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...
Council tax, 20 years since it was valued: a flawed system no one’s brave enough to sort out
Take a look at the back of your council tax letter, you’ll see that what band you’re in depends on the property’s value on 1 April 1991, twenty years ago today. This valuation was done in ‘second gear’ by estate agents and others driving past. It was a stop-gap measure, but in England and Scotland it’s...
Parking Fines. You can reclaim them…
Last December I was hit by a stonking great parking fine. It was £60 for parking opposite a sign that effectively said “no parking until 6.30pm” – outrageously my fine was for parking there at 6.35pm. I blogged back then that this would be the first of my reclaim campaigns I would actually be using myself (see...
My first reclaim: Unfair Parking Ticket.
Update Note: To find out what happened see the Parking Fines: You can reclaim them… blog. After all these years of reclaiming campaigns like bank charges & PPI I have never actually needed to do a reclaim myself. Until now. I received an outrageous parking ticket the other day for £120 (£60 if paid within 14 days)....
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Recent Blogs
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Martin Lewis: Is it time to ban unnecessary Christmas presents?
5 December 2022![]()
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... -
Martin Lewis: The one thing everyone aged over 66 needs to know
29 November 2022![]()
It is a national tragedy that getting on for a million pensioners, many of whom have been paying into the system for years, are missing out on a critical boost to their income. It's called pension credit, and this year it also means you get an extra £650 to help with energy bills.
