Question Time: My energy’s fixed: refix early to beat hikes? Will our wedding hit our mortgage? How to switch joint savings?

In our Question Time podcast, Martin Lewis gives you answers on anything and everything, including: my energy fix ends in December; with huge price rises coming, should I ditch it and refix now? Our wedding coincides with the end of our mortgage fix, will the extra spending cause problems? How do I switch our joint savings account? If two families are travelling together, should we each get family insurance or a group policy? We have a success, where Maddy was mis-sold a data plan and got over a grand back! And Martin shows us the wide range of accents he can do… or at least he tries! 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 what he likes in his full English breakfast, what his thermostat’s set to, or you have a very complicated question about your finances, email it to [email protected] mailto:[email protected].

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:46Martin Lewis?

  The new prediction for the energy price cap in January is, I can't even say it, up 24%.

• 1:52Speaker 03

  I'm a bit torn on whether I should try and look for a new gas and electricity tariff.

• 1:57Martin Lewis?

  So it's just a question about a mortgage application and a possible wedding.

• 2:01Speaker 04

  Who would be responsible and whose insurance would be responsible?

• 2:05Martin 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 Asquires' extremely savvy questioners. Get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything, open brackets within reason, close brackets. This week, you ask me, my energy fix ends in December with huge price rises coming. Should I ditch it to refix now? Our wedding coincides with the end of our mortgage fix. Will the extra spending cause problems? How do I switch joint savings accounts? If two families are travelling together, should we each get family travel insurance or a group policy?

• 2:47Martin Lewis?

  Then we've got a success. Maddie was mis-sold a data plan but got over a grand back from it. And then Matt asked me to do some accents. I don't know why. Play the theme tune.

• 3:12Martin Lewis?

  Hello and welcome to this The Question Time episode of the podcast, where I answer your questions on anything and everything. Let's all say it together, open brackets within reason, close brackets. And joining me, of course, is the one and the only, the curator of questions himself, Professor, Sir, Doctor Matthew Burnham Asquier.

• 3:39Speaker 03

  That's my big, that's my big.

• 3:40Martin Lewis?

  That was, that was quite Buck Rogers' biddy, biddy, biddy. You're too young to know that. Do you remember?

• 3:45Speaker 03

  It was supposed to be like laser sound effects.

• 3:47Martin Lewis?

  Older listeners will know the Buck Rogers, I can't remember what the name of the little robot that did biddy, biddy, biddy. Maybe it was called biddy, biddy, biddy, biddy, biddy. Anyway, Matt, welcome. You've got your full title today.

• 3:58Speaker 03

  Professor's back. I thought I had to drop that.

• 4:00Martin Lewis?

  No, no, no, that was just for one week. It was a one week punishment because of your row with GDPR Rosie, who's sitting here, but it's fine. We're all through. We're all friends again now.

• 4:08Speaker 03

  Good.

• 4:08Martin Lewis?

  And of course, it is worth saying for new listeners, all of Matt's titles are hard-earned and legal within the canon of this podcast, just not outside.

• 4:18Speaker 03

  For now.

• 4:18Martin Lewis?

  For now, of course.

• 4:19Speaker 03

  You never know. I might get a doctorate.

• 4:21Martin Lewis?

  However, I have a couple of other names I've been thinking of for you.

• 4:24Speaker 03

  Oh, go on.

• 4:24Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so they're sort of portmanteaus. They work together. I was thinking, obviously you are the producer of this podcast.

• 4:33Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 4:34Martin Lewis?

  But are you a pod-juicer?

• 4:37Speaker 03

  No, I don't like that. No, sorry. It just doesn't, no.

• 4:40Martin Lewis?

  Looking at Rosie and Isabel, who are live fact-checking in the room, pod-juicer?

• 4:44Speaker 03

  Pod-juicer.

• 4:45Martin Lewis?

  The Rosie's and no Isabel. No, then no. Okay. The other one I had was because you were both the producer of the podcast, but also in a way, your co-presenter.

• 4:59Speaker 03

  Yeah. What is it? On-air producer?

• 5:02Martin Lewis?

  I mean, the official title for what you do is an on-air producer. Yeah, you're an on-air producer. But I was thinking of prodzenter.

• 5:09Speaker 03

  Prodzenter. I like that.

• 5:12Martin Lewis?

  Oh, Rosie, no, so Rosie's middling, Isabel put a genuine face. She did a full gurn on that.

• 5:19Speaker 03

  Of horror.

• 5:20Martin Lewis?

  Of horror. I quite like.

• 5:22Speaker 03

  Prodzenter. I like it. Yeah, it's got a better ring to it than on-air producer.

• 5:26Martin Lewis?

  I think, I wonder if we start saying it, do we think that other podcasts, Ellis and John?

• 5:32Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 5:33Martin Lewis?

  They have one, don't they?

• 5:34Speaker 03

  They have Dave, yeah.

• 5:35Martin Lewis?

  I wonder if we can persuade Dave that he is a prodzenter as well.

• 5:38Speaker 03

  Shall I email him?

• 5:40Martin Lewis?

  I think you should email Dave and see if they're willing to use the term. And we want, we could like be, and then think in the dictionary, in 70 years' time, when the whole world are content creators, I mean, literally, it's moving that way, that everybody in the world now defines themselves. I think it's like a quarter of people in the US consider themselves to be a content creator. When the entire world are content creators, because AI does everything and all the rest of us do is create content for us to listen to in our leisure time, that is not a real prediction. I don't think it's going to happen. It wasn't a serious comment. Then we will, and loads of people will call themselves prodzenters, and they'll go back to the etymology of the word, and it will say, in the early days in The Martin Lewis podcast, Martin and Matt, what do you think?

• 6:19Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, I like it. Definitely.

• 6:21Martin Lewis?

  We should probably do some real questions.

• 6:22Speaker 03

  No, I like this. Let's carry on.

• 6:25Martin Lewis?

  It's really, really, we can get away with about three minutes. I think our listeners will cope for about three minutes of us just talking nonsense at the start. And then I think we have to get into the sort of money stuff.

• 6:36Speaker 03

  Give them some proper advice.

• 6:38Martin Lewis?

  Proper, well, not advice.

• 6:40Speaker 03

  Sorry, no.

• 6:41Martin Lewis?

  Not advice.

• 6:42Speaker 03

  Big red X.

• 6:43Martin Lewis?

  We don't say the word advice. Advice is a regulated word. We give guidance, tips, help and information.

• 6:49Speaker 03

  I stand corrected. Shall we go to a question?

• 6:51Martin Lewis?

  Yes.

• 6:51Speaker 03

  Okay, one from Emma. She's emailed in to [email protected]. She says, good evening, Martin and Matt.

• 6:58Martin Lewis?

  Evening.

• 6:59Speaker 03

  Evening.

• 6:59Martin Lewis?

  We're doing it in the morning.

• 7:00Speaker 03

  We are doing it in the morning.

• 7:01Martin Lewis?

  But it's fine. She wrote it in the evening.

• 7:02Speaker 03

  And you could be listening to this at any time.

• 7:04Martin Lewis?

  And she got Marty the Matt, which we're very grateful for, Emma.

• 7:06Speaker 03

  She says, I'm a bit torn on whether I should try and look for a new gas and electricity tariff. I'm locked in until the end of December. We have a gas cooker, gas boiler, and the shower runs directly from the boiler. So we use more gas than some households, and there are no fees for leaving my current fix early. She then also emailed in saying, I'm even more concerned on my previous query after yesterday's announcement.

• 7:30Martin Lewis?

  So I think on the back of that, that will be me announcing that the new prediction for the energy price cap in January is, I can't even say it, up 24%. I mean, it just does need a pause. Literally, price is going up by nearly a quarter. Now, I need to state, that is a prediction, that is not locked in. And the reason it's a prediction, and it's a relatively solid prediction, is we are one-third of the way through the assessment period for the January price cap. The main changing metric in the price cap, it's about 40% of the price, but it's the big thing that changes, are wholesale rates.

• 8:09Martin Lewis?

  And wholesale rates due to the conflict in the Middle East are absolutely sky-high. The highest they've been since the Ukraine energy crisis. And they have been ever since the start of the assessment period about a month ago. Now, we do have two-thirds of the assessment period to go. And if those rates were to plummet drastically, then there might not be a rise. But that's incredibly unlikely to happen because President Trump has already said, and obviously he's a big part of what's going on in Iran, he's already said he thinks the conflict will go on until the midterms, which are November, which even if they ended the next day, would mean two-thirds of the assessment period would be at sky-high rates.

• 8:51Martin Lewis?

  So my honest assessment is, the current prediction is 24%. It's almost certain it would be unthinkable if the January price cap didn't go up unless there was some form of political intervention. And it's very, very likely it will be going up a lot. Whether it'll be exactly 24%, or it'll be 17%, or 30%, you know, I don't know. But it's going to be going up very substantially. And it's worth understanding, that's on top of, we haven't even had it yet, the 3.6% confirmed rise in October, which was on top of the 12.6% rise we had in July. So prices are going to go up very substantially, I would think, in January is the big point, and that's what Emma's saying.

• 9:34Martin Lewis?

  Now, if we look at what we know, what we know is the October price cap. And of course, Emma is on a fix, so that doesn't affect her, but it will affect her the day her fix ends. Because when you have a fix and your fix price ends, you are defaulted to your firm's standard variable tariff. That is the price cap tariff. So she will move from her fix price to a price cap tariff if she does nothing. The October price cap, unfortunately for Emma, is not good for people who are gas users. The electricity unit rate is going up by less than 1%, and the standing charge is coming down slightly. The gas unit rate is going up by 9% on average across the UK, and the gas standing charge is going up by just over 2%.

• 10:19Martin Lewis?

  So as you can see, if you are a relatively low electricity-only user, your rise in October is not likely to be very much at all. But if you are primarily a gas user and have heavy gas use, then you're going to see a much bigger rise than 3.6%, and that is the situation Emma is describing. So let's get down to what the situation is for you. And just to say for other people listening who are in different scenarios, either in this week's Big Issues podcast that comes out on the Thursday, or next week, I will be going through energy. I want to get a minister on with me, so I'm just going to wait and see which week they're available to do that. So that's the underlying of where I'm going on this. Let's talk about Emma's scenario.

• 11:01Martin Lewis?

  So ignoring your specific timings for the moment, the cheapest fix on the market available right now is slightly more expensive than the July price cap, but still cheaper than the October price cap. And as we're getting so close to October and it takes five days to switch anyway, for those people who are on the price cap, not you, it's worth looking at getting one of those fixes if you're risk averse and you want to prevent what is very likely to be a big hike in January and a known hike coming in October. Your other alternative is to go for a tracker tariff. The cheapest tracker tariff on the market, which literally tracks the price cap just with discounted unit rates, is the tracker from So Energy. Or you could go for Home Energy, which is the only provider which has a priced cap tariff but actually goes substantially below the price cap.

• 11:46Martin Lewis?

  It's about 10% cheaper than the price cap. The only difference between that and a tracker is it's totally variable, so they could change it at any moment, whereas a tracker, you've got some guarantee that it will stay lower than the price cap for a year. So those are your options. Now, the question for you that makes this much more difficult is the when. You say your tariff has no early exit penalties anyway, so you're free to move. I'm guessing you're probably with Octopus, that's my guess, but that's just me trying to be clever. The fact you have no early exit penalties helps because it means you don't have to pay to switch. The question for you is, which gives you the bigger saving? Now, you're telling me end of December. So you have October, November and December.

• 12:29Martin Lewis?

  I'm assuming the fix you have is substantially cheaper than the October price cap because you fixed last December and last December fixes were materially, probably 15, 20% cheaper than they are right now. So you're effectively asking me, should I give up my 20%ish saving, and in fact, compared to the October price cap on gas, it could be even more than 20%ish saving, in order to get the certainty of locking in right now for the next year? My honest answer, and this is based on gut, not fact, because I would need a crystal ball for it to be fact, is I would stick with what you've got because I would go with the bird in the hand.

• 13:13Martin Lewis?

  The rate you can fix at in future moves with wholesale rates and there is no guarantee wholesale rates will be worse in December than they are now. I mean, in fact, there is no reason they should be better or worse, we just don't know what will happen in world markets. Now, if you can fix at the same rate as you can now, in December, you're absolutely better to wait till December because you're getting big savings in the meantime on staying on your existing fix. If the rate is better in December than you can fix at right now, which is perfectly possible because it just depends on what goes on in the world, and if you were to listen to President Trump, although he has said a lot of things that contradict in the past over this, then there might be a chance of things improving in November if the conflict

• 13:58Martin Lewis?

  in the Middle East were to de-escalate and fixes were to get cheaper and therefore you'd be able to lock in at a cheaper price than you can lock in now. So that would be good. The risk is, of course, that the fix rates available in December are higher than the fix rates available now. But for you, what you have to weigh in is, how much higher would they have to be when you're fixing in December for it to overcome the savings you would make between now and December? And they'd have to be, I mean, I'm thinking back of the envelope, they'd probably have to be 7, 8% more expensive than they are now. You haven't given me details, I'm making up some numbers based on guesses, but to give you scales of magnitude. And personally, I'd cross my fingers and hope they weren't, but I can't tell you.

• 14:43Martin Lewis?

  So you're asking me what you do, I'd probably stick on what you've got, but here's what I'd be looking at. I would be following the good information sources out there and if ever they start saying over the next two, three months, prices have come down, there are some cheaper fixes available, pounce at that moment. This is not a pounce moment, we are at a peak. Fixes are at the highest they've been. Fix a month ago is about 7 or 8% less than it is now. Fix two months ago, you would have fixed at 15% less than it is now. If you were to leave your fix now, you're fixing at what has been a peak. Let's hope it will be a peak when we look back from December. So I would be looking to pounce when there are good rates, rather than urgently just

• 15:27Martin Lewis?

  doing it today. But there is a slight risk with that if things were to deteriorate, but there's also a chance things are going to get a lot better. That was a very long and convoluted answer, I hope it made sense. Did you get it, Matt?

• 15:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think so. What would you say the TLDR is, the too long didn't read?

• 15:42Martin Lewis?

  Too long didn't read. On the balance of probabilities, I would stick with your cheap fix now as long as you possibly can because it's a lot cheaper than going off onto the price cap and it's a lot cheaper than any fixes available now, but I would be waiting to pounce if any cheap fixes come available between now and when your fix ends in December.

• 16:01Speaker 03

  Got it.

• 16:02Martin Lewis?

  Now, Matt, I just want to do one tiny addendum at the end of that, if that's okay?

• 16:05Speaker 03

  That's absolutely fine.

• 16:06Martin Lewis?

  So that answer for Emma was based on her having no early exit penalties, which she specified. There will be many people listening whose tariff does have early exit penalties. Now, the first thing they need to understand is you don't pay early exit penalties within the last 49 days of the tariff, so under 50 days is how I phrase it, but it's day 49 to the tariff ending onwards, they're not allowed to charge you early exit penalties. So if you're looking to fix before that, you also have to factor in the early exit penalties, which depending when you got your fix, can be 50 quid per fuel, so if you're gas and electricity, it'd be the same provider, a hundred pounds, although in some cases, if you had a longer fix, they can be 200 pounds per fuel, which would mean a 400 pound

• 16:51Martin Lewis?

  payment. Now, clearly, the more you use, the more you pay, the less the impact of the early exit penalties. Now, if you're paying 5,000 pounds a year, a hundred pounds early exit penalties is only 2%, but if you're paying 1,000 pounds per year, a hundred pounds is 10% and is absolutely not worth doing in any circumstances. So that does complicate it, which is why I think for most people, unless you're really, really desperate just to get peace of mind of what you're going to pay for the next year, if you've got early exit penalties, the day you want to start thinking about, is it time to move, is 49 days before your fix ends and it's worth putting that in your diary.

• 17:34Martin Lewis?

  Once you're in that bit, the logic of everything I've just said to Emma applies. Makes sense?

• 17:40Speaker 03

  Makes sense.

• 17:41Martin Lewis?

  Phew, sorry for checking if it makes sense, I just know this is complicated and people find it confusing. I will be listening back when you send me the podcast afterwards before it goes out, just to check it does make sense, and if it doesn't, then I think people listening will notice I'll have put in a little edit here or there and a little note in and said, just to add up, just to make it work, that's how we do it, isn't it?

• 17:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, breaking the fourth wall again.

• 18:00Martin Lewis?

  I know, but I don't want a fourth wall, I don't want any walls, the house would crumble with no walls. Might crumble with three walls, no, no, that would just be like a...

• 18:08Speaker 03

  A window?

• 18:09Martin Lewis?

  No, it'd be a patio area, patio area type thing. It's our pod patio.

• 18:16Speaker 03

  A pod patio.

• 18:17Martin Lewis?

  We have a pod patio because we don't have a fourth wall. I like that.

• 18:20Speaker 03

  That's good.

• 18:21Martin Lewis?

  I'm going to say that again in sort of a trial type way. We have a pod patio because we don't have a fourth wall. Okay, what's next? So Matt, as this tiny bit we've now edited in so that we're recording it before we start the main podcast proper, as that's what you do with callers, I know there's going to be a caller because we're in this bit where we do callers, we're for you and I but not for the podcast listeners, I'll just shut up. Caller?

• 18:44Speaker 03

  I was going to say, that was a lot. Yes, caller, Elliot in London. Hi Elliot.

• 18:47Speaker 05

  Hi guys.

• 18:48Martin Lewis?

  Hello Elliot, how are you? What can we do for you?

• 18:50Speaker 05

  I'm good, thank you. So it's just a question about a mortgage application and a possible wedding. For context, my partner and I recently got engaged.

• 19:00Martin Lewis?

  Yay! Matt, play some wedding music.

• 19:04Speaker 03

  Will do.

• 19:05Martin Lewis?

  Okay, add that in in the edit, carry on.

• 19:06Speaker 05

  So basically, we're looking at spring 2029, which seems a long way off, but it will come around quickly.

• 19:14Martin Lewis?

  It will.

• 19:15Speaker 05

  The only issue with that is our five-year...

• 19:17Martin Lewis?

  Big wedding tip from me, do you want my big wedding tip?

• 19:20Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 19:21Martin Lewis?

  Make sure you eat on the day. When you get married, loads of people forget to eat on the day. I know you thought it was going to be a financial one, but we're going to do that. But on the day, when it's your own wedding, you're so busy with everyone, you forget to eat. Do carry on.

• 19:33Speaker 05

  Okay, perfect. So yeah, our five-year fix comes to an end around that same time and I'm just worried that might affect our mortgage affordability when they go through the bank statements and things.

• 19:47Martin Lewis?

  To an extent, yes, it will. So what's important to understand, when you do any form of credit application, you'll know this, there are two checks as your credit score. Have you been a good credit citizen in the past? Have you missed anything? Hopefully, that's all in a good position. And the second one is the affordability check, especially on mortgages. Now, what we've seen a shift to over the last decade on mortgages is via the use of open banking and other methods, it's a sort of, it tends to be a mix between a statistical assessment of what a typical person in your scenario would do, so not bespoke, so what you actually do doesn't matter for that element, and a personalised assessment of what you've actually done. Now, each individual lender, where they sit on that

• 20:31Martin Lewis?

  spectrum is different. And we don't, you know, there isn't one rule. Some will be far more statistical, in which case, what you're spending for your more, for your marriage won't actually make a difference. Other will be far more personal, in which case, if you're having to make that application and you're doing heavy spending in the six month run up, it can hit your affordability score. What I suspect is most likely to happen is this will be deemed, and obviously, to be an irregular spending pattern from your normal spending pattern, which I think would probably trigger, in many cases, and obviously, we're having to do this in generalisations, but in many cases, would trigger a referral to a human underwriter that you might not have had otherwise. And if it is a human underwriter and you

• 21:13Martin Lewis?

  are getting married, especially if you're going through a mortgage broker who can help you manage that process for you, which I'd very strongly recommend when you're coming to do this the next time. And if you're remortgaging with your, with your current lender, you're just getting, doing a product transfer, then you speak to them and let them know what's happening, that you're getting married. But I think that the strongest likelihood is you will be more likely to be shifted on individual applications to a human underwriter who's going to assess your situation. So yeah, look, it's not perfect timing, but I don't think it's a disaster by the clear and obvious one-off nature of it. But I would think anything you can do towards the wedding that you can pay for or have the money aside

• 21:56Martin Lewis?

  longer ahead than the six months before the mortgage application would be helpful. Is that roughly where you were thinking?

• 22:03Speaker 05

  Yes, no, it's good to hear. Because we were hoping not to have to move the day at all. We've not booked anything yet, so that was an option. One other thing I was thinking-

• 22:14Martin Lewis?

  I mean, look, you don't want to do this, but the more you can spread the two out, more than six months apart would be perfect. But you've also got to live your life and you've got your marriage to do, and that's a really important, wonderful moment that's coming forward to you. So I wouldn't want to, I wouldn't want to negate that. But if we're talking absolutely tactically, what would you do if tactics were the only thing that mattered? I'd probably have your wedding and your mortgage more than six months apart.

• 22:36Speaker 05

  Okay. If we were to do it sort of within those six months, is it worth having a kind of a separate account to separate our kind of wedding savings and spending?

• 22:46Martin Lewis?

  I think all of it's going to be incorporated anyway in an assessment, and you're going to have to answer any questions that they've got. So I'm not sure. I mean, I think, I suppose if you were to go to questioning by a human underwriter and it were to get to the point, which it doesn't, doesn't very often, where they're actually asking bespoke questions, the idea that you've got a wedding, a wedding savings pot would be quite useful, potentially, but just in a nice bit of clarity. I don't think it'll make that much difference, though. I would have to double check that, that specifics. I think ultimately, you've got that spending. The more of it you can, you can obviously save up in advance so that, you know, we don't want any borrowing. I mean, that's the thing I'd really push against. Borrowing, and hopefully you're not doing that.

• 23:26Speaker 05

  Yeah, we are hoping to save for most of it. We might be getting some gifts from our families. That will help towards it.

• 23:34Martin Lewis?

  Absolutely. And this is also a remortgage anyway. You know, you're not buying a new property, you're not finding a deposit, you will have proof that you've been repaying. It should be good. When you got the first mortgage, did you go through a broker?

• 23:45Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 23:46Martin Lewis?

  Okay. I think, you know, I'm generally pretty pro brokers. I mean, I'm not, would think most people should be using a broker. I think in your circumstances, I would speak to the broker. And if you're using the same broker and they were good, and you're happy with them, and you've got an existing relationship with them, I would think in a year in advance of both, it's worth having a short conversation and just going through with them what they would like you to do in order to have the two things mixing together. I think that'd be a good idea. Just, the most important thing is you've identified the risk. I don't think it's quite as horrific as you're thinking, you know, but it is, but it could be plausible that you might, there might be a mortgage or two you didn't get on the back of it,

• 24:26Martin Lewis?

  which means you could be paying, you know, 0.5%, 1% more than you would otherwise do. I think that that is a totem rather than an actual number, but just to give you the scale of magnitude, I think, where this is sitting at. You know, we're not talking about you're going to pay a percent more, but you might pay 0.1% more. And again, that's not a real number, that's just to give you the idea of where this sits in the level of risk. Because it sounds to me like you're going to be pretty prudent anyway. You're saving in the wedding, you're not going to be overspending, you're not going to be crippling your financial future by the wedding, because you know you've got the mortgage coming. And all of those are good things.

• 25:00Speaker 05

  Yes. Yeah, I think, I mean, in terms of our affordability and our credit scores, I think they're all fairly okay. So that wouldn't be much of a worry.

• 25:09Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, well, it sounds really good. I think, I mean, I'm excited for you. It's what an exciting moment in your life. You bought your first property together, and now you're going to be getting married, and you're going to be going onward and upwards. I think it's wonderful. So don't let, you know, don't let these, these minor financial inconveniences of the coincidence of timing ruin the joy that is due to come for both of you in your future life. And I wish you a wonderful, when you get there, married life together that's fiscally frugal and fantastic.

• 25:37Speaker 05

  Thank you very much. And just to say a big thank you for all the work you've done over the years. Because sort of getting on the property ladder and helping us, you know, open lifetime ices and that sort of thing. But it's been a big help over the years.

• 25:50Martin Lewis?

  Oh, well, I'm delighted to hear it. And wonderful as you continue your journey through your financial lives. Hopefully, we'll still be there talking over the airwaves and helping you through it. Thank you so much for your call.

• 25:59Speaker 05

  Perfect. Thank you, Martin.

• 26:02Martin Lewis?

  Cheers. 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.

• 26:19Speaker 03

  No, Dear Matt.

• 26:20Martin Lewis?

  Dear Martin.

• 26:21Speaker 03

  Dear Matt.

• 26:22Martin Lewis?

  Right, Sir Matthew. I think that's your casual name, by the way.

• 26:27Speaker 03

  Sir Matthew.

• 26:28Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I don't think, I think the professor and doctor in this quiet is too much when we're just chit chatting. I think just Sir, or Sir Matt.

• 26:34Speaker 03

  So you started calling me Matthew on the podcast, so people have started emailing in with Matthew. But I don't go by Matthew.

• 26:39Martin Lewis?

  But you are Matthew.

• 26:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's it. It's my, it's my name. But I don't go by it.

• 26:42Martin Lewis?

  No offence, mate. If you're going to have Professor, Doctor, Sir, you can't be Matt Burnham. I mean, it's a formal thing. Your name is Matthew. I mean, when we, when we accorded you these titles within the canon of the podcast, they were accorded to Matthew Burnham. Do you have a middle name?

• 26:58Speaker 03

  I do.

• 26:59Martin Lewis?

  Can you reveal it?

• 27:00Speaker 03

  It's David. It's after my dad.

• 27:02Martin Lewis?

  Sir Matthew David Burnham. Yeah, that's quite, that works, that. Anyway, anyway, Sir Matthew, what's the question?

• 27:08Speaker 03

  We've got one from Luke, who has emailed it in to [email protected]. He says, hey, Martin.

• 27:15Martin Lewis?

  And other people can email at the martinlewispodcast too. If you've got a question or a funny question for the end, or you'd like to talk to us. And remember, if you come on air and you record something, you get a badge. Oh, interesting.

• 27:27Speaker 03

  And I would just like to say, just address it to Dear Matt.

• 27:30Martin Lewis?

  Dear Martin.

• 27:31Speaker 03

  So it doesn't work the other way around, does it?

• 27:33Martin Lewis?

  No, it doesn't, because I, I'm the one who's going to answer it.

• 27:37Speaker 03

  I'm the one who reads it.

• 27:38Martin Lewis?

  No, you're the one who decides whether it goes on air, but I am the one who, who provides the information.

• 27:43Speaker 03

  Do you have access to the inbox?

• 27:44Martin Lewis?

  I'm happy for this to be Dear Martin and Matt.

• 27:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, I like Dear Martin.

• 27:47Martin Lewis?

  I'm happy with Dear Martin and Matt. I think that's fine. As I've said before, I think trying to push for Dear Matt and Martin on the Martin Lewis podcast is a step too far.

• 27:55Speaker 03

  I disagree, but shall I read the question?

• 27:57Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 27:58Speaker 03

  He says he listens to the podcast weekly, and he has a question for you. Me and my girlfriend have a joint account and joint savings account, both with Lloyds. In the savings account, we like to put away £200 a month. That's each, so it's £400 total for holidays, joint purchases and date nights if needed. I'd say a date night is always needed.

• 28:17Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 28:18Speaker 03

  It's currently in an easy access savings account, which used to have 6%. Now it's matured and we get 0.6%.

• 28:26Martin Lewis?

  That was a sort of grumbly growl.

• 28:27Speaker 03

  Okay, not something I've said.

• 28:29Martin Lewis?

  No, it was, it's Luke and Jodie, I think this is, isn't it?

• 28:32Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 28:33Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, Luke and Jodie. I've just given you a growl.

• 28:35Speaker 03

  Okay. If it was a personal account, I'd be changing and opening a new account. But because it's a joint account, it's more confusing. What can we do? They also note that they plan to buy a property in the next six months, so they're aware about opening, opening up new accounts.

• 28:51Martin Lewis?

  Oh, there's so much to go, Luke and Jodie. I'm glad you're listening, because we need to do, first of all, this has no impact on you buying a property in six months on your credit score, because these are savings accounts, savings account, don't go on your credit file, because there's no credit element. So we don't need to worry about that at all. That was that worry thrown out the window. Next, it really isn't difficult to joint account. It's exactly the same as a personal account. You go somewhere else, you fill in the form. These are savings, right? It's just a savings account. You take the money out and you transfer it to the new account. So you go and open yourself the best account that you possibly can and you make sure the money's in there. Letting it be at 0.6%, especially if you're saving for a property, is not good for you.

• 29:35Martin Lewis?

  Obviously, you want the money liquid if you're saving for a property. That's important. So let's just do the simple options first. So the top paying easy access interest on joint accounts at the moment is Kahoot, which is part of Santander. So, you know, it is a big, big institution, but you can only put up to £3,000 in there. But on the £3,000, you get 5% easy access. So that's pretty decent. I'm not going to mention cash ISAs because you can't have a joint cash ISA. You'd need to have separate cash ISAs and ISA as an individual product. If you have more than that, the next top paying that accepts joint account currently, and do remember at the time of listening, these rates could have changed and products could have changed, I can only do it at the time I'm recording, is the post office at

• 30:17Martin Lewis?

  4.4%, which includes a one-year, 3.5% bonus. So after the year, a bit like your lawyer's account, the rate is going to plummet down and you're going to need to diarise to ditch and switch at that point. But you can have up to £2 million in there. So you could put your money in Kahoot for the first £3,000, not 5%, and then the rest you could put in the post office at 4.4% and those are on joint accounts. The only other thing I might just mention to you, you haven't told me your status, whether you're first time buyers or either of you have owned a property before. If you haven't owned a property before and you have a lifetime ISA, because maybe you were listening when I said get a pound in a lifetime ISA if you haven't, and that lifetime

• 30:59Martin Lewis?

  ISA will have been open for a year by the time that you are due to buy your property and you're going to be buying a property under £450,000, then I would be putting this money into a lifetime ISA. If you haven't maxed it out, you're allowed to put up £4,000 a year because you would get 25% added on top onto what you've put in, up to the £4,000 maximum, to go towards your first property. But if you haven't got a lifetime ISA and you're planning to buy in six months, it needs to be open for a year, so you can't do it. So you're probably best where you are. Hopefully that helps. To use Matt's phrase of TDLR, don't worry about your credit score because they're savings accounts. As for opening a joint account, just make sure it's any savings account that allows joint accounts. I've mentioned two that for you. And then you simply open a new joint account, you move your money out of your old one into the new one. Job's a gun.

• 31:44Speaker 03

  TLDR.

• 31:45Martin Lewis?

  What did I say?

• 31:46Speaker 03

  TDLR.

• 31:47Martin Lewis?

  What does TDLR stand for?

• 31:49Speaker 03

  Too damn long.

• 31:51Martin Lewis?

  TDLR is a totally dynamite Lewis response. It's when I give, you know, an absolutely punching question. That's what it stands for and everybody knows that.

• 32:00Speaker 03

  Still waiting for one of them in this episode.

• 32:02Martin Lewis?

  Cruel. Okay, Matt, so it's even number, it's a caller. Who've you got for me?

• 32:10Speaker 03

  I have got Hannah.

• 32:11Martin Lewis?

  Oh, I like that. No hesitation.

• 32:13Speaker 03

  No hesitation.

• 32:14Martin Lewis?

  No hesitation. You had a caller, brilliant.

• 32:16Speaker 03

  She's ready. Hannah in Bluestone in Wales. Hi Hannah.

• 32:19Speaker 04

  Hiya.

• 32:20Martin Lewis?

  Hello Hannah, how are you?

• 32:22Speaker 04

  Hello, I'm good, thank you.

• 32:24Martin Lewis?

  What are we doing for you? When I say we, I mean...

• 32:28Speaker 03

  I was going to say, I just introduce the caller.

• 32:31Martin Lewis?

  No, but that's a very, very valuable role. It's a very valuable role.

• 32:34Speaker 03

  But I wouldn't be able to answer the question.

• 32:35Martin Lewis?

  No. Well, I'll tell you what, here's what we're going to do Hannah, we've never done this before. You're going to ask your question and Matt's going to give it a go first. I'd just like to caveat before we get to that point, please, nobody do any form of action on the back of Matt's answer if there is absolutely no validity in what he says whatsoever, but we're going to give him a go. Okay. Okay Hannah, what's your question?

• 33:01Speaker 04

  Okay, so my question is, how does travel insurance work when you're travelling with a group? So we've had a few holidays this year, so we're on holiday at the moment and the family that we're travelling with have got their separate travel insurance for themselves. We've got our own travel insurance, but it's, but I made the booking. So we're wondering kind of how it works and kind of who would be responsible and whose insurance would be responsible in the event of obviously something had to change or something happened during our holiday.

• 33:31Martin Lewis?

  Matt?

• 33:32Speaker 03

  Well, it's a very good question Hannah. I think that, now I have no idea.

• 33:37Martin Lewis?

  Rosie and Isabella are already cringing. No, they're sort of smiley laughing and wondering what you're going to say at the same point.

• 33:42Speaker 03

  I would say that you should all have your own policies and yeah, that's what I would say.

• 33:51Martin Lewis?

  Okay, and I said earlier, please don't listen to Matt. Right Hannah, so just let me get you both, you have two separate family policies, correct?

• 33:59Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah. So we've got travel insurance through our bank account and I'm currently travelling with my dad.

• 34:06Martin Lewis?

  Which I always define, I would see a bank account as an automatically renewed annual policy. That's what it is in reality, that bank's just paying for it rather than you're paying for it. But it's an annual policy that's automatically renewed, so you have that consistent ongoing cover, yeah?

• 34:18Speaker 04

  Yeah. And I'm, and my dad has also got their own annual policy that they have.

• 34:25Martin Lewis?

  So look, it is always policy dependent is the first thing I would say. What counts as family depends on the travel insurance policy is the first one. I know this isn't where you're asking, but let's just go into a detail. For example, cover wise would say two adults and any number of children, stepchildren, foster children aged under 18 or under 23 in full-time education. But some policies, LV, Liverpool Victoria as it used to be, you can extend, so it could be your mother-in-law, your father-in-law, could all count under a family policy as long as it's defined that way. The issue with having separate policies on a group holiday, the primary issue is what happened, I mean, and you're already there at the moment, but let's go into this.

• 35:07Martin Lewis?

  If something happened to you on your holiday, you would claim on your policy. If something happened to somebody from the other group on their holiday, even though it's the same holiday, they would claim. The issue would be primarily what happened if something happened to you that meant they wouldn't go. So perhaps beforehand, one of you got ill, so it was all defined as going as a group policy and then the other people saying, well, we can't go because this person isn't going. That's where the really big issue comes in, unless I'm missing something in your question. Is that what you're thinking about?

• 35:39Speaker 04

  No. Yeah, that's what we were thinking about.

• 35:42Martin Lewis?

  Okay. Now, the honest truth is, if you would, the easiest way to deal with that is before, is to actually get what's called a group policy. So a group policy would be if you're all booking the hotel together and the trip together, you would also get a group insurance policy that ensures you all as a collective, regardless of relationship. So you've got family, which is pretty obvious, and then you've got group, which is a collection of people travelling together. And a group insurance policy would be the easiest way in order for you to be covered if something happened to a member of the group that meant you all couldn't go. I mean, we're not going to give specific examples, people can work that out for themselves. Let's not be morbid about it.

• 36:26Martin Lewis?

  But in the event that you've got two family policies, I still think you would, under most insurance cover, actually be fine if someone couldn't go. The paperwork would just be a lot tougher. So the insurer would usually want evidence that your companion was medically unfit to travel or whatever the issue was, confirmation you were due to travel together, proof of what had been paid for the trip and any refunds. So they would really want to do a detailed paper trail for you to prove that this was a substantive and material reason that you could not travel that was unexpected in the first place. So I think that's the primary difference. Now, I can't say that's going to work on every single policy because this is a policy wording system, but the general way insurance works is, so I mean, we can make it even more simple.

• 37:10Martin Lewis?

  If three of you were travelling and you were all on single traveller policies and you were all going together, you would still be able to claim if one of you was ill and couldn't go, but they make it a lot more difficult to do so than if you'd got a group policy together. Does that make sense?

• 37:26Speaker 04

  Yeah, it does, yeah, thank you.

• 37:28Martin Lewis?

  So, I mean, and again, pricing comes into this as well. Sometimes group policies can be cheaper, but the difficulty is always the age. The age of the oldest traveller will always pump up the total cost. So if there were to be an anomalous age, so let's say it's a group of 20-year-olds travelling with an 80-year-old, you know, a grandparent going with, with, with young adults, I would probably be looking at the 20-year-olds getting one policy and the grandparent getting their own policy because otherwise you're likely putting up the risk of the overall policy, but you'll just have to check both to see which is cheapest. Have I missed anything? Hopefully that's a slightly fuller answer than Matt gave you.

• 38:10Speaker 03

  A genuine answer.

• 38:12Speaker 04

  Yes, absolutely. Yeah, no, that's great. Thank you. We got a bit, we were wondering what to do or what, yeah, how it was all going to work and.

• 38:22Martin Lewis?

  I will give you my big tip, my big tip on travel insurance that we are now able to do in the modern world. Every policy is different and one of the great problems on travel insurance is you are insuring for known unknowns. So you're insuring for the things that we can all understand might happen, you know, am I covered if my airline doesn't take me there? What if I get ill? All of those obvious things we can think of. But you're also covering for unknown unknowns, which is, this is the Donald, Donald Rumsfeld old political equation, the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns. And the problem with the unknown unknowns is you don't know to think of them before you go, which is always a great problem in travel insurance. And reading a policy once something happens is really tough. So my

• 39:05Martin Lewis?

  big tip in the modern world is when you get your travel insurance policy, if you have questions, take it as a PDF, put it into one of the large language model AIs and put it in the highest level that you have available and then ask the AI questions after it's read your policy to see what's in your specific policy. When it gives you an answer, don't trust that answer, but ask it where that answer is contained, what clause it got the answer from. So you can then read that specific clause yourself as well. And I think that is a good way to work out exactly what your individual policy covers.

• 39:43Speaker 04

  That's really good. Thank you.

• 39:44Martin Lewis?

  My pleasure. Thanks so much for calling, Hannah. And of course, you've got a badge. I mean, I'm slightly concerned, I, we're not going to say where you are, but are you going to be home in time to get the badge? Do we need security on the badge delivery? Because we wouldn't want, we wouldn't want someone to intercept the post knowing you're aware. This is, this is a real risk.

• 40:04Speaker 04

  Fine.

• 40:04Martin Lewis?

  It's fine. Okay.

• 40:05Speaker 04

  We'll be home, home on Monday.

• 40:07Martin Lewis?

  Fine.

• 40:08Speaker 03

  Perfect, perfect.

• 40:09Martin Lewis?

  Matt, just, yeah, just, you know, make sure that maybe you delay one day the sending. Do we send it with security guards?

• 40:16Speaker 03

  Yes, two security guards at all times. So it's actually costing the BBC quite a lot of money to send these badges out.

• 40:22Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, this is a big licensing issue. This is a real, yeah, I mean, ultimately, yeah, it's a bit of a worry, but I think it's important.

• 40:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, and worth it.

• 40:30Martin Lewis?

  I'm liking, I've just got this image now of a big blue security truck, two very, very beefy guards in the back. And then when they open it up, there's just a table, a wooden table that's locked down. And on the top of that table on a plinth is a single, single Martin Lewis podcast badge that's sitting there. And then they gloved hands, one takes it out while the other's watching, you know, he steps out of the van first, the one who's, that who's not carrying the badge, does the look side to side like any good cop show. The other one picks up the badge, he holds the badge inside the palm of his hand so that people passing by can't see because if they took a glint of it, they would know. And even normal people who are normally law abiding, if they saw just a glimpse of that badge,

• 41:12Martin Lewis?

  you could see them going feral and attacking. And then they take it into the house. Is that how it's delivered?

• 41:18Speaker 03

  Sure, let's go with that.

• 41:19Martin Lewis?

  Okay, good.

• 41:20Speaker 03

  Definitely not raw and male.

• 41:21Martin Lewis?

  Sorry, Hannah. Thanks, Hannah.

• 41:24Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 41:27Martin Lewis?

  We've done two reads, we've done two callers. And I think, you know, the first question was very long, but it was detailed and important on energy. Are we going into the funny now? Or do you have something else for me?

• 41:38Speaker 03

  Well, I thought we might have said a little success before we get to the funny.

• 41:40Martin Lewis?

  Always like a success.

• 41:41Speaker 03

  Always nice. Yeah.

• 41:42Martin Lewis?

  Do you, I've said this to you before and you've not delivered. I'm not going to dock a title, don't worry. We need a success jingle.

• 41:49Speaker 03

  Yeah. Do you know, I can hold my hands up and say, I forgot.

• 41:52Martin Lewis?

  I know you can hold your hands up, but there's nothing to be proud of.

• 41:54Speaker 03

  Until.

• 41:56Martin Lewis?

  I mean, a little bit of weight training, you might be able to hold them a bit further.

• 41:58Speaker 03

  Hey, until this very moment, I'd completely forgotten that you'd said you'd wanted one. But I will get on it. Didn't you ask people to send them in?

• 42:06Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, we did.

• 42:07Speaker 03

  You asked listeners to send one in.

• 42:08Martin Lewis?

  And no one did.

• 42:08Speaker 03

  No one did.

• 42:09Martin Lewis?

  No, we, I don't know, I don't, I'm about to say something that might offend all our listeners. We didn't get any remarks about my Manchester thing last week, did we?

• 42:17Speaker 03

  Not from listeners, but Editor Tom was not impressed.

• 42:21Martin Lewis?

  Editor Tom wanted to be in Cheshire, Cheshire, but I define him as Manchester, Cheshire. That is true. No, I just don't know if our listeners are jingly types.

• 42:31Speaker 03

  Maybe I'll have to get on to it and see if we can get one made.

• 42:33Martin Lewis?

  Whether it's left brain, right brain, and our listeners are right brained and you have to be left brain, left brain to do a jingle. I don't know.

• 42:38Speaker 03

  We have a very good guy here who can, who can make it for us.

• 42:42Martin Lewis?

  To be fair, that would be the right way to do it.

• 42:44Speaker 03

  I will ask him.

• 42:45Martin Lewis?

  I mean, this is a BBC podcast. Surely the BBC has jingle resources.

• 42:48Speaker 03

  The BBC does.

• 42:48Martin Lewis?

  It has a jingle department, doesn't it?

• 42:50Speaker 03

  I don't know.

• 42:51Martin Lewis?

  I wonder what it's like when you walk in the jingle department in the morning.

• 42:54Speaker 03

  It just chimes everywhere.

• 42:55Martin Lewis?

  Hello, good morning and welcome to your work. And they go, oh God, can you imagine throughout the day? It's lunchtime.

• 43:05Speaker 03

  Shall we do a success?

• 43:06Martin Lewis?

  I want to live in the jingle department. Yeah. What's a success?

• 43:12Speaker 03

  Which one do you want?

• 43:12Martin Lewis?

  Rosie's laughing, Isabel's slightly, I don't know what I'm buying into.

• 43:17Speaker 03

  I was going to say, she's regretted her decision of taking this job.

• 43:20Martin Lewis?

  She is. She's thinking, oh dear, where is this going? We still haven't had the discussion of whether Isabel's going to be allowed to talk or not. But I think we do that once GDPR is fully moved on and upwards. Right, carry on.

• 43:33Speaker 03

  Okay, Maddie has emailed the success in. She says, hi, Martin and team, I wanted to share a massive success story. Thanks for your advice on phone contracts. And while checking my contract details, I realised I've been missold a data plan that I hadn't used since 2017. I challenged the provider about this historic misselling and they agreed and gave me a cash refund of £1,184.61. She says, thank you so much for the advice. I never would have spotted this or known I could challenge it without you.

• 44:05Martin Lewis?

  That's really interesting. I'm interested to know what the nature of the misselling was. I mean, I suspected she was paying for data that she wasn't using. Now, it's interesting when that happens because it is a grey area of whose responsibility it is. I tend to find that with the big networks, they will give you the money back if it's just totally, you know, they shouldn't have had it. I mean, look, if it was the case of she cancelled it and they continued to charge her, then it's pretty clear cut. But if she didn't cancel it, she just wasn't using it or she moved on and they didn't cancel it, it's always more of a grey area. I'm delighted that she got the money back. And I do have on my list to do my, what I call my direct debit audit. But as a very quick note, every year, at least every year, you should be going through your direct debits and standing

• 44:50Martin Lewis?

  orders on all of your accounts to just show what are you paying for on a regular basis and asking yourself, do I need it? Is it worth it? Am I getting the best value from it? And, you know, so many people have money dripping away, seeping away from their pockets because of that. And then the more difficult one you need to look at, and I'm delighted at Maddie's case story, I'm not quite sure which one this is, is a thing called a recurring payment. Let's see, do you know what a recurring payment is, Matt?

• 45:18Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 45:19Martin Lewis?

  Go on.

• 45:19Speaker 03

  A payment that.

• 45:20Martin Lewis?

  Recurs.

• 45:21Speaker 03

  Recurs.

• 45:22Martin Lewis?

  Okay. Well, let's test you a little bit more.

• 45:23Speaker 03

  Okay, go on.

• 45:24Martin Lewis?

  What's a direct debit?

• 45:25Speaker 03

  So that is an agreement that you set up with your bank and the person who's taking the money. And that's like, they can take money directly from the account, I'm guessing?

• 45:34Martin Lewis?

  They can, and it can, the amount can vary. And you have the direct, you have lots of strong rules involved in the direct debit. What is a standing order?

• 45:42Speaker 03

  That's one you set up yourself where you specify a certain amount of money gets sent to someone else, right?

• 45:47Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. So, you know, you could send that to an individual, you could send that to a, your.

• 45:51Speaker 03

  Your mum.

• 45:51Martin Lewis?

  Child, your mum, whatever, right? And then there's a recurring payment. You've done very well. I mean, proper gold star.

• 45:59Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 45:59Martin Lewis?

  Recurring payment?

• 46:00Speaker 03

  I would say, is that where you give them your card details rather than your bank details?

• 46:06Martin Lewis?

  Rosie's just given you a smile and a nod. We are impressed.

• 46:09Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 46:09Martin Lewis?

  Award yourself a badge.

• 46:11Speaker 03

  Thank you very much.

• 46:12Martin Lewis?

  Well done. Yeah. So a recurring payment is when you give the long details on your credit or debit card. So interestingly, a direct debit is from your bank account. A recurring payment is from your debit card that's the same bank account, but you don't have the same rights. Now, what a recurring payment is, is effectively, if you make a normal payment, you're paying someone. And what you're saying with a recurring payment is you can take that payment each time you need to. So you're giving somebody permission to take payments from your account. The problem is, these are not broken down in your account. Classic ones are subscriptions, like your, your streaming service subscriptions are recurring payments. So they take the payment each month, but not via direct debit. It's

• 46:54Martin Lewis?

  not listed and broken down. So the only way to spot them, I mean, there are a couple of apps that say they do it. I don't think they're that good yet. I'm desperate to build one myself, but I've not done it yet. The best way to do it is you just need to look at a few months' statements and look at the payments that recur, which you haven't actively made a payment for. They are your recurring payments and you should put those in your direct debit audit as well. Well, I call it, obviously they're not direct debits, but you get the point. You should put that in your checks to, should I still be making those? And you do have a right to cancel those with your card provider. It can be a bit tricky, but you do have a legal right to do so if the company won't cancel them.

• 47:33Speaker 03

  Can I ask a question?

• 47:34Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 47:34Speaker 03

  Why would a company use a recurring payment rather than a direct debit?

• 47:37Martin Lewis?

  Cheaper and you don't have all the rights. And often it's, often it's done by big international companies who are trying to set up one payment system across the world. So direct debit, the way on your direct debit regulations is a UK thing. But, you know, if you're Netflix, you're, you're trying to set up the same system everywhere. And a recurring payment is a recurring, is just a payment each month, if you see what I mean.

• 47:59Speaker 03

  I see what you mean.

• 47:59Martin Lewis?

  It's just a payment. It's nothing, it's not actually a thing.

• 48:02Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 48:02Martin Lewis?

  It's just, I mean, you could have, a recurring payment could be, I go into the same shop once a month and buy something. That would look exactly the same as one of these, these does.

• 48:11Speaker 03

  So essentially they just store your card details and charge you each month.

• 48:14Martin Lewis?

  And you've given them permission to do so, but yes, exactly. Right. I've enjoyed this pod.

• 48:21Speaker 03

  Good. I feel like I've learnt a lot this week.

• 48:23Martin Lewis?

  Yeah. I'm, I'm very impressed that you've been listening, Matt.

• 48:25Speaker 03

  I do. Do you know, it's funny, I sit here and I actually do listen to what you say.

• 48:29Martin Lewis?

  Do people, by the way, do people now, because they know you do this, like your friends and family, do they ask you questions about money?

• 48:35Speaker 03

  All the time.

• 48:36Martin Lewis?

  And do you know the answers?

• 48:38Speaker 03

  Sometimes, yes. It's a lot of people at work as well who do it.

• 48:41Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 48:42Speaker 03

  Sometimes I know the answer. A lot of the time I will.

• 48:45Martin Lewis?

  Email Rosie.

• 48:46Speaker 03

  Tell them to listen to the podcast.

• 48:49Martin Lewis?

  Rosie's laughing, so I think that was true.

• 48:53Martin Lewis?

  Funny and scanned, have we had any in?

• 48:55Speaker 03

  We've had quite a few sent in, actually.

• 48:57Martin Lewis?

  Whey!

• 48:58Speaker 03

  Your question, not your question.

• 48:59Martin Lewis?

  I told them off last week, didn't I?

• 49:00Speaker 03

  I was gonna say, your request for questions.

• 49:02Martin Lewis?

  I think it was more than a request.

• 49:03Speaker 03

  It was...

• 49:04Martin Lewis?

  I think I argued in the symbiotic nature of this podcast, they had a duty to send them in.

• 49:09Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 49:10Martin Lewis?

  Yes.

• 49:10Speaker 03

  So we've had quite...

• 49:11Martin Lewis?

  Thank you, everybody who has, we really appreciate it.

• 49:12Speaker 03

  We have had quite a few good ones, but this one...

• 49:15Martin Lewis?

  I noticed my tone change there, did you hear my tone change?

• 49:17Speaker 03

  No.

• 49:17Martin Lewis?

  I did, that was my, I suddenly was being all proper and serious, saying thank you, so thank you.

• 49:22Speaker 03

  Ah.

• 49:22Martin Lewis?

  Okay, right, go on.

• 49:24Speaker 03

  Right, so I'm worried about this one a little bit.

• 49:27Martin Lewis?

  And that makes me more worried, go on.

• 49:28Speaker 03

  Because, okay, I'll read the question and I'll tell you why afterwards. So Amber sent this one in, she says, Dear Martin, in brackets, and Matt, comma, oh, and hello Rosie.

• 49:39Martin Lewis?

  Rosie's smiling hello back.

• 49:40Speaker 03

  No, Isabel, sorry Isabel.

• 49:42Martin Lewis?

  Isabel, Isabel's got a pouty mouth on.

• 49:45Speaker 03

  Oh no. She says, I listen to both podcasts each week and thoroughly enjoy your impression of Adrian Childs.

• 49:51Martin Lewis?

  Thank you very much. Oh no, let me do it...

• 49:53Speaker 03

  That was terrible.

• 49:54Martin Lewis?

  It's very kind of you, thank you.

• 49:55Speaker 03

  Thank you. So my question is, what other accents can you do? She says, P.S. An audible example is required for proof. So, right, I'm worried because I don't want you to offend anyone.

• 50:09Martin Lewis?

  Well, clearly if I do accents, I will, but if I'm being asked to, people will understand. This is, this is my issue, not their issue.

• 50:15Speaker 03

  Okay, good, good. Can I fire some accents and see if you can do that?

• 50:18Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, sure, go on.

• 50:19Speaker 03

  Okay, can you do a Scouse accent?

• 50:22Martin Lewis?

  Well, I used to go to school in Liverpool, when my first years in Liverpool were from like the age of seven to 11. So I did at one point actually have a bit of a Scouse accent, but it's gone.

• 50:33Speaker 03

  You sound like Paul Hollywood.

• 50:35Martin Lewis?

  Okay, that'll do.

• 50:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, that was good, that was good, it was a bit of a posher Scouse, but yeah.

• 50:39Martin Lewis?

  Well, yeah, I was chilled, which is a bit posher Scouse where I went to school, yeah.

• 50:41Speaker 03

  Ah, I see, Welsh?

• 50:44Martin Lewis?

  Well, you see, I used to work at Chile, I lived Cardiff, I lived for a year, my postgraduate, can't say that in Welsh, my postgraduate, so, maybe? I don't know, this is one's going all over the place.

• 50:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's, that's all right. Mank?

• 50:57Martin Lewis?

  Well, I am a mank, you know what I mean? But if I put it on a little bit, I'm going extra strong, you know what I mean? Okay, yeah, I like that.

• 51:02Speaker 03

  That's good.

• 51:03Martin Lewis?

  But I am a mank, I was born in Manchester, grew up in Cheshire.

• 51:06Speaker 03

  I mean posh Manchester.

• 51:07Martin Lewis?

  Well, I was born in, no, I was born in Withington Hospital, I grew up, first year of my life was in Didsbury and then I moved to rural Cheshire. After that, real Cheshire though, as we discussed last week, I grew up in Delamere Forest, for anyone who's from that part of the world.

• 51:19Speaker 03

  Right, Geordie?

• 51:21Martin Lewis?

  Why, I'm gonna do the obvious stereotype Geordie, aren't I?

• 51:25Speaker 03

  It's all right, it's not too bad. Right, I'm for Birmingham, so can you do a Brummie accent?

• 51:31Martin Lewis?

  I'm channeling Alison Amund here, just going a little bit slower, a little bit slower and a little bit more Birmingham, how am I doing?

• 51:38Speaker 03

  Bit, bit black country, but...

• 51:39Martin Lewis?

  Oh, I'll take that, I'll take the black country coming out.

• 51:42Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 51:43Martin Lewis?

  Isabel and Rosie, I can't tell if they're wincing or laughing, I think it's between the two, it's waffing. Right.

• 51:50Speaker 03

  Northern Ireland?

• 51:52Martin Lewis?

  Northern Ireland is a bit like that, I think the difference between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland is Northern Ireland is you have your mouth closed. And the Republic of Ireland, you have your mouth even wider.

• 52:02Speaker 03

  No, they sound exactly the same.

• 52:03Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 52:03Speaker 03

  You just sound like someone who had their mouth closed and then opened their mouth as they were talking.

• 52:08Martin Lewis?

  I am not an accent coach, I'd like to say that, it's not my expertise, so carry on.

• 52:12Speaker 03

  They're not bad, Somerset?

• 52:14Martin Lewis?

  Somerset, I'll just go for generic west country if I'm doing that.

• 52:18Speaker 03

  Uh-huh.

• 52:19Martin Lewis?

  That's all I'm doing.

• 52:19Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 52:20Martin Lewis?

  Oh, you got a brand new, that was, I was thinking, I was just channeling, oh, you got a brand new combo or a...

• 52:26Speaker 03

  I can't wait for Tom to listen to this.

• 52:29Martin Lewis?

  Tom the editor, he's gonna win, which is, I mean, you're testing me, I can't, I'm not, I think we should, I think it's getting close to wrap up time, I think we've probably stretched it.

• 52:37Speaker 03

  What's the best impression you can do? Or the best accent?

• 52:41Martin Lewis?

  I can do the Martin Lewis impression from Dead Ringers. Actually, I can't, because I don't think it sounds like me.

• 52:48Speaker 03

  Just very posh and very fast.

• 52:49Martin Lewis?

  The one, I used to be able to do a Lloyd Grossman, really thinking about what type of food you're going to be eating. Then I realised, Matthew, that potentially you're too young to know who Lloyd Grossman is. Who lives in a house like that? It's over to you. Do you have any clue who that is?

• 53:14Speaker 03

  I know who he is, because obviously he has the pasta sauces in the supermarkets, but I don't, I've never heard his voice.

• 53:19Martin Lewis?

  So he was the original MasterChef presenter, and more importantly, he presented Through the Keyhole, the original Through the Keyhole. And that's, and...

• 53:27Speaker 03

  No idea.

• 53:28Martin Lewis?

  Those listeners who are over 40, hopefully you will recognise that was not too bad. Rosie and Isabel totally blankers.

• 53:35Speaker 03

  Yep, exactly.

• 53:36Martin Lewis?

  Okay, Matt!

• 53:37Speaker 03

  Shall we wrap the podcast up here, please?

• 53:41Martin Lewis?

  I hope you've enjoyed that, as I said, we might be doing more on the energy stuff if you've got questions on that, so do get in touch. But if you've got any more questions, or any funny questions, or stuff you want to sort out with your finances, or you'd like to come on board and ask a question, please do get in touch, [email protected], and you can address it to Dear Martin and Matt.

• 54:00Speaker 03

  Or you could just say Dear Matt.

• 54:02Martin Lewis?

  I see, I think I was disingenuous then, I think I'd been generous and given you both.

• 54:06Speaker 03

  Dear Martin and Matt.

• 54:06Martin Lewis?

  And then you came in and you...

• 54:08Speaker 03

  Dear Matt and Martin?

• 54:09Martin Lewis?

  I don't think you did yourself any favours.

• 54:11Speaker 03

  Dear Matt and Martin, let's go with that.

• 54:12Martin Lewis?

  You're just not winning me.

• 54:13Speaker 03

  Well, Martin, you don't see the email!

• 54:17Martin Lewis?

  And that is it for this week's Question Time, don't forget to subscribe so you know when we release a new episode. We put out a new Question Time episode each Monday alongside the Big Topic Podcast with Adrian on Thursdays. Aren't you lucky, two doses of money-saving tips and tricks a week? If you've enjoyed today's show, please tell your friends you've been listening to the Martin Lewis Podcast and why not subscribe and leave us a review? Then your pockets will be pleased with you and we will be too. That rhymes. And don't forget, if you come on the show, we'll send you an exclusive Martin Lewis Podcast Question Time ESQ badge. Ooh! I'll let you have the last two, thank you.

• 55:14Speaker 06

  Martin Lewis is the founder of MoneySavingExpert.com. But of course, other consumer and price comparison websites are available. You can get in touch with Martin's podcast production team by emailing martinlewispodcast at bbc.co.uk. 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.

• 55:50Speaker 04

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

• 56:33Speaker 04

  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 influencers the right to be forgotten, and it could impact adults, too.

• 57:09Speaker 07

  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.

• 57:21Speaker 04

  For our take, join me, Jess Maddox.

• 57:23Speaker 07

  And me, Thomas Germain, for The Interface.

• 57:25Speaker 04

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