We record It Pays To Watch about two hours before it’s transmitted. This is for a mix of technical and legal reasons. This week however, it saved my skin. As regular blog readers will know, I’m a big X-factor fan. During my chat with Jonathan Ansell, I responded saying “I remember when my girlfriend and I first...

Times are tough at the moment, and people are looking for MoneySaving info. Throughout my career, especially over the last few years, I’ve turned down any job offers outside this strict agenda. There’ve been other ‘non moneysaving’ money show offers, as well as general presenting work. I’ve been asked whether I wanted to be on the shortlist...

After a horrible week, for all of us, it was a relief to turn on X-factor and veg out in front of it. As I’ve written before, the MSF and I are massive fans of the show…. and I would like to say at this point… GO JLS! This isn’t due to the musical prowess, though the...

This Wednesday we’ve changed the It Pays To Watch schedule to focus on Financial Self Defence. As well as savings, loans & mortgages, we’ll be looking at Section 75 credit card protection (and we’re about to publish a major new guide to it on the site too). Now you can’t do a programme like this without a...

Just watched the Sunday night edition of X-factor. In it, whether the acts get through or not, they call home on (what looks like) their mobiles with the loudspeaker on so we can hear their families’ reaction. Yet this is done in the Carribean, Canne, Dublin, St Tropez…. so it’s all roaming calls, and I doubt they’ve...

It’s the first chance I’ve had to blog this. Last Tue, I nipped out of MSE Towers, which is in Shepherds Bush (West London) on weekly e-mail day to do a quick interview for the ITN evening news on Bradford & Bingley. As telly requires this to be near a branch, and the nearest was on Kensington...

Thursdays are meant to be a slightly more relaxed day for me. On Tuesday I have my GMTV slots and the mammoth work behind the weekly e-mail on Wednesdays it’s full paced scripting, rehearsing then filming It Pays To Watch, and Thursday is meant to be catch up day. Sadly my easy Thursdays are long gone. So...

I watched the government’s gas and electricity press conference on Sky news yesterday. It’s a massively important subject that’s blighting the lives of many across the UK, so the prime minister and cabinet ministers were there to answer for their strategy. As I listened to the announcement, I was met by a raft of good and bad,...

The new series of It Pays To Watch starts next week, and one of the first few programmes is about credit cards. As part of it, I’ve been racking my brains to come up with a new way to describe the Credit Card Shuffle; one of the most powerful but tough-to-explain systems for saving money on cards....

Where are all the TV property pundits these days? House prices are plummeting. Whether it’s a heavy correction or a crash depends on perspective, yet either way the bubble is over. While most newspapers report this as a nightmare with shock “HOUSE PRICE CRASH 10% IN A YEAR” type headlines, I don’t believe it’s a wholesale negative....