Testing your consumer rights and haggling skills

Martin Lewis records the podcast from Lords to share his money saving tips while watching the cricket. An explanation of your statutory return rights with a focus on what the law explicitly outlines as the timeframe you have to return online purchases. We also run through the top 10 companies to haggle with in the UK, with haggling tips and how to make big savings from service firms in mature markets, such as mobiles, where everyone already has the product so companies need to retain existing customers. He gives an update on the potential payouts for mis-sold car finance. Martin makes a suggestion on how to get young people investing WITHOUT cutting the £20,000 tax-free cash ISA limit, as reports suggest Chancellor Rachel Reeves may be about to do. Tell Us is about your longest financial innings and includes advice on the best bank current accounts that are currently available. And Mastermind is swapped for Test Martin Special, or TMS for short, Eleanor Oldroyd and former England player Steven Finn help Adrian answer a cricket-themed question about what counts as legal tender.

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:10Martin Lewis?

  Hello, I'm Martin Lewis and this is the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. Now, usually, much of it comes from my BBC Radio 5 live show with Adrian Charles. But don't worry, there's bonus money-saving tips just for you lucky, lucky podcast listeners. And today's pod is a special one. I'm very lucky to be doing it from Lord's on the first day of the England-India Test match. So do forgive the odd mention of a wicket or two as we go through, and the fact that the pod-only bits are recorded here, in a corridor at the back, next to Phil Tuffnell. Hello, Martin. Thank you. And in this corridor, as we're in a sweet spot right now for banking deals, with five different banks willing to pay you serious cash for switching,

• 1:53Martin Lewis?

  on top of all the main stuff you'll hear about in a minute, I'll be running through that pod-only too. Time to play the theme tune.

• 2:20Speaker 00

  Martin Lewis, are you having a splendid day at the home of cricket?

• 2:23Martin Lewis?

  I've got the most incredible view in front of me. I'm sat in the box next to Ali. Go on to my social medias, there's a picture I've just put on there. Zach Crawley's just hit a couple of boundaries. The game is starting to boost up for England. They're 28 for none. Crawley's on 13, Duckett's on 13, and that was my little bit of commentary. Now I should probably do the financial stuff.

• 2:39Speaker 00

  Okay, so what have you got in store for us then?

• 2:41Martin Lewis?

  We've got lots to talk about today. We're going to talk car finance update. But the bigger stories, after some research, 30 retailers' websites are misleading consumers about what your return rights are. So we're going to talk through who those websites are, what you need to be careful for, answer your question on return rights, and then Adrian, I've got 11 haggling tips, but for you I'll do it in 10. Yeah, haggling when it comes to mature, thank you.

• 3:04Speaker 00

  Just got that.

• 3:05Martin Lewis?

  Thank you. When it comes to mature industries like mobile phones or breakdown cover or your digital TV or insurance can mean huge savings. Whether it should mean huge savings is another matter in itself. So we're going to be talking about what are the 10 top firms to haggle with in the UK? What are the main sectors? How do you do it? How do you persuade someone? It's all about a smile, a charm, a hutchpah and a little bit of financial flirtation. And to finish, Adrian, I'm going to bowl you a googly with a special cricket-focused money mastermind.

• 3:37Speaker 00

  Okay, it'll be a swing and a miss from me. An agricultural heave that misses the ball completely and you hit the stumps, I'm quite sure. Always good fun with Martin.

• 3:55Speaker 00

  I think it's Martin, if you've got cricket on in the background and we hear an "oo" or a cheer, you're just going to have to, you're going to have to have some some way of telling us roughly what's happened. You don't have to be specific, but just boundary or four will do. You don't have to put names on it or anything tricky like that.

• 4:11Martin Lewis?

  I'm very happy to see it. Signal exactly what's going on. I'm very grateful to Five Live. I bought my tickets for this match back in December and then later I realised because we moved podcast dates and stuff that I'd have to do the podcast and I was like, I don't want to have to leave and go and do the podcast and come back and miss two hours. And so I'm very grateful that they let me do it in the box on here. I have to tell you one slight problem, Adrian.

• 4:29Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:30Martin Lewis?

  Because I've got my computer in front of me. I've got my proper thick reading glasses on that are very good for short vision.

• 4:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:36Martin Lewis?

  And the pitch, I've got the best view in the house up here.

• 4:38Speaker 00

  But can't see it.

• 4:38Martin Lewis?

  It's absolutely wonderful. It's just these sort of blurred guys in white. I mean, if it wasn't for the fact that it was cricket, I wouldn't be able to tell who was which team.

• 4:46Speaker 00

  Right. Let's, um, let's get into, well, car finance. We've talked a few times about the misselling of car finance. What is the latest? And there's, there's different aspects to this, aren't there?

• 4:57Martin Lewis?

  Well, I'm going to keep it very simple because I keep being asked this constantly by people, what's happening with car finance reclaiming? The answer is we await the Supreme Court, which is literally a law unto itself. It sets its own timetable. Now, it has heard the case. We're waiting for it to hand down the judgment. The hope is that will happen this month. I mean, they talk in term times on the Supreme Court, so the end of term of the Supreme Court is the 31st of July. So either it'll be this month or it will be in September. They publish a couple of days in advance which court cases they're handing down. They tend to hand them down on a Wednesday. My guess, only my guess, and my hope, if you like, is we're hoping to hear on the 23rd or 30th of July. But

• 5:42Martin Lewis?

  that is, I need to be very plain, 100% supposition, just looking at the timetable and that I hear they're hoping to get it out in July. But it is perfectly possible it will go on until September. And everything else to do with reclaiming car finance, every other question, there was a boundary, every other question that comes out at the time, the answer is it is all waiting for the Supreme Court. Nothing can happen until that Supreme Court decision. So the answer to every question is we await the Supreme Court.

• 6:12Speaker 00

  But who should be particularly interested, particularly looking out for this?

• 6:16Martin Lewis?

  Well, there's two types of car finance misselling that have happened. The main one that I was talking about was discretionary commissioner. And that's the one I've had three million template complaint letters through on my website. That's where when you got your car financed in about forty percent of cases, dealers could increase the interest rate you were charged without telling you and they would get more commission if they did so. That happened on PCP deals and HP deals between 2007 and 2021. It's massive. You can understand why that is a problem. That's the main one. But the one the Supreme Court is looking at, we call commission disclosure arrangements. That's literally where the Court of Appeal ruled that if a car finance firm did not disclose the amount of commission that you were getting on car finance, then it was potentially mis-sold.

• 7:01Martin Lewis?

  Now, that is a much more controversial one because it throws questions on all forms of consumer credit. I mean, it has real economic consequences. If the Supreme Court upholds that decision, we could see a real wobble in the consumer credit market and access to lending in the UK. So while I've been championing getting information out about discretionary commission arrangements, I have many more questions about whether the commission disclosure arrangements is actually in consumers' benefit in the long run if the Supreme Court were to uphold it. That's what the Supreme Court's looking at, but everything else is a knock on from that. So we just have to wait and see what comes. But at the moment, the main answer to what do I do is we wait for the Supreme Court and nobody has power over them about when it's going to be done.

• 7:47Speaker 00

  Let's talk about returns rights as well. And I'm really interested in this, and if you don't mind me advancing my own question here. I bought a sink yesterday, living the dream, right? Bought a new sink and it was very clear, it was made very clear that there would be no refunds, even if the box was unopened when I decided to return it. Now, is that cricket?

• 8:11Martin Lewis?

  No cricket's what's in front of me right now. Where did you buy it, online or in store? Online. Okay, so let's just go into what the situation is. The reason we're doing this is my team and I investigated 400 retailers, published online policies for return rights, and 30 of them were wrong. They were giving misleading information, telling you you have less rights than you do under your statutory legal return rights. And worse than that, five of the firms, we did this back in 2018, the same exercise, were the same five firms who had got it wrong then. So let me start by saying what your legal return rights are.

• 8:56Martin Lewis?

  You have 14 days after receipt to notify them that you are going to send it back, and 14 days after you've notified them to send it back, which means a maximum possible 28 days. But if you notify them after five days, you only have 14 days after the notification period. Now, the terms about the box being opened, if it is ordered online, that is nonsense because you have a right to inspect the product. It should still be in absolutely the perfect and mint condition that you got it in. But these are statutory rights set up under the Consumer Contracts Act 2013, that you are allowed, they are there to give you, if you order online in a distant selling relationship, the opportunity to see what you're going to get and to change your mind.

• 9:41Martin Lewis?

  The only exemption to that is for personalised or perishable items. Now, the other point that needs to be made is those do not apply if you buy in store. If you buy items in store, you have no right to change your mind. It is an absolute barrier in the law unless the company decides to give you return rights and publish them, in which case it's part of your contract, but it does not have to do. So the perennial question I get is, "Sports Direct won't allow me to return this, they say I can only have an exchange, isn't that outrageous?" Well, no, it isn't because if you bought it in store, the the base minimum is you have no right to return it if you just change your mind. So the fact that they're offering you an exchange is actually more generous than they have to do under the minimum of

• 10:26Martin Lewis?

  the law unless they have a published right. Now, the final caveat to all this is that is for items that are not faulty. If your items are faulty, then regardless of how you bought it, you have an absolute right to return it within 30 days to a full refund. And after 30 days, if it was faulty, you should be getting a repair, a partial refund or a replacement. So in your case, you're right. But I just want to go through what we were seeing on some of the store websites. Now, the good news is we had 30, we've reported them to Trading Standards and we've notified the 30 retailers that were wrong on their websites. 13 of them have so far contacted us to say that they have corrected their websites

• 11:06Martin Lewis?

  on the back. Monsoon is one of them. So this is what it was saying on Monday. It was saying, for returns, send them to as exactly as you receive them in a new and unused condition within 30 days of dispatch for full price items and within 14 days for sale or reduced items from the date of dispatch. Now, rule number one, this is from the date of receipt, not the date of dispatch. So that is wrong. Rule number two, you have 14 days to notify them and 14 days after that to send it back. They were saying you only have 14 days in total for sale items. Doesn't matter that it's sale items. It is manifestly wrong. New Look, you can return sales items within 14 days. This applies to online and in-store

• 11:48Martin Lewis?

  purchases. Incorrect by law and the law overtakes. You have 14 days to notify them and 14 days to send them back. New Look, like Monsoon has already started to correct some of its webpages. It hasn't done them all yet. Retailers are publishing misleading rights. Doesn't mean they're getting the law wrong when you try and return, but what it means is it wrongly puts people off sending back goods. So ignore what they say. If you buy online and it's not personalised or perishable, 14 days to notify them, 14 days after that to send them back. That's the law. What their websites say, if it's shorter or wrong, is irrelevant and meaningless and is diddly squat. You listen to what I say, not what they say.

• 12:27Speaker 00

  As you said, Martin, that Monsoon and New Look have changed their websites. Monsoon said they'd read your comments, took immediate steps and made it clear that the returns policy complies with our customers' statutory rights. New Look says, "We thank MoneySave, an expert, for bringing it to our attention. While our current policy is compliant with statutory return rights, we have updated the wording on our website."

• 12:48Martin Lewis?

  Well, it's very good. I should note with both of those, we did do the same exercise in 2018, so it isn't a new notification. But I'm very pleased that they've done it. I'm pleased that 13 of the 30 retailers so far have updated their websites. We will be continuing to be on top of them and reporting trade-to-trading standards to those that have not changed yet. It is absolutely, it's ridiculous that these companies that employ lawyers and compliance officers are putting the wrong law on their website and misleading consumers on that basis.

• 13:15Speaker 00

  I mean, it's interesting, I won't go on any more about this, but the thing I was talking about, buy is buying a tap, actually. It says, "The manufacturer does not accept returns of this product, even if the packaging has not been opened. Contact us for more information."

• 13:27Martin Lewis?

  Correct.

• 13:28Speaker 00

  That's from the retailer.

• 13:29Martin Lewis?

  No. You see, this is really important. Very important point. When you buy something, whether online or in-store, your legal rights are with the retailer, the company you paid, the company you bought it from. They are not with the manufacturer. You do not have a legal right, barring sort of safety rules, with the manufacturer. Oh, there's a big appeal in the cricket. I got distracted, it looks like it's been turned down. Let's carry on. You do not have any rights with the manufacturer. So the retailer telling you what the manufacturer expects if you send it back to the manufacturer under its warranty, which is just a contraction relationship they may well give you, is irrelevant. Your statutory laws overtake that, and that's with the retailer.

• 14:13Martin Lewis?

  Now, many people I know go into shops to take something back, saying it's faulty or saying there's a problem, and the shop says, "Oh, you'll have to take it to the manufacturer." Baloney, bolder dash and other B words. Your legal rights, if it's faulty, or your legal rights if you're returning online within that 14 day notification are with the retailer. The manufacturer's rules are irrelevant. The fact that manufacturer doesn't allow you to open the box is irrelevant if it's sent to you online. Your legal rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 overrule anything that the retailers are saying.

• 14:47Speaker 00

  Okay. A question from Ann. Can I take unused wallpaper back to B&Q without a receipt?

• 14:52Martin Lewis?

  Assuming that you bought it in store, then the answer is you have no legal right to take it back if there's nothing wrong with it. You can look at what B&Q's returns policy is. If B&Q's returns policies say that you have to have a receipt, then you have to have a receipt because the law for items bought in store is you have absolutely no right of return. So whatever they allow you to do is more generous than the legal minimum, unless of course the wallpaper is faulty, but I'm assuming it's not. So in which case, I'm afraid that the legal answer is no, but I don't know B&Q's own published returns policy, which is worth checking.

• 15:25Speaker 00

  Candice says, I've always been unsure about returns policies, especially online. Can you clarify what our rights are when returning faulty goods? I think we've covered that. I mean, if they're faulty, I mean, none of this applies anyway, does it? Whether it's online or in store.

• 15:40Martin Lewis?

  The 30 day timeline. It's worth just defining fault and we'll do that very quickly for people. So I have my mnemonic for this that I came up with in back in 2002 in a taxi on the way to the Jeremy Vine show, maybe 2003, and that is sad fart. Sad fart. Can you say it for me, Adrian?

• 15:56Speaker 00

  Sad wind. Sad fart.

• 15:59Martin Lewis?

  And that stands for when you buy an item, it must be satisfactory quality. That's your S. As described, that's your A D. We've now got sad. Fit for purpose, that's your F. And, actually just slightly, last a reasonable, that's your R, length of time. Satisfactory quality, as described, fit for purpose and last a reasonable length of time. Most of those are pretty self evident. Satisfactory quality, clearly. Fit for purpose, clearly. As described is an interesting one, so let me make up an example. You buy a speaker, it says it's suitable for an iPhone. You get it back, it's only suitable for an Android. You complain, they say, well, the speaker works. No, it wasn't as described. You got the description wrong, therefore it is faulty under the definition. The most difficult one of all is reasonable length of time.

• 16:44Martin Lewis?

  So reasonable length of time is the one that always catches people out. And the definition of reasonable length of time used to be what a reasonable person on the Clapham Omnibus would say. I have my new definition for that, which is I would define a reasonable person as someone who is on a group Zoom call when everyone is talking who puts themselves on mute. So what would the person who puts themselves on mute on a Zoom call say is reasonable? So Adrian, we'll pretend you're reasonable. Let's go for you. I'll give you my two easy examples. You buy a five pence whistle in a store. It worked for six months with the kids throwing it around and using it heavily, and then it stops after six months. Did it last a reasonable length of time?

• 17:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:23Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. You buy a £1,500 brand new high-tech iPhone. You've done absolutely nothing. You've treated it perfectly. You've used it exactly as you should. It stops working after two years and one day. Did it last a reasonable length of time?

• 17:37Speaker 00

  No. Is this my mastermind question out of the way?

• 17:39Martin Lewis?

  No, no, you're not getting any points for this one, I'm afraid. But that's the definition. And this is one of the reasons I always talk about warranty schmorienty. We've talked about that before. Because what happens at that two-year point is you go back to an Apple or you go back to a Samsung. And because the retailer and the manufacturer are often the same, if you're going to their in-stores, the retailer and manufacturer are the same firm, what they say to you is, I'm sorry, the warranty was only two years, so there's nothing we can do. And what that does is, that's the manufacturer element of it, and the warranty is just a contractual right. But what I would say in that case is I would say, well, I'm not interested in the warranty. I'm looking at my Consumer Rights Act 2015 obligation that says an item must be satisfactory, quality, fit for purpose, and last a reasonable length of time. I don't believe that this £1,500 piece of kit has lasted a reasonable length of time.

• 18:22Martin Lewis?

  And therefore, as the retailer, I would like, because it's more than 30 days, a replacement, a repair, or a partial refund. And I've had people who've gone back after they've been told they're on the warranty. I can find you a quote on it somewhere, but I haven't got it right in front of me now. And then that does work. So it's really important to understand who you're dealing with and where your legal rights are when it comes to fault. And on the point of warranties, I've got a couple of examples of people who've heeded this information and succeed from it. We've got Anthony who says, "I bought a pair of AirPods Pro in the Apple shop in the Trafford Centre about three years ago. Recently, the right ear AirPod went very quiet, so I phoned Apple. The Apple agent told me that the AirPod was out of warranty, so I mentioned the Consumer Protection Act

• 19:04Martin Lewis?

  2015 and the agent was very helpful, sent me a box in which to return it to Apple, postage page, etc. A few days later, I got the AirPod back, repaired, free of charge." Result. And Antonio says, "After reading your guidance, I managed to get a full refund for my Brighton 750 GPS cycle computer that I bought over two years ago and was out of warranty already. Like everyone else, they told me my product was out of warranty on an email. Mentioned the Consumer Rights Act 2015 on the replying email and received a full refund of £168, which is why I say warranty schmoranty. That is just the contractual relationship with the manufacturer, your legal rights with the retailer. And if an

• 19:47Martin Lewis?

  item is faulty and hasn't lasted a reasonable amount of time, you should be asking the retailer to sort it for you." Now, I need to warn you, I've come out of the broadcasting centre at Lord's and I'm in the back corridor with people walking past, so you may hear some other people, but nothing will stop this pod getting on air, Simon. And I've got podcast producer Simon with me. I just wanted to interrupt because we had one more consumer rights question I thought was interesting that we should get out there. Simon, you've got it. What is it?

• 20:12Speaker 05

  Yeah, and also just a hero of mine returning to Lord's after years today. But anyway, enough about Joffre Archer getting back into the England team.

• 20:18Martin Lewis?

  You build a man up, Simon, then you let him down. I knew what you were doing.

• 20:21Speaker 05

  We did actually get a question from Nina who wants to know, "I know when you buy in-store, they don't need to give you a refund or replacement unless faulty. However, what if they have no changing rooms to allow you to try items on?"

• 20:34Martin Lewis?

  I'm afraid it doesn't change the rule at all. I get that asked a lot. I mean, you don't have a right to try items on in a store, so it does make it very difficult. And it goes back to my basic provision. If you're buying in-store... Always check what the return rates are if you're not going to try on. And if you're worried about sizing and you haven't tried it on or you can't try on, then I would suggest that you don't buy it. And what's even more pertinent on this is shops that have return rates will sometimes suspend them during sales. So especially if you're buying in a sale period or you're buying a sale item, don't assume that the standard return policy of that store applies during the sale without checking it. I mean, unfortunately, as you can probably hear from all of this, what it does mean

• 21:17Martin Lewis?

  is in many ways it is safer to buy items online, which is a real problem for our high street. Because ultimately, if you're to take a purely logical consumer attitude, you'll go and look at things in stores and then you'll order them online and buy them online, which is great for sort of clicks and bricks stores. It's a real struggle for small high street presences. And I think as a matter of public policy, there needs to be some balancing of those two issues out because we need to protect our high streets because they're a very valuable resource for many people and many small businesses.

• 21:51Speaker 00

  So tell us about your tell us, Martin.

• 21:53Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so the tell us this week. What is your longest financial innings? Which product provider have you been with the longest? How long? Why have you stuck with them? Are you glad you did or you do stick with them? That's what we're going on. So why don't you start, Adrian?

• 22:06Speaker 00

  We've already got a contender for text of the day. Sam has been with Bank of Dad for 37 years, 51 weeks. Reliable, generous, great customer service and regular loyalty payments. Such a satisfied customer. I've recently opened my own branch with two customers so far.

• 22:21Martin Lewis?

  Very nice to hear. Susan says, a new accountant joined the company where I was working in 1989 and I noticed his smart, black chequebook. He casually mentioned that First Direct was a telephone bank. I was intrigued. I don't know, it sounds like a love note, doesn't it? I was intrigued and decided to give them a try. I've been with them ever since. Customer service has always been excellent. The only downside is their pants interest rates. So I only keep my main current account with them and moved our joint housekeeping account to Nationwide when they offered me a bonus for doing so. I rarely call them these days as their app is excellent, but if I need to call, there is rarely any way to talk. And banks are going to be a theme throughout this, I suspect.

• 23:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:00Martin Lewis?

  I mean, the reason banks used to give out toys and things to kids when they were in school, when I was growing up, I remember it at the time, and why they do such generous student accounts is they do, people do tend to stick a long time, even when it's not good for them, and they can buy your custom with a few trinkets when you're young and keep that custom for 40 years and cross-sell you loads of other products on top. Go on, what have you got?

• 23:21Speaker 00

  Well, Adam joined NatWest when he was 15, still with them, happy enough, now 40. Marilena, NatWest, she was nine, and is now 76. Well, not always ideal, I've always found them fair and efficient.

• 23:37Martin Lewis?

  Now, I just want to interrupt the tellers, because what fascinated me, and we had over a thousand responses to the tellers, the huge majority of them were from people saying they'd stuck with their bank's current account for 40, 50, or 60 years because they got it when they were a kid for a small toy or someone set it up nearby their school or on a fete or something. And, you know, I'll be honest, that goes against my philosophy that loyalty never pays. I mean, I always have a problem that many people seem to have their current account and their savings and their credit cards with the same bank. When they're all separate products, you don't need to be with the same bank or the same lender for all doing all those different things. So the idea of sticking with them for 60 years because you got it as a kid is a bit of an anathema. Now, don't get me

• 24:20Martin Lewis?

  wrong, if you love your bank account, if you're very happy with the service that you're getting from it, then absolutely you should be loyal and stick with it. But if you're sticking with it out of apathy, it's worth understanding what the opportunity cost you're missing is, I mean, what you could be getting if you were to move elsewhere. And right now, we are in a sweet spot for banking deals. Banks are so keen to get your current account custom because they feel they can cross-sell other products with it, that they will pay you. And we've got five main banks willing to pay you to switch at the moment. I'm going to run through them briefly. I am not dotting the i's and crossing the t's because there's a lot of information here. Just to give you a flavour of what's out there.

• 25:04Martin Lewis?

  Now, all of these, to get the free cash, you need to use their switching services. That's where you apply. They'll switch you within seven working days. They'll automatically move your direct debit, automatically move your standing orders for you. They will close your old bank account and any payments forward going to it will be forwarded to your new account. So what's available? Santander Edge has £180 cash for switches. You pay it £3 a month, but you get up to £10 a month cash back, 1% cash back on bills you pay from it by direct debit. Now, I'd estimate someone with typical bills would gain £80 to £100 a year cash back on top of the fees. Also, via certain websites at the moment, you can get a £25 Amazon voucher for switching to it.

• 25:49Martin Lewis?

  It's got a top overseas spending debit card, so you get near-perfect exchange rates, and a linked 6% easy access saver, which is better than the best open market easy access saver, but only on up to four grand, but still good if you're putting that money in there. You've got First Direct, that's won every customer service poll, or nearly every customer service poll I've ever done for a mainstream bank, rated 92% great. That's giving you £175 cash for switching to it, and also via Sumruit's a £25 Amazon voucher. It's got an ongoing 0% overdraft up to 250 quid. It again has a top overseas debit card for spending overseas, and it's got a linked 7% regular saver where you can put up to £300 a month earning 7% interest. You've got Club Lloyds, giving you switches £185 of cash,

• 26:32Martin Lewis?

  and its big perk on top of that is you get to choose between a year's Disney Plus, or six free cinema tickets, or a magazine subscription. You've got NatWest, it'll give you £125 for switching and £50 when you open its linked 5.5% regular saver account. You pay a £2 a month fee, but as long as you're paying out direct debits and logging into mobile banking, you get £5 a month back, so you're £3 a month up, so that's 36 quid a year. So that's £125 for switching, £50 for the savings account, and another 36 quid a year, that's over 200 quid. And existing Nationwide customers can get a free £200 for switching to it too. If you're an existing current account customer, you'll have to be moving in a bank account from elsewhere on top of that. But if you've got its personal savings account or a mortgage with it,

• 27:17Martin Lewis?

  you can bring in a current account and get paid for switching into it if you're an existing customer too. I mean, and I could go on. There are other types of offers you should be looking at, which is why I sort of don't just stick and be loyal. Let's take right now Club Lloyd Silver. It's a package bank account. That's one of those where you pay a monthly fee, but you get lots of insurance products. So it will pay you £185 for switching to it. You've got to be moving three plus direct debits over. You then pay £11.50 a month. You get European travel insurance for the whole family, mobile phone cover for the account holder, family UK breakdown cover. Now, clearly, if you were going to be paying for those anyway, because the cover levels are pretty decent, the fact you pay £11.50 a month, but you get £185 free effectively means you get the first 16 months for free and

• 28:01Martin Lewis?

  you're getting all those insurance thrown in. And there are lots of other similar deals. Virgin Money Club M is worth looking at if you've got a family and for older travellers, Nationwide Flex Plus is looking at. But my big point, and I probably should stop there, Simon, now, my big point on this is if you are telling us you've been loyal to your bank account and you don't know why, then maybe you should be protecting your pocket a bit more and going elsewhere. Martin says, "Not sure if this counts, but the longest would be a couple of pounds in premium bonds purchased with pocket money at the end of 1956. Perhaps more on track would be a Fidelity European Trust investment from 1992. Anthony Bolton was the manager, and a few years later, as I dabbled with other providers, I realised that he was an

• 28:45Martin Lewis?

  exceptionally good manager and started to invest in other funds he managed. A strategy that served me well over the years."

• 28:51Speaker 00

  Oh, by Sheila has been with the AA since 2007 and last week called them out for the first time in three years. Partner broke down in a remote location, called at 5pm, said they would be there at 10pm.

• 29:04Martin Lewis?

  It's not the best, is it? Well, do you know what? I actually think that takes us very well into the next subject that we're going to do.

• 29:10Speaker 00

  Yeah. I just can't go through the process. I've got too much shame of trying to haggle. One of our editors today, Ellie, put it very well. She said, "I just can't bear to go through that am dram. Oh, I'm thinking of moving away. I'm going to take my account away. What are you going to do about it?" It's that I'm reluctant to do. And I know I'm a fool, but go on, you tell us how to go about haggling.

• 29:29Martin Lewis?

  Look, I think there's certainly there's some legitimate arguments to what you're saying, that in regulated industries, haggling probably shouldn't work. It's unfair to those who lack the skills or the education or the mental health or the capacity to do so. Yet it is allowed and it does work, right? And so...

• 29:48Martin Lewis?

  I think you just have to accept that if you're not going to haggle and you're going to stick with a company, you are going to be penalised for not doing so, especially in mature industries such as mobile phone firms where everyone already has the product. So companies need to try and retain our existing custom. So my rule is quite simple. If you're at or past the end of your contract, then you're holstering a huge weapon which is loyalty because they want to keep your business and you should make them pay for it. Now, I was making a point about the rights and wrong of haggling and we've actually had quite a few comments on those, haven't we Simon? I thought it'd be worth reading a few out. What have you got?

• 30:25Speaker 05

  Yeah, Sue got in touch. She says, "The more confident and articulate you are, the less you pay. Is this really how we want society to be?"

• 30:32Martin Lewis?

  So there really is a justice issue. I mean, of course, this goes right across society when you talk about complaints and you talk about problems and you talk about people who can effectively navigate a complaint system and get themselves justice in a financial society. It tends to be people who are more professional and better educated who tend to be able to navigate their way through it. And similar works in haggling. I mean, there are different crossover skills. There is a real question, I think, which have recently actually raised this in one of their policy papers, of the unfairness of haggling out there.

• 31:01Speaker 05

  Helen says, "More importantly, why do we need to haggle? I do usually phone insurance, breakdown cover, broadband, et cetera, but often have reasonable success. But if the company can make a better price, why don't they?"

• 31:13Martin Lewis?

  Because they're effectively allowed to do, you know, price differentiation is a holy grail of companies. Price differentiation says, "I want to charge each customer the maximum they're willing to pay." I mean, and ultimately, if you can do that and you can retain a large customer base, then you're going to be more profitable. Because as long as every customer is profitable to an extent, if someone's willing to pay more, you let them do more. And many people pay more out of apathy and inertia from not haggling. So while it would all be nice for us to say in a fair, just world that where, a fair, just world, everyone would get the perfect price and you don't have to haggle, I'm afraid that isn't capitalism.

• 31:49Speaker 05

  Philip says that he never gets why companies don't say, "This is our best price and this is how you get it." The hours that must be wasted speaking to companies to haggle.

• 31:58Martin Lewis?

  Well, the hours are wasted by the customer. I mean, for companies, it is clearly a more lucrative system or they wouldn't do it. They want to retain customers. Many people do just auto-renew year after year after year and pay the ever-increased prices that is coming across. I mean, it's the same as the answer I've just given, really. People are willing to pay more, so companies will take more money, which is why all we can do as consumers and all I can do in my career, because this is the actual practical reality of the situation we're in, is suggest to you that you need to be aware that if you don't do this, you're probably going to be paying more. Of course, you have another choice: leave. Go on to a comparison site, you don't need to haggle, go and find yourself the cheapest deal for the product that you want with another company,

• 32:39Martin Lewis?

  ditch and switch, and that's just as powerful in its own right. Really, haggling is where you're desperate to stay with the company that you're currently with. So let's start with what we were just talking about. I do a big poll on this, I do it on a regular basis. The last poll has just been done a couple of weeks ago, of people who try and haggle and what their successes are. The top four haggling sectors: fourth is mobile phones, with an average 58% success rate, so more than 50% of people who try succeed. Car and home insurance is a 62% success rate. Broadband and paid-for TV is an average 69% success rate,

• 33:17Martin Lewis?

  and breakdown cover is an average 81% success rate. So four in five. And let me take this up even further, let me go into the top 10, the top 10 firms to haggle with, based on those who try and whether they report they succeeded or not. I'll do it in my best pop voice. In at 10, you've got now to broadband and TV. Oh, oh, I think there's a catch. I'll stop.

• 33:46Speaker 06

  Adrian, yes, it is another wicket, second wicket. So very, two in one over from Nishish Kumar Reddy, bearing in mind England had withstood the challenges of Bumrah and deep in the first hour, and Zach Crawley is out for 18, 44 for two. Oli Pope dropped first ball, incidentally, as well, so it's been eventful over this, but yeah, just a little brush at the outside edge and a simple catch from Rishabh Pant. Suddenly, England have lost both their openers and they're in a bit of trouble, 44 for two.

• 34:16Martin Lewis?

  And to be fair, speaking of a simple catch and an easy wicket, that's exactly what haggling should be with the top 10 firms to haggle with, so I'm going to go straight back into it. In at 10 is now broadband and TV with a 72% success rate. At 9, you've got Sky Mobile at 72% success as well. Green Flag Breakdown is in at 8 at 73%. AA Insurance, 74% success rate. Talk Talk Broadband and TV in at number 6, 75% success rate. In at number 5, it's Admiral Insurance at 75%. Number 4, Hastings Direct, 77%. Now we get to the big 3. Third place, RAC Breakdown Cover, 54% report a big success, 30% report a small

• 34:57Martin Lewis?

  success. That's an 84% success overall. In at number 2, Virgin Media Broadband and TV, 58% report a big success, 26% a small success. That's an 84% success rate. And the top firm to haggle with that we've found in the UK that has a significant number of people who voted in the poll is the AA Breakdown Cover with 61% of people who try, reporting a big success, 26% a small success. That is an 87% success rate. It's absolutely massive. I'm afraid if you are not trying when you're at the end of your contract and you're with

• 35:36Martin Lewis?

  the AA, you are almost certainly overpaying because the huge majority who do try succeed and the savings can be substantial.

• 35:47Speaker 00

  So, how do I do it then? I wait to the end of my contract and it's on direct debit with me, so with a particular breakdown company whose name may or may not have been mentioned. So, I get a little note it's happened, I think, oh, I must look at that and then I forget for another year and then don't do it again. So what do I do? Ring them?

• 36:05Martin Lewis?

  Well, I would always say the first step, if you can, I mean, you don't have to do this. The first step, if you can, is go online and do a very quick search and find out what the cheapest one of their main competitors would charge you would be. Because new customer deals in these type of industries are almost certainly cheaper. So, you know, for broadband, you go onto a comparison site, same for car and home insurance, mobiles. Comparison, breakdown, there are lists of cheapest breakdown cover out there and you'll be saying they'll be very substantially cheaper than what you're paying on your renewal. Because what they do on renewals is they use a thing called price walking, which is where they walk your price up a little bit each year. So that once you've been with the firm three, four or five years, you're paying very substantially more than a new customer would in a similar situation. And then you go and take them that price and say, you know, I'm sorry, I'm paying too

• 36:47Martin Lewis?

  much, I don't think this is fair and I really would like you to improve the offer. I mean, there are lots of phrases that pay, I like your service, but you're putting the price up and it costs too much, can you reduce it? Or I've worked out my budget and my absolute maximum is, or I've checked online and name your rival can do it for less. But you're effectively saying this isn't good enough. And remember, 87% success rate at the AA, 84% at the RAC, the money will come off. I mean, you're a competent communicator, Adrian, would that really be that difficult?

• 37:21Speaker 00

  It shouldn't be, but I'm going to do it. I mean, just, just on-

• 37:27Martin Lewis?

  But remember, this is when you're nearly out of contract or out of-

• 37:29Speaker 00

  I know, I know, it's mad. Just on loyalty, just want to, just a text has come in, which really makes you realise just how a good bit of customer service can last the company a lifetime. So it makes you wonder why customer service isn't always good when it can, you know, it can cause somebody to stay with you forever. I mean, somebody says, I've been with the Colin's, been with the NatWest since 1979. Very helpful cashier called Dawn in the UEA branch in Norwich and a fantastic chap, even names him Martin, who sorted me out in 1990 when I was going through some very difficult financial issues. I mean, this is, it's what, 35 years ago and, you know, it left such an imprint, it stayed with them forever. So every, every company should be absolutely all over you like a rash in terms of customer

• 38:14Speaker 00

  service.

• 38:15Martin Lewis?

  Well, not necessarily, I'm afraid. Customer service is a function of profitability. Some companies market themselves on their customer service, some market themselves on their price. Some people don't want to talk to anybody and just want a really easy option.

• 38:25Speaker 00

  But every company wants to retain, every company wants to retain-

• 38:28Martin Lewis?

  It does, but many will retain, you know, many will give great customer service and charge three times over the odds and those who are price sensitive won't stick with that. Let's take, Jan emailed me last month- Well, how thrilled we are. Our Virgin bill has been creeping up, now £80 a month. So as we neared our contract end, we girded our loins for haggle time. We got two other quotes, great, good benchmarking, well done Jam. Then approached Virgin and after turning three offers down, got our bill reduced to £51 a month. That's a saving of about £350 a year. A big win. We're now going away for a week on our savings. It can be done. Thanks for your advice. So my point, Adrian, is you're talking about someone who remembers customer service. Other people remember price and other people feel, and quite rightly, if you're paying £80 a month

• 39:10Martin Lewis?

  on your broadband or your broadband and TV and you're not getting the service, that you should be paying less. And so there is a sort of sweet spot spectrum between the two. And it depends, so, you know, if you're looking for a savings account or a cash ISA, then just go for the top rate because you're hardly ever going to touch them in most cases. You only need to interact with the customer service once or twice a year. With your day-to-day bank account, then absolutely customer service has more impact. There's loads of banks willing to pay to switch at the moment, including First Direct, who's top rated for customer service and that'll give people up to £200 if they switch to it. So there are lots of incentives for doing it. I think we've got lots of other successes and questions from people on haggling, haven't we?

• 39:47Speaker 00

  Yeah, a little furniture shop says, please don't try to haggle with small businesses hard enough to try to earn a living without someone trying to knock money off at an already competitive price.

• 39:57Martin Lewis?

  Well, my rule on haggling is pretty simple. You should always be polite, you should always be charming, you should always work through it.

• 40:02Speaker 00

  And how would you phrase it?

• 40:03Martin Lewis?

  And you should always remember that just as you do have a right to ask if they can do it cheaper and you have a right to take your custom elsewhere if you don't feel that the price is right, then equally the store also has a right to say no and say, I'm sorry, we don't do haggling in here. So while I understand that person's sensibility, to have some blanket rule that you can't haggle when there are many independent retailers who will allow you to haggle, I'm afraid isn't something that could be done. But you should not take offence or be angry with someone for saying, no, you can't haggle with me if they don't do so. And then if you want to support your small local businesses, which is something I'm in favour of because otherwise we'd lose them, then you may be aware that you want to pay their price. But it also, if it's available cheaper elsewhere, then it's a choice of the customer.

• 40:44Speaker 00

  Okay, but in a situation like that, I'm always fascinated, what I don't... Know how to form the words. I'm not worried about them offending me. I'm worried about me offending them. So if I say a, a, an item of an ornament fifty pounds, what do I say?

• 40:59Martin Lewis?

  I think we're being taken off track here.

• 41:01Speaker 00

  Okay, sorry, go on.

• 41:01Martin Lewis?

  Because we're talking about mature industry call centre haggling. We're not talking about ornaments. We're not talk, we're generally not talking face to face. We're talking on the phone and we're potentially talking on web chat. And basically, we're talking these industries which set up a differential pricing for people who haggle and people who don't haggle. And for new customers and don't customers, companies. So I think it's slightly different. Look, you, you know, the thing that really pays, we've talked about this before. The thing that really pays is you go to them, you benchmark your deal, you've been nice, you've been polite, which you should always be, and they say, we're not going to do that deal. Where the power comes, and this is what your friend was talking about in Amdran before, is in asking to cancel. Because what is known as disconnections to us is internally known as customer retentions.

• 41:44Martin Lewis?

  Now, that's what you have to get to. Because when you get to customer retentions, workers there have far more deals, authority, power and discretion to get you to stay. And so that's the point ultimately where the really big deals come on. Dave posted on X to me last month. Sky was going to be going up to a hundred and ten pounds. I would offer eighty pounds after haggling. I gave them thirty days notice that I was cancelling. After two weeks, I got a text, ended up at sixty seven pounds fifty. So even if you actually hold to your guns and you stick and you do cancel, you very often find they come up with a retention deal at the last minute to try and keep you. Even better is if you can do it on the phone. And remember, people who work in the call centres, they're human beings, so we should be nice.

• 42:28Martin Lewis?

  I go back to what I say, your aim isn't to be aggressive. Why aren't you giving me a cheap price? Your aim is. Oh, I really can't afford this and I'd love to stick with you. I love your service. But, you know, it's getting expensive and there are others cheaper elsewhere. I don't want to have to leave. It's going to be really disappointing and my wife's going to be upset with me or my partner's going to be upset with me if I do leave. What can you do? Because it's frustrating for me. I know so many friends of mine are paying so much less than I am for the same thing. And I just don't want to pay over the odds. But if you're going to do that to me, I'm so sorry, I'm going to have to leave. Can you help at all, please? Be charming and be funny when you talk to them. Be witty, whatever you've got in you. I mean, I'm not talking to an individual. It's tough to do it. That's the concept. You can do that, Adrian. You're a very charming man.

• 43:09Speaker 00

  Okay, if you say so, I'll try my very best.

• 43:13Martin Lewis?

  Now, I'm back in my corridor outside of the cricket, talking afterwards. I know we've had many questions in on haggling too. Shall we do those, Simon?

• 43:21Speaker 05

  Yeah, Kayleigh wants to know if there's any tips for e-Broadband renewal. Due to end in mid-September, I've seen a much better package but not paying £70 a month. Currently it's £35 a month and I have my phone contract with them for years.

• 43:34Martin Lewis?

  Well, the first thing I would do when we're talking about mobile phone companies is I'd get onto a comparison site and see what's cheapest. You'll say to me, "But I don't want Martin, I don't want to go there." I don't know why you've got that voice, but I'm doing it anyway. "I don't want to go there because I like my signal and I want to keep my mobile phone signal as it is at the moment," which would be a very valid point. So what you can do is, I've talked about this before, there are only actually four mobile networks in the UK: EE, O2, Vodafone and 3, and Vodafone and 3 are merging. So, although they'll keep separate signals, so every other network is piggybacking on top of them. And that means that you're talking to me about EE, there are a host of networks that use the same signal that you currently have. So, for example, other networks that use the same signal

• 44:18Martin Lewis?

  as EE are Wompi Mobile, IkaTalk, Lycamobile, Mozilla, RWG Mobile, Spusu, Talk Home, Utility Warehouse and your Co-op. So you can go onto a comparison site and some good comparison sites will let you filter by signal. So you can look and say, "What is the cheapest deal using the EE signal that I have at the moment?" Of course, check if you want 5G or you want wifi calling, whether it has those facilities. But then take EE that price. Take EE that price at the end and speak to them and say, "I can get this elsewhere on the same network. What are you going to offer me if I stick with your existing package now and see if they can match it?" I mean, that would be the haggling route. Alternatively, you could see what they'd offer you. When you're getting to the end

• 45:01Martin Lewis?

  of your contract, or as soon as you're out of contract, just text PAC265075 and that is asking for your code that you can move to another network. And you might find there and then they offer you a better deal. So there's lots of things that you could do in those circumstances.

• 45:15Speaker 05

  Wendy wants to know, "We're paying a lot for our Sky TV and broadband package. I'm okay with the TV part, but the bill for broadband is way too high. Can I haggle to get this bit down or even change providers? Does the broadband and TV come as a package, please?"

• 45:29Martin Lewis?

  You can do both of those. You can stick with just having the Sky TV package by itself, or you can have it as an all-in-one. You could go and get broadband elsewhere. It's absolutely worth doing your research. But what you'll tend to find is if you do have an all-in-one package, then you have more negotiating room to haggle. I wouldn't haggle on that broadband element alone. I would just be talking about the total price that you're paying, because there's more room for it to be brought down at that point. But absolutely, you can do that. You can say, "The broadband element, you know, I'm paying 50 quid. I can get it for 20 quid elsewhere. The TV element's too much. What's the best deal that you're going to give me? Otherwise, I'm going to have to look at ditching in its entirety, or at least ditching my broadband element." That's perfectly legitimate, and I suspect you'll do quite well with that. Two final thoughts I just wanted to bring in on haggling.

• 46:13Martin Lewis?

  First of all, if you fail, try again. Wait a couple of days, go again. Two reasons. One, the call centre may have hit its quota of discounts for that day or that week. That's perfectly possible. It does happen. There are quotas. Or the agent may have hit their quota. I mean, I've heard anecdotally that agents have a certain number of discounts that they can give in a day. Now, they may not have liked you, so you might want to find another agent that you're better able to financially flirt with and persuade a win to your side. Or maybe they've just run out of your quota. So in both of those occasions, waiting a few days, trying again with a smile on your face, using that chutzpah and that charm, may just work. And the final point.

• 46:56Martin Lewis?

  You know, we talked about getting through to disconnections and talking about leaving. But if none of this does work, why not ditch and switch? If you're overpaying and you can get it cheaper elsewhere after doing your benchmarking, it is time to consider ditching and switching and trying somewhere else. You never know. It may just be the start of a beautiful new contractual relationship.

• 47:22Speaker 00

  I know Martin, Ellie, the crowd are very focused on the cricket. I wonder if they've actually tuned their earphones to listen to Martin because he said something earlier and it elicited an extraordinary reaction from the crowd. Shall we just play back a little bit of Martin earlier?

• 47:37Martin Lewis?

  Yes, it is allowed and it does work, right? And so...

• 47:43Speaker 00

  Oh, could you hear that? Oh, they couldn't believe you'd said that.

• 47:47Speaker 06

  That was not Oli Pope getting drops or anything like that.

• 47:50Speaker 00

  They rose in acclaim for that bit of wisdom. Well done, Martin.

• 47:53Martin Lewis?

  Speaking of rise in acclaim, Adrian, I think, you know, we're getting round. You know what we normally do at this time, it's Mastermind. But today, we're doing a Tested by Martin special, or TMS for short.

• 48:26Speaker 00

  I like, I can see what you're doing here, Martin. Go on then.

• 48:30Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so listen, as people will know in the Normal Money Mastermind, it is 10. Adrian has got 10 right and 19 wrong in this three option multiple choice question. So he's only just ahead of random chance. But today, Adrian, because cricket is a team sport, you have a team. Ellie is with me. Hello, Ellie.

• 48:46Speaker 06

  Hello, Martin.

• 48:47Martin Lewis?

  Steve Finn is with me. Hello, Steve. Hello, Martin. And they are going to work with you, Adrian, to see if collectively you can all get the answer right on this special version, Tested by Martin special. Here we go. It's a glorious day at Lord's.

• 49:00Speaker 00

  So who's facing here and who's at the bowler's end?

• 49:03Martin Lewis?

  All three of you have bats. There's a very large wicket behind and I have a ball the size of something that would knock a house over.

• 49:11Speaker 06

  Are you confident with this, Finn? Because if you were bowling, you might feel more confident.

• 49:16Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, that sounds intimidating.

• 49:18Speaker 06

  What's your highest score on this ground?

• 49:20Martin Lewis?

  Not enough. The questions are always simple, it's the answers that are difficult.

• 49:26Speaker 06

  Right.

• 49:26Martin Lewis?

  So it's a glorious day at Lord's. Last time Adrian was here, he was in a West Brom shirt and crocs. He confused the long room for the gents. It wasn't much fun, but to make up for it, he headed to the bar with Phil Toffnell to buy a round. Some tepid lagers, in a Pim's in a paper cup, salt and vinegar crisps, that was for me, and more. Total £30. And in a move not seen since Ben Stokes last said, "Let's focus on the forward defensive shot", he whipped out a Scottish £50 note. The barman eyed it like he'd been offered a five-over spell from Jasprit Bumrah, or Steve here himself, equally.

• 50:00Speaker 07

  I know who I'd rather face.

• 50:01Martin Lewis?

  And said, "Sorry mate, we don't take those. Toughers, sharp as a googly, pipes up, 'Oi, it's legal tender, you have to accept it.'" So, DRS time, what is the correct decision here? Is it A, Scottish banknotes are legal tender in England and by law they have to accept it? B, Scottish banknotes are legal tender in England but they still don't have to accept it? Or C, Scottish banknotes are not legal tender in England and they don't have to accept it?

• 50:33Speaker 06

  I'm thinking that they are legal tender and they have to accept it, but is there something about the size of the banknote? Because £50, £50 is quite a big note.

• 50:44Martin Lewis?

  So Ellie's making the amateur mistake there, Adrian, of looking at me in an inquiring way and assuming that I'm going to come in and step in and help here.

• 50:51Speaker 07

  She's a master of body language.

• 50:53Speaker 06

  I'm looking at Finny, what do you think?

• 50:54Speaker 07

  I would say option B. I think it's legal tender, but I don't think the vendor is necessarily obliged to take it.

• 51:03Martin Lewis?

  So I'm just going to repeat the options before we go, Adrian. So you've got, they are legal tender and they have to accept it, Scottish banknotes, they are legal tender, they don't have to accept it, or they're not legal tender in England and they don't have to accept it.

• 51:14Speaker 00

  I'm going with Steve Finn, but would you be prepared to tell us whether the denomination, is that the right word, but is the fat? Is it different for a 50 or a 20 as a 10? Does that make any...

• 51:27Speaker 06

  That's my caveat.

• 51:28Speaker 00

  Is that a trick? That's Ellie's caveat.

• 51:30Martin Lewis?

  Now, normally, I wouldn't give you anything. But Ellie's body language is very warm here. And they're letting me sit in their commentary box at Lord's. So as a special gift, as a one-off, I will tell you, this is not specific to the denomination of note.

• 51:46Speaker 00

  Ellie might want to change your answer then, or are you sticking with it?

• 51:48Speaker 06

  No, I'm sticking with it. I think it's legal tender and you have to accept it.

• 51:51Speaker 00

  Okay, I think...

• 51:52Martin Lewis?

  Steve, Steve, where are you? Sticking with yours?

• 51:54Speaker 07

  I'm sticking with my...

• 51:55Martin Lewis?

  Adrian, you're team captain, because ultimately it's your score sheet, it's going on, not theirs.

• 51:59Speaker 00

  Okay, I'm going with Steve. I think, I don't think they've got to accept anything. I think they could turn down a nice crisp English 10-pound note. You know, or Edward Elgar on the 20-pound note. I think, I just don't think it's... I think they can turn down what they like if they're daft enough to do it. They don't want your money. But, anyway, I'm going with Steve.

• 52:20Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so, in England and Wales, all 5, 10 and 20-pound Bank of England notes are legal tender. As are all coins, although it depends up to a certain amount. So for example, wampy coins are only legal tender up to 20 pence use of them. Now, what's very interesting here, in Scotland or Northern Ireland, no bank notes are legal tender whatsoever. And all of this is because of a fundamental misunderstanding of what legal tender is. Legal tender simply means what you must accept for a court-ordered debt.

• 53:02Martin Lewis?

  What we generally refer to as legal tender is common parlance for is it a legal currency? A legal currency means is it a legally accepted currency in the country, of which Scottish bank notes, English bank notes, all Northern Irish bank notes are all legal currency. But no store is ever obligated to take any form of payment unless it's breaching Discrimination Act. So if it's not taking it because of you and the colour of your skin, that would be discriminatory. But if it says, "We don't take cash, we only take card payment", if it says, "We only take payments in cricket balls", that is perfectly legal for it to do, there's no enforced way of you paying. So I'm afraid to say, we need to play the noise a bit of a different one for this week for incorrect.

• 53:42Speaker 08

  Nasty short ball, he's caught behind! It was a terrific delivery, it really was.

• 53:47Martin Lewis?

  The correct answer is Scottish banknotes are not legal tender in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland and they don't have to accept them. But I would encourage any retail staff, Scottish banknotes are a legal currency, as are Bank of England banknotes. And while you don't have to accept any of them, I would encourage you to do so and make sure you educate yourself on what Scottish and Northern Irish banknotes look like. We are a United Kingdom where they are all legal currency right across the UK.

• 54:14Speaker 00

  I just want to know what the winning noise is. Can we just pretend of one and go, "I think..."

• 54:18Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so let's play it for me. So for me for setting a question that you all got wrong, I get this.

• 54:23Speaker 08

  Hit that miles! Oh, it's still going, it'll keep going. Gone for six.

• 54:28Martin Lewis?

  There you go.

• 54:29Speaker 00

  That's very good, very, very good. Have you asked them about their haggling? I could imagine Ellie being really good at haggling. Steve Finn just seems too, he's just too polite somehow, too nice and correct somehow to sully himself like that.

• 54:46Speaker 06

  I can be quite persuasive if I need to be with situations like this.

• 54:50Speaker 00

  He's worked on me in Mass Mind, look at that!

• 54:51Speaker 06

  Yeah, that's true, that's true. I know, I was trying to use my Jedi mind tricks to Martin, didn't work. No, I mean, I have done that with broadband providers. I have gone and said, "Look", I mean, but actually, you know, your advice Martin was very good, "Be nice, pour on the charm, say, 'Look, I really want to, but you know, but money's tight' and so on." So I have, I have said that. I said, "Look, this is quite expensive, you know, and I can get it cheaper elsewhere, but I really want to stay with you." So I have, I have done that with broadband providers.

• 55:17Martin Lewis?

  I find it frustrating, the hoops that you have to jump through in order to actually speak to someone to get something done. So I find myself halfway through the process sometimes and...

• 55:27Speaker 07

  Then I have, I don't have two hours to sit on a live chat or to sit waiting to have a phone answer.

• 55:33Speaker 00

  If you tell them you're leaving Steve, then they'll call you. If you can get that across, then you will go straight to the front.

• 55:38Martin Lewis?

  And it's worth saying, people do often say to me, what if I tell them they leave and then they say, okay, I'm going to disconnect you, which scares the pants off people. Well, my answer to that is say, well, I just need to check with the husband, the wife, the girlfriend, the budgie, the parrot, whatever it is, before I do that. But also do remember, you know, as we talked about in previous weeks, if you ask for your pack code, which is the code for leaving, which you do, you text for free to 65075 to get your pack code from your mobile phone firm. And that's the code you need to, to switch number. Often when you do that, they'll send you a better deal than you're currently on because they'll try and retain you at that point. In these mature industries, we're trying to tweak their retention nipples, which seems a good way for me to stop.

• 56:12Speaker 07

  I have Owen Morgan, former England captain, sets reminders in his phone for the day that he gets to ring someone up and argue with them about cutting his Sky bill by five pounds or something.

• 56:23Martin Lewis?

  That's exactly what. But you know, the savings that we are talking about here, they're just monumental. We're talking hundreds of pounds a year for many people. And it just shows you that the firms are expecting you to haggle because, you know, I've been talking about this for the last 10 and 15 years. And if you don't, then either you're voluntarily penalising yourself or unfortunately, some people are being penalised by a lack of confidence or mental health and mental capacity or education that means they can't do so. So there are some real moral questions over whether this is right or wrong.

• 56:51Speaker 00

  Okay, listen, I've got a little bit of brotherly advice for you, Martin. Enjoy your day at Lord's now, but during the tea interval, keep a very low profile or wear a mask because you will get a lot of very, very well refreshed cricket fans coming up to you and asking you for all sorts of financial advice.

• 57:09Martin Lewis?

  It's going to get even worse, Adrian, because I'm just going to put it on so they can see and hear. As I was leaving the house, I couldn't find a hat, so I had to get my wife's hat. So I've got, I've got a cap, it's my wife's cap. I'm not sure, does it look like my wife's cap? What do you think?

• 57:22Speaker 06

  No, no, I think that's a very, very suitably unisex cap. She has a good little cricket on the front, or is it?

• 57:28Martin Lewis?

  No, I didn't. And it's a golfer, I think.

• 57:30Speaker 06

  Oh, a golfer.

• 57:31Martin Lewis?

  A golfer, I don't know why, she must have been giving it for free at some point.

• 57:33Speaker 07

  It looks good over the top of your headphones, I must say.

• 57:34Martin Lewis?

  Okay, yeah, I couldn't get it on the headphones, you noticed that. Thank you for having me here. Thanks to Five Live for letting me come and not have to leave Lord's to go and do the podcast and come back and do the show and come back. Thank you very much.

• 57:45Speaker 00

  Have a great day.

• 57:50Martin Lewis?

  And that's it for this week. If you've enjoyed it, please tell your friends you've been listening to the Martin Lewis podcast. We tend to put a new episode out every Thursday. Do subscribe to keep up to date, then your pockets will be pleased with you. And I am off to actually go and watch the cricket. Take care.

• 58:23Speaker 09

  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.

• 58:58Speaker 03

  BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

• 59:08Speaker 02

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