I lost investing, time to retry? | Success: you got me £3k more pension | I bought home at 30, can I fix energy before moving?

In our Question Time podcast, Martin tackles a mix of consumer rights, energy-switching dilemmas and investing nerves in this week. He explains why you have fewer rights when buying personalised products, where the line is between a genuinely customised item and something that only looks bespoke, and what protections you still have if things go wrong. Plus, if you're planning a house move, can you take a fixed energy tariff with you or are you forced onto a new deal? Martin unpacks the rules, the pitfalls and what to check before you move. And in our new Your Answers feature, Angela tells us she invested £5,000, saw it fall by £150 almost immediately, panicked and sold. Now she's wondering whether she should get back into investing. Martin put the question to listeners and received more than 3,000 responses. From lessons about staying calm during market dips to hard-earned experiences of investing for the long term, he shares the wisdom that stood out. Finally, a brilliant success story: one caller boosted their pension by £3,000 simply from acting on something they heard on the podcast. Martin explains how it happened, why it could affect many more people, and how to check whether you're due extra pension money too. 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 what he likes in his full English breakfast, what his thermostat’s set to, or you have a very complicated question about your finances, email it to [email protected] mailto:[email protected].

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:06Speaker 01

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• 1:47Martin Lewis?

  Get off the price cap because it's a pants cap. It's just gone up. The market is by definition volatile.

• 1:52Speaker 03

  Always have a little nugget of something that I take away and apply to my everyday life.

• 1:56Martin Lewis?

  Going into the arsenal, the mental arsenal. I would push very strongly that you have those rights under the consumer contract regulations. What an interesting question. Very interesting. I enjoyed that. Hello and welcome to the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is our Question Time episode, where you are Esquires' extremely savvy questioners, get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything, open brackets within reason, close brackets. And this week, you ask me, as you've got less rights if you buy a personalised item when you're shopping online, what exactly counts as personalised? Is there a way to fix my energy tariff if I'm moving house? Then we're launching a new trial experiment called Your Answers.

• 2:41Martin Lewis?

  Angela got in touch to say she invested £5,000, it lost £150 straight away. She got spooked, sold it. And she wanted to know what I would say to her about how to get back into it. But I thought, hold on, let's crowdsource the information. And I asked you, we've had over 3,000 answers, we'll be going through that in detail. And then we finish, in the best way to finish, with a big success. £3,000 extra pension just by listening to the pod. And you do it too. Play the theme tune.

• 3:32Martin Lewis?

  Hello and welcome to our Question Time edition of the podcast. Yes, this is the one where you can ask me a question on anything and everything. Let's all say it together, open brackets within reason, close brackets. And joining me, I am delighted to say, is the curator of questions himself, Professor, Sir, Doctor, Matthew Burnham, Esquire. All of those are legal titles within the canon of the podcast. You got them all this week, Matt?

• 4:03Speaker 04

  I know, I've done nothing wrong.

• 4:05Martin Lewis?

  You've done nothing wrong. They've been dropped three weeks in a row. I think we've had them dropped. But they've done nothing wrong. And we are, we are celebrating a new era this week. Important to say at the start, sitting aside me, as she has for the last three weeks, while she was shadowing GDPR, Google Docs Professional Rosie, but now taking over in her own right, we have Isabel. Give us a smile, Isabel, and a wave. Isabel is smiling. A royal wave. She did a royal wave. Whoa, getting above a station already. Isabel did a royal wave. She is here. We have not yet had the debate on whether Isabel will be speaking in the podcast or not. So we're going silent for the moment, but Isabel will be live fact checking me as we go along. And Rosie has now left the building.

• 4:50Speaker 04

  Thank you and good night.

• 4:50Martin Lewis?

  This building, but not the building. She still works with me and is still doing a brilliant job.

• 4:53Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 4:54Martin Lewis?

  Yes. So how's your week been?

• 4:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, good, thank you. We had an email come in.

• 4:59Martin Lewis?

  Okay, isn't, isn't that sort of the point of what we do?

• 5:01Speaker 04

  Well, this is an important email.

• 5:03Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 5:03Speaker 04

  Okay, this one's from Matthew in Hollywood in Northern Ireland.

• 5:07Martin Lewis?

  Okay, should I be worried about this or not?

• 5:09Speaker 04

  Well, no.

• 5:10Martin Lewis?

  No mention of this come to me whatsoever?

• 5:12Speaker 04

  I think I should be more worried than you.

• 5:13Martin Lewis?

  Okay, good. That's fine then.

• 5:14Speaker 04

  He says, hey, Martin, Matt, PPS, GDPR and the rest of the team.

• 5:18Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 5:19Speaker 04

  I think he means Isabel. He says, no question here, I just want to say how angry I am that Matt decided to change the format. It is not on.

• 5:27Martin Lewis?

  Can I stand up? Can you still hear me if I stand up?

• 5:29Speaker 04

  Yeah, just about.

• 5:30Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 5:30Speaker 04

  I could not properly listen to the genius words of wisdom from Martin due to the change in formatting order. I believe Matt needs another title taken away and I hope the original format is reintroduced for future podcasts.

• 5:41Martin Lewis?

  Oh, let's just get rid of Professor this week because I mean, Professor needs, I think you did not please the listener. For those who missed the, the, the aberration that was last week's podcast. I mean, regular listeners will know, the podcast has a format. We start with a read, then we do a caller on the even numbers, then a read. So it goes read caller, read caller. Last week, Matt started the podcast with a caller. It gave us terrible problems. Did we then do a caller second as well so that it was on the even number? Or did we do a read, which we ended up doing? But then on the third one, what do you now do? Do you go caller, read, caller, read? Or do you go caller, read, read caller? It was, it was really disturbing. For those of us who like order, somewhat obsessively for tats.

• 6:23Martin Lewis?

  It was, and I'm glad that the listeners were also unhappy about it as well. You have had a professorship docked for the week.

• 6:29Speaker 04

  Well, he does actually then go and say, I'm only joking, of course.

• 6:32Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 6:33Speaker 04

  And he's grateful for the help that you've given him. He says, actually.

• 6:35Martin Lewis?

  But I'm not joking.

• 6:36Speaker 04

  He says he's grateful for all the help that not just Martin does, but the entire team.

• 6:41Martin Lewis?

  That's absolutely true. It is an ensemble effort.

• 6:43Speaker 04

  That's me and you, Isabel.

• 6:45Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, that's, that's you and Isabel. I provide the answers. Isabel is fact checking. Matt is putting it all together and getting the questions in and Leo, he is the curator of questions, of course. It's a team effort. But I think now we should actually do some, answering some questions.

• 6:58Speaker 04

  I agree.

• 7:02Martin Lewis?

  So time for question number one. It's an odd number, therefore it's a read, isn't it, Matt?

• 7:07Speaker 04

  Yeah, don't worry. It's a read. It's a read. Becky sent this one in to [email protected]. She says, hi, Martin and Matt.

• 7:14Martin Lewis?

  Hello.

• 7:15Speaker 04

  My question in short is clarification on the exemption of custom made items in the consumer contracts regulations.

• 7:22Martin Lewis?

  Okidots.

• 7:23Speaker 04

  If an item is selected from a dropdown menu, but then made once the order is placed, does this count as custom made? I thought I understood that it was not, but I'm slightly losing confidence. And am I right that if they don't specify, in this case incorrectly saying no returns, that they are then liable for the return postage? Follow on question if allowed, and if I'm right, that it is not custom. How can they get away with this? I'm not totally sure if it's a law, but at least a statutory right.

• 7:50Martin Lewis?

  Statutory right is a law. Statute is by definition law. So let's split this into two. Let's first of all, talk about the exemption of custom made items. And then we'll go on to how shops get away with it. So to catch up people who aren't as on it as Becky, and she is properly on it in this question. If you buy an item online, you have up to 14 days after it has been delivered to notify them that you want to cancel it and return it. And then up to 14 days after you've notified them to send it back. So that's a maximum total of 28 days. But if you notify them of cancellation after two days, you only have 14 days in which to send it back. So the time period, it varies somewhat depending on you.

• 8:33Martin Lewis?

  The exemption to this is if items are personalised or perishable. Because clearly, you know, clearly if you get a bunch of flowers that go off after three days, and that's fair for them to go after three days, and then you decide you're going to send them back, that's a little bit unfair on the company. So that's where the exemption comes from. And also, because this is effectively a change of mind rule, which you don't get in a shop. In a shop, you can only have a legal right to take stuff back if it's faulty. Online, you get a right to change your mind because you haven't seen the item. If they've made the item for you, you can understand why the carve out was made. Now, exactly what happens in the carve out, what you're effectively saying here is this is a specific order from a dropdown menu.

• 9:16Martin Lewis?

  So let's say they might, I don't know, I've thought of a really terrible example, but it's what's in my head. You know, you sometimes go into those shops, Matt, and they've got all those keychains with the different names on.

• 9:26Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 9:26Martin Lewis?

  Well, it's personalised, but it's not personalised, isn't it?

• 9:29Speaker 04

  Well, yeah, because they're all there.

• 9:30Martin Lewis?

  Exactly.

• 9:31Speaker 04

  You have to find your name.

• 9:31Martin Lewis?

  And I think what we're talking about here is personalised but not personalised. And so on the basis of that, I have to say, it's getting quite legal. So can I break the fourth wall? Can we go back to the podcast patio where there's no fourth wall?

• 9:43Speaker 04

  Yeah, go on.

• 9:44Martin Lewis?

  So you read this question out to me in a prior week.

• 9:47Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 9:48Martin Lewis?

  And I said, I want to check with the lawyer before I answer it. So I'm now coming back with the lawyer's cheque, but we didn't put in the fact that we've got to that point.

• 9:54Speaker 04

  Mm hmm.

• 9:55Martin Lewis?

  Okay. So this is from Pinstons Masons. They say the short answer is that the consumer should usually still benefit from the 14 day cancellation rights, and the goods would not be considered custom made, subject to below as the analysis is fact specific. Now, the key bits in the fact is there are two distinct tests under the regulation. The first focuses on whether the consumer dictated the product's specific characteristics. So you can hear it's personalised. I want it this big. I want it this wide. I want it to work this way. That didn't happen in the dropdown. The second on whether something is unique to that individual, for example, initials or a name. But a name would be if it was dictated, has been incorporated.

• 10:35Martin Lewis?

  Selecting from a preset dropdown menu of standard options is unlikely by itself to satisfy either test. So clearly, there's always details involved in this. But it sounds like the lawyers would strongly suggest that this company is, you do have a right of return. Now. We move on then. So I'm with you, Becky, and more importantly, the lawyers are with you, the consumer lawyers that we check this with. And thank you very much to them for doing that, by the way. It's really very much appreciated. I'm with you that they don't have a right. So how do they get away with it? Well, let me tell you, this is very, very common. In fact, we checked, it was either earlier this year or the end of last

• 11:16Martin Lewis?

  year, 400 retailers' online return policies to see if they were compliant with what the statutory law is. And 30 of them, including major retailers, were not compliant. What they said was not right. For example, they would say, you have up to 14 days to return items. No, you have up to 14 days to notify and 14 days after to return. They would say, you don't have these rights on sales items. No, that is not correct. So I have very little surprise that you have a website here that is specifying the statutory rights incorrectly. And they get away with it because it's relatively unpleased. This is the type of things that Trading Standards should be doing, but we have decimated the budgets for Trading Standards

• 12:00Martin Lewis?

  over the years. Trading Standards, great organisation, lots of great people work there. But they simply don't have the resources to be able to monitor all this type of stuff. If you'd like to send me the details, I can possibly forward it on, or you can report it yourself. But they are breaking the law. They are telling you the law incorrectly. You still have the legal right. So it's arguable whether they're breaking the law, but they are misinforming you about what the law is, which I say would put people off exercising their statutory legal rights as they should do, which is not a good situation. So, I mean, this one is a little bit more complicated. Ultimately, the truth is, I need to be honest with you, only a court could decide what the exact scenario is. But what I would do

• 12:45Martin Lewis?

  if I were you, on the specific retailer, I would speak to Citizens Advice Consumer Direct and tell them, and if the retailer is not letting you send it back, then, although I think you're doing this as a what is the situation, rather than you actually want to send it back. But I think I would push very strongly that you have those rights under the Consumer Contract Regulations. What an interesting question.

• 13:07Speaker 04

  Very interesting.

• 13:08Martin Lewis?

  I enjoyed that.

• 13:09Speaker 04

  Very technical. That's why you enjoyed it so much.

• 13:10Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I did. I like technical. Well, also, I learnt a little bit. I hadn't ever gone into the specifics of what exactly defines personalised or perishable in that way. And I think that's something that is going into the arsenal, the mental arsenal of answers for the future. That's a good one. Thank you so much for that question. Okay, Matt. So I think it's time for a caller, isn't it?

• 13:34Speaker 04

  Yeah, let's do it. Will in Coventry is here. Hi, Will.

• 13:37Speaker 05

  Hey, lads, you all right?

• 13:39Martin Lewis?

  Hello, mate.

• 13:40Speaker 04

  Lads, I don't think we've ever been called a lad.

• 13:41Martin Lewis?

  I quite like being a lad. I would love this if this was a question on intestacy rules or doing a cheap will, because then it would be Will's Will. Where there's a will, there's a way. Is it about that?

• 13:53Speaker 05

  Unfortunately, not. I wasn't that smart.

• 13:56Martin Lewis?

  Because I could have gone through the fact, look at this, how to shoehorn something in. I could have confirmed the fact that Will Aid, you can currently book for November, which is a way to get cheap solicitor drafted wills in order for a donation for charity. Or October is Free Wills Month for people aged over 55 there. They can get free wills. Or there's Octopus Legacy wills. I could have talked about all of that, but you've denied me the opportunity. So I'm not going to mention it. What's your question?

• 14:24Speaker 05

  Well, I'm very sorry to disappoint you, Martin.

• 14:27Martin Lewis?

  Yes.

• 14:28Speaker 05

  So I have a success.

• 14:31Martin Lewis?

  Hold on, if you've got a success, Matt, play the success theme. Okay, now, Will, what's your success?

• 14:43Speaker 05

  Well, using your guidance and sort of advice, I've been saving money. I've been pumping money into a high interest savings account for the last few years or so. And I've recently fulfilled a lifelong dream of buying my first house.

• 15:03Martin Lewis?

  Oh, that really is a success. Well done. Well done. That's always a wonderful life goal and just can make you settle down in an affordable house and gives you security. Do you have a family or are you by yourself?

• 15:14Speaker 05

  I am by myself, yeah. So I wanted to, I basically had a goal when I was 18.

• 15:21Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, amazing.

• 15:22Speaker 05

  That I wanted to buy a house by the time I was 30. And I've achieved it. I put down a 15% deposit on a house. And I managed to get it at a cheaper rate as well, because my survey came back with a few category threes. So I managed to knock the price off.

• 15:37Martin Lewis?

  Marvellous. Well, just to make you feel even better, I bought my first house at 33.

• 15:42Speaker 05

  Wow.

• 15:43Martin Lewis?

  So you're ahead of me in the line. And Matt, you're 28 and don't have one yet. So there's still time for you.

• 15:49Speaker 04

  29, but.

• 15:50Martin Lewis?

  Oh, I missed your birthday.

• 15:52Speaker 04

  No, you did. It was ages ago. It was in April.

• 15:54Martin Lewis?

  Okay, edit that bit out. Carry on, Will.

• 15:56Speaker 05

  Yeah. So I had a question. And it was about the energy price hike. So I've not moved into my new house yet, but I was wondering if it's possible to get on a fix before I move into my new house?

• 16:11Martin Lewis?

  It depends. Are you currently an energy bill payer?

• 16:16Speaker 05

  No.

• 16:17Martin Lewis?

  Then it gets very difficult, because you don't have a property to sign a contract for. So I can't think of a way around this. When are you moving to your new house? How long away are you?

• 16:30Speaker 05

  So I don't have a date yet. I'd like to say I'm moving within the month, but I don't know yet.

• 16:37Martin Lewis?

  Okay. So generally, it takes five days to switch. There is no point in you starting one beforehand. For everybody else listening, I'll go through a moment what the situation would have been if your answer had been yes, you know, that you had the ability, that you had a current energy bill, because then there are some tips I can do. I would actually say to you, I wouldn't worry too much.

• 16:57Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 16:58Martin Lewis?

  So my call for people to switch is a call for people who are on the price cap to get off the price cap, because it's a pants cap. It's just gone up. It went up last week, last Thursday, by 3.6% on average. And it is currently predicted to be going up around 20% in January. So the fact that you can currently get a fix cheaper than the price cap, that locks in a rate cheaper than you are paying right now, and will likely be very substantially cheaper than you are paying in January, means it's quite urgent for those people who are paying for their energy bills to get on a fix. But the issue for you is, as you're not on a fix, fixes right now are actually quite expensive compared

• 17:40Martin Lewis?

  to how they were. If you had fixed six weeks ago, it would have been over 10% cheaper. If you had fixed before the start of the Middle East conflict, it would have been around 20% cheaper, rough ballpark. So when we actually look at the cost of getting a fix today, it's not that cheap. And the prices of fixes move every day. So you're moving in a month. My call for urgency is stop paying too much and get on a fix. You're not paying too much because you're not paying anything, because you don't have an energy bill. And I can't tell you, because it literally depends on global macroeconomic policy and what goes on in international politics, whether fixes will be more expensive or cheaper than they are right now in a month's time. They are already very high. Things would have to get

• 18:23Martin Lewis?

  even worse for them to be higher. There is equally a possibility, we see a slight de-escalation in the Middle East, that means fixes are cheaper in a month's time than they are now. So as there's nothing you can do about it, the best thing I can say to you is, it is perfectly possible you'll be better off by not doing it now. It's equally possible you'll be worse off by not doing it now. But I wouldn't worry about it because you're not paying your energy bill right now. Does that make sense?

• 18:45Speaker 05

  Yeah, that makes perfect sense. That puts me at ease a little bit.

• 18:49Martin Lewis?

  Good. Well, that's what I want to do. And I'm now going to answer the call. Let's pretend we're going to ask you to lie. We never ask people to lie, but I'm going to ask you to lie. We're not going to edit this. We're going to play both bits in. So could you lie to me? So, Will, are you currently paying an energy bill?

• 19:03Speaker 05

  Yes, I am.

• 19:04Martin Lewis?

  Hey, well, let me give you the answer for that scenario, for everybody else listening in reality. Okay. So there are two forms of energy bills out there. There are those that are portable. That literally means you can take them with you when you move house. But if you wanted to stop them when you moved house and not take them with you, you'd have to pay an early exit penalty. And there are those that are not portable. And the ones that aren't portable, they will not charge you an early exit penalty if you ditch them because you're moving house. Now, it can be tariff by tariff, but it tends to be at a provider level. So I'm going to give you what providers normally do. But equally, you should always check with an individual tariff. So normally, the portable tariffs,

• 19:49Martin Lewis?

  British Gas, EDF, Eon Next, Fuse Energy, Octopus, Ecotricity, Utility Warehouse. The non-portable but no early exit penalties if you move house, Outfox, OVO, Scottish Power, Sainsbury's Energy. So if you want to go onto a comparison site and find your cheapest, and you want a portable one, then you're probably looking for British Gas, EDF, Eon Next, Fuse Energy, Octopus, Ecotricity, Utility Warehouse. And that's what I would be looking at if you wanted to lock in a cheap fix right now, because you're paying your bill right now, aren't you?

• 20:17Speaker 05

  Yes, sir.

• 20:19Martin Lewis?

  Thank you very much. I think, I mean, we can't give two badges to one caller. But I think for playing along with that, Matt, I think that would have been almost worth two badges. But it's only one badge.

• 20:28Speaker 04

  Only one badge, yeah.

• 20:29Martin Lewis?

  Only one badge.

• 20:30Speaker 04

  Sorry, Will. Sorry to disappoint.

• 20:31Martin Lewis?

  So the badge, do you want the badge sent to the current house or the new house?

• 20:36Speaker 05

  Oh.

• 20:37Martin Lewis?

  Because we don't want it lost in the post in transit, you know?

• 20:40Speaker 05

  I didn't think of this, actually. I might actually nominate to send it to my dad, actually, who's also a listener.

• 20:51Speaker 04

  We have actually had this before, where someone said, because they're moving house, they've been on the pod talking about moving house, and they've said, send it to my mum's house or my dad's house.

• 20:59Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, because.

• 21:00Speaker 04

  You're not the first.

• 21:01Martin Lewis?

  This is incredibly valuable.

• 21:02Speaker 04

  It is.

• 21:03Martin Lewis?

  I mean, my biggest worry for you, Will, moving in, we've saved you a lot of money. But when you speak to the home insurer about the value of the contents, and you tell them that you have a Martin Lewis podcast badge, I mean, it could put the prices up hugely. I mean, it's money can't buy stuff.

• 21:16Speaker 05

  I've already decided I'm going to build a shrine for it.

• 21:21Martin Lewis?

  Nice. We like that.

• 21:22Speaker 05

  It's going in like a little glass cabinet and everything.

• 21:24Martin Lewis?

  It's very appropriate.

• 21:25Speaker 04

  And is there going to be a little picture of Martin and something else next to it, maybe?

• 21:29Speaker 05

  There'll be a picture of you, Matt.

• 21:30Speaker 04

  Oh, thanks, mate.

• 21:31Martin Lewis?

  Remember, Matt is on the badge. Anyone who gets a badge, you're in, is it the I you're in?

• 21:35Speaker 04

  No, I'm in one of the full stops.

• 21:38Martin Lewis?

  Well, yeah, the ellipses at the end, it's called, with the threes full stops. You're one of the ellipses. There's a little picture of Matt in there. He wheedled his way in.

• 21:46Speaker 04

  I guess.

• 21:47Martin Lewis?

  Look at all this with a magnifying glass when you get it. Will, thank you so much. Really appreciate that, mate. And good luck and congratulations.

• 21:53Speaker 05

  Thank you, guys. Thank you.

• 21:55Speaker 04

  Cheers.

• 21:56Martin Lewis?

  Cheers. 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.

• 22:13Speaker 04

  No, Dear Matt.

• 22:14Martin Lewis?

  Dear Martin.

• 22:15Speaker 04

  Dear Matt.

• 22:19Martin Lewis?

  Right, Matt, so that was fixing energy and you fixed the format, so you must have a read for me.

• 22:24Speaker 04

  Hang on, Martin, this is our experimental question.

• 22:27Martin Lewis?

  Oh, we're doing that one, are we?

• 22:28Speaker 04

  We are.

• 22:29Martin Lewis?

  Okay, this is very exciting, everyone. We have never tried this before. So with this question, I put it on social media because I thought it was an interesting one and asked people on social media to answer it for me because it's an opinion, a subjective one, rather than a factual objective one. Now, I wouldn't do that with the, what the complex technical one that we started the podcast with. So we're calling this 'Your Answers'. Maybe I need some reverberation, Matt?

• 22:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, okay, I can do that.

• 22:54Martin Lewis?

  'Your Answers'. So I'm going to give your answers, then I'm going to give my answers on the back. The response was unbelievable. How many people answered, was it?

• 23:03Speaker 04

  Okay, so you posted it on Facebook and X.

• 23:05Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 23:05Speaker 04

  X, you got 1.1,000.

• 23:08Martin Lewis?

  So 1,100, yeah?

• 23:09Speaker 04

  1,100, and then you got 2,100 on Facebook.

• 23:14Martin Lewis?

  Wow. So we've had-

• 23:15Speaker 04

  Massive.

• 23:16Martin Lewis?

  We've had 3,300 responses to this question.

• 23:19Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 23:20Martin Lewis?

  Matt, are we going to read them all out?

• 23:22Speaker 04

  Yeah, I've got them all here, so if you just bear with me-

• 23:24Martin Lewis?

  Sit down, put your feet up and get ready.

• 23:27Speaker 04

  People were wondering why the podcast was 24 hours long.

• 23:30Martin Lewis?

  Podcast marathon. Right, so Matt, you've clearly selected a few to read out. We should probably read the question first.

• 23:36Speaker 04

  Yes, okay, so this one was sent in. Dear Martin, I'm in my 50s and I've never invested before due to nervousness about the stock market, but last year, following your advice, I put about £5,000 in a stocks and shares ISA. I felt very brave and happy with myself. However, the next day, Trump bombed Iran and I lost £150 overnight. I couldn't believe my bad luck. I hurriedly took it back out again, fearing I would lose even more. What can you say to someone like me to get them investing again? When I look on the internet, it's full of warnings that an even bigger stock market crash is coming. Is it coming?

• 24:11Martin Lewis?

  Well, I don't know if it's coming or not. No one predicts the stock market. What I do know is investing is for the long term, and if you hadn't taken that money out, I don't know what you're, what fund, hopefully it was in an investment fund, if you're a beginning investor, a global tracker, or an S&P tracker, or a UK tracker, almost certainly you would have made money if you'd kept it in now, if it was in a fund. But I shouldn't be answering. Matt, what have people been saying? What would they say to anxious Angela?

• 24:36Speaker 04

  So Edwina Currie replied.

• 24:38Martin Lewis?

  Okay, well, as in former Minister Edwina Currie?

• 24:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, she did. Any advisor would tell you that if you have chosen a good share, a well-run company that isn't loaded down with too much debt, and a sector with good growth prospects, then you hang on, stocks recover.

• 24:53Martin Lewis?

  I agree in principle, although I'd never have a beginner investor in a single share, that really is very, very high risk. I would be far more encouraging people to buy in a fund of, you know, prefacing like a global tracker that has 1,000, 1,500 shares in it, so you're spreading the risk and the risk reward profile is flattened a bit to take some of the risk out. But in principle, yes, yes.

• 25:14Speaker 04

  Steve said, I set up a stocks-

• 25:16Martin Lewis?

  Was Steve a former MP or television presenter?

• 25:18Speaker 04

  I don't think so.

• 25:19Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 25:19Speaker 04

  He set up a stocks and shares ISA about 18 months ago. At first, I was checking it every day.

• 25:24Martin Lewis?

  That's such a mistake.

• 25:25Speaker 04

  I know. Ecstatic when it went up, panicking when it went down. Nowadays, I just leave it to itself. Checked it just now and it's returning 13.99%. I'm a happy bunny right now.

• 25:34Martin Lewis?

  Cool. And even after a year or 18 months, it's too early to judge. Let's just go back into the basic premise of when investing works. Investing works, you should be looking at it as a beginner for money you don't need that you're putting away for more than five years because the market is by definition volatile. The whole point of markets is they go up and they go down. What you want, I think of it, think of it like a roller coaster. It's always going to be a roller coaster, but what you're hoping for is a roller coaster where you end up higher than you started. So you're, you know, it's like a roller coaster going up a cliff. That's what you want. So it's going to go up and down, up and down, up and down, but where you end up is higher than where you started. But if you look at it every day, it's not what it's there for.

• 26:18Martin Lewis?

  You're not a day trader, it's not a profession. You're putting money away for a long period in a broad spread of investments and you're hoping that it's reflecting the performance of a global economy, or maybe one country's economy, and that's going to do well, and it's going to return your money day by day. Nightmare. Terrible for the psyche.

• 26:33Speaker 04

  So Lee said, time in the market, not timing the market.

• 26:37Martin Lewis?

  Such an important phrase. Time, time in the market beats timing the market. No one gets it right or wrong. If you hold it for a long time, though, it's about balancing those averages out.

• 26:45Speaker 04

  Jay, time in the market over timing the market is my biggest advice. Play it safe with S&P 500 instead of all eggs in one basket. Instead of 5,000 in one, go put monthly amounts of like £400 a month over the year so you can catch those lows and highs.

• 27:00Martin Lewis?

  So that's drip feeding, which is another good technique. So what drip feeding does, or pound cost averaging, or dollar cost averaging, as it originally comes from, is if you're putting money in each month and the stock, the price is going up and down of that particular fund, well, one month you might be buying it slightly cheaper than the next month when it's more expensive, and it might be cheaper again the month after or more expensively after that. So instead of, if you put it all in at once and then it drops, you've suddenly got a loss. If you put it all in once and then it rises, you've got a win. But if you put it in the same amount of money in over a year, as you're dripping it in, you're spreading out the short-term volatility that affects the buying price, and then you're hoping for the long-term gain. That's the philosophy there.

• 27:39Speaker 04

  Sarah, I watch my pension pot being hit every time DJT does something like Start Another War, but I've learned by watching closely that it's a marathon, not a sprint. Every time, it's recovered and grown strongly. Of course, I might eat my words when the time comes in the not-too-distant future to start withdrawing it, but I certainly don't recommend any knee-jerk reactions like this one.

• 28:00Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, and look, investing isn't guaranteed. That's the whole point. You're putting money in in the hopes of higher growth at the cost of it may perform worse, right? And your money might shrink. So we always have to start with that important warning. This is why the spreading your risk and you're doing it over the long period, the danger is always at the point of crystallization. The danger is at the moment that you have to sell, which is one of the reasons it's money you don't need for a long term, so that you can plan when you're going to sell. If you're forced to sell because of financial circumstances, that can always be a risk because you're doing it at the down bit of the roller coaster when you don't need to be, and that's why it's a long period. But the panic selling, in a way, which is what you did, Angela, and it's great you're asking the question, it's great you're open again to considering it.

• 28:45Martin Lewis?

  I mean, some people would argue when it's just gone down, that is the point to buy. There are only really three things that matter when you're investing. The price you buy at, the price you sell at, and any income you've earned. And you chose to sell when it had just gone down, so you lost money. When people say to me, I've just lost, you know, I've just lost money because my shares have gone down, well, they've gone down, but it's about that daily volatility. You've only lost money on the day you sell. If you crystallize the loss when it's down, you've lost money. If you crystallize it when it's gone up, you've made money. I know that's very obvious, but it's important. The reason you lost money and not having a go in any way, I understand that you were nervous, is because you sold on the day it had just gone down.

• 29:26Speaker 04

  Fay said, would you quickly sell your house if it dropped in value? Same mindset needed for investments. You only lose money if you sell when it takes a dip.

• 29:33Martin Lewis?

  So I think we've got that. I think, I mean, clearly every, we're all on the same boat, myself and all the answers out there.

• 29:39Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:40Martin Lewis?

  Did we have any, we should always provide the contrarian view of some people who said you should never have been in it in the first place or anything like that?

• 29:45Speaker 04

  Yeah, a couple of people did say if that's your mindset, then you shouldn't be investing.

• 29:50Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I can understand that, and it is right. I mean, you should be investing, but you should probably change your mindset is probably where I'd go on this.

• 29:57Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:58Martin Lewis?

  And what about, just because, you know, if you ask, you've got 3,000 opinions, you're always going to get contrary ones. Do you have anyone who said investing is a mugs game? I mean, I sometimes get people who respond to me saying, it's just gambling, which I disagree with gambling. The difference for me between gambling and investing, by the way, is when you gamble, the house is always taking a cut, so there is always less money being paid out than is being put in. When you invest, because it's about economic growth and there's underlying assets, then it, you know, the whole pie is growing. It's not the same construct. Did we get any of those?

• 30:29Speaker 04

  No.

• 30:29Martin Lewis?

  Oh, I'm surprised.

• 30:30Speaker 04

  I couldn't find anyone to say, don't bother.

• 30:32Martin Lewis?

  I mean, we can't guarantee, I mean, there were 3,300-

• 30:34Speaker 04

  I mean, I didn't get a chance to go through every single one.

• 30:36Martin Lewis?

  No, so it's interesting that we didn't. So I think, I think that people were very keen, because I think there's a lot of frustration that we in the UK are very risk averse when it comes to investing. So I think that people were very keen to persuade, and I would agree with that. If this is money you don't need for a long period, maybe have another go.

• 30:50Speaker 04

  I think that worked well.

• 30:51Martin Lewis?

  I think it did too. I think we need to find a few more 'Your Answers' questions. And you know what I'll do if we do find more and it starts becoming regular?

• 30:59Speaker 04

  Go on.

• 30:59Martin Lewis?

  I will be asking you for it to have its own, like, jingle or song.

• 31:02Speaker 04

  Jingle, yeah.

• 31:03Martin Lewis?

  I mean, it needs one.

• 31:04Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 31:04Martin Lewis?

  'Your answers, your answers, we want to hear your answers-

• 31:07Speaker 04

  Do you think-

• 31:08Martin Lewis?

  -your answers, your answers to us. How was that?

• 31:11Speaker 04

  Do you think the BBC would pay for a whole choir to sing it?

• 31:14Martin Lewis?

  I mean, what I just, oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I've just composed it and I'm willing to throw away my rights, my intellectual property, for that incredible original ditty I just did. I think, I mean, maybe, is there a London Philharmonic Choir?

• 31:26Speaker 04

  Uh, I don't know, but I do know the Philharmonic is based up in Salford, so I could always go over and ask them.

• 31:32Martin Lewis?

  You could go, I mean, there, I mean-

• 31:33Speaker 04

  Just pop over.

• 31:34Martin Lewis?

  I'm looking at Isabel here, taking her out of a subject. What does the word 'Philharmonic' mean, Isabel? I'm suddenly really, I'm so bad on culture. What is a Philharmonic?

• 31:47Martin Lewis?

  According to Isabel, and I'd like to say if she's wrong, feel free to write in and tell her, it's her first programme, so she needs a baptism of fire. According to Isabel, it is a relatively meaningless term that is used in the names of musical and orchestral groups. So you could have a Philharmonic Choir, therefore, under that definition. Do you agree? Nod or shake? Okay, so she's now coming up with a converse decision that it's a symphony orchestra. I don't know, maybe somebody can tell us. What is the definition of a Philharmonic?

• 32:11Speaker 04

  Well, I think I've found it.

• 32:12Martin Lewis?

  Okay, go on.

• 32:13Speaker 04

  I think I'm going to beat Isabel her again.

• 32:15Martin Lewis?

  Okay. Now, Isabel, to be fair, isn't here to fact-check on musical stuff.

• 32:18Speaker 04

  True. So on the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra website-

• 32:22Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 32:23Speaker 04

  They say it's a commonly asked question. A symphony orchestra-

• 32:27Martin Lewis?

  I know, but a question asked by someone common, like me.

• 32:29Speaker 04

  It's the descriptive, so symphony orchestra is the descriptive name of an orchestra that plays symphonies. That is clear. It comes from the Greek symphonia, meaning-

• 32:38Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, we want Philharmonic.

• 32:39Speaker 04

  -a concord of sound. Hang on, the word Philharmonic, composed of the Greek word philos and harmonikos, essentially means a friend or love of harmony.

• 32:48Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so a choir could be Philharmonic.

• 32:50Speaker 04

  I think so. So is it then that harmonize with each other?

• 32:54Martin Lewis?

  I mean, I would argue, I would argue this podcast-

• 32:56Speaker 04

  But then, why is it harmonic?

• 32:57Martin Lewis?

  I think as Question Time is an ensemble, are we a Philharmonic podcast because we're in harmony?

• 33:02Speaker 04

  So is it the Martin Lewis Philharmonic Question Time podcast?

• 33:05Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, it's two-wordy, get rid of it.

• 33:07Speaker 04

  I like it.

• 33:07Martin Lewis?

  Uh, I don't. Okay.

• 33:14Martin Lewis?

  Right, Matt, it's Even Number, it's the fourth one in the show. After all of your format breaking last week, which needed me to have a lie down after we'd done the recording because I couldn't cope with you doing things out of order. We're back to normality. Even Number, it's a caller.

• 33:29Speaker 04

  It's a caller, yes, but not breaking it too much. It's a success, it's our success of the week, so we'll play the theme.

• 33:37Martin Lewis?

  We've already, hold on, hold on. Have we already had a success of the week?

• 33:40Speaker 04

  Well, this is, this is the formal, proper success. This is our big success.

• 33:45Martin Lewis?

  That was a preamble success in a caller question, wasn't it? Whereas this is, this is your actual, it's only a success, not a question.

• 33:51Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 33:52Martin Lewis?

  I will allow it, you can play success of the week.

• 33:58Speaker 04

  Okay, it's CJ, she's in Glasgow. Hi CJ.

• 34:02Speaker 03

  Hi Martin, hi Matt, hi team.

• 34:05Martin Lewis?

  Hello, hello CJ, I always love a success, as you know, so what did we do?

• 34:10Speaker 03

  Well, Martin, so my success of the week is entirely down to you. And so earlier this summer, in July, I was listening to the podcast while driving into work, as I often do, and you mentioned, kind of almost in passing, that if someone pays into a private pension and they're a higher rate taxpayer, that we might need to claim some tax relief ourselves. And I thought, hang on a moment, that's me. I've been paying into an Aegon personal pension by direct debit from my account since I left the private sector for the NHS, which was 14 years ago. I've had my pension since I was 18 because I do what I'm told by the oracle Martin Lewis. And now I'm-

• 34:50Martin Lewis?

  But I'm not that old, okay, just quickly.

• 34:53Speaker 03

  Oracles can be young, we don't have to discriminate.

• 34:55Martin Lewis?

  Okay, good.

• 34:56Speaker 03

  So I'm now director in the NHS in Scotland and I'm a Scottish advanced rate taxpayer. So I don't do a self-assessment because it's all managed through PAYE and I'd never really considered tax relief on pensions. It just says on my statements, the government has added tax relief, so I assumed, well, that's that. So when I got into work that day, I logged on to my favourite AI tool and asked whether it would apply to me and I looked through some of my statements online and realised that Aegon was adding the basic rate 20%, but that I'd never claimed any additional relief that I was entitled to. So I went on to the HMRC website and it was so, so, so easy. It took me about 40 minutes to submit claim forms for the four years that were still claimable and then the calculations started to make through.

• 35:40Speaker 03

  So checking everything out did mean that they uncovered a year where I owed them £509. But even after that was accounted for, HMRC has so far refunded me £2,853.47.

• 35:56Martin Lewis?

  Lovely.

• 35:58Speaker 03

  That is massive, right?

• 35:59Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 35:59Speaker 03

  And I think the reason I wanted to tell you is that I do consider myself to be extremely savvy, I deal with huge budgets for a living, but I genuinely had no idea I needed to do this, so I figured there must be loads of other PAYE, higher rate taxpayers with private pensions who don't realise either.

• 36:16Martin Lewis?

  This is, well, it's wonderful and thank you for your evangelism and thank you for coming out and saying, you know, and the truth is, we can all get caught by something. I can get caught by stuff as well, it happens to all of us and once you learn it comes through. So I really love it, I really love it. Let me just explain it briefly. So basically, this is primarily about people who do relief at source. So that's where you're paying into your own pension. When, when you pay into your own pension, so it's not coming off, your employer isn't doing it for you, where it's often, it's taken straight out of your salary before tax or it's not salary sacrifice, you've got a pension provider, you put the money in, they claim 20% basic rate relief from HMRC and it adds it to your pot.

• 36:59Martin Lewis?

  So if you put in £80, £100 goes in, as long as it's within the amount that you're earning in a year. But if you're a higher rate taxpayer, you are entitled to the rest of the tax that you would have paid back and you have to claim that. It really is that simple and that's exactly what you did, isn't it? So I, so the only thing I didn't quite pick up straight was sometimes they had done this and sometimes they hadn't, was that the point?

• 37:22Speaker 03

  I think it was because there were years where I had paid too little tax anyway and this had discovered it.

• 37:28Martin Lewis?

  Perfect, right, so yes, because again, and this you will know, millions of people have the wrong tax code. The tax code is what tells your employer how much tax to take when you're on PAYE and you have to check that one too. And there are millions of errors in those and that is the individual's responsibility, not the employer's or not HMRC. What a wonderful story and three grand to boot. I mean, clearly, as we'll always say, three grand is very valuable and it's inspirational for many people and I think many people will save from it, but it isn't as valuable as the fact that you've now been on the show and you know what you're going to get.

• 38:02Speaker 03

  Exactly, exactly, priceless.

• 38:05Martin Lewis?

  Priceless. That there is a badge coming your way on top of all the money. Oh, thank you so much.

• 38:10Speaker 03

  Well, thank you.

• 38:11Martin Lewis?

  Now, what we don't normally do, but I'm interested to this, as a regular listener, are we your car companions? Is that our normal place, the pod?

• 38:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, I, I do a lot of commuting, I commute about 10 hours a week, so I've got a roster of regular podcasts that I listen to. So I listen to you and Adrian and you and Matt every, every time I get the opportunity to and always have a little nugget of something that I take away and apply to my everyday life.

• 38:35Martin Lewis?

  Oh, I'm going to leave it there because it couldn't be any better, could it, Matt?

• 38:38Speaker 04

  No, it couldn't.

• 38:39Martin Lewis?

  Can't do anything with that. I wish you were, I wish you'd done this last week when we're recording, the BBC are putting out some trails and some promos for us, we could have used that sentence in it, it was so wonderful.

• 38:48Speaker 04

  I'll send it to them.

• 38:49Speaker 03

  Anytime, Matt has my number.

• 38:51Martin Lewis?

  I do. Thank you so much for that, we love a success and that's such a good one that I hope-

• 38:57Speaker 03

  Thank you, Martin.

• 38:57Martin Lewis?

  -we'll get many other people doing it. Thank you for calling, appreciate it.

• 38:59Speaker 03

  Cheers, thank you both.

• 39:00Speaker 04

  Thanks, bye.

• 39:02Martin Lewis?

  Matt loved Adrian and Martin and Adrian and Matt.

• 39:04Speaker 04

  I did, how could you tell?

• 39:06Martin Lewis?

  Don't bat, I just keep that in, that bit needs to go in, didn't you, Matt? How happy were you that she said Martin and Adrian and Martin and Matt?

• 39:15Speaker 04

  I, yeah, I enjoyed it a lot, that's all I'm going to say.

• 39:19Martin Lewis?

  Because we're still waiting, everybody, for Matt. Matt needs to get his fame point. Someone, when they meet Matt, who does not work for the BBC, needs to say, are you Matt from the Martin Lewis podcast? Someone needs to say it to him. If you're listening and you ever meet a 29-year-old, originally Brummie, Manchester-based BBC radio producer and his name is Matt, then you might want to check, you're not Matt from the Martin Lewis podcast, are you?

• 39:47Speaker 04

  So I was on a train the other day and I was talking and I turned to Luke and I was like, I wonder if, I wonder if anyone here recognises my voice and listens to the podcast? Because I did see someone, I looked through the gap and I could see on their phone they were listening to the podcast and I really wanted to go-

• 40:00Martin Lewis?

  Could you really, could you see it?

• 40:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, this was a while ago, this is when I first started on the podcast and I saw that they were listening to it and I really wanted to be like, oh my God, that's me!

• 40:09Martin Lewis?

  And then I have the opposite reaction. I try and put my head down and just, and just shrink in the corner because I have, not in a bad way, I love people saying hello, but when I've been on trains before, I have ended up having to do a surgery where one person notices and then suddenly I'm doing everyone's questions all the way. And I feel really bad going, I've actually got my own work to do, I'm so sorry, I'm on the deadline, but, so there we go.

• 40:31Speaker 04

  You called me last week and as you were on the phone to me, someone said hello and you stopped talking and had to be like, hello?

• 40:39Martin Lewis?

  Yes, well, that happens when I'm, because everyone knows I walk everywhere. I'm normally stopped, I probably on my walk, when I'm coming into town from home to one of the places I go and work, probably normally get stopped six or seven times, I think.

• 40:52Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 40:52Martin Lewis?

  So yes, I'm very used to that.

• 40:54Speaker 04

  That's proper fame, that.

• 40:55Martin Lewis?

  Well, my rule is, and I hope that, you know, we're family here, so I can say these things, my rule is I never stop. I always say hello, I always wave, if someone wants to talk to me, I ask them to walk with me, but if I stop, I never get anywhere. So, you know, I mean, not saying never, I mean, there's always an occasion where someone bursts into tears, as I had recently, you know, I'll stop. But generally, that's not a reason to burst into tears if you want me to stop.

• 41:20Speaker 04

  You've heard it here first, you've got Martin to stop, cry.

• 41:23Martin Lewis?

  But, but I will generally say, oh hello, but I try not to stop because otherwise I just, you know, I have to get on with the things I have to get on with.

• 41:31Speaker 04

  I was at a wedding recently and someone said they listened to the podcast and I said, oh, I make that podcast, that's me. And he genuinely had no idea.

• 41:38Martin Lewis?

  Oh, really? But he, but then knew who you were, he knew you were Matt?

• 41:41Speaker 04

  It was like, oh yeah, yeah, you're, you're Matt on the podcast.

• 41:43Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 41:44Speaker 04

  That's quite nice.

• 41:44Martin Lewis?

  That counts?

• 41:45Speaker 04

  Kind of.

• 41:46Martin Lewis?

  Counts, all right, right.

• 41:48Speaker 04

  Let's move on.

• 41:52Martin Lewis?

  Okay, Matt, we've only done four, but I think because we did your questions, it was a big one. I think we're done, aren't we?

• 41:57Speaker 04

  Well, before we finish...

• 41:59Martin Lewis?

  Okay. Have you got more hidden emails?

• 42:01Speaker 04

  No, no, these ones aren't hidden. As Isabel is here, and it's her first solo fact-checking podcast,

• 42:11Speaker 04

  I wondered what we should call Isabel. And we've had a couple of people email in with some ideas.

• 42:16Martin Lewis?

  We still have the premise of, is Isabel allowed to speak or not? Because GDPR, as we know, was the silent earthquake that reverberated through the podcast, but nobody ever heard. And we haven't made our decision whether that still applies to Isabel. So she's staying silent for now. I have an idea on that in a moment, but you go on, you carry on.

• 42:32Speaker 04

  Okay, so a couple of people emailed in. Paul emailed in saying, Dear Martin, Matt and the rest of the team, and a special welcome to Isabel. Now that Rosie's departed and Isabel's taken over, I think it only fitting she has a similar finance-related acronym assigned to her. Assuming her role is to be seen and not heard, what about ISA, Isabel Silent Advisor?

• 42:53Martin Lewis?

  Nice. Although potentially confusing being ISA. I'm slightly worried if we call it ISA and I say ISA, is that about the ISA correct? We could, I mean, it's ISA squared.

• 43:03Speaker 04

  Could be confusing.

• 43:04Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, it's already, yeah.

• 43:05Speaker 04

  Okay, then, so Alex...

• 43:06Martin Lewis?

  But I liked it, Paul.

• 43:07Speaker 04

  It's good, it's good, and it's creative.

• 43:09Martin Lewis?

  Oh, hold on, I've just seen, because you just sent me the, you didn't read his last line, which was a very good pun.

• 43:14Speaker 04

  Oh, great show, guys. Keep up the sterling work.

• 43:16Martin Lewis?

  Sterling work.

• 43:18Speaker 04

  Yeah, very good.

• 43:19Martin Lewis?

  Nice, I think, yeah.

• 43:22Speaker 04

  Alex has sent in quite a few.

• 43:24Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 43:25Speaker 04

  So CPI, content proofreader Isabel.

• 43:28Martin Lewis?

  Nice, nice, also inflation.

• 43:30Speaker 04

  RP, Rosie's protege Isabel.

• 43:32Martin Lewis?

  Oh, we're not getting into that.

• 43:33Speaker 04

  No.

• 43:34Martin Lewis?

  No, no, Isabel is her own woman.

• 43:36Speaker 04

  IBAN, Isabel, bad answer negator.

• 43:40Martin Lewis?

  I quite like that one.

• 43:41Speaker 04

  I do, too.

• 43:42Martin Lewis?

  I quite like that one.

• 43:43Speaker 04

  SIP, scrutinizer Isabel, podcast proofreader.

• 43:48Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 43:48Speaker 04

  It's long and wordy. Or IMF, Isabel, Martin's fact-checker. He says, I cheated a bit on this one. I will also note, he spelt Isabel every way that you could because he didn't have to spell it.

• 43:59Martin Lewis?

  That's very considerate, actually.

• 44:00Speaker 04

  Isabel, Isabel, Isabel, Isabel.

• 44:03Martin Lewis?

  So it is, actually, for everybody who wants to know, it's important, it's I-S-A-B-E double L-E. That is the correct spelling of Isabel for if you're writing in and including Isabel in future, as we hope you will. IBAN, thumbs up, thumbs down to IBAN? I think it might, she might be IBAN. I'm gonna have to remember what it stands for. But I quite like bad answer negator. Isabel, bad answer negator. So she's now IBAN.

• 44:25Speaker 04

  Oh, great.

• 44:26Martin Lewis?

  Hey, we've got a name. But...

• 44:28Speaker 04

  Round of applause.

• 44:29Martin Lewis?

  But, Matt, you're gonna tell me I shouldn't do this. But you know what? Whose name is above the plate, just saying. I think we need to ask, we had a vote for what we would call our listeners, they were Esquires, or not, and that debate is long past.

• 44:44Speaker 04

  Do you remember what it stands for?

• 44:45Martin Lewis?

  Extremely Savvy Questions.

• 44:46Speaker 04

  There you go.

• 44:46Martin Lewis?

  Thank you. I read it at the start of the...

• 44:49Speaker 04

  You do.

• 44:49Martin Lewis?

  Because that little bit scripted, the intro script.

• 44:51Speaker 04

  Just testing you.

• 44:51Martin Lewis?

  It's a bit I read, the rest of it is clearly not scripted. Okay, if we had a script writer, it'd be a lot better. My answers would be more fluent and sharper. Anyway, is Isabel to remain silent, or do we allow Isabel to speak? I mean, it's not forcing her, we're not cruel, but that's what I want to know. Do you prefer it with Isabel of the sort of silent influence in the corner, or do we want a spoken Isabel? If you want, so we would like you to email in [email protected] with your subject line either being Isabel yay or Isabel nay. That's it. Isabel yay or nay. If you wanted to speak, it's yay. If you don't want to speak, it's nay. None of these are good or bad about Isabel. I mean, we like Isabel.

• 45:33Martin Lewis?

  But Isabel yay for her speaking, Isabel nay for her not speaking. Please email in and we will...

• 45:42Martin Lewis?

  We will take, we will take your views on board. I didn't actually promise, did you hear?

• 45:46Speaker 04

  No.

• 45:47Martin Lewis?

  I didn't say we'll do it. Okay, we're way over time and we're just going in our own joyous world of podcast-only, whatever's going on. Let's stop there. Thanks, everybody. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks, Matt. Thanks, Isabel. Ta-ta.

• 46:02Martin Lewis?

  And that's it for this week's Question Time. If you've got a question you'd like to submit, or a topic, or a comment, just get in touch to [email protected]. And don't forget to subscribe so you know when we release a new episode. We put out a new Question Time episode each Monday alongside the Big Topic Podcast with Adrian on Thursdays. Aren't you lucky? Two doses of money-saving tips and tricks a week. And don't forget, if you come on the show and we hear your voice, we will send you an exclusive Martin Lewis Podcast Question Time ESQ badge. Who wouldn't want that? Don't answer.

• 46:59Speaker 03

  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.

• 47:35Speaker 04

  Sometimes we all need an extra helping hand, especially with a tricky business problem you've been putting off. Claude is an AI for just that. It's the collaborator that understands your entire workflow and thinks with you, not for you. And Claude isn't just for quick questions. Hand it a whole task like turning a folder of scattered notes into a report, and it does the work and hands back something finished that you can open and edit. Claude can now draft a doc or deck right in front of you, and Claude Design now lives right inside Claude. Describe the website or prototype you're picturing, attach your design system, and it comes back in your own design language, ready to edit right on the canvas. It works with your files and the tools you already use, like Gmail and Slack.

• 48:18Speaker 04

  And whether you're debugging code at midnight, building a financial model, or strategising your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter. For problems worth solving, get started with Claude at claude.ai/solve. That's claude.ai/solve. And check out Claude Pro, which includes access to all of the features mentioned in today's episode. claude.ai/solve.

• 48:44Martin Lewis?

  This week on The Interface, millions of kids have grown up on camera with their childhoods turned into content. There's a new law in California that gives kinfluencers the right to be forgotten, and it could impact adults, too. And an attack on Russian data centre started a rumour that all the evil disinformation bots had been deleted from the internet. But the truth might actually be a lot scarier. For our take, join me, Jess Maddox. And me, Thomas Germain, for The Interface. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.