The new personal savings allowance means some will be better off earning LESS interest
Until now for every £100 of interest a basic-rate taxpayer earns outside an ISA, the taxman takes £20. Yet on 6 April, the savings landscape changes. The new personal savings allowance (PSA) means ALL basic-rate taxpayers will be able to earn £1,000 a year interest on all savings, higher rate £500, tax-free. But within the way this works...
My first year’s fitness-tracker stats: it works, I’ve massively upped my game
On 22 February 2015 Mrs MSE gave me a Fitbit Charge HR. I’d already had a Misfit for a while, but it was one you just clipped on, with no display. So I hadn’t got that into it. Now I’m a year in with the FItbit, I thought it would be useful to quickly compile my observations and stats. ...
Our response to the regulator’s PPI time-bar consultation… it’s a gross injustice!
The regulator the FCA has proposed time limiting PPI claims. Supposedly this is meant to be a boon to consumers. Yet in reality this is just a sop to banks to help them close off the huge liability that their fraudulent selling of PPI has been. The FCA published a consultation document; today is the last day for...
A UK-record 135,000 people switched energy in the MSE collective switch 4
The MSE collective switch 4 closed last Thursday, and we’ve been blown away, bowled over and victim of at least four other clichés by its success. The first three collective switches had seen 67,000, 72,000 and 86,000 people change their energy supplier – and each of those was in turn the UK’s biggest ever. Yet this is...
Is it time to ditch cash ISAs – now that all savings will be tax-free?
In two months’ time there’ll be the biggest savings shake-up for a generation. From 6 April, the new ‘Personal Savings Allowance’ means every basic-rate taxpayer will be able to earn £1,000 interest from all savings without being taxed on it (higher-rate taxpayers get £500).
David Cameron snubs my retrospective student loan hike open letter
Two weeks ago I sent the Prime Minister an open letter about the disgraceful retrospective hike in student loans. Those who started university since 2012 currently repay 9% of everything earned above £21,000 – this threshold was supposed to rise annually from 2017, but the Government has now frozen it. The impact of this is substantial. It...
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Recent Blogs
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Martin Lewis: Is it time to ban unnecessary Christmas presents?
16 December 2024![]()
Update September 2017: It’s eight years since I first braved this subject, expecting a snowstorm of protest. Instead, year after year more join in, like Julia who recently tweeted me, “@MartinSLewis, finally took your advice and told my family I can’t afford Christmas presents. What a weight off my mind. Thank you.” One year even the Archbishop of...
