Inaccurate price labelling is usually my territory. Yet similar tricks are played with nutrition and I want to highlight an annoying ploy to make salt and vinegar Discos look less calorific. Buying crisps in a travel WH Smith is always frustrating, partly because they’re overpriced, but also because it only sells grab-bags. (Really Smith’s, can you not...

My inbox has just been dirtied by a terrible press release from giant finance company Fidelity. It latches onto people’s misunderstandings about student finance to flog its junior ISA product. So I’ve quickly bashed out this blog to explain. Here is the release… ___________________________ £125 A MONTH FOR YOUR CHILD TO FINISH UNIVERSITY DEBT-FREE As the nation’s...

The conventional wisdom is you only need to keep bank, credit card and other personal finance documents for six years. This is because HMRC (the taxman) can only ask you to go back that far if you’re being investigated for tax purposes. However, I think the landscape has changed in recent years, and therefore everyone needs to...

In June 2012 I pledged a £10m donation to charity. A chunk of that was £1m to the UK’s Citizens Advice service, which I followed through on very soon after. Some of you may be interested to know what it chose to do with the money. For full info on what happened to the rest, see my...

Update note June 2016: This blog was written in 2013, though the logic still stands. The products have been updated and if you click the links it takes you through to the current write ups for each deal. I invite you to take a peek inside my overseas wallet. This is no apocryphal journalistic device, I genuinely have a second...

I pray the Archbishop’s laudable but blundering entrance into the payday loan debate doesn’t hurt more than it helps. The trip-up of the Church’s own investments is a side show – my concern is far more about his original soundbite: We’re not in the business of trying to legislate you (Wonga) out of existence, we’re trying to...

This question, in various guises, is one of the most common I’m asked. In a nutshell, the answer is no one. We do not (in general) have retail price rights. Stores can sell goods at any price they choose. Your right is not to buy it at that price. I’m sure some reading this are thinking "everyone...

I’m doing something rather brave. I’m planning not to work next Tuesday. Now that may not sound much, but since February 2003 when I set up MoneySavingExpert, I’ve done some work every Tuesday – that includes during my honeymoon and paternity leave for baby MSE. Tuesday is the day we put together and write the weekly Martin’s...

Update 14 November 2017: From the Paradise Papers to the Panama Papers, Jimmy Carr to David Cameron and Google to Starbucks, headlines about avoidance continue to split the nation – some view it as a moral abhorrence, others legal self-protection. So I thought it would be worth setting out mine and MSE’s view. First of all, let’s clear...