's what if you get, forgetting your laptop.

• 32:12Speaker 06

  I know, I know. Yeah, I'll remember it next week.

• 32:14Martin Lewis?

  All right, what's your next question?

• 32:16Speaker 06

  I have a question from Paul. He has emailed in. He says, "Hi, Martin and Matt. I have a question about stubborn retailers who ignore UK consumer law. I've been looking at the returns policy for an online store. Their policy explicitly states that sale items are non-returnable and that delivery charges are non-refundable. As a loyal listener, I know this is a direct breach of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, which gives online shoppers a 14-day cooling-off period and the right to a refund on standard delivery."

• 32:45Martin Lewis?

  Correct.

• 32:45Speaker 06

  "I've contacted the company twice to point this out, but have been met with total silence. I even reported them to Trading Standards via Citizens Advice, but weeks later, the misleading information is still live on their site, potentially tricking thousands of shoppers out of their refund rights. My question is, when the official channels like Trading Standards feel like a slow-moving black hole and the company ignores you, what's the best way to actually force a retailer to update their terms? Is there a nuclear option for consumers to protect others from being misled by illegal Ts and Cs? Love the show, Paul."

• 33:19Martin Lewis?

  Oh, thank you, Paul, and well done for trying to protect other people as well. That's exactly the spirit of what we want to do. So you are absolutely right. If you buy something online, unless it's personalised or perishable, then you have a 14-day no-fault right to notify them that you're returning it, and then another 14 days after, you've notified them in which to send it back, and you should get the basic delivery charge back. So if you've paid extra for fast delivery, you don't get that back, but if you haven't, you get that basic whatever. If it was free, it was free, but if you paid a pound, you get the pound back. So you are exactly right. Now, this is something I've been campaigning on because we did a review of 400 different brands, found 30 of them had incorrect returns information on their website, where they were giving you worse rights than were available

• 34:03Martin Lewis?

  that you have under your law, under the statute, and statute overrides any terms and conditions that a shop has. Of those thirty, we got twenty-eight corrected because I went very public on it. And two of them, by the time they got round again, I'm afraid had ceased trading, which I think is endemic of probably some of the problems they're having in the business, that they couldn't have the compliance and lawyers in place to get it right. So, look, just a slight note about trading standards. I'm a big fan of trading standards, but we massively under-resourced trading standards. There is not enough money given to them. They do struggle to deal with things. I think that's a real problem because you're right that those people who are policing fair rights for consumers need the resource to do it. So if they have been slow, I'm not going to berate them for it because I know that,

• 34:47Martin Lewis?

  I just think it's a massively underfunded organisation and that's a real problem, rather than the brilliant officers who work in trading standards trying to do a good job. Is there a nuclear option? Well, without self-aggrandising, I think you're probably doing it. It's probably me, to be honest, if trading standards aren't going to work. So get in touch, Paul. If you can send us the details, I will have a look at it and maybe we'll see if we can get that company together with your great research and my, I have a large reach. See if we can embarrass them into getting it right for consumers. I think that's the best answer I can give you. I haven't got it another way.

• 35:22Martin Lewis?

  Okay, and now, normally where we do a funny, I think we should start doing all the names of what people have suggested, that those who get in touch and either have their question read out or come on as a caller are going to be called in future. What else have you got? Now, what did we have before with Sally? Savvy Sally?

• 35:39Speaker 06

  Savvy Salies.

• 35:40Martin Lewis?

  Okay, I'm not going to say any more, but I realised afterwards, we can't do that because we can't use the acronym.

• 35:47Speaker 06

  No.

• 35:48Martin Lewis?

  So let's do some other things.

• 35:49Speaker 06

  Let's see what else people have suggested. Matt emailed in, not me.

• 35:54Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 35:55Speaker 06

  He said, "I strongly vote against the use of QT for the name of someone that has helped contribute to the podcast. The main problem is that it isn't interchangeable for the meaning of the acronym Question Time. For example, I'm not a Question Time. Fortunately for you, I have a name that's exactly 3.14159 times better. It's on a similar theme and does describe the person. A Question Time Pioneer. The best part is the Latin Greek acronym for this suggestion, which is of course QT Pi. Thank you for your consideration."

• 36:24Martin Lewis?

  I'm not sure I can be saying cutie pie on air.

• 36:28Speaker 06

  Why?

• 36:29Martin Lewis?

  But I would like to congratulate Matt for the quite extreme nerd- nerd-dom that was involved in his suggestion. I mean, that scored high on the nerd score in a very positive way. So I'm not sure I can use it, but I did enjoy it.

• 36:40Speaker 06

  He did also say, "I'm pleased to announce I didn't use AI for this idea."

• 36:44Martin Lewis?

  Well done.

• 36:44Speaker 06

  Melon Farborough, she says, "Martin's benefaction askers," which you could shorten to MBAs.

• 36:52Martin Lewis?

  I quite like MBAs. I do quite like that. Okay, that's going, that, put that on the spreadsheet.

• 36:56Speaker 06

  Okay, Melon Farborough, MBAs. Let me highlight that on the, on the sheet, so I know.

• 37:01Martin Lewis?

  And also, I've got a subtle eye, I've got Rosie and Sally here with me, just, I'm watching their reactions at the same time as well.

• 37:06Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 37:06Martin Lewis?

  So it's like we've got a mini-panel going on.

• 37:08Speaker 06

  Charlie, he says, "Martinis." Because as an avid follower of the podcast and your work, he considers himself a groupie, a bit like a Swifty. Also, when I think of a martini, I think of James Bond, and definitely looks like Martin is auditioning to be the next 007 in the podcast artwork.

• 37:27Martin Lewis?

  Nice.

• 37:28Speaker 06

  Yep.

• 37:28Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 37:28Speaker 06

  Martini?

• 37:29Martin Lewis?

  The name's Bond. Bank and Building Society Bond. License to save. Anyway, uh, so, no, and Rosie and Sally are looking with groans in their eyes now, in slight disgust. I don't, I don't know, maybe a little bit of vomit in the mouth on the back end of that, so there we go. I, I like, I think it's very nice, but I can't say it.

• 37:51Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 37:51Martin Lewis?

  I couldn't, I couldn't, it wouldn't, I mean, if I start calling people martinis, it's not good. You could imagine what the tabloids would make of that, couldn't you?

• 37:58Speaker 06

  Right, I've got a couple more, I'll run through them quickly. Frugaliter, combination of frugal inquisitor, that's from Miles.

• 38:05Martin Lewis?

  I like that, but we've discussed before that we're not, it's not a full frugal.

• 38:09Speaker 06

  No.

• 38:09Martin Lewis?

  We'd like it, but, but, I'm loving, and, and everyone who's sent one in, thank you so much. Go on, keep going, keep going.

• 38:14Speaker 06

  Steven, Eminem smarties, all the chocolate is available, or a smartin', collectively Martin Smartins, could be, and then the acronym is savings, money and regular travel insurance nerds.

• 38:27Martin Lewis?

  I do like smartins.

• 38:28Speaker 06

  Smartins.

• 38:29Martin Lewis?

  But I think it runs foul of the "I'm not sure I can say it" one.

• 38:32Speaker 06

  Smartins, Martin Smartins.

• 38:34Martin Lewis?

  You're not a fan of Martin's, I know. Rosie's got a slight grimace on for that one. Sorry, I liked it though.

• 38:40Speaker 06

  Kate says Martin's interrogateers. Partly because interrogateer is fun, awkward to say, and partly because it's our job to interrogate Martin with questions on absolutely anything and everything, in brackets, within reason.

• 38:52Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I mean, there is some logic in that. Spreadsheet it.

• 38:56Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 38:57Martin Lewis?

  Put it on the spreadsheet.

• 38:57Speaker 06

  Okay. Tom has emailed one in. He says, when they send a question, you're sending a Martin Lewis SOS. So you become a graduate of the Martin Lewis SOS, the Martin Lewis School of Sad Farts.

• 39:13Martin Lewis?

  It's not on the spreadsheet, but it made me laugh.

• 39:15Speaker 06

  No, I like that one.

• 39:15Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, it's good. We've just called everyone sad farts, couldn't we?

• 39:19Speaker 06

  Dal Beer from Rugby, he says-

• 39:22Martin Lewis?

  Probably should be your last one, because I think we're probably going over the envelope now.

• 39:25Speaker 06

  We are. Money saving amateurs or MSAs.

• 39:29Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, but actually, some of you are quite professional.

• 39:31Speaker 06

  True.

• 39:32Martin Lewis?

  Some of them are very good. I mean, I have to say, and I want to go back, and I've decided, you persuaded me that it shouldn't be QTs.

• 39:38Speaker 06

  Okay, good.

• 39:39Martin Lewis?

  But I think the still the one, the other one is MPC.

• 39:42Speaker 06

  MPC. That's our podcast producer, Simon, wasn't it?

• 39:45Martin Lewis?

  What was that, what was that one?

• 39:47Speaker 06

  That was Martin's Podcast contributors.

• 39:49Martin Lewis?

  I quite like MPC.

• 39:50Speaker 06

  That was Simon's suggestion.

• 39:52Martin Lewis?

  Rosie just showed me one. Whose is that? Rob in Bristol. Can you do the top one in Rob in Bristol? I quite like that.

• 39:58Speaker 06

  Yeah, Rob says MCC, Martin's Curious Callers, which is said with a silent C. They're called MCs, like the fast-paced rappers.

• 40:08Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, but I like MCC, which is the Marylabone Cricket Club, which is what they call it, Lord. No, it's not niche. It's one of the biggest sports in the whole world. It's not niche. Ask podcast producer Simon.

• 40:20Speaker 06

  Oh, he loves cricket though.

• 40:21Martin Lewis?

  Exactly. He'll be like, MCC's very, I quite like MCC.

• 40:24Speaker 06

  Okay, add it to the list.

• 40:26Martin Lewis?

  Add it to, put it on the spreadsheet.

• 40:27Speaker 06

  It's on the spreadsheet.

• 40:28Martin Lewis?

  Put it on the spreadsheet. Okay, I think that's where we finish. We're gonna do, we'll take some more of those before we make our decision. We will make our decision after Easter. So we'll do a few more of those next week, if that's all right, Matt.

• 40:39Speaker 06

  Yep, yeah, so send them in to [email protected].

• 40:42Martin Lewis?

  And address them to Dear Martin.

• 40:44Speaker 06

  Dear Matt.

• 40:44Martin Lewis?

  Dear Martin.

• 40:45Speaker 06

  Dear Matt.

• 40:46Martin Lewis?

  We're getting good at this, aren't we?

• 40:47Speaker 06

  There we are.

• 40:50Martin Lewis?

  That's it for this week's Question Dime. 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 Podcast with Adrian on Thursdays. Aren't you lucky? Two doses of money-saving tips and tricks a week to ensure you send in your questions to [email protected]. And I've secretly recorded this when Matt isn't about, so there's no Dear Martin, Dear Matt. It's just Dear Martin.

• 41:33Speaker 08

  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.

• 42:09Speaker 01

  It often starts with a question. What were lions doing in York in the third century? Why was Jeremy a lonely snail? Then we search for answers.

• 42:19Speaker 02

  It's one of the first times, really, that you consistently see someone painting teeth. I know that sounds bonkers. If I was going to define mathematics, I would say it's the study of structure.

• 42:27Speaker 01

  As I was doing the research for the programme, my jaw just dropped further and further down. In Our Time is a world-class seminar every week. Watch the discussions unfold and explore over a thousand conversations in our archive. I'm Misha Glennie, and every week I'm joined by expert guests to explore the ideas that shape our world. In Our Time, listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 42:58Speaker 01

  Coffee? Love a cup of tea.

• 43:00Speaker 03

  I'll have tea, too.

• 43:01Speaker 01

  Tea for me, please.