Welcome to This Is Money podcast sponsored by Charles Stanley Direct. I'm Georgie Frost and joining me today is Helen Crane. And coming up, experts reckon energy bills will be even higher in April as predictions are revised. So is it time to fix? Electric shock from 1P to 5 pounds to make a cup of tea after having a smart meter installed by Octopus. A connection mistake, but could this be the tip of the iceberg?
Looking to sell your home in 2025? We ask the experts on what you can do to make your house shine. Our Helen has won back over 1.4 million for readers, as crane on the case goes from strength to strength. But what were our biggest money gripes of 2024? And what should you be doing with your money in 2025?
Don't forget to stop. Don't forget you can stay up to date with all the latest breaking money news. Just go to this is money.co.uk or download the app.
Using technology where it's helpful and people where it matters. Our website and app make trading cost effective and flexible. But we're more than just an online investment service. We're here for you regardless of your financial needs or if your life takes an unexpected term. Your finances your way. Take control today with Charles Stanley Direct. Sign up now. Investment involves risk.
But first, energy bills went up at the start of the new year and unfortunately the trajectory, at least for the immediate future, is to continue even higher. Yes, we are a long way from the record highs seen in 2021, but households are still paying an average of £1717 a year for our gas and electricity, with many of us of course paying a lot more than that because that is the price cap.
So is it time that we look to fix again? Helen, welcome. Did you and I today? Happy New Year. Not happy New Year when it comes to energy prices, I'm afraid. As I said, a long way from where they were of the record highs, but just give us a little kind of party history. What happened to energy prices? I remember a time when all the talk was about fixing. That was the best way to save money. And then it all just went a bit quiet.
Absolutely. So pre-energy prices, absolutely spiking to insane highs. That was obviously around mid to late 2020 to 2021. I think the high was about £4,500 a year, mid 2021. But obviously we had that government support to help us with those clearly bonkers energy prices. So looking back before that, February 2020, the off-term price cap for people using the average amount of electricity was around £1,000.
Back in those days it was perfectly possible to fix and get a significantly better deal than that so some people might be paying less than a thousand pounds a year for their gas and electric quite a bit less you know some people just a few hundred pounds can you imagine after that spike that I mentioned things obviously
have gone very differently. For a long time, it wasn't possible to fix your energy deal at all. It now is, but there's many, many fewer deals on the market, and a lot of them are just around the level of the price cap, so it's not necessarily a massive saving. It's definitely very different times to how it used to be. The advice was, make sure you fix, don't lapse onto a sort of price cap deal, and now
Almost everyone is still on a price cap deal and there's some choice but there's not necessarily a huge amount of choice. As you said from the 1st of January, Happy New Year, a price cap now 1717 pounds and more bad news unfortunately. So Corewill Insight which is the energy analyst who put out predictions for the price cap. They're normally very accurate. They've now made their prediction for April 2025 which is the next time the price cap
will be changed and they've actually revised that prediction so they said previously that it would be 1762 so already going up from where it is now they've now put that up to 1785 it doesn't sound like a huge amount but I think the fact that they are rating it they only made that prediction their first which in quite a while ago it is slightly worrying and it shows that
we're not necessarily going to see energy prices consistently coming down and they might actually go a bit more than we expected. The reason they've given for this is turbulence in energy markets, also the uncertainty of a Trump presidency in the US.
If you think oil is obviously traded on markets in the same way as many other commodities and if there's any global uncertainty, there's been this talk about potential trade war between the US and China, that's going to bring uncertainty into those markets and that's unfortunately going to be priced in and have a knock on effect on gas and electricity customers. There's also regulatory changes, so off-term the energy regulator has been talking for a while about making changes
for example this practice of energy firms offering cheaper deals to new customers which they don't offer to existing ones and changing the smart meter system as well and all that stuff cost money to implement and those things have been delayed as well and obviously the longer they take the more they cost so the upshot of all that is so cool it's like currently it's saying that
Energy prices might not go down significantly till 2027-28. So we're in for quite a long period of bills around this level, perhaps a bit higher, which is, again, you know, this is a big change compared to a few years ago, and it's just something else that people have to suddenly factor into their household budgets.
Sadly though, looking at the bigger picture as you've just explained there, it doesn't look like, let's say the world's gonna settle down anytime soon. Are we likely to get any decent fixed deals? I mean, what have we got right now and so is it worth it?
Yeah, there are definitely a handful of deals out there. We've rounded up a few in our school few days. Go do double check these because things do change quite quickly. Outfox the market has got a 12 month fix at 1590. Not huge saving on the price cap, but it's something, you know, 148 pounds a year. And again, that's for the household using the average amount. So you could save a bit more if you use less.
Elon's got a deal around £1,600 so you know these aren't giant savings but it's something. What's also important to mention is a lot of energy companies will have secret fixed deals so they might offer them to existing customers but they won't put them out there publicly so they might call you an offer one if you call them they might be able to give you one of these deals. The important thing really is just to check
And what you're paying now, so look at your bill, look at your price per kilowatt hour that you're paying under the price cap and check that you would actually better off on one of these fixes. So what some firms would do is offer deals that are actually a bit more expensive than the price cap with the hope that customers will think, oh, well, actually,
If the price cap goes up again, then I will be better off further down the line. So just worth really being aware of what you're paying, what you might say, where the price cap might go. And yeah, just kind of fully checking out that you're doing the right thing.
All right then, Helen, we're going to stick with energy. Energy firms desperate to get us to install smart meters meant to help us to save energy. Doesn't necessarily mean you're going to save energy, by the way, if you install a smart meter. But the idea is that you can accurately work out what you're spending on and perhaps you can change your ways, right?
Accurately is the key word though, Helen. Imagine one couple surprise when they looked at their meter after boiling the kettle for a cup of tea, or two. Presumably they were one in one each, but I don't know. Only to see it had added five pounds to their electricity bill before that boiling a kettle they reckon would only add about a penny to their bill.
A bit confused by this, they thought maybe it's just an error, so they tried the washing machine 15 pounds. I can't imagine if they'd used the tumble dryer. So they ran the utility company Octopus Energy to try to find out why their bills had suddenly rocketed, following the installation of a smart meter just a few weeks earlier. Now initially, the energy supplier ignored their pleas. Helen, take up the story.
So smartly to visit, as you said, really controversial. I think people either love them or hate them. We actually recently got one for the first time when we moved out. I quite like it. I quite like sort of keeping on top of things and thinking, oh, I've put my dishwasher on and that's costing me four pence an hour. My other half absolutely hates it. What is this machine judging me for turning the heating up?
Obviously if they know what you use and they kind of know when you're at home, they think it's a bit of a sort of 1984, which I think, you know, I can completely understand. So they're a bit marmite. But this couple, it's a really shocking story actually. So as you said, they got this smart meter fitted and I think they moved house as well.
and realise that we charge in five pounds to make it cup of tea or two cups of tea, as you said, I don't know, I don't know if anyone would share, maybe that's the thing that people would do, who knows, let us know. But they obviously cause their bills to get obviously haywire, so they contacted the energy firm which is octopus and
They did this thing, which I kind of hear quite a lot, which really greats on me. They'll say, oh, well, you know, don't worry, the smart meteor or settle down. You know, you've just got it, so leave, give it a bit of time to settle, which just seems mad. I mean, how would that settle? I don't know. But they kind of kept going on and said, no, you know, we really, they've been charged 3,000 pounds over a three month period. They used to only pay 300 pounds, recorders. Clearly, something has gone wrong.
But said, oh no, you know, it will work yourself out. So in the end, they got out an engineer. They hired someone independently from octopus, got a heating engineer out to look at their smart meter.
And they said, first of all, no, this is absolutely wrong. And also, they said it was actually something they'd seen before with smart means of customers, which is quite worrying. Basically, it was down to something called a CT clamp, which is apparently a current transformer. It's a magnet about half the size of a matchbox. And it fits onto the wires coming out of the smart meter and basically measures the electricity going in and out.
Now that I've been connected the wrong way round, which has caused these absolutely haywire meter readings. So, a small issue it might seem, but it's caused huge, huge problems. In the end, they weren't to octopus again, kind of armed with that information, and they also contacted us, sister title, Money Mail, who got in touch with Octopus.
And they did manage to get their bill sorted out, but it just shows it's so important to just challenge everything. I think energy companies are saying, oh, you know, bills are higher now. So, you know, this sort of things. And I did in the user as an excuse quite a lot, you know, we know bills have gone up. And of course, like this is absolutely ridiculous. And I think when you're faced with something that is paid to your ridiculous, you know, do as these people have done, just challenge it and challenge it.
get your own independent evidence and just don't give up because it's obviously absolutely insane. Honestly Helen, this takes me back and I shudder at the thought and regular listeners will know the problem I had when I was in a former flat that had mixed up the smart meters to a flat above me which wasn't in use and so actually I was paying less than I should have done.
But when they decided that, oh, hang on, she's paying a bit less than she should have done, they logged me to the business, the people that had renovated the flat. So I was a business account. So I was charged about 1,000, 1,500 a month. I think it was. It was something outrageous.
I mean it did give me a lot of sympathy at the time for businesses and this was during the height as I said the 2021 height of the prices. It was an absolute nightmare going from British gas residential to British gas business because I don't talk to each other.
Honestly, it took me a good year. In the end, I had to say, you are doing my head in. I was like, this is causing me problems. They sorted it out, and in the end, I just paid the actual minimum that I did. So I managed to get pretty much a whole year of not paying energy bills, which was great. But the stress it caused, I had debt collection letters. I've never had those in my life.
But this, I do wonder, and I asked at the start, if this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these sorts of errors. And that reliance on saying, oh, it's technology. It's a smart meter. Just give it time to settle in. I mean, like it's a dog or something, and it just needs time to settle into the new house, please. How do you question it? It's just really, it's your word against the smart meter, and they say, well, it's smart.
Yeah, exactly. I think it's a real issue, to be honest. And especially since, as we were talking about a bit earlier, when we had the energy crisis, a lot of energy companies went under and got swallowed up by bigger energy companies. This isn't just Octopus, but some of the energy companies in the last few years,
the swallow up thousands and thousands more customers you know they're a lot bigger and i do wonder whether they've beefed up their customer service staff to that level i i suspect they haven't because you do hear a lot of readers having real trouble with you know just sort of being listened to when they have an obvious problem i i do think
you know customer service has got worse as everyone's been kind of subsumed into these few big energy companies. I do hear actually now probably more problems than I did even at the sort of height of the energy crisis. And yet smart meters
You know, they're great for some people, they work pretty well, but they shouldn't be kind of taken as complete gospel, because as this shows, they can obviously go wrong. I mean, any kind of technology can go wrong, and they clearly do in this case. And it's kind of worrying, isn't it, that you can just put a part on the wrong way round, and it builds go up, like, 500-fold to make... I don't think they go down. Why do they have to go up when the other thing goes the wrong way? They don't really want to go down, would they? Like, they would never want to go down. Exactly. Even the parts are against us.
Yeah. So, okay, if you do have concerns, contact presumably your energy supplier immediately with all the evidence that you can, right?
Yeah, exactly. And if you really don't get anywhere with them, do consider going to the energy on Brisbane as well. There are certain sort of steps you have to go through, so you have to have given your supplier a certain amount of time to sort out themselves. And I think you have to get a dead lot letter from them to say, we can't reach an agreement on this. But it is definitely worth doing. You want to kind of take it to that next level. And also, you know, do feel free to get in touch with us as well. Editor at thisismoney.co.uk. We're more than happy to try and help.
All right, then, away from energy bills now, and this week's reader question is all about selling up this year. Now, my partner and I are moving house, she needs to relocate for work. We have had friends tell us some horror stories recently about how long it's taken them to sell, one described it as being more stressful than their divorce.
What can we do to ensure our house sells quickly? We want to be in the new home by August and we're thinking of putting it on the market at the beginning of March. What tips would you give that will put our house ahead of the competition in our local area and how can we spruce it up?
Specifically Helen, this couple are asking about things like they've got old fashioned old radiators, they've got peeling paint, unloved garden, double glazing, guttering, etc. So in their case, what do the experts say and I suppose some more general tips to spruce up your home?
I think it must be relevant to a lot of people in New Year's time when a lot of people think actually come on let's go house on the market and especially at the minute there's a lot of buyers around there's this jump duty deadline that's coming up in April so there's a lot of buyers in the market looking to kind of get in under that wire so there will be a lot of people putting their house on the market.
It's really difficult, isn't it, to know what to do to a house when you're selling it? I think it feels quite galling to do a lot to a house that you know you're just about getting rid of. It feels like a bit of a wasted effort, but the idea is that you do this effort and the returns you make in terms of the house price.
a worth more than kind of what you've paid but it's it's a tricky game and it's tricky to get get that right as I think this reader it is kind of feeling so our writer Ed got in touch with some property experts and said you know how far should you really go in terms of sprucing your house up should you then you know this reader's considering getting new double glaze windows maybe if that would help their house price I think generally the advice in these experts is
Don't do anything too costly, anything too over the top. They've said no to the double glazing because that's going to be 5,000 to 7,000 pounds. Obviously, the return on that is, you know, might not kind of come through. I mean, you never know what kind of buy you're going to get, I suppose, but it's the risk and reward is probably a bit too out of balance on that one. The things that they did advise to do, maybe replace the radiators. It's that they've got old style radiators. Only 200 pounds to replace the radiators. So maybe
in a kind of key room like the living room, get a trendier or more modern radiator in there. And generally it's stuff that anyone could do relatively cheaply. So freshen up the paintwork in neutral tones, declutter outside, so out the front garden, any sort of hallways. I really agree with that one actually. So we bought a flat last summer and I think those first impressions, especially because we were looking at flats and you might have a communal hallway that's
It got someone's junk in it and someone's old posts and like a bin bag outside the door. I think that really, really matters to buyers. You know, just going in with a good impression, you know, you're feeling good about going to this flat. And I think that could actually really, I think that really puts people off just a lady junk outside.
Really junk outside the house or you know, cracked sort of painting stones and it sort of chipped front door, that kind of thing. They did actually suggest adding a splash of colour to your front door, compelling buyers, apparently deep blue and sage green are the colours to add the most curb appeal. So they go get down there, get down far and ball for your sage green paint.
The other things they suggested, which aren't necessarily doing work, maybe look at getting planning permission, you know, could you say to the buyers, you could extend this if you wanted, you actually have to do the work, but you can show them that that's something that would be possible for them at relatively sort of like cost. And also just getting your paperwork in order, dig out all your files from perhaps when you bought the house, get a lawyer lined up head of time maybe, and just make sure you've got absolutely everything good to go when you hopefully get that offer in.
So those are the big parts. Those are the big things you can do. And I agree with clutter and making something look messy because it always makes me think how well as this person cared for their house if they can leave it in an absolute state now. But be that as me. Things like putting flowers up, baking cookies, are these things really worth it or just a myth?
Can I think it depends on the type of buyer that you're kind of bringing in, doesn't it? There will definitely be people that are really attracted by the smell of baking bread and, you know, a nice set to candle. I suppose those things are relatively cheap, though, aren't they? So stick a bit of bread in the oven, you know, how much is it going to cost? I guess it's maybe worth trying. I mean, you also get some bread, so it can't go wrong. I guess it's the win-win.
Yeah, I think maybe people give a bit too much stock to, you know, put some flowers out and have a read diffuser in your sort of hallway. But it does just give a general sort of nicer impression, doesn't it, I suppose? Yeah, another one, they said, clean the windows. That's obviously a really good idea. Don't get new windows, just clean your windows. I think it's all fairly basic stuff.
What do you think? Because when we've talked about this in the past, it's been difficult to sell. Are the experts predicting that this year is going to be difficult to sell, therefore you need to put yourself above the competition? Or is it a question of just general good selling tips? Or is it just dependent on where you live and where's looking to be a hotspot, as it were?
I think there are a lot of buyers out there this year, as I mentioned, because of this stamp duty deadline. But I think there's also probably going to be an increased amount of sellers. I mean, general agents are still saying it's going to be a buyer's market. There are probably more people selling than buying at the moment.
You know, there was a point where mortgage rates were really high that it was quite extreme buyers market. People were really, really struggling to sell because they just weren't buyers out there. I think that's kind of tempered a bit. Yeah, I think sellers might have a bit of an easier ride this year, just because people are looking towards that sort of stamped duty design being really sort of motivated to move. But I do think, yeah, generally the agents seem to be saying that it's still generally sort of in the hands of buyers. That's it for part one.
Take control of your finances with Charles Stanley Direct, Invest, Save, Coach or Plan. Using technology where it's helpful and people where it matters. Our website and app make trading cost-effective and flexible. But we're more than just an online investment service. We're here for you regardless of your financial needs or if your life takes an unexpected term. Your finances your way.
Take control today with Charles Stanley Direct. Sign up now. Investment involves risk. Welcome back. It's been a busy and successful year for Crane on the case, winning back over 1.4 million for readers since 2022. Over the past 12 months, our consumer champ has put many organisations under the spotlight, taking on some of the saddest, mind-bendingly complicated and just downright bizarre cases. So what? Helen.
are some of the highlights. What has this year been like for you, Helen, in terms of complaint? You said earlier that you think customer service has actually got worse. I think so. It's been a busy year. The kind of trends of what people have been complaining about have changed a bit. I've definitely seen more people getting in touch about being scammed. That's been an absolutely huge one this year.
It seems like it's a real sort of problem for banks and the rules with scams aren't really that hard and fast as to whether your bank has to refund you know they're sort of signed up to these voluntary codes but it's not sort of enshrined in law that they have to refund somebody's been scammed so there's always kind of gray areas.
One that I used to get a lot of people get in touch with, which doesn't seem to be any more is kind of holidays and airlines. A couple of years ago, that was absolutely huge. And I think maybe just because that COVID or COVID or travel boom has eased off a bit, maybe airlines and holiday companies are getting a slightly easier ride.
parking tickets, massive, but people are always getting touched about parking tickets. I think that's one that's just never kind of going away for us. You know, these kind of private parking firms has been a big one. I think actually a trend that I've made a kind of a sad one is sort of older and vulnerable people kind of not being helped by their banks. For example, if they've been scammed or
people who are suffering from illnesses and have tried to claims or pensions in insurance claims have been kind of treated quite badly. So yeah, I'd say those are the things that have really stood out this year. So let's talk about some of the more specific ones. We mentioned energy firms earlier. What about that?
This was one of the most kind of shocking ones that I heard this year. It was a lady who ran a sort of children's dance school in the West Midlands, just a really sort of small premises, a kind of one-room studio. Her energy supplier was Eon. I think she normally paid about £200 a month for this building, and got a surprise bill saying she owed £95,000.
It's like that smart major story that we heard earlier. It's just, it's absolutely ridiculous. But the firm insisted that this was, this is what you have to pay. I mean, £95,000 would be enough to pay the studios energy was for 39 years at their previous rate. Absolutely insane. And you know, it kind of sounds almost funny, but people who run these kind of small businesses, they don't spend all their time thinking about, they don't have the time to do this admin. And I think she was thinking, you know, how can I possibly fight this? I don't.
have the time, I don't have the kind of know how to do it, and if I can't sort this, this is gonna shut me down. So she got in touch with me, Eon did eventually instal the smart meter, which as you said, it's not without its problems, but it did work for her, and that was the way that she was able to prove the energy that she was using. And I surprise, surprise, her bills returned to almost exactly what they were before. That was a nice end to the whole saga, but what a mess for me on.
I say this so many times and I say this with the greatest of respect to the work that you do because I know you work absolutely tirelessly and this isn't a criticism of consumer champions.
Why does it take, firms, to have someone from this is money, call up? If they put more effort into their customer service than they do their PR, people might be able to sort these issues out themselves. Why this poor woman had to go to you, Helen? Drives me bananas. Of course they listen to you because you're powerful and important, but so are customers because they're loyal customers.
Oh, you make me blush, Georgie. I do agree. I mean, there is definitely an element of it, which is we obviously go to them and say, we're going to run a story about this. And then they get a little bit scared. But I think actually one of the comments on this story I wrote about the top cases of 2024, someone said, oh, you know, why do the press was hard to get involved? And someone I was commented saying, well, not necessarily. I've got, you know, hundreds of pounds back this year from complaining to firms that I have accounts with.
And what I think it is, I think it's fine. You know, most people don't have the time and the persistence to dedicate to, you know, calling an energy firm every day, you know,
emailing their bank, you know, three times a week for a month, try and get something sorted. And obviously they don't because for most people sorting their personal finances is, you know, a bit of life I've been that they do, I don't know, once a month of, you know, at the end of a busy week, find five minutes to kind of sort something out. And I think it's having the time to do it is the key. And obviously some people and absolutely fair play to them.
will really persist when they find issues like this and they will kind of get a resolution. But it's the time and it's the kind of know-how of how to do it and clearly most people just don't have an and why would they? Yeah, it's definitely on the companies to make it easier to get things put right when they do go wrong.
I agree with you on the time wholeheartedly. At the time wrote down how long I'd spent on the phone trying to sort out my energy mess. I can't remember it now off the top of my head, but I do remember the last phone call I had. Not even the waiting for them to answer. The actual time on the phone was an hour and 26 minutes. That was the final resolution phone call after over a year. So God knows how much. Like I said, I'd written it down. I can't remember now.
phone snatchers. That has been big news this last year. Yes, been absolutely huge. I would say at this point, probably most people know someone who's had their phones, especially people who live in a city or work in a big city because this is absolutely rife. I know a few people who've had their phones grabbed and it's just
it's these guys who come by they just run past you or go by on scooters and just grab your phone out of your hand you know you've got no chance of um of kind of keeping hold of it although people are trying and you see people clutching their phone now with two hands like i do it along obviously i'm my phone so we've got like a string around their neck with their phone on like who can blame them and obviously the main motive for for these people is not to just steal your phone but to
Get your banking app, you know, soften off your cash if you've got an investment account or something like that. The labs that you rinse it, and the banks seem to have this attitude that is kind of your fault. And they'll say things like, oh, you know, was your passcode for your phone the same as your banking app? You know, that is an easy thing to change. But I think most people think
Oh, well, I've got, you know, I've got Face ID. I use my thumbprint to get into my phone, you know, how could they possibly do it? But there are unfortunately ways around it. If they have your phone passcode, they can sort of disable Face ID. And, you know, these people will steal thousands if you have thousands in your account. They'll absolutely drain them and then customers will go to banks and it will be difficult for them to get the money back. They're kind of blaming them for it essentially. And as I said before, the rules around this are kind of a gray area. In certain types of scams,
the bank is supposed to pay you back, but this is all the voluntary code. This isn't sort of right in law. So they're perfectly within their rights to turn around and say, ah, sorry, like is hard luck. And I don't think it's good enough, really. It always depends on the individual circumstances, but
What's the difference between someone sending you a text or something, trying to get your bank details and someone grabbing your phone? I mean, both cases are essentially a scam. I've had a few cases this year where, you know, people who unfortunately had this happen to them and I've managed to persuade the banks to pay them back. So, Revolut paid a reader back 2,050 pounds and 250 pounds goodwill in one case. Another case, Revolut as well paid back 3,900 pounds to a reader.
In another case, Coinbase paid back 2,200. So it is possible to get the money back from them. But as I said, it's really tough going and it's quite a gray area as to what they're sort of obliged to do. Indeed. Helen, I don't like obviously the pot having sad moments, but we have to. We like positivity on the pot, but the gravely ill customers refuse their cash. The saddest cases you've covered last year. Tell us about that.
these really actually upset me because I think these cases are so clear cut. Several readers have got in touch about this this year. It'll be someone who's terminally ill or seriously ill and they maybe want to claim their pension early or they've got an insurance policy that they want to claim on. And they're perfectly within their rights to do these things. They're entitled to this money because of what's happened to them. But then the company involved
either mistakenly tells them they can't have the money or just sends them round and round in circles, giving them the wrong information and making it so it takes them absolutely ages to claim. And what's really sad is these people don't have time, like the reason they're claiming is because they don't have this time and one man who got in touch, he'd really sadly been diagnosed and made to your own disease.
he was going to eventually lose his sort of ability to communicate. And it was really important to him that he sourced out his finances before that happened, because he didn't want it to fall to his family. So he tried to claim his pension early from a company called Rail Pen. He'd been a Caraway engineer, and that was his pension administration company, Onil Health Grounds, which is complete, except for all he was, he was entitled to do that. But it took nine months, and it took him getting in touch with me to get him the lump sum that he was owed, which was £10,600.
And it also, it includes the annual spouse's pension for his wife, which is something that would be really important. So it's only a small amount, but an annual payment to someone in that situation can be really valuable. But nine months, and someone who's really ill going through it, a terrible time. Terrifying. I just think it's absolutely unacceptable. We talk about coming to a bad customer service, isn't that? But I think this is much worse than that. They know why these people are getting in touch. They know that
they don't have much time. They're going for the first time of their life and they still just tie them up in absolutely admin not. So I really think it's despicable to be honest.
Yeah, I agree, agree, agree. Do you have a slightly lighter one though that we could end this crane on the case wrap up? Yeah, so shall I tell you about the person who was charged £300 for losing a parking ticket? We love a good parking story, don't we? This was NCP. We'd have gone a lovely weekend away, parked our car at a NCP car park at Birmingham International Train Station, got the train to London.
Lost her parking ticket, very doable. And for losing that tiny scrap of paper, she was told that the find would be 300 pounds, 300 pounds. And if she didn't pay it on the spot, she couldn't leave the car park. She would have to just stay indefinitely in the Birmingham International Train Station MCP car park. Can you imagine? Can you imagine a better place to spend your life?
There was also, there was a film, there was CCTV of her going into and out of the car park. So they knew she hadn't overstayed, you know, 300 pounds or she couldn't leave. But don't worry, because she got in touch with me and they waved it. She was, she was allowed to know she, she left the car park before it's fine. She didn't stay there for like three weeks, but managed to get her the money back. So that was a nice one.
With all the amount of technology nowadays, it just utterly blows my mind that we still have a situation where a lost ticket could cause you this much issue. I just think it's crazy. Anyway, talking about lighter notes, what should you be doing?
with your money in 2025. This is money have asked three financial advisors for their top tips. It comes as new research from Nationwide data shows that debt in January is on track to be the highest. That's obviously not cheery since it started tracking prior to the pandemic. But the good news is that you've got some tips for us because of course going back to those higher energy costs that
tax returns, threats of more tax rises will pile even more pressure on households. So what do we do? Helen, it's quite cheering reading this article, I suppose that a lot of it is just good old fashioned money, sort of advice isn't it? Bit of budgeting, you know, set your goals, that kind of stuff.
Definitely. So this is a piece that I'll report to Harvey Dorsey, Israeli Spacious of Financial Advisors, and what I like about it is it's just really easy to follow advice, but I think it really is what bears repeating at this time of year, you know, people are thinking.
What do I want to do? What are my kind of financial goals? You know, whether that is saving up for something, investing more or just want to go on a nice holiday or all of these are valid kind of money goals. So I think this is sort of wise it can really be followed by anyone. I'll run through them quickly. First of all, set a budget. Sounds quite basic but definitely worth doing. You know, if you've got a couple more days off work, maybe before you go back,
Sit down, have a look through your bank statements. What have you been spending? What have you been spending a bit more on than you maybe what I might have liked? Maybe just exclude December because I feel like everyone's spending kind of goes a bit haywire. But you know, look at the rest of the year. That was so good. Where could you maybe cut down? But I think the way I kind of think about it is it's not necessarily actually calm down, isn't it? Because if you cut down on one thing, say I cut out
Netflix subscription. You're just putting that money towards something that you want to do more, right? So you think, okay, I'm not, I'm not spending money on that, but actually I'm going to buy something nice for my house at the end of this year or, you know, it's just putting your money and using your money in different ways, I guess. You don't necessarily have to have tons of money. We wrote an article last week about this 1P savings challenge. You know, you save 1P on the first day of the year and then you
take that up by one pence each day to your saving 3.65 on the last day of the year and that naturally 700 pounds over the year, which is a really respectable sum and it's a fun way to do it if you're someone who's maybe getting into saving for the first time. There's different ways to do it that kind of suit different people. The other advice the experts gave, if you're at the start of your savings journey set up an emergency fund first, so that's three to six months of living costs.
And then once you'll be on that, think about if you have surplus savings, what rate are you getting on them? Should you maybe fix your savings? If you've had them in the same account for quite a while, you might be not getting a very good interest rate at the minute. On a simple easy access account, the best you can get is 4.85% interest with Assam Bank, which is pretty respectable.
If you were looking to fix your savings, if you have money that you know you're not going to need to touch for several years, you can get 4.5 to 4.8% on those and that's obviously that rate stands until the end of the fixed period. So savings rates are going down but in a couple of years time that could look like a very good rate. The other advice they give, check your pension. I think this is really important because
a pension for many people was kind of one of the bedrooms of their personal finances. And especially for younger people, I've definitely been guilty of this in the past. You think, you know, I've got other priorities. I'll, you know, stick kind of the minimum to my pension, but I won't really give it too much thought. I definitely understand why people do that. But it's much better to save a smaller amount for a longer time than to be sort of putting in a big sum.
And later in life, just because the effect of compounding, earning returns and earning returns upon those returns on your pension is so powerful. You know, check it out. It's normally fairly easy to get a statement on your work pension. What's your pot looking like? Could you maybe up your contributions? What kind of...
contribution matching, does your work offer? Can you put in money via salary sacrifice? Because that has a tax benefit essentially. If you salary put money into a pension via salary sacrifice, it reduces your net pay, which means it reduces the national insurance contributions that you pay, especially you saw people who are maybe hovering around sort of different tax bans. And finally, the experts suggest make sure you're using your tax allowances. These obviously reset.
at the start of the new tax year in April. The most important which we always talk about on this podcast is your ice or allowance. You can save up to £20,000 a year, tax free, great thing to do, great way to protect your money and save without having to pay any tax in it at all.
If you're looking at investing, obviously that can be used on a stocks and shares, ISA as well. So that's a resource, smart way to start investing. And also if you were looking at a self-invested personal pension, also known as a SIP, you can get a £60,000 allowance on that. So definitely, definitely worth looking into. Good advice. Thank you very much. That's it for this week. You can keep up to date with all the latest breaking money news. Just go to thisismoney.co.uk or download the app. And if you have any comments or questions for the team or anything you'd like them to look into, Helen.
you can email us on podcast at thisismoney.co.uk tweet us at thisismoney or go to thisismoney.co.uk forward slash podcast.
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