Can we cope with the base rate rising?
Two months and no base rate cut. Not surprising I suppose as now we’re at 0.5% there’s not exactly anywhere for rates to go. Yet it’s the long term that’s more concerning, as we adapt to this low interest rate, low inflation (or even deflationary) environment, the shock once rates return even just back to where they...
Who’s Who Recreation Section… what would you put?
For the first time I received a Who’s Who entry form the other day, which is quite cool, and as it’s free I thought… why not. Then I answered my own question… because filling in the form is more difficult than you might think. What’s my job title, is it just “Money Saving Expert” or do I...
Steal Pepsi Max: promoting theft of their own product.
I saw the new Pepsi Max TV ad last night , and was slightly bemused. The ‘Pepsi Max guys’ are at a cricket match. In a chiller box the steward has a raft of Pepsi Max cans. A streaker runs on the pitch, the steward chases her, and when he returns the Pepsi Max has gone. Yet...
Pine nuts: strange taste warning…
This is perhaps the most bizarre blog I’ve ever written. Yet I thought I should warn people about pine nuts. For the last five days I’ve been complaining about a strange after-taste when I eat anything; it’s almost but not quite metallic. Having had a filling a couple of weeks ago I thought it might be that...
Pulling out of Govt’s Student finance day because of student loan fiasco
As a big supporter of access to education, each year I do an unpaid radio morning in conjunction with the government to explain how student finance works, as there are so many myths and misunderstandings (the parents’ guide to student finance we do each year is part of this). By bad fate this year’s was scheduled in...
Dear Gordon, why no response on Bank Charges?
While checking out how the savers’ rights petition was doing on the number 10 website, I clicked the closed polls section. In there, the tenth biggest ever poll on the site with 70,000 plus signatures is the Bank Charges Consumer Charter. Scanning the polls above it, every single one of them has (with response) next to it…...
Apparently my Stiffies was cut!
I’ve been appearing in dictionary corner on Countdown this week. The shows were actually recorded back in March. As you can see from my blog at the time, Doing Countdown and getting a rude word to boot, I had a fun time. It was yesterday’s (Wed) episode that was supposed to contain the rude word, and while...
Fawlty Towers: Uncle Terry wants a Gin & Tonic
Quite a strange experience tonight. Watching Fawlty towers and up pops the MSFs Uncle Terry (Terence Conoley). I always knew he’d been in it but until tonight had never seen him. He’s actually in two episodes. The first was the very first Fawlty Towers “A Touch Of Class” where he constantly demands with ever increasing fury a...
How credit ratings work: coming full circle.
I’m just finishing work on an ITV1 Tonight for Friday 8 May on credit ratings on how they work and how to boost them. As always when filming a detailed programme like this I learn new useful titbits which I can add to the guide (see credit ratings). Each time though, it tends to be something even...
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Recent Blogs
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Martin Lewis VIDEO: Should you pay off your Plan 1 student loan?
7 January 2020
If you started university between 1998 and 2012, or since then in Scotland and Northern Ireland, you'll have a Plan 1 student loan. While much is written about whether those with savings should overpay the current English Plan 2 student loans, there's little out there about Plan 1. I wanted to change that, so here's a video explaining how to decide... -
How much the Govt expects you to give your children for university
16 December 2019
Update Note 25 May 2017: The ready reckoners below have been updated with the new 2017/2018 living loan amounts. Also since first writing this blog, and seeing the strength of feeling it attracted, I have written an open letter to the Uni Minister asking him to start telling people about this. Yet sadly received his no we won’t...
