
Martin Lewis: A warning to every UK worker aged 22+, you’re likely about to get a pay rise, but it may cost you
On 6 April, most UK workers aged 22 or over are due a hidden pay rise – but your employer doesn’t need to tell you. This is all about the ‘auto-enrolment’ scheme – where your employer has to contribute towards your pension, and now it’s going to have to give you even more. So I wanted to...

Martin Lewis: Spread the word – don’t believe scam Bitcoin Code or Bitcoin trading ads
I don’t do adverts. If you ever see one with my face or name on it, it is without my permission, and usually a scam. Admittedly some are supposedly legit firms bending the rules to imply a link (though do you really trust firms that’d do that anyway?). The latest Facebook ad plague with me in is...

Martin Lewis: To those who sent me messages about the interview on losing my mum when I was 11…
Last Wednesday, for the first time, I spoke publicly about losing my mother when I was a child. I wanted to write a brief note today, primarily to express thanks for the huge volume of support, shared grief, emotional outpourings and condolence messages I’ve had. I’ve been overwhelmed in every way. Doing the Radio 5 Live interview...

Martin Lewis: An urgent warning for parents paying for childcare…
Update Wed 14 Mar – childcare voucher deadline extended. Parliament has just voted to extend the deadline for joining the Childcare Vouchers scheme by around six months (no final end date is confirmed). It’s still worth following the logic of the original info below to decide which scheme is best for you though (but I haven’t updated it...

British Gas customers’ new £225 a year discount
British Gas is the UK’s biggest energy firm, and millions of customers stick with it through thick and thin, even if they know they can get much cheaper deals elsewhere (as I constantly nag about). Yet right now there’s a route that enables existing British Gas direct debit customers, who use dual fuel (ie, gas & electricity)...

Martin Lewis: If 83% are predicted not to repay student loans, who pays it? It doesn’t work like you think…
Student loans are a political hot potato and widely misunderstood. I recently blogged on why, bizarrely, cutting tuition fees risks hurting not helping most graduates and within the logic of that I explained it is predicted that 83% of university leavers under the newest English system won’t repay their loans in full within the 30 years before they wipe....

Martin Lewis: A warning to first time buyers – you’ve less than a week to decide if your Help to Buy ISA should become a Lifetime ISA (LISA) – some could gain £1,000s
For those saving for a first-time residential property, Help to Buy ISAs and Lifetime ISAs are no-brainers, as an unbeatable 25% bonus is added as well as interest. In other words you get an extra £250 per £1,000 saved towards any mortgage. Yet as you can only get the home-buying bonus on one of them, you need to pick which is...

Martin Lewis: Why cutting tuition fees bizarrely risks hurting not helping most students
The news again has been full of talk about cutting English tuition fees from £9,250 to, say, £6,000. While psychologically attractive – as it reduces the perceived ‘debt’ – the practical impact is to take money off universities, risking the quality of education, and handing it to very high-earning graduates. I bashed out this explanation on my...

I averaged 25,420 steps per day (burning 3,880 calories) in 2017 – here’s how…
I’m obsessed with fitness tracking statistics. I’ve just checked and I did 9,278,393 steps in 2017 – a ridiculous amount. So much so that this year one of my resolutions is to do a little fewer, as getting these steps has taken over my life to an extent. So I thought it worth bashing out the stats,...

An important warning to every worker and 9 other need-to-knows from 2017
So what piqued your interest most in 2017? I asked the MSE data team to let me know what my top 10 most read blogs were for the year. Now, of course, these aren’t the most read things on MSE – just the bits of my musings you most picked up on. At a vain attempt to...
19 September 2023
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Martin: Car insurance up 41%
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Recent Blogs
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Martin Lewis: Is it time to ban unnecessary Christmas presents?
11 September 2023Update 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... -
Martin Lewis: Five things all new English university starters should know
4 September 2023The 2023 academic year is about to start, and it'll see the biggest shake-up to student finance in England for a decade. The changes are both subtle and massive. On the surface they look like a tweak, in practice they will increase the eventual cost of going to university by over 50% for many typical graduates.