
Is cash dead? 4 reasons you shouldn’t use it…
Cash is dead! Long live plastic (and I’m not talking about new fivers and tenners). I always try to pay on a card – as it’s like wearing a piece of invisible financial armour – and I want to urge you to consider the same. While cash feels real, and convenient, it’s risky. A woman once sent me...

A year ago Santander 123 halved its interest to 1.5% – now most should consider ditching it
Update Note: 12/12/2017. I wrote this blog just before November’s base rate rise, predicting then UK rates would rise and Santander 123 wouldn’t follow. Well UK rates did rise, and Santander’s confirmed it won’t follow. So everything below still stands. Some of the alternative accounts and rates have shifted slightly, but most are pretty similar – just click...

Warning: Parents with 2+ children who’ll go to uni, SAVE NOW, the system’s biased against you
The entire premise of our current student finance system is supposed to be “you don’t need cash to pay upfront to go to university!” Yet these days that’s simply not true. Many parents, especially those with more than one child, will need a war chest of possibly £10,000s. This isn’t about tuition fees. University fees are automatically...

Have you been Plevined? A new rule means just having had PPI means you are due money
Have you been Plevined? I ask that question in the almost certain knowledge that most people reading this won’t have a clue what I’m on about. Yet the answer is YES for millions, and if so that means you’re owed big money. At the end of August, the financial regulator the Financial Conduct Authority launched a two-year...

Five things EVERY student and their parents should know
Fear grabs votes and makes headlines. Sadly, though, both sides’ political spin and spittle over student finance have resulted in widespread rampant misinformation – and it’s got worse again this year. So with a new academic year about to start, my message to students and their parents is simple – forget the politics – ensure you understand...

Martin Lewis – The four things you need to be successful
Like all with greying hair, I wish I could counsel my 20-year-old self – not just to steer his decisions, but to help reassure and take the pressure off making them. In November 2016, I was lucky enough to do the next best thing. The BBC’s One Show asked if I’d give an hour’s life lecture to...

A year of fighting to break the link between mental illness and money problems…
Fourteen years ago I started this site, MoneySavingExpert.com. Now my second career baby is celebrating its first birthday – the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute (MMHPI) charity. This time is a somewhat difference experience. I’m at a different stage of my career, and while I founded the charity, and have pledged to fund it for the first...

How to make a tweet/Facebook post go viral – 7 lessons from ‘You don’t need your polling card’
Last Wednesday, the day before the general election, I casually popped a little note on social media. That message exploded. I’ve had posts go viral before, but this was by far the biggest. So I thought it would be interesting to bash out the stats of the tweet, and try to explore why this message triggered the instinct...

When will your student loan be written off?
It’s a question I’m asked all the time. Many know that current students no longer need to repay their loans 30 years after the April following graduation, yet for those who started university before 2012, there are a variety of options. This information has been a long-term part of my Should I repay my student loan? guide (where...

Should you buy euros/dollars now, before the general election?
The pound is still in the doldrums. Even after a slight strengthening on the back of Tuesday’s election announcement it still currently only buys just €1.20. Against the dollar, the rate is just $1.28 – historically very poor.
26 September 2023
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Martin: It's Meter Reading Week
His 9 energy need-to-knows
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Martin's savers alert
After base rate freeze
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Grab 1.5yrs' FREE family insurance
Travel, mobile & breakdown
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FREE Greggs pizza slice & hot drink
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14,000 Vax codes
Incl £400 cordless for £100
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Mortgage rates are falling
Is now the time to fix?
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Now FOUR banks pay you to switch
Up to a FREE £210
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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.