Question Time: Are Premium Bonds right for me? Should we get our child a pension? How many credit applications kill a mortgage?

In our Question Time podcast, Martin Lewis gives you answers on anything and everything, including: are Premium Bonds right for me? How many credit applications will kill my ability to get a mortgage? Should we consider child pensions for our kids? Will a bank close my high paying linked regular savings account if I switch my current account from them? Where would Martin set the safety net on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Plus, will you be able to hear Isabelle on this week’s episode? 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 which ocean is his favourite, who he’d like to play him in his biopic, or you have a very complicated question about your finances, email it to [email protected] mailto:[email protected].

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:06Speaker 01

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• 1:47Speaker 03

  If I'm applying for a mortgage in March, when should I start applying for credit?

• 1:50Martin Lewis?

  You smile at your dad and say, you've made a hundred quid from helping grandparents. And you smile at your grandparents and say, you've made some money helping you. Do you want to put a little bit of it into my bank account?

• 1:58Speaker 05

  And now it's a read because it's an odd number and life is good.

• 2:02Speaker 06

  What happens to the regular saver account if I switch banks? That answered the question and I now understand it.

• 2:08Martin Lewis?

  Hello and welcome to the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is our Question Time episode where you are Esquires, extremely savvy questioners, get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything, open brackets within reason, close brackets. And this week, you ask me, are premium bonds right for me? I've got £50,000. Should I be putting them in there or is it a waste of money? How many credit applications will kill my ability to get a mortgage? Should we consider a pension for our children? Will they close my high-paying linked to regular savings account if I switch my current account? And where would I set the safety net on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Play the theme tune.

• 3:07Martin Lewis?

  Hello and welcome to the Question Time's edition of the podcast. Yes, the one where you can ask me anything and everything. Let's all say it together. Open brackets within reason, close brackets. And I'm joined today by the unabridged, no titles taken off him, Professor, Doctor, Sir Matthew Burnham Esquire, the one and only. Hello, Matt. You've got the full titles. You were off last week. I did think, do I dock you for absence? But no, you've got all your titles, which, as we all know, are perfectly legal and legitimate titles within the canon of the podcast.

• 3:42Speaker 07

  Yes, thank you. I'm back.

• 3:44Martin Lewis?

  You're back.

• 3:45Speaker 07

  Did you miss me?

• 3:46Martin Lewis?

  I did, although PPS, podcast producer Simon, just to keep the rivalry between you two going, did a very good end question last week.

• 3:53Speaker 07

  I've heard.

• 3:54Martin Lewis?

  He had two athletes, British record holders he brought on the show. I love athletics. You've never brought me an athlete on the show.

• 4:01Speaker 07

  Is he just showing off?

• 4:02Martin Lewis?

  Well, no, he's just putting the work in, Matt.

• 4:04Speaker 07

  Okay, right.

• 4:06Speaker 07

  He's actually trying. Am I supposed to do that?

• 4:09Martin Lewis?

  Yes. So how's your week been?

• 4:11Speaker 07

  Yes, very good, thank you. I have been totting up the votes for...

• 4:16Martin Lewis?

  Is it, is it yay, is it nay day?

• 4:18Speaker 07

  It's yay nay day.

• 4:19Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so in case you don't know, our new live fact checker is the brilliant Isabel. Now, her predecessor Rosie was a quiet presence in the podcast. She never spoke, but her influence was felt. And we have opened it up to you to decide whether we continue that with Isabel or during Isabel's live fact checking tenure, does she, do we turn the green microphone on, push the fader up and let her say yay or nay when it's appropriate and talk? And we've given you the vote, which format you would like, but that won't be revealed till the end of the podcast. And if it isn't, is a yay, you will get to hear Isabel for the first time. I mean, it's just so exciting.

• 4:59Speaker 07

  It's really exciting.

• 4:59Martin Lewis?

  Who needs the dirty traitors? Who needs Strictly? I mean, this is proper live entertainment, even though it's recorded, going on right now.

• 5:07Speaker 07

  And we've had a very extra special person vote.

• 5:11Martin Lewis?

  Who?

• 5:11Speaker 07

  Oh, wow. I have to tell you at the end, won't I?

• 5:13Martin Lewis?

  Oh, I mean, I don't know who that is.

• 5:14Speaker 07

  No, you don't.

• 5:15Martin Lewis?

  I'm intrigued.

• 5:16Speaker 07

  No one knows.

• 5:17Martin Lewis?

  All right, let's get on with the proper stuff now and do some questions.

• 5:19Speaker 07

  Yeah, shall we?

• 5:20Martin Lewis?

  What's your first one?

• 5:21Speaker 07

  There's a question here from Donna. She's emailed in to [email protected]. She starts, hi, M and M, in brackets, no bias.

• 5:30Martin Lewis?

  Oh, you see, she likes M and M's and we like kebabs, so we like you, Donna.

• 5:33Speaker 07

  She says...

• 5:34Martin Lewis?

  Sorry, that was just really poor. But it was quick.

• 5:36Speaker 07

  It was quick.

• 5:37Martin Lewis?

  If it can't be funny, it can be quick.

• 5:38Speaker 07

  She's...

• 5:39Martin Lewis?

  Isabel smiling. I look over to Isabel. Isabel's smiling. That's good.

• 5:42Speaker 07

  Okay, good.

• 5:43Martin Lewis?

  Right.

• 5:43Speaker 07

  She says, I'm 52 and an additional high rate taxpayer. I've maxed out my ISAs and don't know what to do with the £80,000 of redundancy money I've just received. Do I put £50,000 into premium bonds so I don't pay tax? In brackets, I know Martin is not a fan, but I also know he recommends them in my situation. Or is it better to...

• 6:03Martin Lewis?

  Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

• 6:04Speaker 07

  Go on.

• 6:05Martin Lewis?

  Have we closed the brackets?

• 6:06Speaker 07

  Close brackets.

• 6:07Martin Lewis?

  Okay, carry on.

• 6:08Speaker 07

  Or is it better to put the money in savings to earn interest and pay tax? Question mark. I need the cash in 12 to 18 months as I'm renovating a house. Really hope my email gets through. I'll be listening as usual to the Monday and Thursday podcasts. She ends, love you guys. Hope Isabel is settling in. And Rosie's doing well, too.

• 6:26Martin Lewis?

  Rosie's doing very well. Yes, she is. Don't worry. And Isabel, you are settling in, aren't you? Can only nod or shake at this time. Nod, she's nodding.

• 6:33Speaker 07

  Good.

• 6:34Martin Lewis?

  Okay, it's a really interesting question. So you're a high rate taxpayer. I have two choices in the way I answer this question. So I'm going to give you the wider answer to this question first, and then I'm going to go on to the more technically narrowed answer. So the wider answer is, if you've got this money and it's money you won't use for a long time, then you should consider investing it. And premium bonds are not investments. Okay, premium bonds are a form of saving. The only random element here is exactly how much the prize money that you win in. But over a longer period, we would expect investments to outperform savings. So you might want to think of some or all of it going into investments, but I've talked about that a lot recently in the podcasts. And we've done previous pod episodes, in fact, it was one or two weeks ago where we did

• 7:17Martin Lewis?

  that the start of Question Time is all about investing and how you do investing. So I'm not going to go into that. Now, if we're going to look at this at savings only, though, we're going to assume investment isn't right for you, then you are actually in my sweet spot of when premium bonds can look to be a good deal. And that tends to come when you are, A, looking to put in near the maximum £50,000 because that's when the returns tend to be best, and B, when you are paying tax on your savings interest that you probably would do with that amount of money. So let's go to this in a little bit more detail. The way I tend to look at premium bonds is I look at what someone with typical luck would win. My definition of typical luck is median average income. What do I mean by that?

• 8:01Martin Lewis?

  If you took everybody who had the same amount of premium bonds with you and you lined them up in a big, big, big, big row, and you had at the very top the person who won the most and at the very bottom the person who won the least, and you had them in order, and you walked halfway along that row and you stopped at the person exactly in the middle and you said to them, excuse me, how much did you win last year? Their answer is typical luck. That is the definition of median luck. Now, the first thing to say is the prize fund rate on premium bonds is 4.35%. But that is a mean average, not the median average, which defines typical luck. And the reason that happens is a few people win a million, a few people win £100,000. And for every one of those big winners, a lot of people have to win nothing or have to win less.

• 8:44Martin Lewis?

  So the first stat I would give you is if you have £50,000 in premium bonds with the current 4.35% prize fund rate, based on premium bond probability, and there is a tool out there where you can look this up, based on premium bond probability and the distribution of the way bonds work on the current draw, then you would, with typical luck, win 3.8% £1,900 on your £50,000 over a year. With typical luck, of course, some win more, some win less. But with typical luck, 3.8% is the actual return you would get. But it's tax three, so that's 3.8% after tax. Now, what we could go even further is we could say, let's look at what your odds are of winning different amounts with £50,000 in.

• 9:28Martin Lewis?

  Again, going on the probability here. It is virtually impossible that you would win nothing with £50,000 in over a year. And it's still pretty certain you would win at least £100. And you in fact have a 99% chance, so 99 people in 100, would win over £1,000 with £50,000 in a year. But you've only got a 0.7% chance of winning over £10,000, so less than one in 100. And of course, that makes sense because I told you your typical luck amount would be £1,900. So now what we have to do for you is we have to contrast that to how that compares to normal savings. Well, the top savings rates at the moment for a bulk and easy access are about 4.5% and on fixes are 5.3%.

• 10:11Martin Lewis?

  Well, your £1,900 is 3.8% after tax. Now, of course, if you put money into a cash ISA, that's tax-free. So, and the rates on cash ISAs are at about 4.8%. So a cash ISA would beat premium bonds for someone with typical luck, the top easy access, never mind the top fix. And if you have your personal savings allowance, which is a higher rate taxpayer, means you can earn £500 of interest per tax year without paying tax on it. Any interest in that would beat premium bonds again, because you know your 4.5, 5.2% before tax beats 3.8%. And if you're a basic rate taxpayer, by the way, can have £1,000 of interest that they could use tax-free each year.

• 10:57Martin Lewis?

  But if we assume you've used up your cash ISA, or you've used it for stocks and shares potentially because you're investing, and we say you're above your personal savings allowance for £500 of interest that you can earn each year tax-free as a higher rate taxpayer, then premium bonds are a winner. Because 3.8% after tax is equivalent to finding savings at 5.7% before taxed, when they're going to be taxed. And there are not any mainstream large amount of money savings accounts, or some regular savers, not any mainstream large amount of money savings accounts that will do that, not on easy access, not on fix. So in that case, premium bonds become a good bet.

• 11:41Martin Lewis?

  Because with typical luck, they are likely to outperform normal savings after tax. So you are in my sweet spot. I just think it may be worse for other people listening. I said smaller amounts. If you've got smaller amounts, the returns tend not to be that good, even if we ignore the tax here. I'll just give you some stats on that. If you have £1,000 in premium bonds over a year, then 56% chance you'll win nothing. So someone with typical luck with £1,000 is likely to win nothing over a year. They have a 20% chance of winning over £100 quid, which would be a good return. It would be a 10% return on £1,000, but it's only a 20% chance. So most people won't.

• 12:23Martin Lewis?

  And then they only have a 0.21% chance of winning over £1,000. And winning large amounts get even smaller. So that's a rough distribution that you can go and look up for yourself. And of course, if you're paying tax on your savings, then I would always go for the safer option of a guaranteed 4.5, or if you're fixing it 5.2%, if you're putting money away on that basis. But to answer Donna's question, you Donna, you're a higher rate taxpayer, and higher rate taxpayers in addition to rate taxpayers, or anyone who's paying tax on savings, premium bonds, if you're putting near the full amount in, can be a good bet. It's for everyone else, they're a bad bet. And I talked about this recently. But my main issue with premium bonds is so many people give them to kids and they give them £1,000, when with £1,000, the odds are you're not going to win anything.

• 13:08Martin Lewis?

  And you're not going to win anything, and we give it to children and therefore it erodes by inflation year after year. And it isn't a good nest egg for children, and children aren't paying tax anyway. But for you, Donna, well, I wanted to make a kebab joke. I couldn't think of one that really fitted in. But anyway, for you Donna, premium bonds can be quite tasty.

• 13:26Speaker 07

  Yeah, that'll do.

• 13:27Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, it wasn't the best, was it? But you know, yeah. Did that all make sense, Matt?

• 13:31Speaker 07

  It did. You got there in the end.

• 13:33Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, it's a long explanation, but I think it's really quite interesting. Because people think I'm anti-premium bonds. I'm not. I'm pro maths. Right? It is just a mathematical analysis from me. And therefore, if premium bond rate went up and they changed the distribution, I could like premium bonds. If it went down and they made the dish, I could not like premium bonds. It's a question of mathematics.

• 13:52Speaker 07

  Do you remember a few months ago, I told you that I had premium bonds and I won a couple of prizes?

• 13:58Martin Lewis?

  You did. I did, yes.

• 13:59Speaker 07

  I haven't won since.

• 14:00Martin Lewis?

  Okay, yeah. And again, yes, it's the thrill of the win that people love and the thrill of the chance. And it's wonderful. And they're like, oh, it's gambling, but it's not really gambling. Yeah, but if you're putting real money in, then you've got to look at it returns compared to everything else. If you were not paying tax on your savings and you had cash ISA opportunity, or you were a non-taxpayer for £50,000 in premium bonds, you're unlikely to beat just putting it in the top normal savings. So again, I'm pro maths, not anti-premium bonds. Hello. Yes, it's Martin, interrupting Martin again. This is becoming a regular feature that when I'm listening to the podcast back at double time speed, just to check everything is working smoothly, I notice something and go, oh, I wish I'd said that. And then I think, yes, I can say that. So I'm now going to say it.

• 14:45Martin Lewis?

  It is basically the fact that I talked about whether you pay tax on savings without mentioning the personal savings allowance. And I just thought I should put a note in on that. The personal savings allowance means if you are a basic rate taxpayer, you are allowed to earn £1,000 of interest from any form of savings each year without paying tax on it. So the first grand of interest is tax-free. If you are only just over the personal allowance, the £12,570, there's also a starting rate of savings that means you can earn even more tax-free. If you're a higher rate taxpayer, then you can earn £500 interest a year without paying tax on it. So they're both worth noting. And both premium bonds and cash ISAs are not taxable, which means not only is the interest you earn tax-free,

• 15:29Martin Lewis?

  but it doesn't count towards your personal savings allowance. So any prizes made on premium bonds or any interest in a cash ISA doesn't count towards that £1,000. You still have £1,000 of interest you can earn elsewhere tax-free on top.

• 15:45Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so it's an even-numbered question. Everybody's thinking of it at home, everybody who's listening, those people listening on the tube and they're in the car, they're all going, even-numbered question. Matt does a caller. They know the format better than we do.

• 16:00Speaker 07

  I think they do know better than I do because I like to break it.

• 16:02Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, exactly. But we don't allow that. This week, this week we're sticking to format. Caller, who do you have? I'm not even asking.

• 16:08Speaker 07

  Okay.

• 16:08Martin Lewis?

  Who do you have on the phone for me?

• 16:10Speaker 07

  I have Aman. He's in Wolverhampton. Hi, Aman.

• 16:14Speaker 03

  Hi, Martin. Hi, Matt. And hi, Isabel.

• 16:17Martin Lewis?

  Oh, nice. A listener, a serial listener. Isabel is smiling. Isabel liked that a lot. She's got a big thumbs up. Because at the end of the pod, of course, we're revealing whether Isabel can speak or not. She can't speak today, but that is coming later. But you gave her a big beaming smile. That was lovely of you.

• 16:33Speaker 03

  Fantastic.

• 16:34Martin Lewis?

  And I need to give you a really good answer to your question for that. What have you got?

• 16:37Speaker 03

  Well, I wanted to start with a success, if that's okay. And then I've got a question to follow up.

• 16:41Martin Lewis?

  Hold on, hold on. Stop. If we're doing a success, add the sting, Matt.

• 16:49Martin Lewis?

  Okay, what's a success?

• 16:51Speaker 03

  So I'm a serial bank switcher, you'll be pleased to know. I've often tried to get my parents to switch as well, but they've been with Lloyds for 30 years and it's always been a big no. They're retired now. They're in their 60s, mortgage paid off, don't need any new credit. So I thought they can put their credit histories to good use, as you suggest.

• 17:11Speaker 03

  And they agreed, but said I can't touch their main account. So what I've asked them for is, I said, we need to invest £1,500. Well, not invest, but we need to put in £1,500 for each of you.

• 17:21Martin Lewis?

  Have £1,500 put aside to use, yes.

• 17:25Speaker 03

  Yeah. And we'll try and make you over £1,000 each in a few months. And they agreed to that. So I've got a Chase account for my abroad spending, obviously. And I referred both of them and got them started with £50 each because Chase do a refer a friend scheme. And I got £50 for each of that too. So I got £100 out of it and we started them off with £50 each. Since August, I've switched them four times so far. And we're currently on £870 for each of them. So that's my success, which kind of links into my question.

• 17:55Martin Lewis?

  That's absolutely fantastic. And what a good boy you are. What a good boy. I mean, come on, talk about brownie points with your parents. Well done.

• 18:05Speaker 03

  And I've got £100 myself for it.

• 18:07Martin Lewis?

  And you got paid to help your family. That's fantastic. I love it. I love it. Thank you, Aman. That's amazing. So for those who don't know, this is all about the fact that, I mean, banks are willing to pay you for your bank account custom. There are six available at the moment. The highest pair is Barclays paying £300 to new switchers, but many of them paying over £175. And they do that because they want your bank account customer so they can cross-sell you other products. Just don't be cross-sold to. You don't have to be. So they're willing to pay you for your custom. Now, the criteria normally mean you have to use their seven working day switch service, which actually takes 10 days. All direct debits, all standing orders are automatically moved across for you. They cancel your old bank account. All payments to the old bank account are automatically forwarded to the new one.

• 18:50Martin Lewis?

  So it's a very simple system, but you actually have to switch the bank account to do it. Normally you need a couple of direct debits and sometimes they say you must pay in either £1,000 in the first month, or some say there's a minimum monthly repayment. And they do that because they want you to use it as your main bank account. So serial switchers, they tend to have, I call it a burner account, an account that you start with. And then you, so you have your main account because you don't want to disrupt your day-to-day patterns. You have your burner account, you have a couple of direct debits with it, you have money to go in it. So that you fulfill their criteria and then you switch and you switch and you switch again. And yes, doing it repeatedly can have an impact on your credit score. But as Aman correctly told his parents, who do you think you are, son? Martin Lewis?

• 19:35Martin Lewis?

  I don't know what their accent was. I just did that, but I'm going for it. As he correctly told his parents. You're not going to use your credit score for anything, so what's the problem? That's my quick upsum to catch up those who aren't regular listeners. Regular listeners, they'll be sitting there with their feet up on their very nice furniture side table that they bought with money from switching bank accounts multiple times. So they're totally in it. Carry on, Aman. Sorry for the interruption.

• 19:59Speaker 03

  That's okay. Thank you. So talking about my credit profile now, so I've made a few credit applications recently for credit cards and overdraft and of course some bank switches. I'm hoping to apply for a mortgage in around four or five months, once the right house comes up. I've got three hard searches currently from June, two from September, and I'm now tempted by the £200 Lloyds switch offer because it's been over three and a half years since I've last done a Lloyds one. So my question is, if I'm applying for a mortgage in March, when should I stop applying for credit? Because you often say stop if you're due to make a big application soon, but what does soon actually mean? Does opening the current account for bonuses carry the same risk as applying for credit

• 20:43Speaker 03

  cards? How many hard searches are too many hard searches? And finally, how much weight does it actually hold? Is it a make or break for a mortgage provider to say, sorry mate, you've had too many credit applications? It's a no.

• 20:56Martin Lewis?

  So it's a really interesting question, and I need to start by answering, this is art, not science. Credit scoring criteria are not universally published. You can get some idea of them for cards and loans generally through eligibility calculators, which show you which cards you're most likely to. But I'll rephrase it. Even as someone who has an eligibility calculator tool, obviously that I'm involved in, even that doesn't mean I'm privy to an individual lender's system, because what basically happens, the way an eligibility calculator works, is that you use their data feed, but you can't sort of see the data feed. You can just input their data feed, if you see what I'm saying. So even for me, it is opaque on cards and loans. And there aren't many eligibility calculators

• 21:41Martin Lewis?

  on mortgages at the moment, which is why I would always suggest, you know, you go through a mortgage broker, they tend to have the detail of how the credit and affordability scoring systems at each lender work, and that you cannot get as a consumer. So we're going to talk in general terms, because every lender is different. Every lender's credit scores you differently. Now, my general rule on this is I definitely wouldn't be doing any applications with three months to go. And if you're worried, I would take that up to six months to go. Now, why should you be worried? I think the bigger question is, how good a credit citizen are you generally? Do you have, you know, what are the indicative credit scores that you're getting from credit reference agencies? Are you comfortably going

• 22:25Martin Lewis?

  to meet the affordability criteria? So that's actually a big depender here, because these extra credit searches, they're not good if you're on the borderline. Are you borderline, or are you pretty comfortable with it all?

• 22:38Speaker 03

  I'd say the last time I've missed a payment was over four years ago. So it's been clean behaviour since then, and affordability won't be an issue either, from everything I've done in terms of research.

• 22:51Martin Lewis?

  So, and your credit score, you're getting, you're in the goods, are you, when you're doing it on the credit reference agency?

• 22:55Speaker 03

  Yeah. I mean, when I get, when I apply for a credit card, I usually get around £4,000 limit. So I'd say that's decent.

• 23:01Martin Lewis?

  So my instinct is, and it is only instinct, you know, you have to take the judgment yourself. I think you could probably get away with one more at this point. If it's next March, April, where are we now? We're in October. So it's what, four and a half months roughly, we're thinking?

• 23:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:16Martin Lewis?

  You'd probably get away with one more. And then I would say, I wouldn't do another one after that. And even that might be overly conservative, but 200 quid isn't worth messing up your mortgage application. And now, we're not talking about you not getting a mortgage. It isn't that. It's not going to stop you getting a mortgage, having an extra application. What we're talking about is if there was one lender that had a really, really cheap rate, and you were only on the cusp of being accepted for it, because the very cheapest rates, they do tend to cherry pick customers, it could just, you know, you never know, it could just push you below the borderline.

• 23:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:51Martin Lewis?

  That's where we are. But I would say four and a half months away, my best guess, and it can only be that, is you're probably still fine. But then I'd go pretty conservative. It's your first property, it's a new mortgage, all of that. It's so important, I would just stop. But if you want to be more conservative, don't do it. Where are you? What are you thinking, listening to me? Have I missed any elements for your question?

• 24:12Speaker 03

  No, I think, I think I'm going to get it, bank the £200, then do a complete stop. And yeah, come March, April, I can then apply. And actually, it'll be four or five months old by then, and the other ones will be well over six months old. So I think that makes me feel better about it.

• 24:30Martin Lewis?

  And the other thing I would like you to do, if I'm allowed to give you homework, is I would like you to go through your credit reference files now.

• 24:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 24:39Martin Lewis?

  Right. Line by line, please. And just to say, just to give you an example of the type of thing I'm talking about, this is absolutely the right type of homework you need to do before a mortgage. If you've got an old mobile phone contract that you're not still using, and it's to an old address of yours, and it's still technically active, that can hold up a mortgage application. And in some cases, kibosh it. So I think this is a good time just to go, line by line through, check there are no errors. Hopefully there won't be. Most people won't find an error. Check there are no errors. But if there are errors, you have enough time to get it sorted now, and to go through it. So you may have already done that, but if you haven't, I'd strongly suggest you did.

• 25:18Speaker 03

  Just finally, can I ask for a shout out for my daughter? She often listens to the podcast with me and always asks questions, and I often have to pause and explain certain things to her. She was super excited that I was coming on to speak to you today.

• 25:31Martin Lewis?

  How old is she?

• 25:32Speaker 03

  She wanted me to do the school run today, and so she can listen to it. But I told her it's coming out on Monday, and I had to explain all that to her as well.

• 25:39Martin Lewis?

  Perfect. How old is she?

• 25:40Speaker 03

  She's eight years old, and her name's Aria.

• 25:43Martin Lewis?

  Aria, hello. It's so lovely to hear you, Aria. My daughter listens as well, and I sometimes have to stop it, or actually, she listens by herself, and then she'd come and ask me questions on the back end. I love the fact that you are listening to the podcast, Aria. Your dad's been absolutely brilliant on here. It's a great thing to listen to on the school run. Please do keep listening to us. And I hope that your dad's going to talk you through, with all the money he's made, your grandparents, what you need to do, Aria, is you need to open up a good children's savings account with good interest. And then you smile at your dad and say, you've made £100 from helping grandparents. And you smile at your grandparents and say, you've made some money helping you. Do you want to put a little bit of it into my bank account? That's a good way to start. See you, Aria, and thank you. Thank you so much for your call. I've loved it. Thank

• 26:28Martin Lewis?

  you.

• 26:29Speaker 03

  Thank you very much, Martin.

• 26:32Martin Lewis?

  Right, Matt, I'm just loving it. I'm in my sweet spot today. I'm happy. I love doing the podcast. I'm enjoying it. The format has worked. We have a big reveal with the is a yay, is a nay at the end. We've had a great first caller. You've gone read caller. And now it's a read, because it's an odd number, and life is good.

• 26:54Speaker 07

  If I said no, would that ruin your day?

• 26:57Martin Lewis?

  Yes.

• 26:57Speaker 07

  Okay. Luckily, it's a read. Yay. This one's from Tom. He says, hi, Martin and team.

• 27:03Martin Lewis?

  Hello. And I believe I'm representing the whole team when I say that, which is basically me, Matt and Isabel.

• 27:07Speaker 07

  Yes. Thanks so much for the pod. I'm a new listener and finding it so helpful.

• 27:10Martin Lewis?

  That's wonderful to hear. That is what, I mean, we like to have a lot of fun in the podcast, but the real reason it's here is to try and help you and to help people save money and to get through. We hope it's an interesting and fun listen to. But the meat of this, the meat of the sandwich, is answering your questions and giving our hope useful advice. So that's delightful to hear.

• 27:27Speaker 07

  He says, I have a question about child pensions. I'd never heard of these before yesterday. I can't remember when he emailed it in, but it was probably a few days ago. But saw an article on the BBC about parents investing money into child pensions.

• 27:39Martin Lewis?

  Now, you are a new listener, because if you are a long term podcast listener, you know, we've mentioned this many times over the years. And it's delightful to see that the BBC website is catching up.

• 27:52Speaker 07

  He goes on to say, their children will get the money in their late 50s. So it seems one very long term way to give them some support later in life.

• 27:59Martin Lewis?

  True.

• 28:00Speaker 07

  We currently put money into stocks and shares, junior ISAs for our children, and have our own savings as well. Is a child pension something we should consider? Please, could you explain a bit about how child pension works, and what we should be weighing up when thinking about setting one up? Thanks for all the great and truly valuable work you do.

• 28:18Martin Lewis?

  Oh, thank you, Tom. I like you. Let's do this. Let's do it in a slightly reverse order. Let's first of all, explain how they work, and then we'll talk about their use and when they're good or not. So a children's pension is just like an adult pension. You can put it in all different types of pensions. You know, you can have a self invested personal pension, which is a bit like your junior ISA. You're picking different funds that you're going to put into the pension, and then it's an investment, but it just has a different tax wrapper. So with a pension, when we're talking about children, the important thing to understand with pensions is you can still get tax relief, even if you don't have income. So the key benefit of a pension normally is you put money in from pre tax income. So if you think about it for somebody who's working, when they earn £100, they

• 29:03Martin Lewis?

  can either choose to have £100 go in their pension, or they can choose to keep the £100 themselves. But if they're a basic rate taxpayer, well, they'd pay £20 in tax, and that means they'd only get £80 in their pocket. Whereas they could have £100 going in a pension investment. And effectively, that is mimicked for everyone, including those who don't pay tax. So including children who tend not to earn. Children can pay tax if they earn enough, but most children don't. So effectively, when you open a pension for your child, they get tax relief at source. That is mimicking that tax relief I've just talked about that you would get if you were a working person. So now we have to think about this because this gets a little bit complicated here. While if you have £100 that you're earning and 20% tax is taken off,

• 29:48Martin Lewis?

  that means you get 80 quid. But if you think of it the other way around and to say, how would I turn 80 quid into £100? I actually have to add 25% on top. Do you follow that, Matt, the maths?

• 30:01Speaker 07

  Right, no.

• 30:02Martin Lewis?

  Okay, let's do it again.

• 30:03Speaker 07

  Do it again.

• 30:04Martin Lewis?

  So look, £100 goes to 80.

• 30:07Speaker 07

  Mm hmm.

• 30:08Martin Lewis?

  That's 20% off. But to get 80 back to 100, we need to add a bigger percentage on than we took off because it's off a smaller number. So if we added 20% onto 80, that would be 16 is 20% of 80. So you'd have 96. But we don't want to get to 96, we want to get to 100. And it's actually about the mathematical reciprocal. One divided by 0.8 is 1.25, which means you add 25% on top. So to get from 80 to 100, to give you the equivalent tax relief of taking of you not having 20% tax taken off, you actually have to add 25% on top. So if you put £100 in a pension,

• 30:48Martin Lewis?

  you would automatically get the 20% tax relief, which is done by adding 25% on top. So you'd have £125. Did you get that?

• 30:57Speaker 07

  Yes.

• 30:58Martin Lewis?

  Because if I earned £125 and I took 20% off, I would have 100.

• 31:01Speaker 07

  Right.

• 31:02Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 31:02Speaker 07

  That makes sense.

• 31:03Martin Lewis?

  So, so they add 25% on top up to a maximum you can put in, including the tax relief of 3,600, which means the most you can put in your pension for a child each year is £2,880. And then automatically the pension firm will add relief at source, it's called. So there will be £3,600 in your child's pension if you added £2,880. And that is the big benefit. You know, that you've got all of that and it's in the pension. And whilst it's in the pension, it's all working swimmingly. And you're not paying capital gains tax on it, you're not paying any of that on it. What you are paying though is once you take the pension out, there's tax on the way you take a pension out, which we're not going to go into here. So that's how it works.

• 31:48Martin Lewis?

  So it is another valuable tax relief if you are investing for your child. And you know, you can go for the robo investor type one, like the wealthy find your money farm and the JP Morgan, where you can just pick a level of risk and then it will invest that way. Or you can go for your Hargreaves Lansdowns or your AJ Bell, which are basically just like your junior ISA. You've got a choice of funds that you can put in them. You know, you can choose individual shares if you wanted to, that would be pretty risky, I wouldn't suggest it. But you can choose a whole enormous range of investments and you put it in your pension wrapper, your self invested personal pension wrapper for your child. And you can put up to £2,880 a year in. So where does it fit? Well, here is my hierarchy of, was it Maslow's hierarchy? This is Martin's hierarchy of where you put your money for your kids.

• 32:32Martin Lewis?

  First thing, airline mask procedure. When you're, when you're on an airline, they always tell you if the oxygen mask is needed, put it on over your own face before helping others. Because if you can't breathe, you won't be able to help them. And the same is true with children. First priority for any family, keep a roof on their heads, feed them, keep them warm, before you start saving for them when they're older. Once you've got through that, well, it's worth looking at having some disposable income put aside for them, some spending money that they may want as they go through their childhood. The next one in my order, I would say is a junior ISA, which gives them money to start them off in adulthood because that money is locked away until they're 18. And if you're locking it away for a long period, I would look at an investment over a cash junior ISA. So unless you're setting it up for them when they're 17, I would always be looking at an investment junior ISA over that time period

• 33:16Martin Lewis?

  because it's money that's locked away, they can't use and clearly by definition you don't need. And then comes the pension for me. Now you're in that position where you could put money in the pension if you've got spare cash and you want to put it in there. Equally, I can see an argument for splitting it between junior ISA and money in a pension. It's just a question of how long you lock it away for. I mean, the rule is you can take your money out of your pension now when you're 55. That's going up in a couple of years to when you're 57. By the time your kids are getting their private pension, it's probably going to be somewhere in the 60s. And of course pension regimes can change over a long period. But one would hope if you put money in an investment for them, that it would work relatively well. But there is an argument for saying, because that's money you're locking away for 55 years,

• 34:00Martin Lewis?

  the investment growth, the compounding over that period, the longer you invest, as long as it's a broad spread of investments, the better the returns could be, could be an absolutely mammoth benefit. It's one of the reasons I always say money in a pension for a child is a great gift from a grandparent. Because once your child is 60 and they're taking the money out of the pension, they might just go, my grandma or grandpa did this for me and have that moment. And you'd know that they'll think of you in 60 years' time. But yeah, I would probably say it's something you do after a junior ISA. I know there are some who would say you would do 50 50 a junior ISA to a pension for your child. It all depends on what you think your child would need, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with doing it. If you've got the spare money and you've got your savings and your investments ready for yourself,

• 34:41Martin Lewis?

  investing money in a pension for your child once they're older is a pretty good thing to do for those who are lucky enough to have the spare cash. Did that answer the question, do you think, Matt?

• 34:49Speaker 07

  That answered the question and I now understand it and I didn't understand it before.

• 34:54Martin Lewis?

  Oh, well, that's good.

• 34:54Speaker 07

  Hmm.

• 34:58Martin Lewis?

  So Matt, you've been a very good boy.

• 35:01Speaker 07

  Second time you've called someone a good boy.

• 35:03Martin Lewis?

  Yes. And it's, you're throwing me now.

• 35:09Martin Lewis?

  And it's question number four. Who is the caller?

• 35:14Speaker 07

  The caller is Mike in Nottingham. Hi, Mike.

• 35:17Speaker 06

  Hi there, Matt. Hi there, Martin.

• 35:19Martin Lewis?

  Hello, hello. Hi, I'm Mike. Lovely to have you on board. What can we do for you?

• 35:22Speaker 06

  Lovely to be here. Yes, my question, Martin, relates to regular saver accounts.

• 35:28Martin Lewis?

  Yes.

• 35:29Speaker 06

  So I've got two regular savers at the moment. One's linked to my current account and then another is associated with my credit card. So taking on your advice, I'm looking to switch the current account and look to move my credit card when the introductory cash back rate ends at the end of the year.

• 35:46Martin Lewis?

  I'm trying to think what one linked to your credit card is. I can't think of one. What is it?

• 35:50Speaker 06

  Oh, oh, sorry. So I've got a Lloyds Ultra credit card.

• 35:56Martin Lewis?

  Right.

• 35:56Speaker 06

  And so I was able to take out the regular saver as part of having that credit card with Lloyds. Yeah. So the two part question I got for you is what happens to the regular saver account if I switch banks or move my credit card? And what's the best strategy to take to make the most of those accounts and not lose out on any of the preferential interest rates?

• 36:25Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so the short answer is it depends, which isn't very helpful. So I'll give you the longer answer.

• 36:32Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 36:33Martin Lewis?

  The rules depend on each individual provider as to whether you can keep them open afterwards. And they are allowed to shut them down if it is a linked account. So if the account is linked to your current account custom. Many people get confused and they think I'm saving with my bank and I've got my bank account. Therefore, if I move my bank account, my savings will close. No, most savings aren't linked accounts. But these regular savers, these are, for those who don't know, these are accounts where you can put in normally up to, say, 300 quid a month for a year with a fixed rate of interest. The rate of interest is higher because of course there's actually not that much money going in them. But on each penny that's in there, that interest is the highest you can get it. So for example, Lloyds and NatWest, as far as I know,

• 37:15Martin Lewis?

  will let you keep the regular saver if you move the linked product. But I've only checked that for linked current accounts. I've not checked it for the link to the Lloyds Ultra, but I wouldn't see why it'd be different. Santander and HSBC do not. With Santander, if someone switches their current account, the linked saver would be moved to its everyday saver, which has a 0.9% interest rate. With HSBC, the regular saver would be closed and the balance transferred to your current account. And in which case, because it's closed early, you wouldn't get the headline fixed rate. So you have to do that mathematical calculation. Now ultimately, if you're switching bank to get a bank switching bonus, that might well outpay what you get in regular savers.

• 37:58Martin Lewis?

  Regular savers always pay people less interest than they're expecting. Have you had one before?

• 38:02Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 38:03Martin Lewis?

  So you know the sort of intuitively, you think the interest would be more and you sit at the end of the year and lots of people say to, I mean, I get, but I get people get really angry. You said this would pay me 6% interest and you know, I've got £3,000 in there. I'm just going to have to do some quick maths off the top of my head for a second. I've got £3,000 in there, it's not paid me 180, it's paid me 90. And why does it happen? And as I suspect you know, if you've been through one before, that's because what people forget is they're working out 6% of three grand, but they've been drip feeding the money in over the year. In the first month, they only had 300 quid in. So they've just got 6% of 300 quid. And actually, the best way to think about it is add up the money halfway along if you're maxing it, which in this case, if it was three grand, would be about 1,500 quid. And then think of 6% of that and that's roughly how much you're going to get.

• 38:48Martin Lewis?

  So in terms of how to maximise them, these, on the money you have in there, these pay the best interest. So if this is savings money and you don't need to have it in the bank account, I would be keeping it in a high interest savings account that if possible allows you to make payments each month. So you could, it can move it from the savings account into the regular saver. Then you're earning interest on an easy access account at 4%, 5% while you move it into the savings account. But it's simply a case of maxing them out. Annoyingly, we used to have some.

• 39:18Martin Lewis?

  We used to have somewhere you could just open it without and get a really good rate without having a linked bank account. I don't think there are any at the moment that are beating most of the bank account linked ones. I mean, you could go and open multiple bank accounts in order to do this. And if you're really clever and you do, as I was talking about it with a caller earlier, and you do the bank switching thing, you could have those open and your spreadsheet to make sure you're making the minimum criteria and you could keep the regular saver and you get the bank bonus at the same time. But that takes a bit of work. I have to be honest, I got Isabel, behind the scenes glance here, I gave Isabel a look and my look went, Lloyds credit card, regular saver, I'm not sure of that. And Isabel, because she's brilliant, instantly translated that

• 40:01Martin Lewis?

  into her head to go and check out whether that, how that works. We're not seeing that in the terms and conditions. I think you might have a month, something else there, a current account with them or something else there. Do you?

• 40:14Speaker 06

  I don't, as far as I'm aware. So I, yeah.

• 40:20Martin Lewis?

  It is a mystery.

• 40:20Speaker 06

  My first interactive with, in correction with Lloyds was to take out the, the Ultra credit card because from, from your advice, really.

• 40:31Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, because it pays the one said cash back, yeah.

• 40:33Speaker 06

  Yeah, had a good cash back rate. So that's when I set it up. And then when we've been talking about regular savers recently, and you mentioned it on your podcast, I thought, oh, I wonder if I could set up a regular saver through this account and.

• 40:46Martin Lewis?

  Maybe we need to keep quiet on this one. Isabel will have more of a look at it and let me know once we finish the podcast, because we're just doing it cursory. That's the, the live fact checking going on. We'll do some more detailed fact checking on afterwards. But I would suspect you would be fine with Lloyds, because you should be able to keep it open with Lloyds. It generally allows you to on the bank account linked section of it. And yeah, and then open it up with the new one as well. But you don't want to lose the interest that you've had. So, so it is, it's just a question of having to look at the Ts and Cs of this particular one. Go ahead, but just, and you know, if you're nervous, just ask them. Give them a call and ask them because they might well try and persuade you to stay, which would be quite interesting if they did that on the back end.

• 41:29Speaker 06

  Okay. No, that's, that's great. That's really helpful. Thank you very much.

• 41:33Martin Lewis?

  And most importantly, not only do you get the high interest in the regular saver account, not only do you get your bank switching bonus, but far more lucratively and valuably, you've got a multi Lewis podcast Esquire's badge coming.

• 41:48Speaker 06

  Oh, amazing. Amazing. More, more important than any money.

• 41:52Martin Lewis?

  Exactly. Money can't buy, literally. If someone came in, I can tell you this for now. If someone offered Matt £10 million for one of those badges, you'd say no, wouldn't you, Matt?

• 42:04Speaker 07

  Yeah, sure. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Great sincerity there. Well done. Thank you so much for your call. Really good. Thanks very much, Mike.

• 42:16Speaker 06

  Thank you very much, Martin. Really enjoy the podcast. Thanks for all you're doing. I've learnt so much.

• 42:20Martin Lewis?

  Oh, that's lovely to hear. Thank you, mate. Just a little note on the back of that. You heard my confusion about how Michael had a regular saver linked to his credit card. Just after the show, while we're still recording, he got in touch with them and they've actually told him he shouldn't have been able to set it up. It was an error in the app that he was able to do so. I was confused because I didn't think that exists. Apparently they have said they will allow him to keep it open. So a double winner there because I was right that you couldn't do it, which is what I thought. And Michael's right, they had one and he's going to be allowed to keep it. Good news.

• 42:51Martin Lewis?

  And I think that's it. So now we get into question five, which is the askance stroke funny.

• 42:56Speaker 07

  Slash success.

• 42:58Martin Lewis?

  Slash success. Okay.

• 43:00Speaker 07

  But it's not a success.

• 43:01Martin Lewis?

  Okay. So is it askance or funny?

• 43:03Speaker 07

  Askance.

• 43:03Martin Lewis?

  Okay. The askance question this week, Matthew, is?

• 43:06Speaker 07

  Is from Helen. She says, Dear Martin and the one who is in charge, Matt.

• 43:12Martin Lewis?

  Hello.

• 43:13Speaker 07

  Well, yeah, she's, she's right. She obviously listens to the podcast. When recently completing the online form for Who Wants to be a Millionaire, I was faced with the question, where, where would you set the safety net and why? I thought about this and added £16,000 as that would enable me to have a big party with those I love. She says, where would you set your safety net? And does this correlate with your attitude to risk?

• 43:37Martin Lewis?

  Ooh. So it's very interesting. I have actually done Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

• 43:41Speaker 07

  Have you?

• 43:42Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I think it was 2008.

• 43:44Speaker 07

  Oh, a long time ago.

• 43:45Martin Lewis?

  I did it with Angela Rippon. It was obviously the celebrity one.

• 43:49Speaker 07

  Darling.

• 43:50Martin Lewis?

  And yeah, I, we got to £150,000.

• 43:57Speaker 07

  Ooh.

• 43:58Martin Lewis?

  I, I'll tell you that story very briefly. So here was the story. The story was we were on £150,000. It was for the 250,000 one. This is way before you set safety nets and it was all at a standard level. The question, if I remember correctly, was which one of these animals come from, comes from the Greek for pebble worm? Is it A, anaconda, B, conga eel, C, crocodile, or D, iguana? So I'm just looking, you and Isabel get to answer this now. Where would you go for, Matt?

• 44:29Speaker 07

  Iguana.

• 44:30Martin Lewis?

  Isabel went for anaconda. Now, I was on with Angela Rippon, who was very confident in her answer, and she thought it was anaconda. I questioned this because I thought that was South American and how would the ancient Greeks know a South American animal? But she almost persuaded me. We actually, there was no time limit then. We spent nearly an hour discussing it.

• 44:43Speaker 07

  No, you didn't.

• 44:44Martin Lewis?

  We did.

• 44:45Speaker 07

  An hour?

• 44:45Martin Lewis?

  An hour. Well, maybe 45 minutes, but it was, it was a long, what's that? It was a long time. Because it's for, you know, are we going to go for it? And then my, my point was, hold on, because I was being clever, but I wasn't confident enough. I thought I remembered that A was a Latin ending, which meant for me it wasn't anaconda or iguana, but it couldn't be conga eel. But Angela was convinced it was anaconda and we got to the final answer and Angela went anaconda. And then he looked at me because you're in a team and I went, no, we can't do it. This is for charity. I can't lose the money for charity. Let's just do final answer and we stop, we stop. We're going to take the money. And I looked at Angela and she nodded, we took the money. Crocodileae. Crocodileae is pebble worm. So anyway, so I have done millionaire and it was absolutely

• 45:29Martin Lewis?

  petrifying. I cannot tell you. It was really, really very scary. So I don't know. Look, I mean, I need to be honest, I'm, I'm very fortunate position that mine would be for charity. And I would probably, I would probably go higher and try and lock in a little bit higher than that, I think. I might go for 32. And I might, because if I were going to do it, in my head, I'm fortunate enough that I might make a commitment in my mind that even if I messed it all up, I would make a donation to charity anyway. So the charity didn't lose out. And I would probably take a whist of 32. But I'm in a very fortunate financial position compared to most people. I absolutely think that you've done it right, that this needs to be set, Helen, at your attitude to risk, at the point when you think,

• 46:12Martin Lewis?

  if I got that, I would be happy and that would make, that would give me such a lift in my life. Because that's what you want it for. You want that lift, you want that joy, that I could go home very, very happy with that amount. And that's where, and above that is, anything above that is great. But that's what I want to go home with. I think you're making the right decision. 16,000 sounds about right. Where would you set yours, Matt?

• 46:31Speaker 07

  Ooh, that is a good question. Probably similar, although I would always doubt whether I could actually reach that. Maybe eight, just to be on the safe side. And that would give you enough money. Yeah. And it would give you enough money to have a massive party.

• 46:43Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, exactly. So, so I think attitude to risk is exactly right. And speaking of risk, attitudes, terrible segue.

• 46:53Speaker 07

  I like it anyway.

• 46:54Martin Lewis?

  It's like a segue that doesn't have a platform to stand on.

• 46:57Speaker 07

  A seg nay.

• 46:58Martin Lewis?

  Oh, seg nay. I was doing a joke about the, the bike thing.

• 47:01Speaker 07

  Yeah. And I was doing the yay nay. Yeah.

• 47:03Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 47:03Speaker 07

  And it was also a terrible segue.

• 47:04Martin Lewis?

  Yes. I need that work. Maybe we'll edit it out. So the big question, well, two big questions. One, what is the vote result for is a yay versus is a nay? And then I want to know who the person who wrote in who was unexpected was. So what, do we have a vote result? What was it?

• 47:22Speaker 07

  We have a vote result. So 33 people voted.

• 47:27Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 47:28Speaker 07

  And the three people said nay and the rest said yay. 30 people want Isabel to speak.

• 47:36Martin Lewis?

  But, there is a but. So is a yay one? The but is, is Isabel willing to speak? Does she want to speak? Because it is her choice. But what I'm doing now, I'm just going off mic. I am moving the red microphone in front of Isabel. I am tapping the red microphone to check that it's on.

• 47:53Speaker 07

  Yep, we can hear that.

• 47:54Martin Lewis?

  Okay. So it is now in front of Isabel, but this is Isabel's choice. Isabel, are you an is a yay, in which case say is a yay, or an is a nay, in which case say nothing?

• 48:06Speaker 05

  Is a yay.

• 48:07Speaker 07

  Yay. Hi, Isabel.

• 48:09Speaker 05

  Hello. I want to know about three people who said nay.

• 48:12Martin Lewis?

  Yes.

• 48:12Speaker 07

  Yeah, I know.

• 48:13Martin Lewis?

  But maybe they liked, they liked the mystery of Rosie.

• 48:16Speaker 07

  Yes. So Rose did vote and she said, I like the mystery. It's more authoritative. So she said is a nay.

• 48:22Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. But well, you can build your authority. Okay. So now let's start to get to know Isabel a little bit. Isabel, how old are you?

• 48:28Speaker 05

  I'm 26.

• 48:29Martin Lewis?

  And you work with me, so we can't name where you work. And you are my researcher for this year. And it's wonderful to have you on board. Let's ask you one thing. What, what are you watching at the moment? Are you into a box set? Is there something you're, you're locked into?

• 48:42Speaker 05

  I am watching Ludvick.

• 48:43Martin Lewis?

  Ludwig at the moment at your request. Oh. Or your recommendation. My recommendation. No, I don't tell them what to watch. I do. It does not work like that. Recommendation. So, yes. And also rosies. So, we haven't finished, and rosies as well, we haven't finished Ludwig at the moment because we got drawn into High Potential, which is quite Ludwig-esque on Disney. And I prefer Ludwig, but my little one prefers High Potential and wants to finish High Potential. Then we're going back to finish the rest of Ludwig. But it's very good. You see, look at Isabel straight in, naming something that's on the BBC.

• 49:16Speaker 07

  Yeah, I know. I did think that when you did it. It was very good. It's very good. I need to tell you, we had a very special person vote.

• 49:22Martin Lewis?

  Who's that?

• 49:23Speaker 07

  Sapphire voted.

• 49:25Martin Lewis?

  Did she?

• 49:25Speaker 07

  Sapphire emailed in and voted. I won't tell you which way she voted, but Sapphire emailed in. I was like, I recognise that name.

• 49:32Martin Lewis?

  Oh, I love it. Oh. Well, that's, for those who don't know, that is Sapphire Lewis, my wonderful 13-year-old daughter who loves this podcast. I think she'll be quite excited that Isabel's talking.

• 49:44Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 49:45Martin Lewis?

  That's quite good. So, that's rather nice. And so, welcome Isabel on board the verbal podcast. Now Isabel will be here, we'll have a mic set up in front of her each week. I mean, we're gonna, you know, it's a zoo format we keep in. But what I'll now be able to do, I'll say, can you just check that quickly for me, Isabel? And you'll be able to say. Of course. There we go.

• 50:01Speaker 07

  There we go. Yeah.

• 50:03Martin Lewis?

  Of course. I liked it. What a lovely way to end.

• 50:07Martin 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 each Monday usually, alongside the Big Topic Podcast with Adrian on Thursdays. Aren't you lucky? Two doses of money-saving tips and tricks a week. Do please send your questions in. You can email [email protected] and do send them to Dear Martin.

• 50:29Speaker 07

  Dear Matt.

• 50:30Martin Lewis?

  Dear Isabel. Hey.

• 50:34Martin Lewis?

  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. Who wouldn't want that? Nobody. Literally everywhere in the world, there are people in southern Australia who are going, you know what I want? I want a modern lift. Can't do it.

• 50:50Speaker 07

  So close.

• 50:51Martin Lewis?

  Let's just stop now. Thanks for listening.

• 51:08Speaker 05

  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.

• 51:25Speaker 02

  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.

• 51:43Speaker 02

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• 52:27Speaker 02

  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.

• 52:53Speaker 05

  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.

• 53:03Martin 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.

• 53:14Speaker 05

  For our take, join me, Jess Maddox.

• 53:17Martin Lewis?

  And me, Thomas Germain, for The Interface.

• 53:19Speaker 05

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