Question Time: Am I short-changing my kids’ savings? How to stop loans for gambling addict? Does Section 75 work with vouchers?

In our Question Time podcast, Martin Lewis gives you answers on anything and everything, including: how do I get a PAC code when there's multiple numbers on my account? Will I be protected by Section 75 if I part-pay with vouchers? Should I move savings for my child into an ISA? Is there a service to stop an addict accessing loans and credit cards? We also have a success, where Hannah tells us how she passed Martin’s advice to a friend, and saved her £540 on her mobile and broadband! Plus, Matt asks Martin how he organises his wardrobe. 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 how many hours a day he spends on his phone, what his go-to karaoke song is, or you have a very complicated question about your finances, email it to [email protected] mailto:[email protected].

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:46Martin Lewis?

  What puts a smile on my face as well as the saving is that spreading of the message. I'm from way back when you first recommended the Goldfish credit card. My knowledge is fiscally flabby. Go and find the cheapest deal that you want. You don't need your pack code to do that. But you just said to me that I had a weird smile on my face. Hello and welcome to the cunningly named The Martin Lewis podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is our question time episode, where you, Esquires, extremely savvy questioners, get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything. Open brackets within reason, close brackets. I do like saying that. It's good to be back after the summer.

• 2:27Martin Lewis?

  And this week, Neil says he's useless with money and is worried he's not doing right by his children on their savings. How can he boost it? Jules wants to save money on his family's mobile bills, but needs to know how to stop being stymied because it's a multi-sim account. Andy's daughter sadly has a gambling addiction. He wants to know, is there a way she can ask lenders not to give her money if she tries to get it in future? Jen wants to know, do you still get section 75 protection if you pay jointly with a credit card and vouchers? Hannah tells us how she successfully saved her friend money on her mobile. And Matt, yes, that Matt, wants to know, how do I organise my wardrobe? Play the theme tune.

• 3:26Martin Lewis?

  Hello and welcome to our question time podcast. Yes, this is the one where you can ask me questions on anything and everything. Open brackets within reason, close brackets. And it's also the one where I am joined by the one, the only, Professor, Dr, Sir Matthew Burnham Esquire is back. Add a round of applause in, Matt.

• 3:51Martin Lewis?

  Yes, Matt is our custodian of questions. It is he who decides what the questions are going to be and how the order comes in. Now, just before we recorded this, because this isn't the very first time that we've spoken, and there are two reasons for that, let's just delve into the secrets. First of all, because we record the questions first, don't we? The callers first, rather. So every time I say, I think it's going to be a caller, I tend to know it's going to be a caller because often we've already recorded it, not every time we've already recorded it. And also because obviously we have to set everything up. But you just said to me that I had a weird smile on my face. What was that about?

• 4:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, so every time we go to do the intro, I know if something, if I've done something wrong, or if you're gonna say something that's gonna make me giggle, you do this little rice smile. And I was waiting for something, but you said you don't have anything to tell me off about.

• 4:41Martin Lewis?

  Actually, I hadn't actually, it's first question time back. I haven't actually got anything to be annoyed with you about.

• 4:47Speaker 03

  Not yet.

• 4:48Martin Lewis?

  In terms of last week's edit, which is normally where I like to riff on this bit. And I was just smiling, Matt, because it's nice to be back working with you.

• 4:55Speaker 03

  It is nice to be back. Thank you. Yeah, Joe, I've really missed it. I've missed having my Martin time, but also the outlet to be silly on a podcast.

• 5:04Martin Lewis?

  It is, and it's true. I mean, can we just say, and hopefully it doesn't damage with your employers, which are five live generally, this is your favourite bit of work you do in the week, isn't it?

• 5:12Speaker 03

  100%. And I'm sure Tom, the editor, won't mind me saying that.

• 5:17Martin Lewis?

  I think he knows, doesn't he?

• 5:18Speaker 03

  I think he knows.

• 5:19Martin Lewis?

  I think in conversations I've had, I'm pretty sure he knows. So, I mean, I haven't got anything to do in the intro. I feel I should be either telling you off or applauding you or having a funny story. I've got nothing.

• 5:28Speaker 03

  Well, you could just sort of, have you had a good summer?

• 5:31Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I had a very nice summer. I managed to get myself relaxed away, not looking at social media, which is very good for my sort of karma state, both karma and karma state, which is an unintentional pun, but I'm going to stick with the fact that I've done it. And I'm feeling ready to come back. But I have said this before, I consider my job is a bit like being an athlete. You know, not just because, you know, it makes me look like one and ripped in the way that I am, but also, don't laugh, but also because I have to be, to be able to answer things off the top of your head, you have to be constantly working and constantly ingrained and in it. So when I take a few weeks off over the summer, when I come back, it's like I'm slightly out of shape. So I'm always a little bit nervous. Have I got the information? You know, is it there with me?

• 6:15Martin Lewis?

  Luckily, sitting in for she who must be obeyed, Rosie, this week is she who must soon will be, futurely. Shall I do that again?

• 6:25Speaker 03

  No, I like it. Keep it in.

• 6:27Martin Lewis?

  You like me making mistakes, don't you? You enjoy that. She who will soon be she who must be obeyed is Isabel is with me this week because Rosie's having a day off. So it's Isabel, for those who are regular listeners, Isabel, who is live fact checking me, which is extra important this week because I'm slightly out of shape. I am, my knowledge is fiscally flabby. Does that even work? I'm just going with it. You see, none of it's working. Shall we just get into a question and help me?

• 6:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, I really think we should.

• 6:55Martin Lewis?

  Question time. Let's do it.

• 6:58Martin Lewis?

  I'm trained, I'm warmed, I'm stretched, I'm ready to go. What is your first question?

• 7:01Speaker 03

  First question is one that's been emailed in by Neil. And Neil says, hi, Martin.

• 7:06Martin Lewis?

  Hi, Neil.

• 7:07Speaker 03

  Recently catched up on a whole host of podcasts and I thought I'd ask you a question that runs through my mind each time you talk about bank accounts for children. You'll get hundreds of questions, but I thought I'd chance my arm.

• 7:17Martin Lewis?

  You are an Esquire now, Neil. Your question is being read, it has been selected by the custodian of question. You chanced your arm and you came back with two arms. Again, I'm not sure that that works. Just move on.

• 7:28Speaker 03

  We're a married couple who've always had the notion of putting-

• 7:31Martin Lewis?

  That's not us. Just checking.

• 7:32Speaker 03

  No, we're not a married couple.

• 7:33Martin Lewis?

  No, no, this is just a podcast bromance, isn't it?

• 7:36Speaker 03

  Definitely is. We're a married couple who've always had the notion of putting regular amounts away each month for our kids, which we do in addition. Any birthday or Christmas money above pocket money amounts are also paid into these accounts. We don't anticipate either of our two boys, ages 11 and 7, needing to access this money ahead of them turning 18. Both boys have a Lloyds Young Saver account, which we set up for them at birth, which currently has a rate of 2.23%, up to 5K, and then 0.75% on balances above that. That's low.

• 8:11Speaker 03

  Our 11-year-old has just over 11,000 in his account and the seven-year-old has around 9,000.

• 8:17Martin Lewis?

  It's behind you. Sorry. Keep going, Matt.

• 8:20Speaker 03

  We're both really useless with money in terms of making it work for the future, so would welcome any advice, specifically, should we move these to child ISAs or similar? If so, which are the best options right now? How do we transfer balances from these accounts? Are there any tax implications on us as parents? For these accounts, all the regular payments we're making monthly. I'm a higher rate taxpayer and my wife is a basic rate taxpayer, if that makes any difference. Cheers, Martin.

• 8:48Martin Lewis?

  Okay, there's lots of questions in there.

• 8:50Speaker 03

  There was a lot in there.

• 8:51Martin Lewis?

  So let's start. I think the first one was, should we move these to child ISAs or similar?

• 8:55Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 8:56Martin Lewis?

  Now, a junior ISA, which is what we're talking about, has two main criteria. The first is the money is locked away until the child is 18. You're saying to me, you don't anticipate your children needing the money till they're 18. So that is perfectly possible, that you could put it in a junior ISA. The second is, with a junior ISA, whether it's shares or cash, you can put up to 9,000 pounds per tax year. Tax year starts on the 6th of April, ends on the 5th of April the next year in. And it's totally tax-free, whether it's from parents, whether it's from grandparents, whoever has put the money in. Only parents can open it, but wherever the money is coming from, it is tax-free and it is your child's money on their 18th birthday. Now, you think 9,000 pounds a year, I mean, that is quite a large amount.

• 9:40Martin Lewis?

  So 18,000 after two years, plus any interest, plus any investment growth, you know, 27 after three, it can grow. Now, technically, if money is given by a parent or stepparent, not an auntie or uncle, not a grandparent, only a parent or stepparent, then if the interest made by the child is over a hundred pounds a year on money given by an individual parent.

• 10:06Martin Lewis?

  Then that interest is taxed as if it was the parents' interest. And this is to stop people putting all their money in their kid's name and then taking it back and effectively using their children as a tax-free savings allowance. Now, you say you are a higher rate taxpayer, but what's more interesting is whether your own savings earn above the personal savings allowance. As a higher rate taxpayer, you're allowed to earn £500 of interest a year tax-free. If you do earn over £500 in interest a year tax-free, then your children's savings, well, what with 11 grand in on 2%, should be earning over the £100 amount and that would count as your taxable income, in which case putting these savings into a junior ISA

• 10:50Martin Lewis?

  would be beneficial. Now, I need to do a split here. I want to talk, as I always do when I talk junior ISAs, about the importance of considering investing. I am going to come to that and that may be where you end up, but I just want to keep in the savings sphere for the moment because there are other points that are important to make in the savings sphere. The issue with moving your children's money from a children's savings account to a junior ISA is children's savings accounts actually pay more interest than junior ISAs. So the top paying children's savings account at the moment is the Nationwide Flex One

• 11:27Martin Lewis?

  Saver, which pays 5% on up to £5,000 for if your children are aged 11 to 17. You've got Kent Reliance that pays 4.18% on up to £25,000, so that's good for larger amounts and that can be opened for children aged 0 to 17. So we'll just take those two. We'll take those two as the example. You could be earning 4 or 5% and if you do nothing else, you should be getting that money out of the, you know, the rather poor interest rates, I mean 0.75% on balances above 5K when one of your kids has got 11K and is just not very good. So you should be shifting it across. Probably the easier one would be Kent Reliance because you get the good rate on up to £25,000.

• 12:09Martin Lewis?

  If we contrast that to the best paying junior ISA, junior cash ISA, I should say, you've got Leek Building Society that pays 3.85%. You've also got online, I would say the top account is NSNI, which is the state-owned financial institution that pays 3.7%. So you can hear that the rates are lower on the junior cash ISAs than the kids' savings accounts. So that is, that is a slight balance that you would need to take into account. But on the other hand, the interest after 40% tax, if you should be paying tax on that interest, even at 4.1%, is way less than you would get in the junior ISA because the junior ISA is tax-free. So overall, it seems like your decision, obviously, the sensible move would be to be looking at junior ISAs where it's all locked away.

• 12:54Martin Lewis?

  However, let's now move on. Just, just read all those questions for me again, Matt, so I can just check I've got them.

• 13:02Speaker 03

  All right. So should we move these to child ISAs or similar?

• 13:06Martin Lewis?

  Probably yes.

• 13:07Speaker 03

  If so, which are the best options right now?

• 13:10Martin Lewis?

  I've done that, apart from the investing element, which I'm going to do.

• 13:13Speaker 03

  How do we transfer balances from these accounts?

• 13:15Martin Lewis?

  You literally take the money account and put it in a new one. That's fine with children's savings as you're the parents, you've got that permission. Once you put it in a junior ISA, obviously the money cannot be withdrawn until they are aged 18. But with the children's savings you've got, you can just withdraw the money and then put it in the new account. Simple as that.

• 13:32Speaker 03

  Last one, are there any tax implications on us as parents for these accounts or the regular payments we're making monthly?

• 13:38Martin Lewis?

  I think I've done that. So let me get on to the investment issue. Okay. And you say that you, I think they said they weren't savvy with money. I don't think I'm being rude. I think I remember them saying that. Is that right?

• 13:49Speaker 03

  They, I'll quote, "We're both really useless with money in terms of making it work for the future."

• 13:54Martin Lewis?

  I'll say not savvy rather than useless.

• 13:56Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 13:56Martin Lewis?

  I'll stick with that. Okay. So let's just talk big picture now, and I think this is really important, important for parents and grandparents to understand. Generally, although there are no guarantees, if you put money in a broad spread of investments, so the, the obvious one, and when I've had on the main big topic podcast, we've had investment advisors who are regulated who've come on so they can give specific recommendations, they tend to talk about global tracker funds. In other words, a fund that will track the performance of the 12 or 1400 biggest companies in the world and average their performance out. So that's what I mean by broad spread of investments.

• 14:35Martin Lewis?

  So if you put invest in a broad spread of investments, over the long run, it will generally substantially outperform saving. Now, what do I mean by the long run? Well, my two rules for investing are this. One, it should be money that you will not need. Well, you've already told me they won't need it till they're 18. And two, it should be money that you're putting away for more than five years so you can ride out short-term volatility in the stock market. I mean, the thing about putting money into investments is you can't look at it every day. You know, stock markets have gone down today because of what's going on in the Middle East. I've lost money. It, you can't think about it that way. You've got to be thinking about it, riding those ups and downs and those flows over the long period, especially if you're doing, you know, and we're not talking about putting

• 15:19Martin Lewis?

  money in one share where short-term volatility can really be a problem. You know, it could go bust. We're talking about putting it in big companies and a widespread of big companies, then it should, no guarantees, substantially materially, you know, outperform putting it in savings. So when it's junior ISAs and you're locking your kids' money away, you know, one of them for at least seven years, one of them for 11 years, and it's money that you don't need, you are in that sweet spot of investing looks a more attractive proposition than saving. So while I've given you what you would do if you keep it in saving and the risk is

• 15:59Martin Lewis?

  your decision, then the other option is you put money into, you go and open a junior ISA, so it's still got tax-free and there won't be capital gains in it for the kids, and you start putting money, you know, you can do it platforms like Hargreaves Lansdown and others will, are free junior ISAs for kids. You go and find a global tracker fund, you know, do a little bit of reading about that, but there are lots of them out there, big global tracker fund that just tracks the performance of the biggest, the biggest shares in the world or something similar to that. It's not a specific recommendation, it's the type of thing you'd go for. And you put your money in and that will, hopefully, fingers crossed, no guarantees, outperform savings. Now, you might decide you don't want to do with that with all the money.

• 16:41Martin Lewis?

  You might decide to put the money you've already got, for example, and go move that to a higher interest rate savings where you would double the amount of interest they're getting inside a junior ISA and put it in the top junior ISA. You might do a half and half. You might decide only to put new money into an investment junior ISA. You might decide only to put old money into an investment junior ISA. But I think that all of those things are worth contemplating. Hopefully, I've given you a really broad, it's been a long answer to that. It would be very interesting if you fancy getting in touch, Neil, and letting, letting us know what you thought of the answer and what you've decided to do. I think that'd be really interesting to hear in future weeks. And also, those of you listening, if you're putting money away for your kids, what do you do? I suspect some of you are even putting it into pensions for them as well, which you're allowed to do.

• 17:24Martin Lewis?

  I'd be interested to hear what your philosophy on saving versus investing is for children.

• 17:31Martin Lewis?

  Right, Matt, so I'm going to do it as if I've got, I suspect with the second question, it's even, it's going to be a caller. Well, I know it's going to be a caller because we actually recorded the call before we started the podcast and I'm recording this link when we're actually recording the podcast. So my prediction is you've got a caller for me, Matt. Am I right?

• 17:50Speaker 03

  Of course, of course I've got a caller for you.

• 17:52Martin Lewis?

  Of course.

• 17:53Speaker 03

  We've got Jules in Clitherow. Hi, Jules.

• 17:56Speaker 04

  Hi, Matt. How are you, sir?

• 17:58Speaker 03

  Good, thank you. How are you?

• 17:59Martin Lewis?

  Oh, I see. See, I got a shock there.

• 18:01Speaker 03

  Why?

• 18:01Martin Lewis?

  Jules, because I was expecting a woman Jules when I heard Jules and then you're a man's Jules or a woman with a very deep Jules Jules, deep voice Jules.

• 18:09Speaker 04

  Well, I am a man, Jules. Apologies for the confusion. That's, that was an unintended start to this query.

• 18:15Speaker 03

  That's on me, isn't it?

• 18:16Martin Lewis?

  It's all on Matt.

• 18:17Speaker 03

  Apologies.

• 18:17Martin Lewis?

  It's all on Matt. It's never on you. It's never on, never on our Esquires. You are always welcome and very happy to have you on board and a badge getting Esquire too. I hope you're looking forward to your badge.

• 18:28Speaker 04

  Oh, that's tremendous. I mean, if, if, that's perhaps the most exciting item that's going to be related to this call.

• 18:37Martin Lewis?

  And can I just check, Matt? Can we just check, how long does it take for a badge to arrive typically? Do we know?

• 18:42Speaker 03

  I don't know. I know that we send them, I send them out really quickly and the BBC's post team pick them up the same day or the day after. So I've had emails less than a week after I've posted it.

• 18:55Martin Lewis?

  It's tense, it's tense.

• 18:56Speaker 03

  It's quick, it's quick.

• 18:57Martin Lewis?

  Jules, we'll like some feedback on the speed of badge arrival, but let's do your question.

• 19:01Speaker 04

  I will, I will see what I can do for you. Yeah, I'll, I'll get straight into that, Martin. But before I do, I would just like to say that, you know, I've been so appreciative of the guidance and advice that you've given over the years. I mean, I'm from way back when you first recommended the Goldfish credit card, if you can think of that far back. And, you know, you've helped me, you've helped countless other people. I'm just ever so grateful, you know. With all the advice you've given down the years, I've, I've probably saved and made hundreds and hundreds of pounds in equal measure. So thank you ever so much for that. You're a real bright light in a dark world, Martin.

• 19:39Martin Lewis?

  Thank you so much. This is first, first sort of question time podcast back after a break. That's, that's, I'm not very good at knowing how to deal with those compliments, but thank you. It means a lot. You have, I-

• 19:50Speaker 04

  Well, it's well deserved and-

• 19:52Martin Lewis?

  So, thank you.

• 19:53Speaker 04

  I'm delighted to have the opportunity to be able to say it before my question. Anyway-

• 19:56Martin Lewis?

  I better give a good answer now. What's the question?

• 20:00Speaker 04

  Well, very little pressure, one would hope. So, it's, it's to do with mobile phones and how one can move from one provider to another.

• 20:10Martin Lewis?

  Sure.

• 20:10Speaker 04

  Which I have done in the past and I've texted for pack codes from providers at the time and I've been able to move. Now, probably about eight years ago, I moved from O2 to EE.

• 20:21Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 20:22Speaker 04

  Because when I moved house, O2 were quite poor coverage in that area, but EE, I've been absolutely excellent. So, that's what I did. In slightly more recent times, I moved, or my wife moved her number to be within my account. So, we had two numbers on one account. And then also more recently than that, my two kids have got mobiles now and their numbers are on my account.

• 20:48Martin Lewis?

  Right.

• 20:48Speaker 04

  So, this seems to have put a real anchor on my ability to change providers. I'm now paying just over £50 for the four of us, which isn't too bad, but I know that there-

• 20:59Martin Lewis?

  A little high in my view.

• 21:00Speaker 04

  Yeah, there are many more competitive deals around. So, I have quite recently texted EE with the, the info to ask for a pack code and it, it just says whenever I try it that I can't do it because there's multiple numbers associated with the account. So, I'm, I'm looking for a way to, to get myself in a situation where I can actually start looking at other deals with the ability to take advantage of them. I'm not in contract.

• 21:28Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 21:29Speaker 04

  But I, but because EE gives me such good coverage, it would probably need to be either EE or one of the piggyback providers.

• 21:37Martin Lewis?

  I'm glad you know about the, well, of course, you're a regular listener. So, just to tell everybody else, piggyback providers, there are only four main networks in the UK and two of them emerging. All the other networks, all the other names out there, they use one of those networks' signal and they piggyback on the top of it. So, if you're with EE, you need to, you can look and see who else has an EE signal and by the magic of podcasts, I will tell you now. The list of piggybacking firms for EE include BT, WOMP Mobile, EcoTalk, Lycam Mobile, Mazillion, RGWG Mobile, Spoozoo, Talk Home, Utility Warehouse, YourCoop and probably some more. So, so you, the, the way it would work when you're piggybacking is if you like your EE signal and you always have to check, there can be slight differences in the way they perform. Sometimes slightly worse, the piggybackers, occasionally the

• 22:22Martin Lewis?

  piggybackers can be slightly best, better. They might not have 5G, 5G, they might have slightly different voicemail setups, they are different companies. But generally, the signal type range will be similar. Then you can look in that EE world and find who's giving me the best deal on the EE signal. Anyway, that, that was an aside, yes. So, let me try and answer your question, but I'm going to keep you holding because I'm going to just sort of do a wider answer for other people at the same time because I'm just a little bit evil. So, what have we got? The first thing I'd say to everyone, and this is another example where having multiple SIMs can be a problem. The easy thing to do is to text INFO to 85075. A few providers, especially three, will ask for your date

• 23:07Martin Lewis?

  of birth if you do that to confirm your identity and it will then tell you if you're out of contract. What it'll actually normally tell you is whether you have termination or cancellation charges. If you do, that means you'd have to pay to leave, so it generally isn't worth it. If you don't, you're free to leave. And then I would go on to a comparison site to see what the cheapest SIM deal is available and then you can limit that to within your particular piggyback provider. And then, once you've done that, the standard route is the third thing that you do, and this is where Jules' question comes in, is to keep your number when switching. You text PAC for free to 65075. So, it is a different number to the earlier short text code I gave. And then you get a code to give to your new provider,

• 23:52Martin Lewis?

  which will transfer your number usually within one working day. But both of those two easy text routes don't work if you're on a multiple phone contract. So, the first one, well, you can just check whether you're out of contract, we go through your paperwork, it's just not as simple as sending the text code. This one is a little bit trickier and there's another important bit about the pack code that I'm going to do before I get to Jules' answer. I'm doing it like, this is the worst version of an X Factor result where you give the big pause because I'm coming to it at the very end. Sorry, Jules, but I'm enjoying myself. So, the-

• 24:23Speaker 04

  That's all right, so am I.

• 24:24Martin Lewis?

  So, the, thank you. The, the, the point about the, there is a trick on the pack code number and I suspect Jules knew this, which is why it was coming in. Many people, when they send, ask for their pack code, this is the porting authorization code, it's the code that you then give your new provider to keep your existing phone number. Your existing provider will actually offer you a better deal at that point, especially if you're out of contract. They'll say, okay, you're free to leave, but by the way, please stay and we'll give you this deal. So, it is really worth doing and some people cut out all the other stages and don't do the comparison sites and they just go for this sort of shortcut cheat code, if you like, because it is a cheat code of just texting PAC for free to 65075, just on the off chance that your provider will then give you a cheaper

• 25:08Martin Lewis?

  deal, even if you're not planning on moving elsewhere. So, now to answer your question, after all of that is said and done, and it's a really simple answer. So, the answer is, if you've got multiple numbers, you can't get a pack code by text. Instead, you have to request your pack code by calling your provider or logging into your account with them online. The pack code must be provided immediately if you request it via phone or if not possible, then text it to you within two hours. If you request it online, it should be provided to you within two working days. Those are the Ofcom regulations on it. So, I would probably do it on the phone, give them a call up and find out. And I wouldn't be surprised, and please report back, Jules, if when you did that, they offered you a better deal at that time too.

• 25:53Speaker 04

  So, the, the one pack code that I would get by actually phoning the provider would cover all four numbers?

• 25:59Martin Lewis?

  You would probably get four different pack codes.

• 26:02Speaker 04

  Right, okay. So, so when, so when I approach a new provider with a view to switching, I can then give them those, those four codes and then that would just proceed as if I'd just given them one pack.

• 26:15Martin Lewis?

  In my view, you're doing it in the wrong order. Yeah.

• 26:19Speaker 04

  Right, okay.

• 26:20Martin Lewis?

  So, you could do the shortcut pack code trick where you just ask them for the pack code to see if EE give you a better deal and if they do, you stay with EE. Yeah. Alternatively, I think you're too worried about the pack code situation. I think go and find the cheapest deal that you want. You don't need your pack code to do that. Your pack code is, is the, it's the last code. It's the code when you're ready to switch and to change your phone number over. Then you call, then you call up, then you go to the new provider and give it your pack code once you've got a deal. Or you could shortcut it and cross your fingers and do the pack code first to see if EE will give you a deal at that point. The key is your pack code should be valid for 30 days. So, which is why I'm sort of doing it at

• 27:04Martin Lewis?

  the end of the process rather than the beginning. There's no point getting your pack code and then if you, you know, you, you don't quite get there. If you're going to do it quickly, there's no problem doing the pack code first, but it, it tends to only be valid for 30 days.

• 27:16Speaker 04

  All right, okay, that's clear.

• 27:18Martin Lewis?

  Have we, have I solved everything? Have we got it?

• 27:21Speaker 04

  I think that's, that's fantastic, that, Martin. Yes, you've, you've covered all the aspects of my query with greater plumb. So, thank you for that.

• 27:28Martin Lewis?

  Where are you from, by the way? Where's that accent? Is that, sounds like north of Manchester.

• 27:34Speaker 04

  I'm, well, I'm originally from Oldham. So, yes, that's a very accurate piece of accent placement you've, you've got going on there.

• 27:41Martin Lewis?

  I was going to go with Bury.

• 27:41Speaker 04

  I do know, I live in Clitherow, so a bit further north.

• 27:43Martin Lewis?

  Okay, I was going to go with Bury, not Oldham. So, but it's not too far away.

• 27:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, not far off. That's pretty good.

• 27:48Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, good. I'm feeling it. Did you get that, Matt?

• 27:51Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:51Martin Lewis?

  How, how was my accent detection?

• 27:53Speaker 03

  It was very good. I was very impressed.

• 27:54Martin Lewis?

  Thank you very much.

• 27:55Speaker 03

  Very impressed.

• 27:56Martin Lewis?

  And, and the badge will be winging its way the fastest that Matt can possibly send it and we will report back hopefully next week that it's been delivered.

• 28:05Speaker 04

  Yes, I couldn't be more grateful, Martin and Matt. That's, that's wonderful. Thank you very much.

• 28:10Martin Lewis?

  Lovely to chat to you. Thanks so much. Cheers, mate.

• 28:12Speaker 04

  Likewise. Take care now.

• 28:13Speaker 03

  Thanks.

• 28:16Martin Lewis?

  I really like Jules. I want Jules back. Can we have Jules back again in future?

• 28:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, of course. We'll get him on. See if he actually managed to get a good discount after getting his pack codes.

• 28:25Martin Lewis?

  Let's cross our fingers for him. Right, what have you got for me next, Matt? It's a read.

• 28:28Speaker 03

  It's a read. Question from someone who I'm going to keep anonymous just because of the content of their email. So they say, Dear Martin and Matt.

• 28:36Martin Lewis?

  Is it a man or a woman? Do we know that?

• 28:38Speaker 03

  It's a man.

• 28:39Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so I was going to call them anonimus. So we need another name for Anne. Anonimus. What? Andionimus.

• 28:50Speaker 03

  Oh, I like that.

• 28:51Martin Lewis?

  Isabel suggested Andionimus.

• 28:52Speaker 03

  Andionimus. Okay.

• 28:53Martin Lewis?

  So Andy. So what's Andy's question?

• 28:55Speaker 03

  This is Andy.

• 28:56Martin Lewis?

  It's easier to refer to a person.

• 28:57Speaker 03

  Andy says, Dear Martin and Matt, I listen to your podcasts on my commute to work each week since discovering them a couple of months ago.

• 29:04Martin Lewis?

  Lovely.

• 29:04Speaker 03

  That's nice. My question is, is there a service that can stop my daughter accessing loans and credit cards to help her with her gambling addiction? She's undergoing counselling and we hope that will cure her addiction, but this is now the third occasion this has happened. And as parents, it's the third time we've financially helped her out, some would say enabling her to face any consequences of her addiction. She has current debts of £17,000 and no hope of ever paying them off in her current financial situation. However, I'm mortified to see that she can access loans at 90% interest rates and credit cards at extortionate APRs despite having a spent IVA. What's an IVA?

• 29:40Martin Lewis?

  It's an individual voluntary arrangement. It's effectively a cut down version of bankruptcy.

• 29:45Speaker 03

  Okay. And being self excluded from gambling sites. In short, temptation is always there, even when on sites where they're advertising pre approved credit cards and loans that could tempt desperate people. What I'd really like to know is, is there a safeguard mechanism available to her? Many thanks for reading this and I hope to share a future success with you.

• 30:04Martin Lewis?

  So this is a question which I'd seen previously and I held so I could go and speak to my charity. So I have a charity that I chair called the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute. And within it, we have a specific gambling action lab, which is set up to work with major banks to come up with ways to reduce gambling harms from a financial services perspective. And I wanted to talk with them about this. I know gambling and we've long had proposals. One of them that we've had out there is the, that has now been adopted by most major card providers, is that you can have a gambling block put on your credit or bank card.

• 30:44Martin Lewis?

  Now, so that's to stop you gambling, but that doesn't stop you getting out new credit cards or loans if you don't want to do it. It was interesting just to talk about that for a second. When we first came out with it, many people misunderstood because the key is within, I think it's 24 hours, you can take the lock off. You can't do it instantly, but you have to be allowed to take it off. And people said, well, what's the point? People will take it off. Misunderstanding that actually this is what is known in the trade as a friction policy. And friction gives time for people to think, gives time for people, maybe they've been drinking and it's the next day and suddenly go, why, no, I don't want to stop. Put those blocks on for a reason. I want to stop it. It's been a very successful policy, but there is a long way to go.

• 31:22Martin Lewis?

  And we still don't, and it's something on our look at what we want to look at regulating, have the ability for people to say, please don't lend to me. So there are some options available in the current setup. They, and I have to say, Andy, they are, they are, none of this is perfect. One option you could do would be to request that a notice of correction, or your daughter could request a notice of correction, is put on all of the three major credit reference agency files. Now, you normally put a notice of correction on when there's a problem or something has happened, or you're having a dispute. A company says you owe money, you say it doesn't, and you put a notice of correction on to say, this isn't a default. This is a dispute and we're going through court at it at the moment.

• 32:08Martin Lewis?

  You could put that on and note that, or your daughter could note that she has a gambling addiction problem and she should not be lent any money to. You could also do it in a way that doesn't explicitly mention gambling if that might be a risk in some future career or something that would be negative. For example, working in the financial services. So you could put a risk, there is a risk with the money I do not want to be able to lend money to due to, due to my circumstances and please don't. You would need to submit a notice of correction with all three credit reference agencies and lenders will have to manually read this statement. So it first of all, delay any future applications and they would need to take that content into consideration. They don't have to adhere to it.

• 32:54Martin Lewis?

  A notice of correction doesn't mean they have to do it, but hopefully a responsible lender would see the risk involved in that. And I would think under the consumer duty, if they ignored that someone was recovering from a gambling addiction and asked not to be offered credit and gave them them, that would be grounds to make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service at later times. Other recommendations for people who are struggling with gambling are install gambling blocker software on your online devices, whether it's BetBlock or Gamblock and Gambor. Sign up to national self exclusion schemes like Gamstop. Although your daughter may well have done that, that means you can self exclude from online gambling and betting shops and casinos and bingos.

• 33:39Martin Lewis?

  There's Gamstop online as well and do the gambling transactions to block her on her current account and most major credit providers, which is the one with the policy I was talking about earlier.

• 33:51Martin Lewis?

  I don't have a perfect answer for you.

• 33:57Martin Lewis?

  What I may suggest, and I hope this isn't breaking guidelines, if we have, one of the things that we do brilliantly in the money, my team at Money and Mental Health, they're fantastic. I'm so proud of them. It's about 30 of them full time working on the charity and coming up with ways to change policy or process or practice or law to help people who have money and mental health problems. You may want to, and you can do this as a relative, to sign up to our research community. It's not going to help your daughter in any way, but you may want to feed in, that will enable you to feed into the issues. And when we do research on these policies in future, to be able to talk to you about what the issues that may or may not help in your, in circumstances are. It, I genuinely, it's not something you will practically gain from, but you might gain from just being a part of engaging in that and realising that, and seeing that,

• 34:42Martin Lewis?

  not realising, and seeing that there's, that there's a way that you can feed in on the back to help other people in future. I don't know whether you want to do that or not, and if you don't, it's absolutely no problem, but I hope I was able to help in a little bit of a way. Thank you for your question, Andy. I'm wishing you and your family and especially your daughter, all the best. Gambling addictions can be helped.

• 34:59Speaker 03

  Martin, just to say, if anyone's listening and is worried about their gambling, there is a range of organisations and websites that can offer advice and support. You can find them on the BBC's Action Line website. That's at bbc.co.uk/ActionLine.

• 35:13Martin Lewis?

  Yes, certainly. The sooner you get help, the better. And I believe that those type of agencies also tend to help family who are concerned as well.

• 35:24Speaker 03

  Jen is in London. She's actually from Great Yarmouth, but she's in London. Hi Jen.

• 35:29Martin Lewis?

  Hello Jen. So when you say you're in London, does that mean you live in London or you're in London on like a day trip going to the theatre?

• 35:35Speaker 05

  Yeah, I'm just visiting London, yeah.

• 35:37Martin Lewis?

  Okay, right. And that maybe, we've got a bit of a dodgy line there, Matt. That may be why.

• 35:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, maybe.

• 35:43Martin Lewis?

  The London lines are down.

• 35:44Speaker 03

  It's terrible.

• 35:45Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 35:47Martin Lewis?

  I mean, you could have come into the studio if I'd known. You could have done it that. So what's your question, Jen?

• 35:53Speaker 05

  So I know section 75 on the credit card covers purchases over £100, regardless of how much you actually put on the credit card. And does that apply when you're using vouchers or coupons? So for example, if I paid for a hotel that was £120 and I put one pound on the credit card and paid the other £119 with a voucher, is the credit card company liable for the whole £120 or just the pound?

• 36:24Martin Lewis?

  So just to be very clear about the nature of the voucher, we're talking a voucher like a gift voucher or gift card, not a discount voucher, I presume.

• 36:34Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 36:35Martin Lewis?

  The only reason I ask that question is a discount voucher would affect the price you paid. So if you had a 20% off voucher and so something cost, you know, 200 quid and it reduced what you were paying, then it would be what you actually paid that counted as a total, not, not with the voucher. But with what you're talking about, I understand. And the good news is yes. So the way that section 75 works, as you rightly explain, is if you pay on a credit card for an item costing £100 up to £30,000, the credit card company is jointly liable with the retailer for the entire amount. So the fact that you paid in vouchers is irrelevant. So if you put 10 quid on the credit card and the rest was paid in vouchers for an item of £120,

• 37:18Martin Lewis?

  then the credit card company is liable for the entire £120 purchase. The fact it was on a voucher doesn't matter and you would get your money back from the credit card company. You'd get it as a credit on your credit card statement. There's no invalidity. In fact, whatever the other method of payment is, within reason, whether it's cheque, whether it's cash, whether it's debit card, whether it's bank transfer, as long as you have proof that that was the legitimate amount that you paid for the item and it was done in one transaction, some of it was on a credit card and the rest was in the other payment mechanism, including vouchers, section 75 is still, is still in play. Is there something specific you're thinking of?

• 37:56Speaker 05

  I was just thinking, like, for example, if, you know, with the dreaded C word, Christmas coming up, if somebody got this gift card and you put the rest on a credit card, even though you haven't spent the money for the gift card, does it still count as a whole transaction?

• 38:11Martin Lewis?

  Yes, because the way I would deem that is someone else, but if somebody gave you that money in cash, you wouldn't, I'm not demeaning your question at all, but you wouldn't say to me, as I didn't earn the cash, someone gave me the cash, does it count? And in a way, a gift card is just that, it is a gift of, it's a financial reward gift that you're paying with, it's still your money, you were given that money, and the voucher element doesn't disqualify it. I absolutely understand why you asked the question, because vouchers do disqualify you from many other things in terms of how you get refunds. But this, because section 75 is a law, it's literally about credit card purchase cost. Did you put it on a credit card? Was the purchase card correct, purchase amount correct? You know, we've discussed in the past, other things that can invalidate it, what was

• 38:55Martin Lewis?

  the payment method that you put it on the credit card can invalidate it in some routes? And was there a causal break between the payment and the, you know, in a standard retailer, it should normally be fine, but on a travel agent, because it's an agency intermediary, you don't get the section 75 protection. Yeah, basic answer, I'm getting way too complicated. Yes, it works, hurrah!

• 39:13Speaker 05

  It's lovely, thank you ever so much.

• 39:16Martin Lewis?

  And have a lovely, is it something fun you're doing in London, or is it?

• 39:19Speaker 05

  We are going to Harry Potter, we've never been before, so we thought, well, take a day off, we're going to Harry Potter World.

• 39:26Martin Lewis?

  Oh, Harry Potter, Harry Potter World, the, the big studios?

• 39:29Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah.

• 39:31Martin Lewis?

  Oh, how very exciting, yeah, I've been there, it, it is really interesting, we've got the new TV show coming out as well, fascinating. Anyway, time to get rid of you, expelliarmus.

• 39:41Speaker 05

  Thank you very much, Martin.

• 39:43Martin Lewis?

  Take care, bye bye.

• 39:44Speaker 05

  Thank you, bye.

• 39:46Martin Lewis?

  Are you sitting there thinking, oh, I know what I wanted to ask him? Well, this is your opportunity. If you've got a question, then just send them in to [email protected]. And please do start them, Dear Martin.

• 40:00Speaker 03

  No, Dear Matt.

• 40:01Martin Lewis?

  Dear Martin.

• 40:02Speaker 03

  Dear Matt.

• 40:04Martin Lewis?

  So, we've done, we've done two reads, we've had two callers. Have we got time to squeeze our fifth one in? I presume it's a read.

• 40:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, I would like to squeeze in a success.

• 40:16Martin Lewis?

  Ooh, another success. Matt, may we, just before you do it, I think we need, I think we need a success sound.

• 40:24Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 40:25Martin Lewis?

  But I mean, maybe it's a da-da-da-da-da-da.

• 40:27Speaker 03

  Like a fanfare?

• 40:28Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, a fanfare or something, and, you know, we could, I mean, I don't know if we have the budgets to have a proper jingle made for it.

• 40:33Speaker 03

  I don't think we've got that.

• 40:35Martin Lewis?

  If there's anybody out there who's really good and wants to do as a success jingle, if you're listening, are we allowed to ask for that?

• 40:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 40:41Martin Lewis?

  Are we allowed to use it?

• 40:42Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 40:43Martin Lewis?

  Okay, you know, anyone wants to make us a sex jingle?

• 40:46Speaker 03

  Ooh, say that again.

• 40:47Martin Lewis?

  I don't know what I just said, I don't know.

• 40:49Speaker 03

  A jingle about what?

• 40:50Martin Lewis?

  I don't know what that, let's move on. Anyway, what's the success, Matt?

• 40:53Speaker 03

  A success from Hannah, who's emailed it into [email protected]. She says, hiya, Martin, Matt, Rosie, Isabel and anyone else, I've forgotten. I don't think that she's forgotten anyone.

• 41:05Martin Lewis?

  No, I think that's perfect.

• 41:06Speaker 03

  That's everyone.

• 41:07Martin Lewis?

  Absolutely perfect. Well, it's, it's core team, it's core team, occasionally it's podcast producer Simon, it has been another podcast producer, Matt, but it's core team.

• 41:14Speaker 03

  Okay. I've been following your advice when renegotiating phone contracts for years, and when my colleague heard about how little I was paying, I taught her the ways, I suppose it's the Martin Lewis ways, isn't it? She was paying-

• 41:25Martin Lewis?

  Done well, have you, my friend?

• 41:26Speaker 03

  Wow. She was paying approximately £40 for her mobile phone and approximately £40 again for her home broadband, so £80 a month. She asked for the PAC code, and sure enough-

• 41:38Martin Lewis?

  Wow, that is hefty.

• 41:39Speaker 03

  It is a lot. Sure enough, was offered a tempting deal. However, I taught her to reference cheaper deals that she found online, which she did, her provider matched the cheap deal, and she's now paying £35 a month total for both her mobile and home broadband, that's £540 a year.

• 41:55Martin Lewis?

  Woo, have applause, have cheers, Matt, woo! Bring them in, a little bit.

• 41:59Speaker 03

  She says, it put a smile on my face when she told me, so I thought I'd share it with you.

• 42:03Martin Lewis?

  But what-

• 42:04Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 42:05Martin Lewis?

  Hannah, what puts a smile on my face, as well as the saving, is, is that spreading of the message, is that especially, I think, because I tend to think Question Time podcast listeners, they're hardcore, they know what's going on, and I think all of you who listen to Hardcore, I hope you're out there helping other people who haven't been converted to, to the ways of saving money and the ways that you can stop yourself being ripped off. And each one of you is your own mini money-saving expert out there, helping your friends and family, and that's what I really loved, Hannah. So you've done a success to us and a thank you to us, well, it's a thank you from me to you, thank you so much for getting out there and caring about the cost of your friends. I hope they bought you a drink or something, or a little meal on the back of that, don't you think?

• 42:48Speaker 03

  I'd hope so. Also, get them to listen to the podcast.

• 42:50Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, get them to listen to the podcast.

• 42:51Speaker 03

  That's where they get all the tips.

• 42:52Martin Lewis?

  Quite right. Is that point in the show where we do something funny or something askance? Has someone sent in something funny or askance?

• 43:00Speaker 03

  Uh, no, no one sent one in.

• 43:03Martin Lewis?

  We had a long list.

• 43:04Speaker 03

  We had a long list. Do you want the real answer? Do you want to know what happened?

• 43:07Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, what's the real answer?

• 43:08Speaker 03

  Well, over the summer, GDPR came in and she, she got rid of them. She said we should start afresh.

• 43:13Martin Lewis?

  She has deleted the funny questions?

• 43:16Speaker 03

  She's deleted the funny questions.

• 43:18Martin Lewis?

  And we probably can't even get them back because of real GDPR.

• 43:21Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 43:22Martin Lewis?

  So GDPR, Google Docs professional Rosie, it's lucky she's not in the room, it's lucky Isabel's in here, otherwise my wrath, my wrath, oh, I'd be scared of wrath against Rosie, I'm not sure, I'd probably have internal wrath, internal, I might get, you know, I might, you said, I might give her an askance look.

• 43:38Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 43:39Martin Lewis?

  In fact, I'm going to do that, Rosie, if you're listening, over the airwaves. That was my askance look, did you hear it?

• 43:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, I heard it, it was, it was terrifying.

• 43:48Martin Lewis?

  Good, okay. So, and then Matt, you're going to have to do one.

• 43:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, so-

• 43:52Martin Lewis?

  And can we just say, we like the funnier askance questions, it can be questions about me, nothing to do with money, it doesn't have to be serious, it can be, you know, we've had, would you rather fight 12 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck? We've had, you know, some questions, origin questions, origin story questions, all of those type of things, so get them in, because this is the bit, this is our little bit at the end, where we just get to go, huh, and talk about something else. So Matt, you're going to have to come up with it, come up with one, Matt.

• 44:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, so just send it in to [email protected], you forgot to say that, Martin.

• 44:21Martin Lewis?

  I did, but you're, that's what you're here for, you're so brilliant at it.

• 44:24Speaker 03

  That's what I'm here for, I know, I know. So, if you, when you go to listen to the podcast, you'll see that there's a little right up at the bottom, tells you what we're talking about, and then it tells you where you can send the email. And I always change it, I don't know if anyone notices, but I always say, if you've always wanted to know-

• 44:39Martin Lewis?

  So this is in the long blurb?

• 44:40Speaker 03

  In the long blurb, yeah. Wherever you listen, you'll see it. I always put, so if you've always wanted to know, and then I make up some weird questions. So, when was this? On the 13th of July, I said, if you've always wanted to know why he speaks so quickly, if he organises his wardrobe by colour or garment type, or has a very, or you have a very complicated question about your finance, email it in. So I was actually wondering, how do you organise your wardrobe? Because I know what you're like, so I can imagine there's a system.

• 45:10Martin Lewis?

  There is absolutely a system. So, and a lot of this, you have to, there's a subtext here, that sometimes I present breakfast television, okay? Now, when you present breakfast television, they, well, between you and I, they like me to be in for four, and I negotiate and I get in for five, but that means I'm having to get up very, very early, and often the briefings have come in, because you get briefings on some of the subjects, the briefings have come in, like, you know, I tend to ask my own questions, but you read the briefings, have come in late the night before, there's not much sleep. So I am about sleep maximisation, which means dress time minimisation. So I will often shave the night before, because if you shave just before you go to bed, it

• 45:55Martin Lewis?

  should last for breakfast television.

• 45:57Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 45:58Martin Lewis?

  Right? And then my wardrobe is organised so that everything can be done as quickly as possible. So I sort of have, in one area, I have all my, because I exercise a lot, so I have all my sort of gym and sporty and all that type of stuff, which is separate, and then I have sort of my more casual stuff that I wouldn't wear for work, and then in my work area, I will have shirts and jackets right next to each other, underwear and socks right below, and trousers all hung up, and all the work stuff is in a really condensed space, so that absolutely everything can be grabbed as quickly as possible to minimise the getting dress time.

• 46:43Speaker 03

  I mean, it makes sense.

• 46:44Martin Lewis?

  It does make sense, and it's, the whole thing, I properly ergonomically worked it out, so that I should not even be having to take a step when I'm getting dressed, because that reduces time. And I have managed to get, so that when I am doing breakfast telly, okay, what do you reckon the alarm time, because I, I walk everywhere, but the one time I don't walk is if I'm doing breakfast telly, they send a car.

• 47:07Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 47:08Martin Lewis?

  What do you reckon the alarm time difference between alarm time and car time is?

• 47:15Speaker 03

  Right, so-

• 47:16Martin Lewis?

  How many minutes?

• 47:17Speaker 03

  When does the car pick you up?

• 47:18Martin Lewis?

  Well, it doesn't matter, let's, let's say-

• 47:19Speaker 03

  No, because I want to work it out.

• 47:20Martin Lewis?

  Let's say that if the car is set to pick me up at 4.40, what's my alarm time?

• 47:27Speaker 03

  Do you shower?

• 47:28Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, always shower.

• 47:30Speaker 03

  Always shower.

• 47:31Martin Lewis?

  Shave the night before.

• 47:32Speaker 03

  Shave the night before, brush teeth.

• 47:33Martin Lewis?

  Other revolutions, I won't be named.

• 47:34Speaker 03

  I'm going to say 27 minutes past.

• 47:41Martin Lewis?

  27 minutes past?

• 47:43Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 47:44Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 47:45Speaker 03

  Gives you 13 minutes.

• 47:48Martin Lewis?

  I used to do exactly thirteen minutes.

• 47:51Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 47:53Martin Lewis?

  I've now decided it puts too much pressure. And I have gone really relaxed and I go for fifteen minutes.

• 48:00Speaker 03

  Oh, you do treat yourself.

• 48:02Martin Lewis?

  I treat myself to those extra two minutes because I like to have breakfast as well. I should have pointed that out.

• 48:07Speaker 03

  Really?

• 48:08Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 48:09Speaker 03

  Four in the morning?

• 48:10Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I need to eat something. So I have a bowl of cereal that I've put out with the cereal in the night before. So all it needs is a bit of milk poured on it.

• 48:20Speaker 03

  What kind of milk?

• 48:21Martin Lewis?

  Um, oh, God, I'm gonna sound all, oh, look at you. Um, I'm an almond milk person.

• 48:27Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 48:28Martin Lewis?

  The reason that this is not for any, I don't like dairy, I do like dairy, I do eat dairy, I do all of that. It's just less calories.

• 48:35Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 48:36Martin Lewis?

  Almonds less calories.

• 48:37Speaker 03

  Watching the waistline.

• 48:38Martin Lewis?

  I quite like a hazelnut milk if I like a little bit sweeter, but unsweetened almond milk is the least calorieed milk for my cereal. That doesn't mean I drink it in other things because I find it, I just think milk is a wetener for cereal.

• 48:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 48:49Martin Lewis?

  And I need something that's gonna wet it that isn't water. So I use almond milk because it's got the least calories in it.

• 48:55Speaker 03

  God, I'm learning so much about you.

• 48:56Martin Lewis?

  I know. It was quite a good question you did in the end, wasn't it?

• 48:59Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 48:59Martin Lewis?

  But yeah, but the get up and going thing, but the other thing, if we're going on, I go into way too much detail and people are probably very bored. The thing to understand though, do you do night shifts? Have you done night shifts?

• 49:09Speaker 03

  I've done night shifts before at the BBC, yeah.

• 49:11Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so when I was, when I was your age, I worked at the BBC as a producer and I had two night shifts. I had one that started nine PM till nine AM and one that started three thirty AM till twelve thirty PM.

• 49:22Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 49:23Martin Lewis?

  That was the killer.

• 49:24Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 49:24Martin Lewis?

  The nine AM PM was fine because you just reversed your day.

• 49:27Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 49:28Martin Lewis?

  The three thirty AM start was the worst because you would go to bed like it was an evening, but you'd never go to bed early enough. And so you will, have you ever done a shift like that?

• 49:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, a breakfast show here at Five Live starts at four thirty.

• 49:40Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so it's very similar to the breakfast telly thing. You will know the problem is you go to bed too late. You set three alarms because you're paranoid about not getting up.

• 49:48Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 49:49Martin Lewis?

  And then you spend the whole night waking up and checking the alarm and checking what time it is.

• 49:52Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 49:53Martin Lewis?

  And you never get a proper, my sleep score on my tracker is awful when I do that. And I never get, so actually, even though I set my alarm for fifteen minutes beforehand, I generally find I'm up another ten, fifteen minutes before that anyway because I can't sleep because I'm so paranoid about not waking up.

• 50:08Speaker 03

  Do you just get up? If you wake up, you just think, right, I'm just gonna get up?

• 50:11Martin Lewis?

  Depends on the time.

• 50:12Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 50:13Martin Lewis?

  If I wake up an hour and a half before, no, I force myself to try and stay in bed. If I wake up fifteen minutes before the alarm, I get up.

• 50:18Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 50:19Martin Lewis?

  And then I think, oh, I can have a relaxed, relaxed time and go and sit at breakfast and maybe read a bit of the paper. Um, or something like that because obviously I'm reading them when I get in and all that type of stuff because I'm protecting breakfast telly. I need to know what's been going on. Or I'm reading them in the car on the way and all that type of stuff. So there you go.

• 50:35Speaker 03

  There you go.

• 50:36Martin Lewis?

  You asked how I organise my wardrobe and you got how I organise my life. Is there anyone still listening? Jane?

• 50:44Martin Lewis?

  Jane in Yorkshire? Thank you, Jane. This is a narrow podcast. We're broadcasting just to Jane in Yorkshire. Jane, you've been listening and we appreciate it.

• 50:55Martin Lewis?

  And that is it for this week's Question Time. Don't forget to subscribe so you know when we release a new episode. We put out a new Question Time episode on the Monday and the Big Topic Podcast with Adrian on the Thursdays. Aren't you lucky? Two doses of money-saving tips and tricks a week. And please make sure you send in your questions. You can email [email protected]. And don't forget, if you come on the show, we'll send you that exclusive money can't buy and money probably shouldn't buy Martin Lewis Podcast Question Time ESQ badge. Yes, anyone who comes on and voices their own question or success will get an ESQ badge.

• 51:37Martin Lewis?

  What more could you wish for in life? Please don't reply. It'd be a long list.

• 51:57Speaker 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.

• 52:33Speaker 00

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

• 53:18Speaker 00

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• 53:43Speaker 06

  This week on The Interface, millions of kids have grown up on camera with their childhoods turned into content. There's a new law in California that gives influencers the right to be forgotten, and it could impact adults too.

• 53:53Martin Lewis?

  And an attack on Russian data centres started a rumour that all the evil disinformation bots had been deleted from the internet. But the truth might actually be a lot scarier.

• 54:05Speaker 06

  For our take, join me, Jess Maddox.

• 54:07Martin Lewis?

  And me, Thomas Germain, for The Interface.

• 54:09Speaker 06

  Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.