Question Time: Will my ex’s debt affect my credit score? Bridesmaid’s dress consumer rights? Credit card won’t give money back

In our Question Time podcast, Martin Lewis gives you answers on anything and everything, including: will my ex’s debt affect my credit score? If I buy a bridesmaid’s dress for someone, does it hit my consumer rights? My credit card won’t give me money back for problem building work, what can I do? I’m a teacher, can you answer some of my students’ personal finance questions? My 0% credit card deal ends soon; do I pay it off or transfer the balance? Plus, what would Martin’s wrestler name and finishing move be? 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 book, if he’s got a nickname, 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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• 0:06Speaker 01

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• 1:48Martin Lewis?

  It's absolutely crucial that everybody looks at trying to rebroke effectively or get a new mobile phone contract. But purchaser has the consumer rights.

• 1:57Speaker 04

  That's a really good, I hadn't even thought about that avenues.

• 1:59Martin Lewis?

  What should my wrestler intro music be? It's not that you're married that links you, it's a joint bank account. Hello and welcome to the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is the Question Time episode where you ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything within reason. And this week, you ask me, if you're buying your bridesmaids dresses, does the fact it's for someone else affect your consumer rights? Help! My credit card won't give me the 34 grand back for incomplete building work. I'm a teacher. What's the best way to help financially educate my pupils? Will my ex-wife's debt affect my credit score? And then, we do say anything and everything, you ask me, what did my wrestler name be?

• 2:44Martin Lewis?

  Play the theme tune.

• 3:00Martin Lewis?

  Hello, everybody, and welcome to this week's episode of Question Time, our first Question Time of 2026. Matt, did you have a good break?

• 3:08Speaker 05

  I did. I did. Thank you. Did you?

• 3:10Martin Lewis?

  Did you miss me?

• 3:11Speaker 05

  I did, actually. Well, I was listening to, because we put some best ofs out, didn't we? I was editing them. I did. And it was very nice to sort of get my fix.

• 3:21Martin Lewis?

  How did you like yourself on air when you were listening to the Question Time?

• 3:26Speaker 05

  I cringe a little bit.

• 3:28Martin Lewis?

  Do you?

• 3:28Speaker 05

  But I think everyone does that.

• 3:30Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I don't like watching myself or listening to myself back.

• 3:33Speaker 05

  No.

• 3:33Martin Lewis?

  Partly because I'm a lot older than I am in my head. But we'll move on from that.

• 3:37Speaker 05

  Well, actually, before we do, my contract is due up in a couple of days. So I did a comparison for my phone.

• 3:43Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. I was thinking, sort of back talking for work there.

• 3:45Speaker 05

  No, no, no.

• 3:46Martin Lewis?

  Everyone was sitting there going, no, the curator of questions. We cannot have Matt go.

• 3:51Speaker 05

  I'm off.

• 3:52Martin Lewis?

  Okay, your phone. Okay.

• 3:53Speaker 05

  My phone, my phone. So I've managed to get, so at the moment, I'm paying about £27 a month, just for I know, because it was before all the prices dropped. So I was paying, it was quite a good deal at the time. Anyway, now I've got it down to £8 a month instead.

• 4:09Martin Lewis?

  And is that unlimited data?

• 4:11Speaker 05

  More data. It's not unlimited, but it's more data, and it's with EU Roman inclusion. As well.

• 4:15Martin Lewis?

  Okay, well done. I mean, so pretty much anyone who's paying anything over ten quid for a mobile phone these days is paying way, way too much.

• 4:22Speaker 05

  I had that in my head.

• 4:22Martin Lewis?

  And if you're out of contract, because you can get virtually unlimited data, depending on which network, for less than a tenner in quite, in a lot of cases. So, well done. Yeah, it's absolutely worth looking at. Do not let your mobile. That's really interesting when we talk about that, that what we've seen is people who are within contract, we've seen inflation there, where prices continue to go up and they're put up above inflation each year. But if you're just looking at the new cheapest SIMs, we've seen real deflation, where you can now get SIMs so much cheaper for the same amount of data that you used to be able to get. And because of that division between the two, it's absolutely crucial that everybody looks at trying to re-broke effectively or get a new mobile phone contract. But it's not about you, Matt.

• 5:02Speaker 05

  It's not, no, it's not.

• 5:03Martin Lewis?

  It's not. It's not. Let's do our first question, which has to be a read.

• 5:07Speaker 05

  It is.

• 5:07Martin Lewis?

  Because we never do a caller first.

• 5:08Speaker 05

  No, we don't. It is a read. It's a question that Cath has emailed in.

• 5:12Martin Lewis?

  Hello, Cath.

• 5:12Speaker 05

  To [email protected]. She says, hello, I was very interested in your recent podcast. Can you explain why buying something which fails as a gift for someone else to use, e.g. a bridesmaid dress, is a tricky area? Surely the rights to sad fart should apply no matter who will wear it or use it, providing the purchaser slash applicant was the credit card holder. And quite often bridesmaids buy their own dresses, or their family do. Do you advise people to use a credit card always? Is the issue because it's a where-wonst item and people could just wear and then complain?

• 5:48Martin Lewis?

  Okay, there's a lot going on here. Now, before I get anywhere, let me just explain to people who don't know what sad fart is. It's my mnemonic for remembering your consumer rights. So when you buy something in the UK, when you buy an item, a good, it should be of satisfactory quality, as described, that's your sad, fit for purpose, and last a reasonable length of time. So that's sad fart. And that's how I get people to remember it. And it's brilliant, Cath, that you've remembered it and you know what it means. Now you say to me, the sad fart right should apply no matter who will wear it or use it, providing the purchaser applicant was the credit card holder. So let's just first of all, start when we're talking about retailers before we get into the credit card holder issue.

• 6:32Martin Lewis?

  When you're talking about retailers, the purchaser has the consumer rights, which is why when we get in the run up to Christmas, I explain to people, you know, get yourself a gift receipt or even put a note on your receipt saying that you're going to be giving this to someone, which transfers the rights without, although it very rarely happens. There could be an argument from a retailer, if the gift recipient took it back and they didn't have a gift receipt, they could say, well, I'm sorry, you have no legal rights with us. It doesn't really happen, but just being technical on that. So you're absolutely right that the sad fart right should apply no matter who will wear or use it, but the rights apply to the purchaser, even if they're not the user. We then go on to the credit card. Now, regular listeners will know all about section 75 because we discuss it quite a

• 7:17Martin Lewis?

  lot. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act says that if you pay for an item, any portion of an item on a credit card, and that item costs over a hundred pounds and up to thirty thousand pounds maximum, then the credit card company is jointly liable with the retailer. So just to be really plain, you could put ten pounds on a credit card for an item costing a thousand pounds, and it would be jointly liable for the entire amount with the retailer, which means you can choose to put your complaint about something being faulty to the credit card company. You don't have to go to the retailer first, it's usually simpler, you have exactly the same rights with the credit card company as if it were the retailer, which means the same sad fart rights apply.

• 7:58Martin Lewis?

  So, one of the keys to section 75 is there needs to be a direct relationship between the purchase and the debt. So, some examples that are much more clear cut of things that can break section 75. If you buy through a travel agent, you're paying a travel agent, a travel agent is paying for the flights and hotel, and therefore it actually breaks your section 75, there is not that direct relationship. Second cardholders, it is very tricky if you have a second credit card because remember there's no joint credit cards. If you have a second credit card and you're buying something for yourself as a second credit card holder, that will also tend not to be covered under section 75. If the second cardholder were buying something for the main account holder,

• 8:42Martin Lewis?

  it would be covered. So going on to your question, why is buying a bridesmaid's dress a tricky area? Because if it isn't the bridesmaids buying the bridesmaid dress, then the question is, is the person who has the credit card, who has the debt agreement, buying something for their own benefit? Now, if it was for their wedding, you could argue that a bridesmaid, you're just dressing somebody up for your wedding, so you benefit, and that's certainly why I would argue, or you're the parents of the bride and groom, you could argue the same. But it is a grey area. And I suspect if you did go to the credit card company, let's say you bought a bridesmaid's dress, it wasn't delivered because the dress company went bust, and so you went to the credit card company asking for a refund under section

• 9:23Martin Lewis?

  75, I think you would probably have them reject you and then you'd have to go to the ombudsman for the ombudsman to decide. And you say to me, do you advise people to use a credit card always? Is the issue because wear one side of them and people could just wear and complain? Put some of the cost on a credit card paid off in full because it gives you that extra protection. And because if you're going to the credit card company there's an issue, you can go to the ombudsman. If you have a consumer rights issue with a retailer, then you have to take them to court, which is a much trickier process. So it is a valuable additional consumer self-defence to pay for someone a credit card. And if section 75 doesn't work, then there's a secondary protection called chargeback available for all cards, credit and debit cards, and for smaller amounts than a hundred pounds that's

• 10:08Martin Lewis?

  useful too. So a relatively complicated answer. I hope I've got there, but ultimately, you ask, why is it a grey area? Because it's a grey area.

• 10:18Martin Lewis?

  Right, Matt. So, second question, regular listeners, we all know what it is. You've got a caller.

• 10:24Speaker 05

  Of course. Why break from tradition? Mark is in Northumberland and he's here. Hi, Mark.

• 10:30Speaker 04

  Hi.

• 10:31Martin Lewis?

  Hello, Mark. What can we do for you?

• 10:32Speaker 04

  Hi, Martin. Yeah, it's really a question about some advice or guidance around section 75.

• 10:40Martin Lewis?

  Oh, how funny. The first question was on section 75. It's like a section 75 special.

• 10:45Speaker 04

  Right, okay. Okay, that's good. Well, the story is, we signed up with a builder for some conversion work at our house just to convert a small space into a home office. Wasn't a massive project, but fairly significant. We checked out the builder, they seemed okay, and we'd signed the contract with them. But part of what they wanted, they wanted quite a significant deposit of front, it was 25%. It was about eight and a half thousand pounds. So we were a little bit wary. So we decided that we'd put part of that deposit on a credit card. So we put two and a half thousand on the credit card and paid the rest from our savings.

• 11:27Speaker 04

  There were some delays and some problems with planning permission and it took them a while to get started. But they eventually did start. But they only completed a small part of the work and we paid another two and a half thousand pounds for that. And again, that was via the credit card. So by this point, and this was July last year, we'd paid 11,000 pounds in total. Then there was more delays, excuses, and eventually it fell silent. And I checked out what was happening with the company and found out that actually gone into liquidation, they'd gone bust.

• 11:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, we'd committed 11,000 pounds and, well, you know, you get that sickening feeling in your stomach when you hear something like that.

• 12:05Speaker 04

  But because we'd paid, you know, obviously part of this on credit card, I thought I'd go and speak to another credit card company and ask about making a section 75 claim, which they said we could do. And they sent me a form, which we filled out and provided them with what they needed, the information that they wanted, and submitted that. And then a few days after that, we got a letter to say that they considered it and rejected.

• 12:31Speaker 04

  Uh our claim and the the reason was because the the actual contract value so the the word that was being done was just just under thirty four thousand pounds so more than thirty K um which at the time I didn't realise was was kind of a cliff edge.

• 12:48Martin Lewis?

  Yes, it is a cliff, it's an absolute hard, it's a cliff edge at the start. It has to be a hundred pounds and a penny and it's a cliff edge at the back end, it has to be thirty thousand pounds.

• 12:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, so so regardless, there was just eleven thousand pounds that we paid, I would say just eleven thousand pound. It was only eleven thousand pound that we paid that that didn't matter. Um they've said that, you know, that they're not liable and as far as they're concerned, this case closed. So it was really just about what we can do next. What they they did say in the letter they sent, they could take this to the ombudsman. So I have actually started um a case with the ombudsman, which was picked up. Um and we're just waiting to to find out if if they're gonna um come back and give us some good news on that. But it was really just, is is there anything else that that that we can do?

• 13:33Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so let me think aloud for a moment with you. I I need to manage expectations. I think it's going to be relatively difficult to get all of that money back from the credit card company. So the first thing is, when we were talking to the, in the previous answer, I was explaining that section seventy five applies if you pay anything on the credit card, as you know. Even so, you know, you put ten pounds on the credit card for a twenty five thousand pound protection. The credit card company is jointly liable for the entire amount. Unfortunately, it works, that's normally the positive. In your case, it's a negative. You put eleven grand on the credit card or whatever it is for a thirty four thousand pound project. But the pro, it's still the project cost, you know, that counts, it's still the overall. So first things, is this definitely a single transaction?

• 14:18Martin Lewis?

  You could dispute with the ombudsman whether this was a single transaction. Um uh it's uh.

• 14:25Speaker 04

  I did say in the in the letter that I sent to the to the well, I did follow up and said that I I didn't think that it was a single thing because the contract was written in stages, so you had to finish one stage to start the next. Um, literally, they said they rejected that within about four hours.

• 14:42Martin Lewis?

  Oh, yeah. So let's be really plain. Credit card companies look to reject section seventy five. They don't like section seventy five. Um, you know, section seventy five has been unchanged since nineteen seventy four, when it came in. And that thirty thousand limit's been unchanged since it came in. And it the the whole point of section seventy five is to say that you should not, if you get a direct debt to buy something specific and something goes wrong with it, you should have extra protection. Now, some people have lobbied, we need, we need to improve it, we need to break the hole that can sometimes happen with PayPal. I, funnily enough, do not campaign on changing section seventy five. Because my view is the the greatest likelihood if we campaign to change section seventy five is we will just simply lose section seventy five. It will no longer exist in the modern world, so I sort of don't get involved

• 15:27Martin Lewis?

  in in campaigns to change it because I just don't see that happening.

• 15:31Speaker 04

  Right.

• 15:32Martin Lewis?

  But let me be plain, I have seen many, many cases where banks and credit card companies have rejected seven, section seventy five. When you're thinking, why have they rejected it or where it's a grey area? And I would always go on to the ombudsman. And I think the single transaction route is an interesting one, depending on your contract structure. That you could say this was multiple transactions and we put them in different parts. It was not a single transaction. That now, the fact that you go to the ombudsman could make them also more likely to settle. There's a second thing I would look at. Which is you have chargeback protection when you pay on plastic as well. And I think the fact that you have not received or or an element of the items mean that you could be arguing for a chargeback on the amount you put on the card.

• 16:15Speaker 04

  Right, okay.

• 16:16Martin Lewis?

  So so that's eleven grand from what I remember.

• 16:18Speaker 04

  Uh, it's about five, so we paid, there's pretty much half and half between savings and credit card. For those.

• 16:26Martin Lewis?

  So so you, I think you've got a stronger chance of getting that back. I would incorporate that in your complaint because they should be saying to you, you can do a chargeback. And that they haven't offered you a chargeback even on the five thousand pounds. I mean, so there's an interesting.

• 16:41Martin Lewis?

  If we're being really honest here, what would you see as a good outcome?

• 16:45Speaker 04

  Really, what all we're asking for was some work has been done and I'm, you know, we're very happy to have paid for that.

• 16:50Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 16:52Speaker 04

  It's really the unspent part of the deposit that we paid.

• 16:55Martin Lewis?

  How much?

• 16:56Speaker 04

  About just over 7,000.

• 16:58Martin Lewis?

  Okay, and the unspent part of the deposit, how much of that was on a credit card?

• 17:05Speaker 04

  That will have been two and a half thousand.

• 17:08Martin Lewis?

  So if I start at a low point that I would want, being really honest with you. I would want, I'd be looking, I think your best option is to push for two and a half thousand pounds back.

• 17:18Speaker 04

  Right.

• 17:19Martin Lewis?

  There are time limits on the Ombudsman. One technique you could go here at this point is you could write to them and say, you have rejected that. I am considering putting in an Ombudsman claim for everything. However, alternatively, if you're prepared to settle with a chargeback claim for the two and a half thousand, I will not go towards the Ombudsman.

• 17:39Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 17:39Martin Lewis?

  Now, I'm not telling you to do that. This is your decision. I'm not a lawyer. This is not advice, just caveating here. But you have to work out in your head, do you want to push for the whole amount? In which case, go to the Ombudsman, argue it wasn't a single transaction? Or, or would two and a half grand, you'd sit there and go, at this point, I'd take the two and a half?

• 17:57Speaker 04

  Yes, yeah, as we're sat here now, I'm thinking that we're just not going to get anything. So, you know, it's just trying to recover anything that we can at this.

• 18:05Martin Lewis?

  So in a way, based on what you're saying, what I would probably do, and there's a lot of grey in this, so that this, I'm not saying any of this will work, and I'd love you to tell us if it does or doesn't. I would go back to the bank at this point and say, and say exactly what I've said. It's worth noting, when I say you're going to the Ombudsman, that's because it costs them when you go to the Ombudsman. So it's worth noting that. And so I would write back and say, I'm planning to take this to the Ombudsman to ask for the entire amount. But I've looked up and there is also an alternative of chargeback, where I think under chargeback, there's 2,500 pounds I could charge back the credit card deposit for the bit that I did not receive. If you're prepared to pay me the chargeback, I will see that as a full and final settlement and will not go to the Ombudsman.

• 18:50Martin Lewis?

  Please let me know within three weeks.

• 18:53Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 18:53Martin Lewis?

  And this is, this is not sort of legal advice, this is tactical negotiation where I'd go.

• 19:00Speaker 04

  No, I understand.

• 19:01Martin Lewis?

  If they don't do that, then you go to the Ombudsman. And in the Ombudsman, you say you want the whole amount, but if not, they haven't given you the chargeback either.

• 19:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 19:07Martin Lewis?

  And we cross our fingers.

• 19:09Speaker 04

  Okay, that's a really good, I hadn't even thought about that avenue, so.

• 19:13Martin Lewis?

  Do you know what chargeback is?

• 19:15Speaker 04

  Uh, yes, yes, I have. I'm a regular listener, so I do, I do hear about all of these different things.

• 19:21Martin Lewis?

  So I'd love to hear, will you get in touch with Matt when we get through and let's see how we do? Because it'd be great to follow this up.

• 19:28Speaker 04

  Okay, I will do. That's great.

• 19:30Martin Lewis?

  Good luck, mate. I hope it goes well for you.

• 19:31Speaker 04

  All right. Thanks for your help.

• 19:32Martin Lewis?

  Cheers, bud.

• 19:36Martin Lewis?

  Okay, Matt, what do you have for me next?

• 19:38Speaker 05

  I have a question from Frances.

• 19:41Martin Lewis?

  Hello, Frances.

• 19:42Speaker 05

  She's emailed, hello, Martin.

• 19:43Martin Lewis?

  Oh, Frances is a she? I wasn't sure.

• 19:45Speaker 05

  It's, her email is miss, so I'm assuming, yeah.

• 19:49Martin Lewis?

  Unless that's her middle name.

• 19:51Speaker 05

  Uh, teacher, I'm guessing, I'm going to say she's a she. Frances has emailed, you'll like this, because she says, hello, Martin.

• 20:00Martin Lewis?

  Good.

• 20:00Speaker 05

  And Matt in brackets.

• 20:01Martin Lewis?

  Good, which I think is, I'd like to say etiquette wise, that is the correct format.

• 20:06Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 20:06Martin Lewis?

  Hello, Martin and Matt should be in brackets.

• 20:08Speaker 05

  See, I still like hello, Matt, but that's by the by. Anyway, she says, I'm a science teacher at a state secondary school and I've been tasked to put together a lesson on budgeting for our year 11 cohort. In doing this, I've been listening to your podcast and learned a lot from you.

• 20:22Martin Lewis?

  Oh, that's wonderful. I find that very rewarding. Thank you.

• 20:25Speaker 05

  Teaching them about mortgages, credit and pensions is part of our job, but trying to get them to think of a few years down the road is hard work. They want to know how to pass their GCSEs and struggle to look beyond that. Some of them are potential entrepreneurs and already interested in making money and have side hustles. Some of our students study GCSE business and we'll be looking at studying economics or business studies next year at A level. I'd love to give our students an opportunity to ask you questions that are relevant to them now, just as they're on the brink of getting jobs and earning their own money. Is there somewhere I can point them towards or is there a way of putting together any questions I gather?

• 21:00Martin Lewis?

  Well, first thing, Frances, brilliant. I'm a huge fan and campaigner for financial education. So thank you for everything that you're doing. You know, we spend for decades, we have educated our young people into what we call the debt when they go to university, but never educated them about a debt. And it's teachers like you who can change that. And so huge applause from me for what you're doing. I would also say that if you go to the Young Money website, which is part of Young Enterprise, then you can download the free financial education textbook there that I worked on with them and funded all those years ago. We might have even sent free copies to your school. We sent 365,000 copies out there. And there's a teacher's guide too. And that may well be very helpful in doing what you're doing. And as you're doing such a wonderful thing, with the, with

• 21:43Martin Lewis?

  the permission of his, his honourable self, the curator of questions.

• 21:48Speaker 05

  Go on.

• 21:48Martin Lewis?

  Matt, how about we get back in touch and we offer Frances's pupils via her three questions that we will do in a question time?

• 21:57Speaker 05

  I like that.

• 21:58Martin Lewis?

  Right. So your, your pupils, Frances, give us good ones. Maybe give us four or five, just in case, you know, it is a radio programme, we need to make sure it all works. And we will do three Frances's pupils questions in a future question time.

• 22:10Speaker 05

  Sounds good. Send them over to the Martin Lewis podcast email and I will curate them.

• 22:15Martin Lewis?

  Make sure you address it, Dear Martin, brackets and Matt.

• 22:18Speaker 05

  Maybe I'm.

• 22:18Martin Lewis?

  If it's Dear Matt, I'm not doing them.

• 22:20Speaker 05

  I was gonna say, maybe I'll miss it if it doesn't say Dear Matt, though.

• 22:22Martin Lewis?

  Okay. Right.

• 22:27Martin Lewis?

  So Matt, even number, it's a caller, second caller of the programme. I'm not even asking, I'm just saying it is.

• 22:33Speaker 05

  Am I that predictable?

• 22:35Martin Lewis?

  Yes.

• 22:35Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 22:35Martin Lewis?

  You are. Well, you're not that predictable. We have a format.

• 22:38Speaker 05

  We have a format.

• 22:38Martin Lewis?

  Read caller, read caller. Sometimes we throw in a funny question between, sometimes you do that after the caller, and then maybe depending on time, we do one more read. That's how it works. I mean, the people who listen regularly, that's not going to be a shock to them.

• 22:50Speaker 05

  No.

• 22:50Martin Lewis?

  Let's do our caller.

• 22:51Speaker 05

  Glenn, Glenn's here, he's in Kings Lynn. Hi Glenn.

• 22:55Speaker 00

  Hi there, how are you?

• 22:55Martin Lewis?

  Hiya Glenn, did you know the format Glenn?

• 22:57Speaker 00

  Hi Martin. Yeah, I was, yeah, I was waiting for it.

• 23:00Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, yeah. Good, there you are. What's your question, mate?

• 23:03Speaker 00

  Um, well, about three years ago, my wife and I divorced. At that time, we both had significant unsecured debts, which were all in our own names, with the exception of one joint bank account that had an overdraft. That overdraft is still outstanding at the moment, which we're slowly paying off. But since then, my ex-wife now has entered into an IVA, where I've chosen not to go down that route and slowly pay the debt off. So my question really is, could her IVA affect my credit score? Because does her insolvency basically put an insolvency on my credit score when I'm actually not insolvent myself, if that makes sense?

• 23:48Martin Lewis?

  Right. It all makes perfect sense. So let's just travel through this journey. You have a joint bank account, and that does mean that your credit files will be financially linked. So it's not the fact you are married, you'll know as a regular listener, you'll know I've said before, it's not that you're married that links you, it's a joint bank account. So you know, you share a flat with someone, you have a joint bills account, you can be financially linked to them. So you are financially linked. If you are financially linked, it means they can, it doesn't mean they will, they can look at her credit situation when they are assessing you. Full stop. So could her IVA affect your credit score or financial reputation? I quite

• 24:30Martin Lewis?

  like the phrase financial reputation because credit score is a loose term. Yes. So if you were to get a mortgage and you'd sorted your finances, the fact that you are financially linked to someone who is in an IVA, I think there is a reasonable chance that could have an impact on what would happen to you. So the question, of course, is what do you do?

• 24:50Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 24:51Martin Lewis?

  Now, you can financially delink yourselves from someone, but that has to be someone you are financially separate from. You are not financially separate because you have a joint bank account. So I don't want to get too personal, and feel free not to answer if anything is getting too personal. Are you and your wife otherwise now totally financially independent of each other?

• 25:16Speaker 00

  Yes, it is just this one joint account, yeah.

• 25:18Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, so what you would probably, what you could do here is you can talk to your ex about, let's split the debts, take half each, you know, whatever it is. And I will move that and let's close the joint account down and then you can then apply for financial delinking. Now, I don't know how that possibly is, that's a relationship thing between you and her, because it is a joint account, you're both liable. But whether I would bother doing that, well, of course, it's worth remembering it's a joint account. If someone were to borrow more, that you would still be liable for it, even if it weren't you who were borrowing it. That is the issue with the joint account. So that is worth being, you know, it's another reason that you might want to do it. But also, it's, do you have any important imminent credit applications that are due?

• 26:04Speaker 00

  No, no, I'm not in a position to go down that route for one or two years.

• 26:11Martin Lewis?

  So there's no, so there's, I mean, it also sounds to me, and again, I want to protect your personal data. That you've had debt problems too. So your credit score is probably not going to be that high, although this isn't, the co-linking isn't going to help it. So I think the way I'd phrase it is, you don't need to do this now. But if you're, if you've still got that overdraft and you're linked to someone who's had an IVA, you will, before you start to rehabilitate and get yourself back onto those paths, whether you're going to want a mortgage or whatever you want to go and do in future. You're going to want to close that joint bank account down and financially delink at some point. It isn't urgent, because you're not doing anything at the moment, but it is something that you do need to consider, I would think.

• 26:52Speaker 00

  Right, okay, okay. So when the IVA does pay off that overdraft, that then closes the account and?

• 26:58Martin Lewis?

  Well, you would have to close the account, you'd have to close the account. So what you have to do here is you have to be able to write to the credit reference agencies, or you write to all three of them. Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, and you will write and say, well, you mean, go and check on your credit file that you are financially linked, but you will be financially linked. And you will, you will write to them and say, I should no longer be financially linked to that person. We are divorced and we no longer have any linked financial products. And we are financially separate. But while you have a joint bank account, you're clearly not. So my point is that you no longer, you can no longer have anything joint with your ex-wife.

• 27:40Martin Lewis?

  You have to stop that before you can tell them. That you're financially separate from each other and therefore you want to be financially delinked.

• 27:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 27:51Martin Lewis?

  I hope that helps and I'm not sure it's what you wanted to hear, but it's better to know.

• 27:56Speaker 00

  Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. No, that's great. Thank you very much.

• 27:58Martin Lewis?

  And I wish you the best of luck with your future and wherever it takes you, your financial future. Hopefully it'll all sort itself out. Cheers, mate. Good luck to you.

• 28:06Speaker 00

  Thank you, Martin.

• 28:09Martin Lewis?

  Now, it's probably a bit of a gear change here. Isn't this where you throw in one of your funny questions, Matt?

• 28:13Speaker 05

  Yeah, it is. It's a good one, actually, and I think you'll like this one from Paul. He says, "Dear Martin and Matt, the COQ."

• 28:22Martin Lewis?

  Curator of questions?

• 28:24Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 28:24Martin Lewis?

  Do you want to sting? Do you want to make yourself a sting of curator of questions?

• 28:28Speaker 05

  Uh, we'll see how I feel. Let's do Paul's question. He says, "I have two questions."

• 28:33Martin Lewis?

  For those who don't know, it's the COQ that puts you off, isn't it?

• 28:36Speaker 05

  It's, well, it's the COQ if you read that.

• 28:40Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, move on.

• 28:41Speaker 05

  Move on. He sent in a couple of questions, but the one question that really, just I wanted to ask you. He said, "A few minutes ago, a friend described the 'I Got Bills' intro tune as your entrance music, and ever since then, he said he can't help but picture you walking into a ring as a sparkly spandex-covered wrestler every time he hears it. So he asks, 'If you were a wrestler, what would your stage name and finishing move be?'"

• 29:06Martin Lewis?

  Stage name?

• 29:08Speaker 05

  It's got to be something money, hasn't it?

• 29:09Martin Lewis?

  Well, this probably, my stage name is probably based on something I was thinking about this week. My stage, I'm going to go for DDoS. Do you know what a DDoS is? It's a dedicated denial of service. Now, it could be two, there are two types of DDoS. A DDoS, a bad one is where, you know, hackers hold firms to ransom for crashing their websites by sending huge amounts of traffic to it. But another type of DDoS is what I often do on my telly show. I did it the other night when I was talking about council tax and we crashed the government's council tax website, which is actually also a dedicated denial of service. But in that case, it was real because so many people are going there. And

• 29:50Martin Lewis?

  I tend to judge how successful one of my telly shows has been as to whether I've DDoS someone, which means lots of people are taking action. So I'm going to have my wrestler name as DDoS.

• 30:01Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 30:01Martin Lewis?

  And I think my move.

• 30:05Martin Lewis?

  The credit crunch.

• 30:06Speaker 05

  Oh, I like it.

• 30:08Martin Lewis?

  The credit crunch.

• 30:08Speaker 05

  Very good.

• 30:09Martin Lewis?

  Nice.

• 30:10Speaker 05

  Very good. Strong.

• 30:12Martin Lewis?

  Thank you.

• 30:12Speaker 05

  Have you thought about intro music or would you keep the I got bills?

• 30:15Martin Lewis?

  I'm not good at music. You might have to help me with that one. Why is it I got bills? Yeah. And well, do you know what? We don't need to be creative. What should my wrestler intro music be? Martin Lewis podcast at bbc.co.uk.

• 30:31Martin Lewis?

  And probably, probably our last one. We've got time for Matt. What's your final question for me?

• 30:34Speaker 05

  I've got a question from Tracy. She says, hi, Martin slash team. I have 5K on an interest free credit card due to end December. Financially, am I better paying it off and starting again on a new card? Or paying a transfer fee on a transfer and spend card? No mortgage applications or credit issues to consider.

• 30:53Martin Lewis?

  I don't think it really makes much difference. What you seem to be saying to me is you want to keep a level of debt. I don't know if you're a deliberate stooser. So look. If you're not a stooser, if you're not a stooser is somebody who deliberately creates 0% debt and then puts the money away in a high interest savings account. So that effectively you're being lent money at 0% and making money at 4% on it. If you're a stooser, then you're absolutely better to pay off this card now and start reborrowing. Oh, you're absolutely better. Hold on. Now I'm gonna, no, I'm gonna think aloud for you all. So I'm going to take it on the stooser route. The key for a stooser is how do you get the money on the card? Now you've got £5,000 of debt on the card. You want that to be 0% for as long as possible. So for as long as possible.

• 31:37Martin Lewis?

  Uh, is three year balance transfer is the longest balance transfer, a 3.5% fee. So that's uh, £35. So that's per thousand. So you pay a fee of about £150. Little bit more, uh, about £175. That would be the balance transfer fee. You then have £5,000 at 0%. Let's say you're saving that at 4%. So you're earning £200 a year. So the fee would negate what you earned in the first year, but you would make 200 roughly. But you'd make £200 in each of the subsequent years. That's route one. Route two is you pay it off and then you get a 0% spending card, 25 months, 0%.

• 32:17Martin Lewis?

  And you, but then you have to get the money on the card, which you do by spending from the credit card rather than spending from your bank account. If you were to do that, it is a question of how quickly you could get the debt on the card. But I suspect on typical spending levels, you could do that more quickly. If you're looking to do this to maximise your profit as a stuza, so you've got to be someone, if you're listening and thinking that sounds good, it's only for the financially competent who won't overspend, who are really self-disciplined, then my back of, back of the envelope, not even back of the envelope, back of my brain mathematics is you're probably better off, as long as you're the type of person who's got typical spend of a thousand pounds a month, you're probably better off just paying off the existing card and getting a new 0% for spending card. It won't last as long, but we'll know what the balance transfer situation is in two years.

• 33:02Martin Lewis?

  And then, so what you could actually do is you get the 0% for spending card, put all the debt on that, and then you get a one-year no-fee balance transfer card to move it to again. Or you could do the no-fee balance transfer card now, which is probably what I should have said at the beginning. Hopefully that answers your question. If I've misunderstood it, let us know. And hopefully some of you understood my answer. I think we'll leave you there. Did you understand that, Matt, or did I lose you? I'm going to be honest, you lost me. Okay, let's just, I've got, have my wonderful, very clever researcher Rosie with me, who does do this for a living. Rosie, did you understand it? Yeah, I did. She's nodding. Rosie got it. Look, I mean, if you're a stuza, you're a geek anyway, so you'll understand it. I won't go through it in more slow detail. If you don't understand it, it's not for you.

• 33:47Martin Lewis?

  That's it for this week's Question Time. Don't forget to subscribe so you know when we release a new episode. We try to put out a new Question Time every Monday alongside the regular podcast on Thursdays. Aren't you lucky? Two doses of money-saving tips and tricks a week. Do make sure you send in any questions to [email protected] and address them to Dear Martin.

• 34:28Speaker 06

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

• 35:04Speaker 02

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• 36:19Speaker 07

  Welcome to The Haunted Library.

• 36:22Speaker 07

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

• 36:38Speaker 07

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