Question Time: What should every teenager know about money? Time of use tariffs: still worth it? Stooze with other 0% finance?

In our Question Time podcast, Martin Lewis gives you answers on anything and everything, including: what should every teenager know about money? Martin has important answers that apply to every adult too. Can my son claim back tax he shouldn’t have paid on his summer job? Are time of use tariffs still worth it in these times of energy price volatility? Can you stooze with other 0% finance offers, not just credit cards? We also have a council tax re-banding success, and Martin explains how you could too! Plus, why Question Time will never be the same again. 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 if he’s got a sweet tooth, what he’d take with him to a desert island, 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

  This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

• 0:06Speaker 01

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• 1:45Speaker 03

  What are the top things A I should be doing in terms of getting to start good financial habits?

• 1:49Martin Lewis?

  You understand your finances, you will have a better financial life, a more comfortable life. These are tariffs for people who can understand and accept the volatility.

• 1:57Speaker 05

  Our credit lenders are going to look at me having lots of credit with all sorts of different lenders and just make me seem like a bit of a risky proposition.

• 2:04Martin Lewis?

  Hello and welcome to this, the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is our Question Time episode, where you are as Squires, extremely savvy questioners, get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything, open brackets within reason, close brackets. And this week, you ask me, what should every teenager know about money? Such an important question. It's a big answer, well worth a listen, whether you're a teenager or an adult too. Then, can my son claim back tax he shouldn't have paid on his summer job? Are the Octopus, Agile and Tracker tariffs still worth it in these times of huge volatility?

• 2:46Martin Lewis?

  Can you stew with other 0% finance offers, not just credit cards? Then we've got a great council tax rebanding success. And we finish the pod today with an announcement of why Question Time will never quite be the same again. Play the theme tune.

• 3:16Martin Lewis?

  Hello and welcome to our Question Time edition of the podcast. This is the one where you get to ask me questions on anything and everything. Let's all say it together, open brackets within reason, close brackets. Matt, do you think anybody at home actually says it?

• 3:32Speaker 06

  I'm sure someone does, yeah.

• 3:34Martin Lewis?

  So you've just got to say it with us. And you've already heard him, but joining me today is the one, the only, the curator of questions himself, Professor Dr Matthew Burnham Esquire.

• 3:47Speaker 06

  Where's my sir gone?

• 3:49Martin Lewis?

  You've had your night, I've taken off.

• 3:51Speaker 06

  Why?

• 3:51Martin Lewis?

  Because I've had another complaint.

• 3:53Speaker 06

  Oh, every week, every week I do something. Go on, what's this week?

• 3:56Martin Lewis?

  Okay, this week, there is only one person higher up in the hierarchy for complaints than GDPR. Google Docs professional Rosie.

• 4:06Speaker 06

  Uh huh.

• 4:06Martin Lewis?

  Who is that? Do you know?

• 4:09Speaker 06

  It's not you.

• 4:09Martin Lewis?

  It's not me. Way more important than me, right up there.

• 4:13Speaker 06

  Is it?

• 4:14Martin Lewis?

  Very regular listener.

• 4:16Speaker 06

  Sapphire, by any chance?

• 4:17Martin Lewis?

  It is my daughter Sapphire, indeed, who loves, loves the Question Time podcast, is a Matt Burnham fan.

• 4:26Speaker 06

  Thank you very much.

• 4:27Martin Lewis?

  I have to tell you.

• 4:28Speaker 06

  Thank you Sapphire, thank you.

• 4:29Martin Lewis?

  But is an even bigger fan of Daddy.

• 4:31Speaker 06

  Obviously.

• 4:32Martin Lewis?

  Obviously, because I'm her daddy.

• 4:33Speaker 06

  So what did I do to?

• 4:35Martin Lewis?

  She listened to last week's, the accent question at the end.

• 4:39Speaker 06

  Oh, yeah.

• 4:39Martin Lewis?

  She thought you were a little bit unfair of me. She said, you're not an accent professional. I think he was judging you on too harsh a level. And so I just felt that this should be reflected in the podcast this week.

• 4:54Speaker 06

  Okay, I would come back to that and say, maybe I've just got really high standards for my accent impressions.

• 4:59Martin Lewis?

  Maybe, maybe you do. Maybe you, I don't know, you live in a world where people are just flicking and flacking from different accents all the time.

• 5:06Speaker 06

  Well.

• 5:07Martin Lewis?

  And your ears are accustomed to it.

• 5:08Speaker 06

  Maybe I do. Also, my parents are quite brummy, and most of my family is as well. Obviously, I don't have the strongest brummy accent in the world. So when I go and see them, it does flick back to a bit of a brummy accent and then people do comment, you know?

• 5:22Martin Lewis?

  I was also reminded that I should have done my sort of generic AI type American accent, but I'm not going to do that today. I'm saving it.

• 5:27Speaker 06

  We've all heard it on the podcast before.

• 5:28Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, okay. And it's quite a good one. It's probably better than some of those I did last week. The other thing I wanted to mention in our, this is Matt and Martin's chit chat bit at the start of the podcast before we get into the serious question stuff, is I wanted to delve into your favourite moment of the podcast record each week.

• 5:45Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 5:46Martin Lewis?

  I know what I'm thinking of, and it doesn't actually tend to relate to this podcast, but I think that the listeners would like to hear about it. Do you know what I'm talking about?

• 5:54Speaker 06

  Is it the bit that happens before we record this podcast where you have to?

• 5:59Martin Lewis?

  Yes.

• 5:59Speaker 06

  Line your face up on a screen?

• 6:01Martin Lewis?

  So, to let everybody know what goes on here, so we record the main podcast with Adrian, then we do the pod extras for that, and then Simon swaps with Matt. And so they're both in the room at the same time. Podjuicer Simon and prodzenter Matt are in the room at the same time. Those are your new titles now. And at one point, I have to record my social media video, which is done on the camera there in Manchester. I'm here in London. And Matt always has great joy because my chair is too high. So what do you ask me to do?

• 6:33Speaker 06

  I say, can you drop down a little bit, please, Martin?

• 6:35Martin Lewis?

  And I then have to press the button on my chair, and my chair does not drop smoothly. It like drops like a jolt. And every week, Matt laughs. It still finds it amusing every single week, don't you?

• 6:47Speaker 06

  It's been over a year of asking you to do that, and it still brings me joy.

• 6:51Martin Lewis?

  It is Matt's favourite part of the week.

• 6:52Speaker 06

  It's my favourite part of the week. And maybe the whole podcast.

• 6:55Martin Lewis?

  And maybe we'll have to get a clip of it one day of just me dropping down in flame with, in flames.

• 7:02Martin Lewis?

  In frame with a little bit of a jolt. But anyway, there you go. That's the intro chit chat. Unless you've anything to add to in the intro chit chat of the week.

• 7:08Speaker 06

  The only thing I want to talk about was this new jumper I'm wearing, and I'm really proud of it. I just really like this jumper.

• 7:14Martin Lewis?

  But the camera's not too wide.

• 7:15Speaker 06

  Camera can't, no, and you can't see it, and no one at home can see it, but I like it.

• 7:19Martin Lewis?

  I am wearing a knitted, or it's not a knitted, a sort of woolenish t-shirt, which I do think is, I like the way it looks. The problem with it is though, if it's hot enough to wear a t-shirt, then the fact it's really knitted and heavy makes it too hot. And if it's too cold to wear a t-shirt, it's not warm enough. So it sort of looks good, but it's not very practical, and I'm a practical man. Shall we get on with practical questions?

• 7:42Speaker 06

  Yes, shall we get into questions?

• 7:44Martin Lewis?

  Yes, I presume we'll start with a read?

• 7:46Speaker 06

  Well, actually, this time I thought I'd mix up a little bit. I know that Martin doesn't like it when I change the format. I know. Just breathe, it's okay. I thought we'd do a caller first because it's a really good question, and I think you're going to enjoy it.

• 7:58Martin Lewis?

  Okay, let's do a caller first on an odd number. It's fine. What have you got for me?

• 8:03Speaker 06

  Donny in Enfield.

• 8:05Martin Lewis?

  Hello, Donny. What can we do for you?

• 8:07Speaker 03

  Hi, Martin, and hi, Matt. Slightly cheeky question because it's not actually a question for myself, but hopefully you'll indulge me. It is for, I work in children's services, so I work with a lot of teenagers who are basically trying to start their financial journeys. And I get so many questions about basically, how do I become rich? How do I, I guess, have a settled?

• 8:34Speaker 03

  Lifestyle and what I read into that is maybe they've come from backgrounds that hasn't afforded them that element of financial stability that they desire in the future. So my question is to ask you, I guess, what are the top tips or top things they should be doing as 15, 16, maybe even 14 year olds to sort of get started in terms of just securing their or getting to start, start, I guess, good financial habits?

• 9:02Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, you're not taking advantage of it. It sounds like a self lust question, not a selfish question. Can I just, so I understand these children, what type of backgrounds are we talking here? I mean, is this sort of parental supported and there's money in the family or are these are these kids from tougher backgrounds, that type of stuff?

• 9:19Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's a mixture really. So I'll say largely tougher backgrounds and it's just usually they have not had, I guess, financial education from parents based upon various reasons. And we just find that, you know, they come with all the hopes and ambitions. It's great. And they've got the time, but they don't know where to start. And we find sometimes they're attracted into, yeah, you know, maybe illegal routes of making money or that sort of thing because they're really, you know, keen to get started and secure their own futures.

• 9:49Martin Lewis?

  Well, I'll, I'll leave the illegal routes. Are you going to play this to them or something? How, what are you going to do?

• 9:53Speaker 03

  Well, that would be, you know, a great suggestion.

• 9:55Martin Lewis?

  Matt tipped this me off on this one because it's a big question and I've got a massive list in front of me. I started thinking about it. I just kept writing more and more and more. So, and we haven't got that that long. But he said that you might want to play this to the kids.

• 10:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, that would be, yeah, fantastic.

• 10:11Martin Lewis?

  You're absolutely welcome. I don't know if I can officially give you permission on the BBC, but I'm doing it anyway. Tell them to come to me if there's a problem. You're absolutely welcome to play this to them. What I would say first, I'm not going to get into the sort of warnings about illegal routes of making money because that's not my side and you probably deal with that in the counselling work that you do with them better than I do. I'm going to talk about the sort of the standard side. I think one of the first things I'd say in this, in this world that we live in at the moment is for young people who are so strongly influenced by social media, you have to be incredibly careful. There are so many people out there, you know, I know this as I am in 46% of UK scam adverts without my permission, clearly, to try and sell people get rich quick schemes.

• 10:57Martin Lewis?

  Those are just criminals trying to steal your money. But equally, there are a number of influencers and financial influencers online who try and promote get which rich quick schemes. And the truth is, some people do get rich from them. Those are the people who are pumping those scams and they were pumping the information out, but not the people who follow what they do. So just be incredibly careful. Try and find legitimate sources. Do proper research before you do anything. And just because someone who's wearing, you know, sitting on the front of a Lamborghini and saying that they've got a really nice life, says it, doesn't actually mean they own the Lamborghini, doesn't mean it isn't all AI, doesn't mean what they're saying is true. And it's always worth doing some legitimacy,

• 11:41Martin Lewis?

  legitimacy checks over the sources. When we go into actually some of the practicals, I'm going to do them relatively quickly because I really do have a lot of tips that I put down. I'd start off by getting a bank account in your own name and learning to manage it. I mean, it's, it's at the corner of actually being able to look at what money you've got, seeing how it's gone. There are lots of different type of bank accounts. Go and do some reading. One of the great things, and I've championed financial education in schools for years, we are not going to be able to give you all the answers. Financial education won't give you the answers. But what it should do is start to give you the ability to make sure you know to ask questions, to do your research, to check things out, to help you avoid making expensive mistakes and make sensible money decisions. So when I say go

• 12:26Martin Lewis?

  and get yourself a bank account, there are loads of different types of bank accounts. Some are good for different people. Whenever you're doing something like that, checking, researching, thinking how you will do it and going into that, rather than just flicking for the first one that looks glossy and shiny is well worth it. Next, start budgeting early. Divide money between money that's available for you to spend, money that you want to put aside and money that you're going to need to pay out in the short term future. You could do this by separate bank accounts. In the old days, people used to do it by jam jars and they'd stuff cash into different jam jars for different purposes. But that's the same concept now that you have, here's my day to day spending, here's, because I

• 13:08Martin Lewis?

  want to one day go on holiday or I want to, there's a, you know, a pair of trainers I want to buy in the future and I want to save for them, put the money aside. And here's money that I need to go and pay bills that I'm going to have coming in. And putting those and ciphering them into different columns. So you know how much you've got in each one is really important. How, how's this working, Donny? Am I on the right tracks?

• 13:29Speaker 03

  Oh, it's sounding great. And you know what? The budgeting is really something that I found that I wish if I could go back in time, I would be teaching myself now. So yeah, spot on.

• 13:39Martin Lewis?

  Perfect. I got loads more. Next, understand compound interest. This is so important. It implies in investing and savings and it implies in debt. So compound interest means interest on the interest. Let's start off with the positive nature of compound interest. The positive nature of compound interest, and I'm going to do numbers that don't exist. You're not going to get this interest, but we'll do them for simplicity. If you save a hundred pounds at 10% interest, after the first year, you'll have 10, be given 10% of the hundred pounds. So you will now have a hundred and 10 pounds. After the second year, you'll get 10% of the hundred pounds you put in, but you'll also get 10% of the 10 pounds interest you earned in the first year. It compounds. You get interest on the

• 14:23Martin Lewis?

  interest. So after the second year, you have a hundred and 21 pounds, which is 10 pounds interest from the first year, 10 pounds interest from the original money in the second year, and one pound interest from the 10 pound interest you earned in the first year. After the third year, you will have a hundred and 33 pounds interest because you're getting interest on the whole 121 pounds and on and on and on. Now, the way it works, really interesting rule of thumb here, the people, they don't teach this in schools, but it's a really good one for everyone to know, regardless of your age. If you divide 70, it's very rough, 70 by the interest rate. So let's say the interest rate is 10%. That's how long it

• 15:06Martin Lewis?

  will take your money to double. So if you've got a 10% interest rate and you say you divide 70 by 10, you get seven, that's seven years. You would roughly expect the money you put in, that hundred pounds to be worth 200 pounds in seven years' time. If the interest rate's 5%, it will be 14 years' time. If the interest rate is at 30%, it'll be two and a half years' time. And that shows you the power of compounding, how quickly it can grow. Now that works on savings and something similar can work on investing because when you invest, say in shares, they pay a dividend, which is an income. And if you use that income to buy more shares, you get a similar type of compounding effect. But the warning flag,

• 15:48Martin Lewis?

  the really big warning flag is it works on debt as well. So if you're borrowing money, then, and you're not paying it off, the interest compounds because saving and debt are the same thing, just the other way around. When you're saving, you're lending your money to the bank and it has to pay you. When you're borrowing, the lender is lending you the money and you have to pay it. Except the rates that you borrow at are far, far higher than the rates you save at. So the amount you owe will compound and grow far more quickly in debt because you're starting off on a bigger interest rate than you would in savings. And I'm realising I'm going to do the whole podcast on this if I'm not careful. So I'm going to go knock a few more out with a little bit more quickly. Build an emergency fund.

• 16:30Martin Lewis?

  Always try and have a couple of months, if you can, worth of bills put aside somewhere so that if an emergency happens, you don't have to borrow, you can use those funds and they should be available, you know, easily to you. So easy access savings or a bank account, keeping it in that type of place is really useful. If you can't do two months, do one month. If you can't do one month, do one week. If you can't do one week, do 10 pounds. If you can't do 10 pounds, do one pound. Just having an emergency fund is important. Next, you're young. You have the benefit of timing. We've already talked about compound interest, but when it comes to investing and putting your money in a broad spread of investment, do some reading, legitimate websites about investing and how

• 17:10Martin Lewis?

  they work on that basis. You're going, you know, a global fund of lots of stocks and shares, a global index tracker or something like that. Time is so important and you've got a long time for it to grow. And the earlier you start, the better. And if you're listening to this at 15 and 16, and you're going to be able to have a little of cash you could put away and invest in a broad spread global index to minimise the risk that you won't need for 10, 15 years, it could grow so well for you. So that by the time you're 30 or 40, I know it sounds a long time away, it can work incredibly well. It's just worth thinking about the wonderful advantage of time that you've got. Understanding risk is important too. Risk and reward, higher potential rewards come from higher potential

• 17:55Martin Lewis?

  risk, which means there's more of a chance that you can lose money too. So when you're doing anything, you have to look at what the risk level is and you need a mix of risk in your life. You need some money that's totally safe, some money that's growing a little bit quicker. And you might want to have a little bit that's riskier, but you don't want everything to be risky because then you're gambling your whole life on it and you don't want to do your financial life on it. And you don't want to do that. Learn the difference between something you want and something you need. That's something that we all need to understand as we grow. What do I actually need it or do I just want it? And what's the real cost of spending that money on it? What will I be foregoing? They call it in economics, opportunity cost. What will I be giving up? What will I be

• 18:37Martin Lewis?

  giving up? What will I not be able to get in order to have this? We tend to think of single snapshot cost. How much does it cost? Ah, you know, there's a pair of boots. It's 200 quid. I really want them. I'm going to buy it. Well, what won't you be able to get that could have given you more enjoyment, more use in future? You need to be critical and clinical when you're making those decisions. Remember next, the company's job is to make money. It's not necessarily to get you the best deal. They're not advertising because it's good for you. They're advertising because it's good for them. So while you work for a company and we need companies to flourish and business to flourish in our economy, as a consumer, you are effectively in an adversarial relationship. Best description I'll give you

• 19:19Martin Lewis?

  as someone who loosely supports Manchester City. I was born into a City family. That's probably my closest football club. When Man City play Man United. I want City to score. I don't want United to score, but I don't think United are wrong for trying to score. That is their job. A company's job is to make money from you. You as a consumer, your job is to keep your money into your pocket. Check your pay slips carefully when you start work. There are millions of tax code errors each year. Your pay slip may not be right. It's always worth checking. Try and build yourself a good credit record slowly and responsibly. If you're a responsible person who won't use the debt, then getting yourself something like a credit card, once you're able, spending

• 20:01Martin Lewis?

  50 quid a month on it, paying it off in full at the end of every month can start to build you a credit record. When you're 18, learn whether a lifetime ISA could help you get a first home, because it gives you a 25% bonus when you're saving towards a first home, but go and check it out. And then finally, the Young Money Charity has the Financial Education textbook available on it called Your Money Matters. It's something I was involved in and I funded and I'm very proud of. If you've got the time, download it, do some reading, tool yourself up with knowledge. Only by equipping yourself to live in a complex consumer economy are you going to be able to thrive. Quick interruption to myself, just to clarify, that textbook is on the Young Enterprise website. There's

• 20:44Martin Lewis?

  a Young Money section on it. I mean, I've done a lot. Slow it down when you listen to the podcast, but hopefully that gets you somewhere. How was that, Donny?

• 20:54Speaker 03

  That was brilliant. I'm not sure I heard you take a breath, but that is fantastic.

• 20:57Martin Lewis?

  Breathing's overrated.

• 20:58Speaker 03

  I have the benefit of, like you say, playing that, pausing it, and yeah, hopefully if the badge comes as well, I'll put my badge on and yeah.

• 21:09Martin Lewis?

  Okay, this is what we're going to do, Matt.

• 21:10Speaker 03

  I'll share some extra knowledge.

• 21:11Martin Lewis?

  Matt, I want you to send Donny three badges.

• 21:15Speaker 06

  Why three?

• 21:17Martin Lewis?

  One is for Donny, then I want Donny to have whoever he is with, who is picking up this information and acquiring it best and starting to take it on board, he can get to give them a badge each. Can we do that?

• 21:31Speaker 06

  Yes, we can do that.

• 21:32Martin Lewis?

  If that's all right, Donny.

• 21:33Speaker 03

  That's a fantastic deal, yeah. And I'm happy to feedback.

• 21:37Martin Lewis?

  Well done for everything you're doing, Donny. And to all the young people out there, we live in one of the world's most competitive consumer economies. We do not educate our youth properly about how it works. In fact, if you are lucky enough to go to university and that's right for you and it isn't right for everyone, there are many other options out there. We educate our youth into what we call debt, but we never properly educate them about debt. That will hopefully change when the curriculum changes in schools next year, but it's a really important thing for you to understand. If you understand your finances, you will have a better financial life, a more comfortable life, and it will take away panic. I talk about money as a wellbeing issue. It's not just a money issue. These are not good stats, but they're important to say. You know, there are 400,000 people

• 22:22Martin Lewis?

  in the UK who contemplate taking their own lives because of their finances each year. If you get finances wrong, there are really big repercussions. It's one of the biggest causes of divorce, arguments about money out there. The earlier you understand it, the earlier you adopt it, the earlier you embrace the complexity that's involved, the happier a life you can have. And that's ultimately what drives me to be talking about this. Not because the money in itself is integrally interesting, but because it is such an important tool and passage through all our lives. Not about being rich, but by not having the pressures on you that a lack of money and money mismanagement can put upon somebody and the difficulty it brings on their lives. That's why you're probably here. If you've never heard me before

• 23:05Martin Lewis?

  and you've not listened to this before, I'm quite passionate about it. It's because I know the impact it has. Good luck to you all.

• 23:10Speaker 03

  Thank you, Martin. Thank you. And that really resonates because, you know, that's the environment a lot of our children are growing up in. So yeah, this is going to be great to help empower them.

• 23:18Martin Lewis?

  Thank you so much. Thanks for the call, Donny. I really appreciate it. Good luck to you and well done for everything you're doing for them.

• 23:23Speaker 03

  Thank you so much.

• 23:24Martin Lewis?

  I'm rather rudely interrupting myself. I was just listening to the podcast about that Matt sends me to approve it at double speed, and I thought, no, there's one really important thing I should also be telling young people. So this is a quick walking note to add into the pod, and it's this. If you become self-employed and work for yourself, which many young people are doing, you have to understand that the money you get paid is not all yours to spend. The truth of it is, likely 25% of it or more will have to go to pay taxes. So when you get paid, take a quarter of it or more and put that in a totally separate bank account. Then don't think of that bank account as yours. Yes, you want it to earn interest because if there's any left, you'll be able to get it. That

• 24:09Martin Lewis?

  bank account is there to pay your tax when you need it. Then when the tax bill does come, well, it's all covered and it's not a problem. And the interesting thing is, the reason many young celebrities, we often read about them going bankrupt, is exactly this. They don't put their money aside for tax. They think life is going to continue earning at a high rate all the time. And then suddenly, when they're out of the spotlight a little bit, or they're just not quite as cool as they used to be and not getting as much work, they're going, how am I going to pay for the tax? It's way bigger than I thought and I'm not earning as much now. So make sure you're managing your taxes and understand, I'm afraid, when you earn, it's not all yours. That was really good. I'm very glad that we did that. Thank you for selecting it. That was good curating of questions.

• 24:53Speaker 06

  Thank you very much, sir.

• 24:54Martin Lewis?

  Now, though, I'm not sure I'm comfortable saying it, we're on an even number, but clearly, because we've just had a call up, we can't have two callers in a row. It has to be a read. It's a subversion of the entire format. I mean, this is the Jar Jar Binks of the Question Time podcast.

• 25:12Speaker 06

  I do wonder if people listening are as freaked out as you are by the fact we've changed the order.

• 25:17Martin Lewis?

  They're probably not.

• 25:18Speaker 06

  No.

• 25:19Martin Lewis?

  But they're probably not. Some of them are, I'm sure, because some of the people who listen to this podcast will be as bad at me at this type of stuff. But no, they're probably just thinking, they've just changed the order of the questions. That's not a big deal.

• 25:29Speaker 06

  Probably thinking, get on with it.

• 25:30Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, get on with it.

• 25:31Speaker 06

  Right. A question from Julie, who has emailed in to [email protected]. She says, hi, Martin and team.

• 25:38Martin Lewis?

  Hello, Julie.

• 25:40Speaker 06

  I have a question regarding tax on behalf of my son. He's just turned 18 and has a part-time job for 13 and a half hours per week to fit in around his university studies.

• 25:50Martin Lewis?

  Good for him.

• 25:51Speaker 06

  His annual contracted earnings are under £8,000 a year, so below the tax threshold. What is the tax threshold, remind me?

• 25:58Martin Lewis?

  £12,570.

• 26:00Speaker 06

  Thank you. However, during the summer months, he has taken on additional shifts and as a result has paid tax from his last two pay packets. Should he be able to claim this back at the end of the tax year? And if so, how? She also says he has a uniform, which he's responsible for washing too.

• 26:16Martin Lewis?

  Okay, yeah, this is really interesting. My presumption of what has happened here is that they are effectively, they're taxing him as if he would earn the amount with the additional shifts each month for the whole year. So to put this in really simple numbers, he's earning £8,000 a year. What's that? Let's say that's 620-ish a month. I won't bother to work it out exactly, but it'll be somewhere in that sort of region. So he's earning 620 quid a month, but let's say those additional shifts put him up to £1,200 rather than £620 for a few months, and they will have treated it like he was earning £1,200 a month, which is what, £14,400 over the year. And they would have taxed

• 27:01Martin Lewis?

  him as if he was earning £14,400 over the year, which is of course above the threshold. So about, you know, just under two grand of it would be taxable. But clearly, he won't be a taxpayer because it's only for two or three months of the year that he's earned the £1,000. The rest of the time, he'll be earning 620, so he'll be under the personal allowance. What you could do, well, it's always worth mentioning it to the company that he's working for's payroll, but they won't be able to do anything. You, the easiest way to deal with this is a quick call to HMRC. Look, the truth is, the money will come back to you at the end of the year. You'll get the money back. So if you don't want to hassle, it will come back or he will get it back. If you want it back now, you can call HMRC and ask them to change your tax code because of it. You'll have to say to

• 27:46Martin Lewis?

  them, I won't be earning any more. You know, I know what I'm earning for the rest of the year. It's going to be in this type of region. But you should be able to, as long as you can get through to HMRC, to do that. As a side note, if he'd been working in the summer and this had happened, and he now wasn't going to be working for the rest of the year, so obviously not relevant in your son's case, Julie, but just for other people who are listening, then there is a P50 form available via gov.uk that you can fill in to claim the tax back if it was only, if you've worked and stopped work and you won't be working again for the rest of the year, and you won't be earning over the threshold. So I hope that that is helpful. It's a little bit cumbersome, but I think, I mean, it's a relatively common scenario for people who are doing summer work, that they, or for doing extended work in the summer, that they pay tax when they shouldn't, but they get it back.

• 28:29Martin 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.

• 28:45Speaker 06

  No, Dear Matt.

• 28:47Martin Lewis?

  Dear Martin.

• 28:48Speaker 06

  Dear Matt.

• 28:51Martin Lewis?

  Now I'm really stressed.

• 28:52Speaker 06

  Why?

• 28:53Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so we did a caller first when we'd normally do a caller second on an even spot. And then we did a read second where we'd normally do a read first.

• 29:02Speaker 06

  We did.

• 29:03Martin Lewis?

  What do we do now? Do we just count it that we have transposed the first two? So that effectively we've just done the first two in the wrong order? Or do we continue on that basis throughout the entire podcast? Meaning that we'll go caller, read, caller, read, read? Or will we go caller, read, read, caller? Do you see what I mean?

• 29:28Speaker 06

  I see what you mean, Ian. I don't know if I can take that much change. I can take a bit of change. I don't know if I can do that.

• 29:35Martin Lewis?

  But either way, it's going to be changed, Matt.

• 29:36Speaker 06

  A little bit of change is fine.

• 29:38Martin Lewis?

  Either way, we're going to go read to read, right? Or we're going to go read to caller, but then caller is odd number yet again. Either way, you breached the format.

• 29:46Speaker 06

  I did, but I think I did it.

• 29:48Martin Lewis?

  I hope this format can be rebuilt.

• 29:49Speaker 06

  I did it well. Well, the format is something that we just came up with.

• 29:53Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I know, but I like it.

• 29:55Speaker 06

  It's not real.

• 29:56Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so what are we doing next? Are we doing the caller? Are we doing a read?

• 29:59Speaker 06

  Let's do a read.

• 30:01Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 30:01Speaker 06

  Okay, so third question.

• 30:03Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 30:04Speaker 06

  It's normal. It's just a read.

• 30:05Martin Lewis?

  It's fine.

• 30:06Speaker 06

  You can do this.

• 30:07Martin Lewis?

  It's fine.

• 30:08Speaker 06

  Shall I read it?

• 30:09Martin Lewis?

  I need to talk to my agent.

• 30:12Speaker 06

  That's the second time today you've said that.

• 30:14Martin Lewis?

  The other was off air. They won't hear that. They won't know.

• 30:17Speaker 06

  Right, got one on energy bills and the price cap rise from Damien, who has emailed it in. He says, hi, Martin, Matt, Rosie, Isabel, Simon and the many other Matts.

• 30:27Martin Lewis?

  Nice, well done, Damien.

• 30:29Speaker 06

  Because there are quite a few.

• 30:30Martin Lewis?

  There we are. There we go. There is an esquire, a knowledgeable esquire in his own right. Carry on.

• 30:34Speaker 06

  I think Damien's listened to every podcast.

• 30:36Martin Lewis?

  Quite right.

• 30:37Speaker 06

  He says, I'm sure you'll be getting 1,001 questions regarding the January increase and fixing. However, could you possibly cover your thoughts on time of use tariffs?

• 30:47Martin Lewis?

  Okay, yeah.

• 30:48Speaker 06

  I fully understand it's crystal ball gazing, but with imminent hikes in the price cap that will already be reflected in the fixed tariffs available. What are your thoughts on sticking with it? Time of use on the basis that we have already weathered a lot of the higher prices? Or is the market so volatile at the moment? Fixed is a better bet. I know it's probably more to do with an individual's thoughts on risk, but I'd be interested to know what someone like you does or your thoughts on the subject.

• 31:16Martin Lewis?

  It is a complete unknowable. Now, I am going to assume by the fact you're saying time of use tariffs and the way you're phrasing your question, you're actually talking specifically either the Octopus Agile or the Octopus Tracker tariff, which are very different types of tariff to a sort of... The other type of time of use tariff would be in, say, an EV tariff where you get one rate during the day and one rate at night. You're talking about the highly variable, specific time of use tariffs. Now, for those people who are going, what's he talking about? What's that all about? I shall explain in brief. You have the Octopus Tracker tariff, which is both a gas and an electricity tariff,

• 31:55Martin Lewis?

  where the price moves every day with, based on mainly moving with underlying wholesale rates. And it can move really, really wildly every day. It can be far, far cheaper than the price cap and far, far more expensive than the price cap. In normal times, it tends to substantially undercut the price cap. In current volatile times, it has on many days substantially been more expensive than the price cap. But that isn't the most variable of the variable, even though that's super variable. Then we go to hyper variable, which is the Octopus...

• 32:29Speaker 06

  Octopus?

• 32:30Martin Lewis?

  Octopus. Octopus, as they do. The Octopus Agile tariff. The Agile tariff is an electricity-only tariff where the price moves every 30 minutes. You are told the price for the next day. I think it comes in at about four o'clock on the previous afternoon and you can see what the price is going to be. This is a tariff that is best for those people who have flexible and controllable energy usage. A classic example would be if you had home batteries. If you've got home batteries, because in a typical day, if we say the price cap is around or going to be around 27p per kilowatt hour for electricity, roughly in that order.

• 33:13Martin Lewis?

  The Octopus Agile tariff in a typical day, especially on the weekend, can go anywhere from minus nine pence per kilowatt hour. Literally, you're being paid to plus 80 or 90 pence per kilowatt hour. So, you know, two or three times the price cap. It will generally be either daytimes or overnight when it's super cheap and it will almost certainly be peak times when it's super expensive. So if you have batteries, now there are also some days where it's more expensive than the price cap for the whole day. It has been recently, there's been days where it's been at 30p for most of the day, then gone up to 60p in the evening, say.

• 33:53Martin Lewis?

  But if you have batteries that can charge up a decent capacity for your usage when it's minus, and you know, we normally get a minus period once or twice a week. So you're literally being paid to use energy and then you use that energy in the peak time. It can work well for you. So I think the Agile tariff is a sort of, it's about your setup. If you're just playing it without any form of setup, I don't think it really is for you at the moment. The Tracker tariff, you know, your question, Damien's exactly right. It depends on your attitude to risk. Here is the big problem. In good times, these are good tariffs and these work well for sophisticated users who understand them.

• 34:35Martin Lewis?

  But what you can't do is say, which is what everyone who's on them would like to do, go, I'm going to ditch it for the next month or so because it looks a little bit high and then I'll come back to it in a month. That's what you'd like to do. But Octopus knows that and it basically says, if you're going to use one of these tariffs, you've got to commit to it in good times and in bad. You've got to marry it, in fact. It's a fiscal tariff marriage. Because what it says is if you leave Agile or Tracker, you cannot re-sign up to it again for another nine months. So therefore the decision is far more than just about in the immediate future, is it going to be good or bad? I mean, looking at where wholesale rates are right now, then it's not going to be good for the next few weeks.

• 35:17Martin Lewis?

  If the Middle East crisis ends, it's going to be very substantially better than the price cap. Because if the Middle East crisis ends before the January price cap, when it's currently predicted to go up 22%, comes in, then because the time of use tariffs are absolutely based on the day and things will have shot down, whereas the price cap is based on a time lag, you'll be massively undercutting the price cap if the Middle East crisis de-escalates.

• 35:43Martin Lewis?

  It's a gamble. I mean, ultimately, for most people, these are, the big picture of this is a gamble on what you think is going to happen in worldwide Middle East prices. If at some point in the next three or four months, the conflict is going to de-escalate in the Middle East, you're probably better sticking on Agile or Tracker. If it's not, and we're still going to be here in another year's time, you're probably better getting off it because the volatility isn't that much. With the caveat on Agile, that Agile, if you've got all the batteries set up, then you can still make it work for you in the right circumstances. Side note to my caveat, caveat to my caveat, that's if you've got the batteries. Whether it's worth investing in the batteries to do that, what's going on at the moment changes that equation too, which is another big story.

• 36:27Martin Lewis?

  So I'm only talking about people who've already got the type of battery setups and have already done their capital outlay for that. Did that make sense?

• 36:34Speaker 06

  It did make sense.

• 36:35Martin Lewis?

  I mean, to be honest, if you're listening and you don't know those tariffs, it probably won't make that much sense to you because these are very specialised tariffs. But there are a lot of people on them and I get questions on them all the time. So hopefully I've helped a little bit. But ultimately, these are tariffs for people who can understand and accept the volatility. And if you can't, you shouldn't be on them in the first place.

• 36:56Speaker 06

  Did you just caveat to your caveat to your caveat?

• 36:58Martin Lewis?

  No, that wasn't a caveat. That was an explainer.

• 37:00Speaker 06

  Just two caveats?

• 37:00Martin Lewis?

  There was only two caveats.

• 37:01Speaker 06

  Okay, fine.

• 37:02Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, so my caveat to that explainer was it wasn't a caveat.

• 37:06Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 37:06Martin Lewis?

  Thank you.

• 37:09Martin Lewis?

  I know that the listeners now fed up of hearing about the format. I've accepted it. I'm at peace with it after that. It was a very good, interesting question, that last one. It's now, we're even and it's a caller.

• 37:21Speaker 06

  It's a caller. Don't worry. You can relax, breathe.

• 37:24Martin Lewis?

  We're back on track. We're back on track.

• 37:25Speaker 06

  It's Dan in Southampton.

• 37:26Martin Lewis?

  Hello, Dan in Southampton. What are we doing for you?

• 37:29Speaker 05

  Hello, hello, Martin and Matt. How are you doing?

• 37:31Martin Lewis?

  We're very well. Lovely to have you on board. At what point, just breaking in before you've even let you start, I need to ask it to Matt. Matt, at what point does somebody qualify for their badge? Has Dan already qualified for his badge because he's spoken on the podcast? Or is it, what's the crystallisation point? Or is it when he's finished his question and interaction?

• 37:54Speaker 06

  I think it's when he's finished asking the question. Even if he doesn't get an answer, he still asks the question on the podcast.

• 37:59Martin Lewis?

  But if he just came on and said hello, you wouldn't get a badge?

• 38:01Speaker 06

  No.

• 38:02Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so you haven't earned it, Dan, yet, so we need a question.

• 38:05Speaker 05

  Oh, that's a shame. I was going to hang up.

• 38:08Speaker 06

  That would be really funny if you did.

• 38:09Martin Lewis?

  It would have been good. We would have liked, we would have enjoyed that and then panicked slightly.

• 38:13Speaker 05

  I've got my badge. I'm going.

• 38:16Martin Lewis?

  What is the question? Yes.

• 38:19Speaker 05

  So, yeah, so my wife and I are about to buy a house. Well, we're about to move house. We're completing next week.

• 38:26Martin Lewis?

  Congratulations.

• 38:28Speaker 05

  Yeah, thank you. So, obviously with that comes quite a few purchases. We're going to need to replace basically the majority of our furniture. And obviously I've noticed that a lot of furniture companies offer things like four years, 0% interest.

• 38:42Martin Lewis?

  Yep.

• 38:43Speaker 05

  Interest from credit on this and that. So my thought was thinking about like the conversation around stewing. Could I potentially take advantage of those same offers? Stew the money away, earn interest on it and actually have a four year period compared to like the 0% credit cards that usually like 12 months or so. Actually, it's an even longer period. And if I'm buying quite a lot of new furniture, obviously that adds up to quite a lot of money that could be stewed. So that's my question is whether that's actually going to affect my credit rating. Because our credit lender is going to look at me having lots of credit with all sorts of different lenders and start to make me seem like a bit of a risky proposition.

• 39:21Martin Lewis?

  So let's, let's just get all this in the round. It's a really interesting question. So the, the basic answer of can you do it is yes. There's a slight nuance, which I would argue it probably isn't stewing technically because the definition of stewing, which is, you know, is a term that's been around for about 20 years and I was around in the early days of it. So it is not, there's not a hard definition, but my definition of stewing, this is very nerdy that we're doing, it doesn't actually affect you in a practical sense, so don't worry. My definition of stewing is it is when you artificially create a debt in order to make money and profit from 0% debt. Now, here, the creation wouldn't be artificial.

• 40:05Martin Lewis?

  So I would say this is stewing adjacent, but probably not stewing in its own right under the technical definition, if you so to me.

• 40:11Speaker 05

  Yep.

• 40:12Martin Lewis?

  But in terms of the principle, could you deliberately borrow at 0% to actually buy something? Then you've got the money, but instead of paying it off, you put that money in high interest savings so that you are earning interest rather than paying it off. Obviously you make whatever minimum repayments they are and fulfill all the criteria and profit on it. Absolutely, yes. I mean, absolutely, you can do that and the maths would add up. If they're willing to lend it you and they want it paid over five years and you could put that same amount in the savings account and gradually drip feed the payment off so that you're earning interest in it, then you will be in profit from doing so. And that all works well. I mean, just make sure you've got the money is the key to do that. And it sounds like you've thought of that.

• 40:56Martin Lewis?

  As for the impact on your credit score, it would have an impact because effectively on the main credit criteria, you're borrowing and you've got a higher credit utilisation or debt utilisation than you would otherwise. So absolutely, when a lender looks at you, they will see the debt, they won't see it's offset by savings and it would look like you had that actual amount of debt and it was a real amount of debt. And therefore, if you were making a mortgage application, it could probably have a minor, minor to medium effect on what you could get. I don't think it'd get you rejected, but it might mean if you were pushing the boundaries. Having said all that, the question you need to ask yourself, and this is always, you know, it's a cost benefit analysis, is does that actually matter over the period of these loans?

• 41:41Martin Lewis?

  Because once they're gone, this will clear itself up very quickly.

• 41:46Speaker 05

  Yeah, well, we've literally, obviously we've just done a mortgage application.

• 41:50Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 41:50Speaker 05

  We're fixed for five years. So I've obviously got that five year window and we're not going to be making a massive application. But it's just things like, like I usually use like a cash back credit card, which I need to get a new one, but I haven't done the application yet because I had this mortgage application in process. So at some point in the next sort of six months, I will be applying for a credit card to do my cash backs, sort of day to day spending and earn money from that. And it's just wondering whether it's going to impact on things like that, like credit cards, potentially like bank transfers. I wouldn't imagine it would, but.

• 42:21Martin Lewis?

  I, I, I think the answer is it could, but I'm not so sure how hugely. And remember, every lender scores you differently. I think the, the, the correct answer here with that in mind is you need to step this in the right order. Right? So you've done the big one that's your mortgage. What is your next priority? If it's the cash back cards, once your mortgage goes through, do the cash back card application then. Yeah.

• 42:42Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 42:43Martin Lewis?

  Once you've got that done, then apply for the 0% credit. And it tends to be because the 0% credit is linked to a purchase and therefore is sort of semi-supported by the retailer, they tend to be slightly easier to get than just a more abstract card, which, you know, is, is delinked from anything else. And then do the 0% credit for your stewing on the back end. And then if you get it, you get it. And if you don't get it, you don't get it and you shrug your shoulders and it doesn't matter so much. And then obviously, once you're getting towards that mortgage application again in five years' time, well, probably from a year out, you want to be cooling all this, minimizing the amount of debt you've got. Clearly you must never miss a minimum repayment. That's a nightmare. Clearly if they ever call the debt and you want the money in the bank and you've got it liquid, so you've got it in an easy access savings, so you've got the ability to pay

• 43:26Martin Lewis?

  it at any time and you shouldn't be dipping into it. So, I mean, I haven't done, because we talked about stewing in a pod, I think it was two weeks ago. I did all my caveats there. This is only for the financially savvy who are well organised, who don't have other forms of debt, you know, and are doing it tactically to make money. This is not something to do willy nilly, if in doubt, don't. But again, I tend to judge by the nature of the question. You seem to be the type of person who can manage this and knows what you're doing. So it all sounds pretty, pretty comfortable to me.

• 43:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, I just thought it would be easier almost than stewing because you've got these like large purchases. So rather than having to like rack up amounts like gradually, it's like you're literally paying, you know, however much money for a sofa and it's a one-off payment. You've got the cash, you put it in a bank account and you, in a savings account and you basically forget about it until, until that comes around.

• 44:16Martin Lewis?

  I have, I have no worries the way you're describing it. My worry is people who go, oh, I'm going to take a little bit of that saving. That savings is not your savings. You know, it's, it's all about mentality. That savings is I've already paid for my furniture with that savings. It doesn't belong to me. I'm just holding on to it for the moment until I give it to the furniture company. And as long as you go in with that sort of rigid principled mindset, then it's an easy way to make a few hundred extra quid, which probably helps offset the cost of whatever you're going to be buying. I think good luck to you.

• 44:44Speaker 05

  That's it.

• 44:45Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 44:45Speaker 05

  Yeah, thank you.

• 44:46Martin Lewis?

  I love it. Well done, Dan.

• 44:47Speaker 06

  It was two weeks ago.

• 44:48Martin Lewis?

  Was it two, it was two weeks.

• 44:49Speaker 06

  Two weeks ago.

• 44:49Martin Lewis?

  That was right. It was good. And, and Dan, you now have qualified for the badge.

• 44:54Speaker 05

  Thank you. I look forward to it.

• 44:56Martin Lewis?

  Now, but now you can, you can hang up. Can you, can you do it in quite a dramatic way? I don't know if you can do it, it's probably on a mobile, but let's try.

• 45:01Speaker 05

  How big is, how big is the badge?

• 45:03Martin Lewis?

  Matt?

• 45:05Speaker 06

  I mean, it's not massive. How many, how many centimetres in diameter?

• 45:10Martin Lewis?

  Three, three and a half, four?

• 45:11Speaker 06

  Four, four, maybe four and a half.

• 45:14Speaker 05

  Okay. So it's trying to find somewhere to put it that will have a high impact.

• 45:16Speaker 06

  Well, you could wear it on your chest at all times.

• 45:18Martin Lewis?

  You could.

• 45:19Speaker 05

  True, I could put it on my lanyard at work.

• 45:20Speaker 06

  Yeah, do that.

• 45:21Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, yeah. I, I think that's better. Don't, on your chest itself, it would really hurt.

• 45:25Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 45:25Martin Lewis?

  I mean, we know, we know people like the pod, but that's a sacrifice too far. You know, on the clothing, on the outside is what I would say.

• 45:31Speaker 06

  Should I have not done that then?

• 45:34Martin Lewis?

  No, but we don't want to know about your piercings, Matt.

• 45:39Speaker 06

  Thanks, Dan.

• 45:41Martin Lewis?

  Cheers, mate. Good luck to you and good luck in your new house.

• 45:44Speaker 05

  Yeah, thank you. Cheers, guys.

• 45:48Martin Lewis?

  Shall we do success? And have you got a new success jingle?

• 45:52Speaker 06

  I do.

• 45:53Martin Lewis?

  And I know that. And anyone who listens to the very end of the podcast, even after the credits, will understand why I know that. So how does it work? Do you say who the success is, then we play the success jingle, then you do the success? Or do you play it before you say the name? We've not done it before.

• 46:09Speaker 06

  I think you say, what should we do next? And then we play that and then we say, we've got a success.

• 46:15Martin Lewis?

  So what are we doing next?

• 46:16Speaker 06

  We've got a success from Alexander.

• 46:21Martin Lewis?

  Oh, I like the jingle. I like it, like it. Carry on. Success me up.

• 46:25Speaker 06

  He says, good afternoon, team. I just wanted to say thank you so much for your best bits, how to check if you're paying too much council tax episode in August.

• 46:34Martin Lewis?

  Nice. I like the fact a best bits one has got a note.

• 46:36Speaker 06

  I think Simon made that one there.

• 46:38Martin Lewis?

  It's fine, it's fine, Matt, it's fine.

• 46:41Speaker 06

  He says.

• 46:41Martin Lewis?

  We're all one great ensemble.

• 46:43Speaker 06

  Yeah, no. He says, I followed your advice and it has been accepted. I dropped one tax band, council tax band, and I'll be saving over £500 a year. Says this is my final house purchase. I could easily see it being a £20,000 saving over the next 40 years.

• 47:00Martin Lewis?

  Oh, that's wonderful to hear, Alexander. I, I get so many council tax successes and they're always good because they're always really big money. Let me do the very, very basics because the best thing to do would be to go and listen back to that episode in August where I, you know, I do a full hour on the intricacies and the details. The, the, the basic premise here is 400,000 homes in England and Scotland are likely to be in the wrong band, many too higher band because they still haven't been updated since the 1991 second gear valuation that happened back then. I came up with a system for check and challenging your band, which in a nutshell is, first of all, are you in a higher band than neighbours in similar or preferably identical properties? And you can check that via gov.uk council tax checker.

• 47:44Martin Lewis?

  You can check your band and other properties bands there. And if you are, then I would check, because what you want to know is, say you're in a higher band than neighbours, are they in too lower band or are you in too higher band? You don't want their band to be put up, they wouldn't like you. If you are, you then want to do a valuation check, which effectively is working out what your property was worth in 1991. And there are free tools online that can do that for you. But I would see those two simple checks, the neighbours check and the valuation check as triage. If you pass those and it looks like your property is in too higher band, then the real work starts and you need to start the application to get your band lowered. But full info on that is in that episode in August called best bits, how to check

• 48:28Martin Lewis?

  if you're paying too much council tax. Do you know the exact date, Matt?

• 48:31Speaker 06

  The 13th of August, 2026.

• 48:34Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, so, and do have a listen to that and go through that in detail because, you know, doing it is more work, but the, the first step is just saying, is this something I'm likely to be eligible for? Thanks so much for getting me in touch, Alexander. I'm delighted to hear it and delighted that you'll be saving all that money. That's brilliant.

• 48:52Martin Lewis?

  Now, are we going to a funny and a scans, Matt?

• 48:54Speaker 06

  No, I've actually got some sad news instead.

• 48:57Martin Lewis?

  Oh dear, I was going back, go on.

• 48:59Speaker 06

  What were you going to say?

• 49:00Martin Lewis?

  I was going to say you're just throwing the format out the window today.

• 49:03Speaker 06

  I know, well, I have to do this.

• 49:04Martin Lewis?

  But now I feel bad because you've got sad news.

• 49:05Speaker 06

  It's sad news. You do know what this is.

• 49:08Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 49:08Speaker 06

  It's proper sad news.

• 49:09Martin Lewis?

  What?

• 49:10Speaker 06

  It's Rosie's last podcast today.

• 49:12Martin Lewis?

  Of course it is.

• 49:13Speaker 06

  GDPR is leaving.

• 49:16Martin Lewis?

  Oh.

• 49:17Speaker 06

  Oh.

• 49:18Martin Lewis?

  Well, I mean, you see, she's not actually leaving me.

• 49:21Speaker 06

  No.

• 49:22Martin Lewis?

  Because, so for those who don't know, GDPR, Google Docs professional Rosie, she who must be obeyed, she has been silently fact checking here, the can of the podcast says Rosie never speaks, but that doesn't mean Rosie is without influence. A simple flicker of Rosie's eyebrow can literally, well, not actually literally, but can literally knock Matt and I off our chairs in fear and panic about what we've done wrong. And Rosie rules the roost. Rosie is my researcher, she works with me on everything, she's not, she's not part of the podcast, she's part of my team. And she is going back to her normal job. We do it as an attachment for a year. Someone comes and works with me for a year to do this. Rosie has been absolutely brilliant, but I'm not noticing because I'm still going

• 50:06Martin Lewis?

  to be working with Rosie in her normal job.

• 50:08Speaker 06

  Look at you.

• 50:09Martin Lewis?

  As she continues to go back. And we have, as people will know, Isabel is going to be taken over. We would love your views on whether Isabel should keep up the she is seen by us but not heard by you but still of great influence, or Isabel should be allowed a voice. We would like you to get in touch and do let us know, [email protected].

• 50:31Speaker 06

  As this is the last time.

• 50:32Martin Lewis?

  Are you going, we're going to be allowed to say bye bye and thank you or something?

• 50:35Speaker 06

  Do we, do we say bye to Rosie? Can we, can we finally hear Rosie? I would love to get Rosie on. Sometimes she has been on, you have told me off in the past, including little clips of Rosie at the end.

• 50:44Martin Lewis?

  Just at the Easter egg at the end.

• 50:45Speaker 06

  The Easter egg at the end.

• 50:46Martin Lewis?

  I'm, I'm happy for Rosie, but let's break, let's break, we've broken every other format rule that we've possibly got. So let's break it right now. Rosie, are you there?

• 50:54Speaker 06

  Yeah, I was saying to Matt, the format leaves as Rosie. Rosie is the format and the format is Rosie.

• 51:00Martin Lewis?

  I think the way she said that will, will absolutely say to everyone, why we say with just one flick of the eyebrow, we do what we're told.

• 51:06Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 51:07Martin Lewis?

  It was quite commanding. Rosie, thank you so much for everything you've done on the podcast. It's been absolutely brilliant. You were here from the start, you've helped, the three of us have developed this format between us and it has been a team effort and it's delightful to have Isabel coming on board, but we're going to miss you. You will always be a solid part of the history of the Martin Lewis podcast and I know that the listeners, I'm sure, are very thankful for your fact checking to make sure that we get things right when we're doing it as well. Thanks very much for my love, it's really good.

• 51:35Speaker 06

  Any, any words to say, Rosie? I was about to say, am I allowed to reply again?

• 51:39Martin Lewis?

  Yes, of course, of course you are.

• 51:41Speaker 06

  I was going to say, I'm going to miss the podcast a lot.

• 51:44Martin Lewis?

  I know.

• 51:45Speaker 06

  I'll miss you too. Yeah, Matt was like, are you going to cry? But I think Matt's going to cry, I think he's going to cry.

• 51:53Martin Lewis?

  I know you two get on so well, it's lovely, it's been really lovely and we've had so much fun. I mean, listeners, you will hear that there's often bickers and there's often joke. This is, this is a very happy ship. This is a very happy ship. It is a pleasure that we all enjoy doing it together. And, you know, Google Docs profession, the GD, the Google Doc that you put together, which is what rules the podcast, will continue to live on way beyond once you're off to different, and I'm not going to say better, but different and other things and onward and upwards. And I'll see you in the office tomorrow.

• 52:25Speaker 06

  Thanks, Rosie.

• 52:29Martin Lewis?

  Thanks, Rosie.

• 52:30Speaker 06

  Thanks.

• 52:33Martin Lewis?

  That's it for this week's Question Time. Don't forget to subscribe so you know when we release a new episode. We put out a new Question Time ep every Monday alongside the Big Topic podcast with Adrian on Thursdays. Aren't you lucky? Two doses of money-saving tips and tricks a week. Do make sure you send in your questions, just email [email protected]. And don't forget, if you come on the show, we'll send you an exclusive Money Can't Buy Martin Lewis Podcast Question Time ESQ badge. Woo! And if you stay listening, there's a little bit of an Easter egg for you.

• 53:23Speaker 07

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

• 53:56Martin Lewis?

  I haven't listened to your jingles. Have you got them there?

• 53:58Speaker 06

  Oh, yeah, I've got them here.

• 53:59Martin Lewis?

  Play them all quickly and we'll all vote on them.

• 54:01Speaker 06

  All right, let's hear number one.

• 54:07Speaker 06

  So, so that's one.

• 54:09Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 54:10Speaker 06

  Yeah, thoughts?

• 54:11Martin Lewis?

  I want one that says success of the week, though, or success.

• 54:14Speaker 06

  No, none of them say success.

• 54:16Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 54:17Speaker 06

  They're just fanfares. Right, play two.

• 54:23Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so I'm giving the first one a four out of 10. Can you get Rosie's score for the first one and I'll get Isabel's score on hands as well? How many out of 10 for the first one, not this one? Isabel's three, what are you, Matt?

• 54:35Speaker 06

  I didn't like that one as much, four.

• 54:38Martin Lewis?

  So this is the first one?

• 54:39Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 54:40Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so none of us, that's not gone. Second one, seven. Nine from Isabel.

• 54:45Speaker 06

  Oh, six from me.

• 54:47Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 54:48Speaker 06

  Oh, Rosie, eight.

• 54:49Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so, okay, so that's currently the one to beat. Now, all we need to know is, does each successive one beat number two for you or not?

• 54:56Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 54:57Martin Lewis?

  Right, that's because we don't need to do the scoring anymore because it takes too long.

• 55:00Speaker 06

  It does.

• 55:01Martin Lewis?

  Really not fun.

• 55:02Speaker 06

  Right, let's hear number three.

• 55:08Speaker 06

  I don't like that one.

• 55:09Martin Lewis?

  I sort of quite like it for its cheesiness. Isabel, number two or number three? Isabel's number two.

• 55:16Speaker 06

  Mm-hmm.

• 55:17Martin Lewis?

  Rosie?

• 55:18Speaker 06

  I'm still number two.

• 55:19Martin Lewis?

  All right, we'll ditch, we'll ditch that. Number two's, can we hear number two again, just to confuse things?

• 55:28Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 55:29Speaker 06

  I think it's, I like that one. Right, number four is my favourite.

• 55:31Martin Lewis?

  Oh.

• 55:36Speaker 06

  It reminds me of like old Hollywood kind of.

• 55:40Martin Lewis?

  See, I think, I think I'm going to go, my favourite was number three.

• 55:43Speaker 06

  Three?

• 55:44Martin Lewis?

  Three. I'm three, two, four, one. But I, and you're four, two, one of the other two. But Isabel and Rosie are both two, I think, is that fair?

• 55:56Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 55:57Martin Lewis?

  Right? I'm happy to go with my second best that gives us a consensus, is a far higher average, two is clearly the consensus pick.

• 56:04Speaker 06

  Okay, right, can we have one, two, one more time, please, Craig?

• 56:11Speaker 06

  It's quite good, it's quite good.

• 56:13Martin Lewis?

  I think it's good.

• 56:14Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 56:15Martin Lewis?

  I like, I like the applause that sort of dims out afterwards, still going as I'm talking now, I like that.

• 56:19Speaker 06

  It gently fades.

• 56:20Martin Lewis?

  So, podcast listeners, asquires and, and all, you will be hearing that jingle before you've just heard it now.

• 56:29Speaker 06

  Yeah, so actually, they've already heard it, they know which one we picked.

• 56:32Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, but they don't know it's special, they don't know the level, how, how we put ourselves out there with blood, sweat and tears.

• 56:40Speaker 06

  How much effort went into choosing that?

• 56:42Martin Lewis?

  Effort went into choosing that jingle. And, and also, I think they would like to know, I think, I mean, we know it's the Martin Lewis podcast, but we all know Question Time is an ensemble, it's a zoo. And, and that all the animals in the zoo, you know, me and you, Isabel and Rosie, all went for number two. I've just realised, sorry, before we sign it off.

• 57:04Speaker 06

  Oh no.

• 57:05Martin Lewis?

  Craig, what did you think?

• 57:06Speaker 06

  Oh God, Craig. Craig said number three.

• 57:09Martin Lewis?

  Craig.

• 57:10Speaker 06

  Are you ready? Mixed it all up there.

• 57:13Martin Lewis?

  Studio manager Craig, is that the fair, right title?

• 57:16Speaker 06

  Studio director, I think.

• 57:18Martin Lewis?

  I'm sorry, studio director, Craig. Craig, was number two your second?

• 57:22Speaker 06

  He said yes.

• 57:23Martin Lewis?

  Okay, it was his second. I think, I think we're all, number two is the only one that's been in everyone's top two.

• 57:29Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 57:30Martin Lewis?

  So we're still sticking with number two.

• 57:31Speaker 06

  I really like four, anyway.

• 57:32Martin Lewis?

  I really like three, don't, don't make me pull rank, I'm trying to be all democratic.

• 57:36Speaker 06

  It is the Martin Lewis podcast after all.

• 57:38Martin Lewis?

  Okay, we're going to stick with two.

• 57:39Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 57:40Martin Lewis?

  We're going with two. Well done, everyone. So now, everybody in the room.

• 57:46Martin Lewis?

  They've all heard enough, cut the podcast here.

• 57:51Speaker 07

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• 58:36Speaker 07

  And whether you're debugging code at midnight, building a financial model or strategising your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter for problems worth solving. Get started with Claude at claude.ai/solve. That's claude.ai/solve. And check out Claude Pro, which includes access to all of the features mentioned in today's episode. Claude.ai/solve. This week on The Interface, millions of kids have grown up on camera with their childhoods turned into content. There's a new law in California that gives kinfluencers the right to be forgotten and it could impact adults too.

• 59:12Martin 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.

• 59:23Speaker 07

  For our take, join me, Jess Maddox.

• 59:26Martin Lewis?

  And me, Thomas Germain, for The Interface.

• 59:28Speaker 07

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