Question Time: Keep saving hard, or spend more on my family? £30,000 stoozing success! Top up missing NI years?

In our Question Time podcast, Martin Lewis gives you answers on anything and everything, including: can I claim car finance mis-selling if I had an interest-free deal? Should I continue to save hard, overpay my mortgage and invest, or spend a bit more enjoying life with my young family? What do I do if my LISA bonus comes in after I’ve bought my first house? Do I need to top up missing National Insurance years at 36? We also have a brilliant success story from a couple of stoozers who’ve managed to build a £30,000 stooze pot, plus, you get to decide what we call you if you ask Martin a question on the podcast – but to find out how, you’re going to have to listen to the show! 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 his favourite ice cream flavour, if he’s ever pondered the meaning of life, 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

  In Our Time is a world-class seminar every week. Why was Jeremy a lonely snail? What were lines doing in York in the third century? I'm Misha Glennie and every week I'm joined by expert guests to explore the ideas that shape our world.

• 0:21Speaker 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.

• 0:29Speaker 01

  In Our Time, listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Tea or coffee? Love a cup of tea.

• 0:41Martin Lewis?

  We feel spiritually like we're as one, don't we? As it wasn't disclosed to you, you won't know and can't know whether it happened to you without asking, did it happen to me?

• 0:49Speaker 04

  If you're in a couple especially, I think both of you need to be on board together at like the absolute max benefit.

• 0:53Speaker 05

  We are doing something we've never done before. Isn't that what's good about Question Time? It's so good.

• 0:58Martin Lewis?

  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 edition, where you get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything, open brackets, within reason, close brackets. And this week, you ask me, can I claim car finance misselling if I had an interest-free deal? Then we have a brilliant caller who asks, should I continue to save hard and overpay my mortgage and invest? Or should I be spending a little bit more on enjoying life with my young family? How do you balance emotional quality of life against financial security? It's a fascinating conversation, that one. Then, what do I do if my LISA bonus comes after I've already moved house?

• 1:41Martin Lewis?

  We've got a brilliant success story from a couple of stewzers. They've built a £30,000 stew's pot. That's artificial 0% debt that they're using to save at high interest and make money on the money banks have lent them interest-free. And finally, I'm 36, do I need to top up my missing national insurance years? Let's get on with it. Play the theme tune.

• 2:18Martin Lewis?

  Yes, we are back. And of course, it couldn't be the Question Time podcast without Professor, Doctor, Sir Matthew Burnham Esquire at the applause track.

• 2:29Speaker 05

  Oh, that's just me doing it with my own voice properly.

• 2:31Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I'll do it. I'll do it.

• 2:33Speaker 05

  Hello.

• 2:33Martin Lewis?

  Hello. How have you been? Have you missed me in these last couple of weeks where we've not been in Podland?

• 2:37Speaker 05

  Two weeks without this pod has actually, I've missed it. I've missed spending time with you on our...

• 2:42Martin Lewis?

  Virtual time.

• 2:43Speaker 05

  Virtual time on our recording sessions.

• 2:45Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, virtual time because listeners, while you can't and you won't know because we don't do a video podcast, which is something we have been discussing, and I sit in the studio in London, Matt is in Salford. I sit in the studio in London with Rosie. Regulars will know who Rosie is. If you don't, you need to keep listening for other times and other mentions when Rosie gets mentioned. I'm not explaining it today. So I sit in London with Rosie and Matt sits there in Salford, but we feel spiritually like we're as one, don't we?

• 3:10Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 3:11Martin Lewis?

  And it's all that.

• 3:12Speaker 05

  And I can see you on a TV screen.

• 3:14Martin Lewis?

  And I can't see you. So I think, you know, I've definitely won on that basis.

• 3:19Speaker 05

  Good one. Did you have a nice time off?

• 3:21Martin Lewis?

  I had a lovely time off. I really did need to have a little bit of time away from work. It's been quite a stressful opening to the year and there's loads going on at the moment. I do feel somewhat recharged. Although, as always, since I came back to work, which was about Sunday night when I started to really start thinking about work again, I've been so flat out. It's always the problem with a holiday, isn't it?

• 3:40Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 3:41Martin Lewis?

  You know, you take time off work and then you come back and you've got to catch up on everything you didn't do while you're away.

• 3:45Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 3:46Martin Lewis?

  Anyway, speaking of that.

• 3:48Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 3:48Martin Lewis?

  Later on.

• 3:49Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 3:50Martin Lewis?

  We're going to make the announcement of the final two, aren't we?

• 3:52Speaker 05

  We are. So the final two names for what we're going to call people who come on the podcast and ask questions.

• 3:59Martin Lewis?

  We could just call them our contributors.

• 4:00Speaker 05

  We could, but that's not fun.

• 4:02Martin Lewis?

  That's not in the spirit of what we're doing. So we have selected two. You'll have to wait until the end to hear what they are. And then we will tell you how can you can have your say of which of the two it should be.

• 4:13Speaker 05

  Yes. And then what we're going to do is send a badge to anyone who comes on the podcast.

• 4:18Martin Lewis?

  Now, you and Rosie have been discussing the badge. I haven't seen it. She's just so...

• 4:27Martin Lewis?

  We need to get on, Matt. This is Question Time podcast, not Martin and Matt Natter podcast. Although I think it might be a little bit of that. Let's carry on. What have you got?

• 4:36Speaker 05

  Shall we do a question?

• 4:38Martin Lewis?

  Yes.

• 4:38Speaker 05

  One from Mick. He's sent it in. [email protected]. He says, "Hi, Martin and Matt." Fine.

• 4:45Martin Lewis?

  Hello.

• 4:45Speaker 05

  Hello.

• 4:45Martin Lewis?

  That's perfectly good.

• 4:46Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, fine. Yeah.

• 4:48Martin Lewis?

  You're at peace with it. I like that.

• 4:49Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's fine. I've got over it. He says, "I'm guessing I know the answer, but if you don't ask, you don't get. I had an interest-free car finance agreement about 12 years ago. Obviously, I wasn't overcharged as far as the interest rate is concerned. But I assume the dealership added the finance company's fee on to the price of the car. Assuming that the car dealership did a deal with the finance company for the benefit of them and not me, is there any way I could be owed some money? I won't hold it against you if you say no. I still love the podcast."

• 5:17Martin Lewis?

  I'm glad you won't hold it against me because the answer is a very, very simple no. What you have to remember is this is the financial regulator. And it is the financial regulator who's launched this mass redress scheme into car or motor vehicle finance misselling for finance agreements between 2007 and right up till 2024. You may have been missold. About 12 million agreements may have been missold. But it's the financial regulator, not a motor regulator. So if you're suggesting that you paid an overinflated price for your car and that then went on the finance, that's somewhat irrelevant because this is about the finance, not the car itself. And the finance tends to be about the interest and you didn't have any interest.

• 5:59Martin Lewis?

  And it's all of the compensation and the money that's coming, that is coming out of the interest. So no, if you had an interest-free loan, you are not due compensation. Interestingly, even if you had a relatively small amount of interest and there was only a very small commission on the car finance, once they made the announcement a couple of weeks ago, that frankly, you're not going to get any money on that either. But still, big message. You know, we did a special podcast on it, the last podcast a couple of podcasts ago. You can go and listen to that. The big message is if you had car finance between 2007 and 2024...

• 6:34Martin Lewis?

  The only way to know if you've got a complaint is to complain. Because the way that they mis-sold to you, for example, a discretionary commission arrangement, where the car dealer was given a bigger commission for charging higher interest. That was called a discretionary commission arrangement. The whole way it was mis-sold is that that wasn't disclosed to you. So as it wasn't disclosed to you, you won't know and can't know whether it happened to you without asking, did it happen to me? Which is the main way that you put a complaint in. Even though the regulator's going to get firms to try and spot who has been mis-sold and contact them, even if they don't complain, that's why it's called a matter of redress scheme, you are still better to put in a complaint in. And there are three reasons for that.

• 7:19Martin Lewis?

  Reason number one, the process is far quicker if you complain than if you don't. If you complain, the likelihood is, if you were mis-sold, you will be paid out this year in 2026. If you wait for them to contact you, then you'll probably be paid out in 2027 or 2028. Reason number two, you may have moved address and they may not have your details and may not be able to contact you. Whereas if you complain, you'll put all that information in your complaint and the free tools that are out there to help you complain, you don't need to pay anyone to go via the regulator's route, free tools that are out there to help you complain, they will do all that for you. You'll put all the details in that you need so the company will be able to contact you. Reason number three, well, this goes back to 2007 and with some older agreements, the

• 8:04Martin Lewis?

  firms may not have kept your paperwork and may not know you exist. But if you have the paperwork or you go onto the Equifax tool, which is part of its app, you don't need to pay anything. If they're charging you, you're doing it the wrong way. You can just use the free tool to do this, which we talked about in that podcast before and exactly how to use it. Then you can find your paperwork and you can send it in. So even if they've lost it, you've still got a complaint. And for those three reasons, if you got a PCP or HP deal on a car, a van, a camper van or a motorbike between roughly April 2007 and 2024, you want to get a complaint in and you want to do it now. And there are free tools online that will help you. But I'm afraid all of that was a very long answer for Mick because with Mick, sorry, it was interest-free, it's a no.

• 8:49Martin Lewis?

  Right, so I presume it's that time in the programme where we have a caller. The reason I presume that is because of timings, we're actually having to record this caller before we do anything else. So you, of course, are going to put it in the show at the point where a caller should come in. So I feel pretty certain that I can say we're at that time of the show where you're going to put in a caller, aren't you, Matt?

• 9:06Speaker 05

  Nah, let's do a read instead. Just kidding, Dan is in Maidstone and he is on the line. Hi, Dan.

• 9:12Martin Lewis?

  Hello, Dan. Hello, Dan. Hello, what can we do for you? Lovely to hear from you.

• 9:16Speaker 06

  Thank you. So I'm sure it's a question you get all the time, but my good interest rate on my mortgage is coming to an end. After a five-year fix, it's coming to an end in October. That interest rate is currently just below 1%.

• 9:32Martin Lewis?

  Well done, you.

• 9:34Speaker 06

  Thank you very much. And obviously, we're looking at interest rates of around 5% when we renew. Over the last five years, because the interest rate on our mortgage has been so low, we've been putting extra money into a cash ISA, which has been earning anywhere between 4% and 3.6%. So my question is, do I go ahead as intended and throw the lump sum that we've grown over the last five years at the mortgage at the point of renewal?

• 10:13Speaker 06

  Or do we look at stocks and shares, a stocks and shares ISA, in the hope that we can outpace the 5% of the new mortgage? Or do I stop putting so much emphasis on paying down the mortgage, paying off the debt, and spend a little bit more money spending time with my wife and my son, making memories?

• 10:36Martin Lewis?

  Well, first of all, what a lovely question and well done. You know, financial security and stability is really important and we shouldn't. You know, many people think of money as just a money issue, but money isn't. Money is a core crucial wellbeing issue. And the fact that you've managed to build up this pot of money to reduce your future mortgage, to give you more financial security for yourself and your family. All of that adds to your wellbeing. Now, it's not something that makes you happy, but it takes away some of the anxiety and stresses and the misery that comes with life. I always think of money, money doesn't make you happy, but it takes away many of the negatives. And I think you've done that and I think you and your family can be very proud of yourself. So let me try and, I think I've got the question.

• 11:18Martin Lewis?

  It's basically pay off the mortgage or invest or have a bit more fun and spend a bit more. So let's do the, let's do the first, the easy bits, the bits that's in square brackets in my head, which is paying off the mortgage as opposed to saving, just saving rather than investing. Well, first of all, you've been doing it right. And just for those people who are listening, because your mortgage rate was lower than the interest rate you could earn in savings, you were absolutely right to build up your savings rather than overpay the mortgage because you could earn, because you know, a thousand pounds at four percent in savings will ignore tax, gains you forty pounds a year. A thousand pounds on a mortgage costing you one percent only costs you ten pounds a year.

• 12:00Martin Lewis?

  So you were thirty pounds per thousand pounds better off saving than overpaying the mortgage. So you've done that right, but now the mortgage rate is going to be higher than you can earn in savings. You want to reduce the amount on your mortgage. I don't know, and I'm not going to ask you exact numbers because I don't particularly want you to give them out in the podcast.

• 12:18Martin Lewis?

  Do you know what a loan to value is on your mortgage? Yes, I do. Is your loan to value below sixty percent? Are you borrowing less than sixty percent of the house's value? Yes. So overpaying the mortgage isn't going to help you get a cheaper mortgage. Generally, that only works up to sixty percent loan to value. So we can factor that one out in this decision.

• 12:39Martin Lewis?

  Let's move to the next stage, which is so overpaying the mortgage is definitely right compared to savings because you're going to be at a 5% rate and you can't get that in savings, if that's what you're saying, the rate that you can get. I'm sure you've been to a mortgage broker, you're sounding like you're someone who's on top of it and is very financially savvy. So I'm framing my answers in the context of thinking of you that way. If you're not, speak now. But you know what you're doing roughly, don't you?

• 13:02Speaker 06

  Yes, I do.

• 13:03Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, good, good. And it helps me to know that. So the next question is one of risk. If we think of overpaying the mortgage as a certain 5% return, the question is, what type of return would you want to look at in order for it to be worth you not getting the certainty and you taking some risk? Where's your head on that?

• 13:25Speaker 06

  Well, I'd be looking for a 7 or 8% return, which I am not convinced with my knowledge of stocks and shares that I would be able to do that consistently or comfortably.

• 13:38Martin Lewis?

  The balance against that, and you know, just to play the other side is, it sounds to me like you're probably going to have this mortgage cleared in what, seven, eight, nine years?

• 13:49Speaker 06

  If I've done my math correctly, it should be five years, yeah.

• 13:51Martin Lewis?

  Okay. So you're going to have your mortgage cleared in five years. And with investing, the longer you invest for, if things go right and there's no certainty and you know all that, the better. So starting off some investing sooner may well be good. You know, and in terms of what you do, you know, the standard thing is a global tracker, put some money in a global tracker that's got a broad spread of investments. We had the investment podcast a couple of weeks ago where you can hear about that in more detail. And go for nice, easy tracker funds at the start, where you've got a really broad spread of investment. And over the long run, there is a decent chance that you will get 7% on those. Of course, you may not. Of course, you may lose money. But I would say, with the amounts that you've got, and certainly listening to you, I would be looking at

• 14:35Martin Lewis?

  overpaying your mortgage, but I wouldn't be saying it is a binary thing that you should only overpay your mortgage. I think there is certainly room for you to maybe take 20% of that, that's an arbitrary number, not a suggestion, 20% of that, and start to invest in stocks and shares. And obviously, in a broad spread of funds, we're talking not individual shares where the risk is high. Where would your instinct go? Because this is your decision, not mine.

• 14:59Speaker 06

  Well, my instinct is that I wanted to pay down the mortgage as much as I could, retaining enough for an emergency fund, as you always advise.

• 15:07Martin Lewis?

  Yep.

• 15:10Speaker 06

  And at that point, probably start drip-feeding a percentage of what we are currently putting away into savings, some into overpaying the mortgage additionally, and some into a stocks and shares ISA.

• 15:24Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I mean, I think, why don't you dip your toe in? I don't know, what would a dipping your toe in amount that you wouldn't worry about too much be?

• 15:33Speaker 06

  Probably £100 a month, something like that.

• 15:36Martin Lewis?

  So here's a suggestion for you, and again, I have to be very careful, I'm not telling you to do anything, right? Why don't you start, because you're worried about your lack of knowledge, but you sound to me like somebody who is capable of gaining the knowledge over time. So why don't you start by drip-feeding £100 a month into a stocks and shares ISA? Yep? Start doing that now, and use that both as an investment in its own right, but also as an educative process for yourself in future, for once you're going to have more money to be able to do this with. How does that sound?

• 16:06Speaker 06

  It sounds good. My only fear is that I did start drip-feeding some money into a stocks and shares ISA, and of course, the war kicked off and that money sharply went down.

• 16:17Martin Lewis?

  But you know, you've got to close your eyes to that. You're talking about money you're putting away that you're not going to touch for five, six years. If you look, the worst thing you can do if you've got simple investments in stocks and shares is look at it every day. I mean, it's terrible for you. You know, look at it once a year and remember, the only prices that count, and we'll ignore dividends for a second, is the price you buy at and the price you sell at. Everything else in the middle is irrelevant. So, you know, volatility happens in the world. I think we should go on to the next one, which I think is probably the most interesting bit of all, and I love your question. Thank you so much, Dan, for coming on. Which is, should you live life a little bit more? How old are your kids?

• 16:57Speaker 06

  I've got a three-year-old son who's going to be starting school in September.

• 17:00Martin Lewis?

  Okay, that's how lovely. Look, they grow up really quick. Mine's thirteen now. I cannot believe it. You know, everybody says it to you. It's so true. That's not financial information. It's just true. They grow up so much more quickly than you can possibly imagine. And I don't think there's anything wrong with someone who's in a stable financial position saying, "Maybe I don't put every single penny away." I mean, it's interesting. We have money personalities out there. There are some people who are terrible and never look after the futures. And there are some people who actually

• 17:30Martin Lewis?

  restrict their lives by being too overly focused on the finance. And it is me saying that. You know, my underlying philosophy of what I do, the whole idea of saving money, is not to stop people spending. It's so that you get maximum utility from the money that you've got, so that you minimize the cost of the things where you're not seeing gain from, you know, paying your bills. You want them to be as cheap as possible because you don't get happiness from them being bigger. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't spend on something that you enjoy and that you can afford and is going to make your life happy. So I think if you, I'm trying to, reading between the lines, it sounds to me like you've been, you know, pretty tight and controlled over the finances while you've been doing this for the last five years. Is that fair?

• 18:13Speaker 06

  Yeah, that's a fair assumption.

• 18:15Martin Lewis?

  And, well,

• 18:17Martin Lewis?

  you've done incredibly well. And I think if you had maybe saved, you know, five, 10% less than you had, you would have still done incredibly well. And you maybe, if that will give you, and it will give you genuine, real enjoyment and time with your child, then I don't think you should feel guilty if that's what you choose to do. And I suspect that your question is because you sort of want to do that, but you're worried you're doing a bad thing for the long term. And it's what I call a permission question. So if, if I'm right, and it is a permission question, if I'm wrong, and I hope it's not patronizing. But if I'm right and it is a permission question, then you definitely have my permission to do it a little bit. Because I don't see, you've done so well. Is that why you were really asking, if you're honest?

• 19:03Speaker 06

  That's definitely part of it and it's my and my wife's priorities not aligning. My priorities were to save up as much as we could whilst we had the good interest rate in order to get rid of that anxiety. She is much more in favour of making memories and living life.

• 19:20Martin Lewis?

  You have done incredibly well and it sounds to me like you will continue to do incredibly well. And if you can increase the happiness in your life by doing, putting 10% less money aside, but you're still putting lots of money aside and you're still overpaying the mortgage and you're still putting that money, which I think you have the room to do by the sound of it, then I think you could probably get a bit more happiness by just loosening up a bit on it.

• 19:43Speaker 06

  I think that's very good advice. Thanks very much.

• 19:45Martin Lewis?

  And I'm saying that, which hopefully you, I know what's going on here. I can, there's guilt, there's worry and guilt and stress and I just want to get it right and I just want, I think, I think you're pretty comfortable. I think you can do it by the sound of it. And just to say to the listeners, I have a written question from Dan in front of me that he sent in that includes some numbers that I'm not giving you, which is why I'm saying some things that you might think, how does he know? Okay, I think you've done well.

• 20:14Speaker 06

  Thank you. Thank you very much.

• 20:15Martin Lewis?

  And I wish you good luck and I wish you and your wife and your son a lot of happiness as well as lots of wonderful financial security too. Bravo to you.

• 20:23Speaker 06

  Appreciate it. Thanks very much.

• 20:25Martin Lewis?

  Good luck mate. Take care.

• 20:26Speaker 06

  Keep up the good work.

• 20:27Martin Lewis?

  Thank you.

• 20:27Speaker 06

  Thank you.

• 20:30Martin Lewis?

  Right, Matt, that was really interesting. Fascinating question. What I do love about this podcast is that we have the ability to go into sort of what I would call softer skills questions rather than the hard skills questions, which I tend to focus on in the main pod. So it's great because I don't think, I don't think there's a place that we could do something like that elsewhere. Isn't that what's good about Question Time?

• 20:50Speaker 05

  It's so good.

• 20:51Martin Lewis?

  It's so good, says Matt, producer of Question Time podcast. So you've probably got to read for me.

• 20:57Speaker 05

  Yes, shall we do Harry in Sheffield?

• 20:59Martin Lewis?

  Yes, I don't know what his question is, but probably yes. Unless it's a bad question, in which case no.

• 21:05Speaker 05

  Harry has emailed in, he says, dear Martin and Matt, people are doing this now, it's just Martin and Matt, isn't it?

• 21:10Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, but that's good. I think you need to remember that most producers don't get themselves.

• 21:15Speaker 05

  Yes, you said that last episode, Martin.

• 21:17Martin Lewis?

  I think it's hugely flattering to you and it would be inappropriate for Matt and Martin.

• 21:22Speaker 05

  Right, here's a question. Firstly, he just wants to say thanks to Martin and his team for the financial information you provided over the years. And he also says to Matt and the rest of the podcast team for the hard work in bringing the podcast to us every week. You're welcome. Thank you.

• 21:37Martin Lewis?

  Oh, well done, Harry. I like that. Thank you.

• 21:40Speaker 05

  That actually makes me look like a bit of a mean person now, doesn't it? For commenting on the fact he said Matt and Matt.

• 21:45Martin Lewis?

  No, it's nice. Everybody knows. Everybody listening gets that. That's just part of cutie shtick. Do not worry. Carry on.

• 21:52Speaker 05

  He says, my question relates to the LISA bonus. I'm currently in the process of buying my first home and will be using the LISA as part of it.

• 22:00Martin Lewis?

  Great.

• 22:01Speaker 05

  As the new tax year has started, I contributed another £4,000 to it, which means I should be entitled to the 25% government bonus.

• 22:08Martin Lewis?

  Correct.

• 22:09Speaker 05

  However, what would happen if I complete the purchase before the bonus for the year is paid, which is usually the last day of the following month? I'm assuming it will get paid into the now empty account as normal and I'll just have to pay the penalty if I wanted to take it out before retirement? Or is there a way the bonus can be paid early if the provider is notified that the LISA is going to be used?

• 22:30Martin Lewis?

  I do not think there is a way around that. If you complete before a bonus is paid, you won't get to use that bonus towards your house move and you would either have to keep it or withdraw the penalty. I'm not aware of a way around that. Now, let's just talk everybody through this. So the lifetime ISA is a first time buyer's product that you can open between your age 18 and the day before your 40th birthday. You get 25% bonus put on top of the money you put in. You also earn interest as well, but you don't get a bonus on the interest. 25% bonus put on top of the money that you put in when you use it towards a qualifying first time property, which is a property that you have a mortgage on that costs under £450,000. You can only do that if you've never owned a property or part owned a property anywhere

• 23:15Martin Lewis?

  in the world before. Alternatively, you can leave it until you're age 60 and take it out, but if you take it out for any other purpose, you would pay, what I normally talk about is an effective penalty of 6.25%, but it does work slightly differently in this case. So let me just try and explain. So the bonus tends to be paid monthly after you've put the money in. So if you put £4,000 in, you would get a £1,000 bonus on that. That's the maximum you could put in a year and that bonus would be paid at the end of the month. Now, the rule is if you withdraw money, so of course you could leave this here until you're 60, but if you withdraw the money, then you pay a 25% penalty.

• 23:57Martin Lewis?

  Now, the reason I phrase the 25% penalty as a 6.25% penalty is this. Because that's a 6.25% effective penalty on what you've put in. So if you put in £10,000, you get 25% added on top of that, which is £12,500. But you then get 25% taken off that. And as we're now taking 25% off a bigger number, 25% off £12,500 is a bigger amount than 25% on £10,000. And that's actually where the 6.75% penalty comes in because you would effectively withdraw £9,375.

• 24:37Martin Lewis?

  So you've put £10,000 in, you get £9,375 out because the bonus is added on, then the penalty's taken off. That's why I call it an effective 6.25% penalty. Now, the reason I'm explaining this is because in Harry's specific example, he's put £4,000 in for this year. I'm sure he's got money in from previous years and got bonus in for previous years. All of that will go to his housing deposit. But if the bonus on the £4,000 is added afterwards and he wants to withdraw it, he would lose 25%. So he would take out £750. Now, while that is not a situation that Harry wants, quite understandably, it is worth thinking, if you are in the position where you need that money and you've got your own pension savings elsewhere

• 25:21Martin Lewis?

  and you really want it for your new house, it's not like you're paying the penalty on the entire amount. And at least it's only the penalty on the bonus. It's not the penalty on the money that you put in. You're just paying the penalty on the bonus. So 750 is still better than...

• 25:37Martin Lewis?

  Nothing, you're at least going to get some form of bonus on the back of it. That's me trying to put a silver lining to the cloud. So, most important, let's just hope they pay you quickly enough for you to be able to use it. I mean, what you could certainly do is you could ask them, do you know when you're going to pay this bonus? You always have the call, is it possible to speed it up? I've never heard of it being done, but this is the first time I've had this question. So you may be able to do it and do let me know if you can. But even if they just tell you the day the bonus is going to go in, you might be able to utilise that and to move your exchange date, as long as you're not losing the house that you're going for. I wish good luck on it, Harry.

• 26:11Speaker 05

  That was going to be my question, could you just move the date that you complete?

• 26:14Martin Lewis?

  Well, you could move the date, but of course, I don't know, and I don't say this in a pejorative way. Have you ever bought a house, Matt?

• 26:20Speaker 05

  No, no.

• 26:21Martin Lewis?

  Well, okay, so the point, when you buy a house, I mean, it is always a negotiation between the buyer and the seller. And the seller will obviously want you to exchange and get it locked in sooner. And if you don't exchange, they might, there's always the chance that they'll sell it to somebody else and not sell it to you and someone else will come in and gazump you. So it's never, moving the date is quite a big thing.

• 26:39Speaker 05

  I see.

• 26:40Martin Lewis?

  If you've got, if this is the house that you really want to buy and you want to lock it in, then you're not going to want to move the date because that increases the risk that you might not get it. So that's why, that's why it's quite difficult on that one.

• 26:54Martin 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.

• 27:08Speaker 05

  No, Dear Matt.

• 27:09Martin Lewis?

  Dear Martin.

• 27:10Speaker 05

  Dear Matt.

• 27:13Martin Lewis?

  Matt, are we going into a caller now?

• 27:16Speaker 05

  We are doing something we've never done before.

• 27:19Martin Lewis?

  Da, da, da, what's that?

• 27:20Speaker 05

  We are going to get two callers up at the same time.

• 27:23Martin Lewis?

  It's a bog off call!

• 27:24Speaker 05

  It's a bog off call. We've got Alex and Millie, they're husband and wife. They're both in Harrogate and they are here with us.

• 27:33Martin Lewis?

  Hello.

• 27:33Speaker 00

  Good afternoon, Matt Martin.

• 27:35Martin Lewis?

  Hello Alex and hello Millie.

• 27:38Speaker 04

  Hello.

• 27:38Speaker 00

  Good afternoon.

• 27:39Martin Lewis?

  And I'm glad Millie, I'm guessing I can work out which one you are because Alex could have been confusing if there hadn't been a Millie there.

• 27:46Speaker 04

  To be fair, it's probably the one with the kids screaming in the background, but um, yeah.

• 27:50Martin Lewis?

  That's good. Alex and Lesley, that would have been a tough one, wouldn't it? Which would you have gone for? Alex and Millie, anyway, I digress, do carry on. So, what are you calling for?

• 27:58Speaker 00

  So, I emailed in to Matthew Esquire recently with a couple of successes. We've sort of been avid listeners of the podcast and my wife actually introduced me to you, Martin.

• 28:10Martin Lewis?

  You married very well, Alex.

• 28:12Speaker 04

  Yes, you did.

• 28:13Martin Lewis?

  You married very well.

• 28:14Speaker 04

  Alex, remember that.

• 28:18Speaker 00

  And yeah, obviously we've been following for years now and obviously we take all your advice and guidance and we've recently had here a couple of really good successes.

• 28:27Martin Lewis?

  Well, good.

• 28:27Speaker 00

  Off the back of, I think it was one of your previous callers who mentioned the section 75 claim, we put in one ourselves with our bank after we had a bit of an issue with our car and managed to get £1800 back.

• 28:41Martin Lewis?

  Oh, tell us, how? Tell what, when, when, how, why?

• 28:45Speaker 00

  So, we bought a car second hand from a proved used garage and after about 11 months, the car developed a timing chain issue and the garage was absolutely awful. They refused to respond to anything. We went through the ombudsman, which took an absolute age and

• 29:00Martin Lewis?

  The motor ombudsman.

• 29:02Speaker 00

  Yes, correct, yeah.

• 29:03Martin Lewis?

  Which, well, it's called an ombudsman, it's not a statutory based ombudsman like the financial ombudsman, it's a trade body ombudsman. I always have questions, who should be allowed to call themselves ombudsman and all that. But, well, carry on, I'm delaying your story.

• 29:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, eventually we sort of gave up with that route, saw the story and we thought, hey, let's try this and went to our bank and yeah, it was absolutely incredibly easy. They were very, very supportive, got the evidence to them and very quickly we found ourselves back in a position of having £1800 which we'd had to fork out to cover our car.

• 29:32Martin Lewis?

  Oh, well, that's absolutely wonderful. So, just to explain to everybody, if you, if you pay for an item costing between £100 and £30,000 and you pay for any of it, even a penny on a credit card, the credit card company is jointly liable with the retailer. Now, the advantage is if the retailer is causing difficulties, you can go to the credit card company and hopefully, as in your case, which is brilliant, it will say, all right, we will give you your consumer rights and we will get, because you have the same consumer rights with the credit card companies, with the retailer. And if they don't... What's actually interesting is with the credit card company, you can take them to the financial ombudsman about consumer rights, whereas it's much more difficult with normal retail. You would generally have to go to court unless there's an ombudsman, but the

• 30:13Martin Lewis?

  ombudsman tend to be actually dispute resolution processes rather than full-on ombudsman. And it just, that's why it worked. Well done. Brilliant. You said a couple. I want more. More savings, please. Millie, have you got one?

• 30:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, no, absolutely. So I first started following you way, way back, Martin, as I said.

• 30:28Martin Lewis?

  You are so superior money-saving to Alex. I'd like to say that now.

• 30:32Speaker 04

  But that started, you know, in 2019, before I met Alex, I was obviously trying to save a big pool for deposit for a mortgage on a house. And remember, the time I'd met Alex and we pulled together, I'd saved so much. One of the recommendations I took was to open at the time, which was a really, really high interest or the highest at the time, which was Marcus by Goldman Sachs.

• 30:51Martin Lewis?

  Yep.

• 30:51Speaker 04

  So like that, for example, was great. We've done all of the bank switches you've recommended. So we've made over two grand on that.

• 30:57Martin Lewis?

  Oh, your serial bank switches. Love it.

• 30:59Speaker 04

  Yeah, no, absolutely. So I mean, don't get me wrong, the logistics of working the joint diary and all the bits. I will admit, I did cock up on one of them, didn't I, Alex? Of which Alex will always, always hold that against me.

• 31:12Martin Lewis?

  We're all allowed one mistake.

• 31:14Speaker 04

  Saved a lot. And then at the moment, I think Alex can talk more about what we're doing for our house renovation and money-saving.

• 31:20Speaker 00

  We ended up sort of listening in and hearing about the whole stewzing thing and being fairly fastidious with money. We thought we'd have a look into it a bit more and decided we'd try it. And given we're doing a DIY project renovation at the moment, we thought it'd be a great way of covering all our costs and not having to dig into our savings. And it's worked out really well. And we've managed to sort of pull about 30 grand so far.

• 31:41Martin Lewis?

  You've got a 30 grand stew's pot?

• 31:44Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 31:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, we'd try to find a way of making it a bit bigger, really, because we've got a lot of credit with other, other people, which is on a 0%, so it's sort of a wangle of a way of getting around that.

• 31:52Martin Lewis?

  That's the biggest stew's pot I've heard, new stew's pot I've heard in a while. So for those who don't know, stew's pot is where you deliberately create artificial 0% debt that you don't need. So you borrow money at 0% and then you save it at high interest. So if you've got 30 grand at 0%, and it's complicated how you do it, and this is only for people who are financially savvy, as Alex and Millie clearly are, and we've talked about how to do it in the past, I'm not going to run into the full details on it. It's called stewzing. Well, with 30 grand at 4% interest, that's 1,200 quid a year gained, isn't it? I mean, that's really well done. That's right. I tell you what's interesting for me. And we had, we had the caller on earlier and he was talking about how his, he and his wife have slightly different ideas about whether savings and that, that can be a friction

• 32:35Martin Lewis?

  in a relationship. I'm not saying it was in his case, but to do something like you're doing, you both have to be into it. To be able to get a 30 grand stew's pot and to be doing the bank switching, it has to be something that, that you both love together, I'm presuming. And, and I can hear it's there.

• 32:49Speaker 04

  I mean, absolutely. I mean, we, we've done it all together. I'd say we're a couple. We sort of, it sounds awful. The stereotype is there's always one person in the couple that knows all about the accounts, the money, et cetera. And I think like we are completely against that. Like we both know what's going on. I mean, Alex started with the stewing and I was like, hold on now, come on, you've got to let me in. I need to know what's going on. I'm the diarizer here, you know, we are not missing any of them. Um, so yeah, absolutely. You're right. It's definitely a joint effort. And I think both, if you're in a couple especially, I think both of you need to be on board together, like the absolute max benefit.

• 33:23Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. I think it's perfect. You two are amazing. I want to do a program with you. You're brilliant. I love it. It's fantastic. Matt, we might need to do an Alex and Millie special, I think.

• 33:31Speaker 05

  I was just thinking the same thing.

• 33:33Martin Lewis?

  We could do that. We could go through, we could maybe bring them in with Adrian here on the main pod one day and just go through all those different issues. That could really work. You never know, you're listening here, you might hear it in the future. Thank, you two are brilliant. Thank you so much.

• 33:46Speaker 04

  And thank you for your help as well.

• 33:47Martin Lewis?

  Thanks for all you've done for us as well. It's absolutely my pleasure. I love to hear it. Thank you.

• 33:51Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 33:52Speaker 05

  Thanks both.

• 33:52Martin Lewis?

  Cheers, bye.

• 33:55Martin Lewis?

  Matt, I think we can probably squeeze in one, one more question before we get into the discussion of what we're going to call contributors.

• 34:02Speaker 05

  Okay. I think we can do, uh, one from Holly. She says, hi, Martin, big fan of the show.

• 34:06Martin Lewis?

  Ah, thank you, Holly. And, and, and I'm sure she loves you too, Matt.

• 34:10Speaker 05

  Yeah, definitely.

• 34:11Martin Lewis?

  Even if she didn't mention you.

• 34:12Speaker 05

  She just forgot.

• 34:13Martin Lewis?

  And I don't want you to get upset about that.

• 34:14Speaker 05

  She forgot my name.

• 34:14Martin Lewis?

  We're not going to mention that she didn't mention you. We just carry on, just move on. Let's not think about it at all.

• 34:18Speaker 05

  Someone did email the other day and said, uh, hi, Martin. And I forgot the name of the guy.

• 34:24Martin Lewis?

  Well, at least they remembered you. I mean, Holly, she's not noticed you.

• 34:28Speaker 05

  Well, I did think you could just go back on a previous podcast, but I didn't want to say anything. Anyway, let's go Holly's question.

• 34:34Martin Lewis?

  We think we may be getting too up our own whatever we call this.

• 34:37Speaker 05

  No, never.

• 34:38Martin Lewis?

  Holly, what's Holly's question? I like Holly. She's a big fan of the show.

• 34:42Speaker 05

  She says she's currently debating whether to fill in some of the gaps in her national insurance contributions. It's hard to say that.

• 34:49Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 34:49Speaker 05

  I have two years I can pay, which would bring...

• 34:51Martin Lewis?

  It's not really. It's national insurance contributions.

• 34:53Speaker 05

  Some of the gaps in my national insurance contributions. That's hard to say. Thank you. She says, I have two years I can pay, which would bring my total number of years to 10, not as many as I would have... Oh, I can't speak.

• 35:05Martin Lewis?

  Matt, what's happened to you?

• 35:07Speaker 05

  Nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh, nuh.

• 35:08Martin Lewis?

  Have you got podcast fatigue?

• 35:10Speaker 05

  I have, yeah. I'm gonna have a nap under the desk.

• 35:11Martin Lewis?

  This is a new condition that many people of your age, many millennials, are suffering. It's podcast fatigue. It's a terrible thing.

• 35:19Speaker 05

  Too many podcasts. So, she has two years...

• 35:25Martin Lewis?

  I want you to leave all of this in. The listeners want this in, Matt.

• 35:30Speaker 05

  They don't want this in. They want to hear the question. They're thinking, can this guy just say this question?

• 35:34Martin Lewis?

  Do you know what I'm gonna let you do? So the question's clear. You can start the question again, but all this needs to stay in.

• 35:38Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 35:39Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 35:39Speaker 05

  Holly, big fan of the show. She's currently debating whether to fill in some of the gaps in her national insurance contributions. She has two years she can pay, which would bring her total number of years to 10, not as many as she'd liked to racked up. But she spent several years working abroad and sometimes studying. She goes on to say, I'm currently 36. Is it worth paying the two now, or would it be considered a waste of money as I'm likely to reach the 35 years needed for a full state pension anyway?

• 36:05Martin Lewis?

  Righty ho. That's a really interesting question. Matt, well done for getting all the way through without any stumbles on the second read. You are a professional. Right.

• 36:16Martin Lewis?

  So the first thing to understand is the minimum number of years that you need to have of national insurance contributions in order to get a state pension is 10 years. That's the minimum. If you have less than 10 years, nothing counts. But it sounds to me like you're planning to work in the UK, so that isn't an issue. I think this is probably overkill. Until last year, you could buy back a huge number of years in one go, and that was a transitional arrangement when we shifted from the old state pension to the new state pension. That's gone. You can now buy back six years. For those of you thinking, what is all this buying back extra national insurance years all about? Just a quick briefing. When you hit state pension age, whether you get a state pension or not depends on the number of national insurance years. Now, you get

• 37:00Martin Lewis?

  national insurance contributions from work, you can also get it when looking after children, or if you are eligible for certain benefits, and you accrue them over the years. To get a state pension, you need a minimum of 10 years. To get the full state pension, you need roughly 35 years. It isn't 35 years, don't think it is 35 years. Whether it's 35 years or not depends, but let's just say roughly 35 years. Now, if you've got between 10 years and the full amount of years, roughly 35, then each extra year that you have means you get a bigger state pension. An extra national insurance year is worth around 360

• 37:44Martin Lewis?

  quid a year of state pension for you. So if you're going to retire on less than the full state pension, and you can buy a year, even if it costs you a thousand pounds, because it's going to add 360 pounds a year to your state pension, if you live just a few years, once you get your state pension, you make the money back. And currently, the state pension is also triple locked. That means it rises with the higher of average earnings, 2.5%, or inflation. So it's completely unbeatable looking at the current system. The question for younger people, though, is the current system could change. So that's why you may want to look back if you're missing national insurance years, and buy them back if you're

• 38:29Martin Lewis?

  not going to get the full state pension anyway. But as I've been explaining in the podcast, it's a little bit more complicated than that. Back to my other explanation after this explanation. I know, it's all a bit meta. The first thing I'd do is I'd go and look at your pension projection. On your pension projection, your state pension projection, which is on gov.uk, are you predicted to be able to get that you will have the full state pension when you retire, which is a very long time away? If you are, I think this is probably overkill. Because it's not like, once you get to the full state pension, you earn more national insurance years, you're getting even bigger than the full state pension. You know, it doesn't work like that. And many older people complain going, I've now got enough for my full state pension. Why do I have to keep paying national insurance? And that's because national insurance is a tax.

• 39:13Martin Lewis?

  In reality, it's just a tax that also happens to be demarked as your contributions towards getting a state pension once you're older. So if you are on for the full state pension, then you probably don't need to do this. The only time I would make an exception on that is if you could buy these years really, really cheaply. If any of these are part years. So a part year is where you almost got all the contributions you need to get a year, but you're not quite, and it's binary. So I know people who've been able to buy part years for 15 quid. You know, normally it's going to cost you, a full year is going to cost you in the 900ish pounds. But if you could buy a part year for 15 quid, 20 quid, hey, maybe even 50 quid. Even at your age, just in case something happens in future,

• 39:58Martin Lewis?

  as you can only buy back a certain amount, you can only buy back six years. I would be tempted to go, you know what, it's 50 quid. I'm just going to do it, just on the off chance that I might need it at some point in the future. But if you're having to pay the full 9.50 for it, I'd probably be thinking it wasn't worth it. Now, when I was doing my big explanations on buying back national insurance years, when you could buy a lot back, I could only really go, you could only really strongly do the analysis for people who were basically got to around their 60s. Because once you're around your 60s, you have a pretty firm idea of what's going to happen to you. You are so young at 36 for doing this. There are a lot of risks that you're just going to be buying money, throwing stuff away. You know, there are big risks for you that the state pension might become means tested once you're older. We don't know that. I mean, I don't think that's going to happen imminently.

• 40:42Martin Lewis?

  I don't think it's going to happen for people who are retiring now. But you're talking about retiring in 30 to 35 years. And who knows what will be happening in the UK to state pensioners in 30 to 35 years? So there are a lot of risks in this, in doing it now. If you're on to get the full state pension, I probably wouldn't be doing it. Other than if you can get a year really cheaply so that, you know, it's beer money type costs where you may as well do it just as a safety net in cases of a year that you don't work in the future and you wouldn't be able to get. And this would be a really cheap way to buy it. I hope that makes sense. You do need to go and do a little bit more reading. If you are thinking, if you've gone in the frame of saying, actually, I think I will do buy a year, then you need to do some thinking. And there's a government system where you need to call and get some advice first on whether it's right or wrong for you before you buy it.

• 41:27Martin Lewis?

  So we're only on the first step of whether you should look at it, not whether you should actually do it at this point.

• 41:34Martin Lewis?

  Right. And now, Mr. Burnham Esquire.

• 41:37Speaker 05

  Yes, Martha Lewis.

• 41:39Martin Lewis?

  This is the important point where we reveal what our selection of the two potential names for contributors. A contributor is being defined as anyone whose question is read out or any callers who come on to the Question Time podcast or anyone who gives us information that we use. You will then get to use this name, whatever we call you. You will be able to perfectly legally, within the canon of the podcast and not within the actual law, perfectly legally use this after your name. And if you are a caller, you're going to get a badge. Is that right?

• 42:13Speaker 05

  Yes. I haven't seen, and she's just so. So I took the liberty of designing the badges myself and I want to say that I've done a fantastic job. So what do you think?

• 42:30Martin Lewis?

  It's, yes.

• 42:33Martin Lewis?

  It's definitely me with Mickey Mouse-ish headphones on and I am a, and you've gone for one of the two options, but of course that could change.

• 42:40Speaker 05

  Yes, so that was just the mock-up.

• 42:42Martin Lewis?

  And have we got budget from the BBC to send badges to our callers?

• 42:45Speaker 05

  We do. I've had the green light from the editor.

• 42:47Martin Lewis?

  Has Tom said yes?

• 42:48Speaker 05

  Tom said yes.

• 42:49Martin Lewis?

  Well done, Matt.

• 42:49Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 42:50Martin Lewis?

  Wow. This is exciting, but we're just, we're just clarifying the rules now. This is only for callers.

• 42:55Speaker 05

  So yeah, if you come on and we speak to you and you ask your question or you say your success to us, then you can have a badge. If you, if we just read out your question, then you can call yourself one of these.

• 43:08Martin Lewis?

  Whatever, whichever one of the two options is.

• 43:10Speaker 05

  Whatever you decide, but you won't get a badge.

• 43:12Martin Lewis?

  Now this, for those listening, this is Sony award-winning gold standard producing here.

• 43:18Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 43:18Martin Lewis?

  Because what Mr. Burnham Esquire has done.

• 43:22Martin Lewis?

  Is he's the person who has to get people to come on and do the calls on the podcast. Now, what's interesting is actually in my subject, it's often quite difficult because many people who call say in the main podcast, it's about problems that they have. We actually tend to find it easier in this podcast as many of the people are quite into their finances and it tends to be about positive rather than negative things, which they're more happy to talk about. Like our brilliant callers today that we've had in, but still Matt, this is giving you, this is giving you a little bit of something that you can say. You get a badge if you come on.

• 43:50Speaker 05

  Exactly.

• 43:51Martin Lewis?

  That's where you've come from.

• 43:52Speaker 05

  Exactly.

• 43:52Martin Lewis?

  That's what you've done this for. And they see their badge, they might not be as, are we going to, just, I'm sorry for going in this before we reveal, before we do the big reveal. Are we going to show anybody what the badge looks like? Or is it only for people who get the badge who will actually get to know what's on the badge? This is an interesting decision.

• 44:11Speaker 05

  I think you should not tell anyone, we don't show anyone. And you only find out if you come on and ask the question, Dane will send you the badge because.

• 44:22Martin Lewis?

  And just to say, the BBC is going to do the postage and everything, the people don't have to come to London to pick the badge up.

• 44:26Speaker 05

  No, no, no, it'll get sent to you.

• 44:28Martin Lewis?

  Second, second class stamp is fine, second.

• 44:31Speaker 05

  I'm looking at the badge now on my, I'm, I'm, I'm very impressed. I'm proud of myself.

• 44:36Martin Lewis?

  Do, do you and I get a badge?

• 44:39Speaker 05

  Yeah, of course.

• 44:40Martin Lewis?

  Does Rosie get a badge?

• 44:42Speaker 05

  It depends on how nice she is to me that day.

• 44:43Martin Lewis?

  Oh, she's just pulled, she's had them pouty lips, she's not happy. Rosie gets a badge and I might need a badge for my daughter.

• 44:49Speaker 05

  And Sally as well.

• 44:50Martin Lewis?

  And Sally gets a badge too.

• 44:51Speaker 05

  Yes, Sally gets a badge. Does Simon get a badge?

• 44:54Martin Lewis?

  I'm, I'm not getting involved between you and Simon, especially, especially on the mass reveal that's about to happen. So mass reveal in, in editing afterwards, please add a drum roll.

• 45:05Martin Lewis?

  Thank you. So the two potential names for contributors on the show are.

• 45:13Martin Lewis?

  First of all, suggested by podcast producer Simon, which really annoys podcast producer Matt, Matt, Simon who produces the main podcast, is MPC, Martin's Podcast Contributor, which is also the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England to decide the interest rates.

• 45:30Speaker 05

  That's why you like it so much.

• 45:31Martin Lewis?

  That's the clever financial spin.

• 45:32Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 45:33Martin Lewis?

  The other one, and can you remind me who suggested it?

• 45:35Speaker 05

  Yes, so this was from Steve.

• 45:37Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, Steve suggested that people become Esquires, which is, as we call Matt, Matthew Burnham, Esquire, you're about to become an Esquire, but an Esquire stands for?

• 45:48Speaker 05

  Extremely Savvy Questioners.

• 45:50Martin Lewis?

  So your choice is between MPC, Martin's Podcast Contributor, and Extremely Savvy Questioners, who will be referred to as Esquires in future, and that is the choice. And how are we going to allow people to vote on this?

• 46:06Speaker 05

  I've been thinking about this for a while. I had to go and email someone at the BBC to find out if we could do it properly, or I had to jump through many hoops.

• 46:13Martin Lewis?

  Have you got a video of you jumping through hoops?

• 46:16Speaker 05

  Yeah, many.

• 46:17Martin Lewis?

  I'll put that on social.

• 46:18Speaker 05

  Okay. It's at Crufts, actually. So I think what we should do is you should email in with which one you like, put it in the title, not the title, the subject line, and just put ESQ or MPC. I'll top them all up, we'll close it after a week or so.

• 46:38Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, so we decided, so we did discuss me doing a social media poll, which I do a lot of, but then we'll have a lot of people voting who don't actually listen to the podcast, and we didn't think that was fair. We thought, this is, it's you who are listening towards the end, and us droning on about this. I don't know, we've been going for about 40 minutes now, and who are still listening who get the right to vote on this. So yeah, so email [email protected]. You don't need to put anything else in there, you literally just put in the subject line either MPC or ESQ. Matt will top them up, and no cheating and multiple voting, please.

• 47:11Speaker 05

  Nope.

• 47:12Martin Lewis?

  That's not in the spirit of what we're doing.

• 47:13Speaker 05

  And then we'll reveal it next episode?

• 47:14Martin Lewis?

  And then we will reveal it next episode, and that will be the formal name, and then the badge will be done, and then, I'm going to say this, Matt, and I hope, I hope we're not, you know, busting budgets here, from next week, when we do the reveal, if you are a caller on next week's show, you will get a badge. It might take a little while for the badges to be made and for it to be sent to you, because we have to wait until we know which the winner is, but you will get a badge from next week onwards.

• 47:37Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 47:38Martin Lewis?

  Hooray! Let's end here. Thanks, everyone.

• 47:42Martin Lewis?

  And that's it for this week's Question Time. Don't forget to subscribe so you know when we release a new episode. We, yes, that's me and Matt, 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. Make sure you're sending your questions. You can email [email protected]. And don't forget to vote. Do you want to be, if you contribute, an MPC or an ESQ? We need your votes now. Keep voting, folks.

• 48:29Speaker 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.

• 49:05Speaker 01

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

• 49:15Speaker 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.

• 49:23Speaker 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.

• 49:53Speaker 01

  Coffee? Love a cup of tea.

• 49:55Speaker 08

  I'll have tea, too.

• 49:56Speaker 01

  Tea for me, please.