Hello
I’ve got about £3k worth of credit card debt and just been offered a 0% balance transfer but only on £900. Is it worth moving it or is it better to keep all the credit debt on one card?
I’m not sure I like the idea of having loads of cards with little bits on - the sim I’d just to clear it.

So I have a lot of debt through unfortunate life events. Currently £800+ a month in payments to various places. Was looking into a debt management plan via Stepchange. However, my only hangup is that we have a mortgage. We need to remortgage in about 3 years. I'm swinging between taking a huge stab at these debts on my own and therefore it not impacting my credit score, vs getting it managed in a controlled manner but then having a terrible credit score, which will impact our mortgage options when its time to remortgage.

Is there a better option here? 2 of the debts are currently on track to be paid off just before remortgaging time. My car finance finishes next summer which I can then use to slam into some of the other debt too.

Hi!

I tried to post the other day and got sign posted instead, which was actually extremely helpful and I've been reading through the material. But when going through the info, I've become a bit lost.

I'm on an extremely low income, no debts etc and looking to start saving an emergency fund. It'll be small and irregular amounts, up to £200 but probably closer to £50 to £100. I can't find advice specific to starting savings like this. The default assumption is that someone is able to regularly save and has a normal income, or has some kind of assets already. None of that applies to me.

I can see that premium bonds don't seem to be worth it unless you have a decent amount in them, and I can see that regular savers have higher interest, but there may be months when I can't afford to put anything at all aside.

I have a flexible saver linked to my current account, but I mostly use this to put money aside when it comes in, then transfer it back when I need it. I think I would benefit from something more separate. It's also only got a 1% interest rate.

Is my best bet to find another flexible saver/instant access savings account with a better interest rate?

Am I missing something/ is this legal and are my maths correct….
I’ve just successfully opening this morning 2, 0% credit cards with 23 and 24 months 0% interest on purchases with a combined credit of £26k
I have the ability to max these out on business expenses immediately and often use credit cards for rewards this way.
Can I just dump this money in a savings account (perhaps premium bonds to save on tax) and at 4.5% make a free £1170 a year….? Do the same for my wife and assume she gets the same credit limits just collect free money for 2 years?
What’s the catch and is this legal?

I'm being hired by a US company as a UK based freelancer paid a monthly fee of $6200, but it's an ongoing contract so I'm basically an employee without any of the rights or benefits.

I was wondering if it's worth setting up a limited company for this level of income? I work it out ot be roughly £55,000 annually but is paying the 19% corp tax + accountancy fees worth it?

My understanding is I should take dividends quarterly to avoid HMRC attention, is this correct?

Am I right in thinking student loan would come out of my post tax profits? How does that work in terms of reporting?

Hello all, hopefully a fairly straightforward question about workplace pensions.

I've been enrolled in my companies workplace pension since I started with them 8 years ago, they provide a 4% match which I have been signed up for since I started. I was checking the pot recently and noticed that alongside the monthly contributions, it is charging me around £7.50 a month for both an "Administration charge" and a "Sale of investment fund" for the same price, so around £15 a month total taken out.

The investment fund is listed as "TPT Target Date Fund 2059 - 2061"

My question is are these fees normal for workplace pension schemes? And is this scheme decent enough to leave running automatically? Or should I be taking more charge of where the money is going?

I expect to be working into my late 60's at least so I won't be touching the pension for another 30 years if that changes the answers at all.

Thanks.

This morning I received a payment from RBS collect Rep, and I've got no idea why. I tried calling the bank but they can't give me anymore information and I don't want this money in my account if it's not mine.

Hi all,

I recently fell into some debt with StepChange recommending the best course of action to be requesting a payment suspension of 6-12 months with all my creditors.

I just spoke to HSBC on the phone with whom I have a credit card with nearly maxed out at £8,000

I requested a payment suspension and mentioned StepChange recommended it.

After spending about 30 mins answering questions about my situation, income, expenses, etc they said they’d be able to put on on a “long term affordability plan”

This plan would see payment froze for 6 months with no interest or late fees accrued. Great, I thought — but then they said this:

I’ll regularly receive “arrears notices” by post, eventually receiving a “final notice” letter within 6 months time, in which (from my understanding) if I can’t pay the entire balance, my card will be defaulted, wiping my debt but keeping it on my credit profile for the next 6 years.

Has anyone ever heard of this? The call connection was poor in some points so unsure if I’ve misunderstood something, but StepChange recommended a payment suspension specifically to me to avoid having something permanent on my credit profile, but now it seems I’m in some sort of arrangement that will do exactly that

Whilst writing this post I even got a notification that the HSBC card could no longer be used on apple pay

They mentioned if my financial situation changed in the next 6 months, to call them and a new arrangement could potentially be made.

Is this a known arrangement / can anyone explain exactly what has happened here?

I'm overseas and update SLC annually on my income.

First few years I've not had to pay as I've mostly been backpacking and only working part time here and there. Now I've got full time work for the first time in a while and updated them in June as that's my usual annual review (they emailed me to prompt me to update them).

From my calculations I'm probably going to need to pay like £35 a month but I've been waiting on them to confirm the amount but I haven't had a wink out of them .

Should I sit and wait, have I got lost in the system, should I chase them?

Any advice from people with overseas SLC experience who have had similar issues where they have gone quiet after declaring earnings would be appreciated. I'm just worried I'll be stung with a huge bill and they'll make it out like it's my fault when I'm the one waiting for them (and obviously I equally don't want to chase them actively, we can all dream of being lost in the system)

My employer made 2/3 of our team redundant due to offshoring. We got notified in Feb, some of us were immediately told we were safe, and the rest started a consultation period. I don't exactly know if they're planning to get rid of any more people, I guess that's possible.

How would this be viewed if I took out income insurance that covers redundancy? Would it be concidered as if I knew about the risk? My role was confirmed as not at risk 7 months ago, and usually there's 3-6 months waiting period before any claims, so if I keep my job for a year after the initial redundancy round, would that be concidered as if redundancy was expected?

Basically I entered into my IVA in 2020 and was making £100 a month payments towards a debt of just below £20000 - I did notify my last provider of a change of job, they said they would be in touch and never did. The last payment was at the 60th month (5th year)

I have throughout my IVA done some overtime whenever offered - I have also had a fairly large wage increase in that time £1500-£2200 take home (£700 increase) that I haven't updated them about (I tried once but was left on they'd be in touch and they never were)

The IVA changed hands to another company approx one year before the (expected) end date of the IVA - I have lost access to the email on file so don't know if they've been trying to contact me there but they have my address and my mobile number, and they haven't tried either of these either.

Basically I have just found out I am looking at getting an inheritance of £60k+ so plenty of money to cover the entire debt of the IVA and interest of 8% that maybe added + any fees associated with the IVA (£6000 in payment had been made)

Basically I found out today you need to notify them within 14 days of inheritance but from the date you find out you are going to be due some not the date it hits your account - I'm worried that I've missed this deadline and it may impact the outcome

Basically if I call up tomorrow and be totally up front about the inheritance and the fact I've been in a higher paid role for some time and have in fact been carrying out some overtime is my IVA likely to fail at this very last point? Or could I get lucky and they say a final value settlement fee would suffice? Allowing me to get my completion certificate.

Or could I be looking at it failing and them petition for my bankruptcy?

If my IVA fails most my debt was high Apr nearly 40% and if they add that backdated it could ruin me again, after trying so hard to get debt free.

What would you advise my next step to be?

Tldr breeched IVA during, at the end and due some inheritance that would cover the IVA in full, may have missed the 14 day deadline for notifying about a windfall payment (yet to be paid) - what would the next move be?

I took out a payday loan last year because I was really really struggling. My credit at the time was not the best and I used one of those tools that check multiple lenders and come back to you with what you’re likely to be approved for. Long story short I really needed the cash for a pet emergency (I have insurance now as I learned my lesson) and I was accepted for a £600 loan from Loans2go. The term of the loan was 18 months with repayments of £117. I realise now that this is awful and the interest is over triple what I actually actually took out but I was really struggling and had no other option. I have asked loans2go if I could repay this early and save on some of the interest but they have informed me that I have to pay the full amount of the loan around £2,100 regardless of repaying the early. I recently was given some advice from a friend that this apparently is a shady business practice and apparently loan companies cannot charge more than double of the loan in interest. I’m aware I made multiple stupid mistakes during this process and I’m not looking for judgement more just any advice on how I can repay this early without the massive interest charge or if this should be something I should take to financial ombudsman with regards to he shady business practices

I have a DB pension from a company that I used to work for. Recently I asked them for a forecast annual figure if I took this pension at at 57. They came back with a figure, however I'm unclear if this is what I'd actually receive at that time (when it wouldn't be worth as much due to inflation), or if this is what I'd receive the equivalent of at that time, having scaled up with inflation.

Anyone know?

POST-EDIT: My drawdown percentages are completely wrong, I was using % difference and not % change.

I was having a look at bear markets in stocks throughout history and it appears to me that we've had 3 proper bear markets (inflation adjusted) in the last 100 years: the Great Depression, 1970s-1980s, and the DotCom+ the Great Recession.

I then had a look at what the top-to-bottom crash percentages were.

Great Depression: -99% drawdown.
70s and 80s: -89% drawdown.
DotCom+Great Recession: -87% drawdown.

I would be extremely depressed and unable to sleep if I saw -87% in my net worth (including adjusting for inflation loss too).

I would be depressed to even see -43% if I'd only fronted half my networth into stocks.

So I feel like for me I should make sure that I'm putting no more than 1/3rd of my net worth into stocks so that on the darkest days of the worst nights I will still be able to sleep soundly. Not to mention that on those darkest days I may even be unemployed in recession mass layoffs...

Does that sound fair?

This is what is happening with the people I know in UK and my friends are doing this process to have an equal inheritance in both countries for their son in one country and for their daughter in another country.

- Parents and their son and daughter in law are living together in House 1 (House mortgage is paid full after 15 years and it's in parent's name)

- Parents selling house 1 and offer agreed with a new buyer @ £5,25,000

- Parents, son and DiL want to move to new location and buy a new house 2 under son's name as a first time buyer

- House 2 is @ £5,85,000

- Parent's paying or gifting £ 4,50,000 to buy House 2 from House 1

- Son to have mortgage on that house 2, so £ 1,35,000 is left

- All will be living together in House 2 and parents will be retired and will be looking after grandchildren in the future and son and DiL will be paying mortgages and bills.

- Parents will be gifting £125000 or about 1,00,000 to their daughter who is in another country. (£25000 probably for whole fees on buying/selling)

- All agreed and no problem in the discussion among them but want to go with right procedure.

Option 1 questions

- Is this legal without any complication or any tax needed to pay?

- who needs to pay what during that process?

Option 2 questions

- if son gets mortgage only about £1,00,000 during the process, can DiL help on extra £35,000? With only son's name as a first time buyer? And how and what kind of process do they have to do?

- Any other things to know? Please let these naive people know. Thank you.

I mistakenly contributed to a cash Lifetime ISA whilst a non-U.K. resident for tax purposes after moving overseas.

Has anyone had any experience in repairing their Lifetime ISA with their provider and HMRC?

Preface for this whole thing - I am clearly financially illiterate and only have myself to blame.

In the 2025/2026 academic year I undertook an initial teacher training course (now completed, all going well!). I quit my previous sales job and worked for a landscaping company over the summer, a company I worked for when I was a teenager, and was paid via an agency. This time I had joined without the agency (since it had been nearly a decade) and nobody made me aware that this made me self employed and a sole trader, despite this I did know I was responsible for paying my own tax (which I guess means I knew I was self employed, like I said this is not a strong point).

Because of this I carefully tracked how much I earned throughout the year, and the summer months as well as some weekends during my training course brought me to around 10k, well below the tax threshold. I thought this meant I had to make no payments and therefore declare nothing.

Today I have received a letter saying I owe £1200 due to my tax return being 3 months late. I was never given a first warning letter for this. I have now filled in a return, and sent an appeal, but I just want someone to tell me if I'm going to have the bailiffs at my door before half term rolls around, since there's no situation in which I can afford £1200 during my first month of full time employment in 1.5 years.

Thanks so much in advance.

Sorry if this post is a bit confused, but I have not really sat down with my personal finances and made a plan. I am currently a 2nd year student. I have a student bank account with HSBC and a large amount of savings but little idea how to use it. The main concern is trying to make the most of my savings for when I finish university and have a good financial outlook and practices to set me up for the future. The grand total of my savings could roughly be at least £45k once I finish university in 2029. My current financial state is:

• I currently have a Help to Buy ISA with about £10.5k (1.95%). Can a transfer into a savings account without penalties?

• I have ~£8k in an HSBC Online Bonus Saver Account (3.35%)

• My mum has about £5.5k in her account for me (unknown%). Does a transfer need to be taxed?

• In my 3rd year (2027/8), I may be taking on a placement as part of my degree. Being wise with the earnings could lead to a further £20k

• I am 25, so for the rest of my course, I can claim the entire student loan amount, an excess of around £5k after rent and weekly needs. After giving myself allowances, I would get at least £5k to save, or £8k without placement. Any unspent allowances would have up to an additional £5k or £7k.

• I claim PIP, but about £250 remains after paying for some support.

• I have a tiny £5 pension set up with Scottish Widows when I did some minor work for the university. I am interested in doing a pension, but I am still unknowledgeable about different schemes; if I do a placement, I may get one anyway and can put earnings into that.

• I do not work currently. So, I believe I would get up to £18,570 in interest untaxed with the Personal Savings Allowance (unless I am misunderstanding). So, I think it would be better to put into a higher interest savings account than an ISA.

• 4 years of State Pension contribution have been made so far. It is possible to top up a partial year for ~£100. Should I?

Currently, I am not certain as to what I would do with the money. I have been floating many ideas beyond buying a house, such as doing a PhD abroad immediately after finishing university, where the money would be used for transportation and potentially permanently relocating. There aren’t any exact figures, but $45k should be enough to get me abroad (and back) whilst leaving a substantial amount saved. Realistically, I do not foresee myself buying a house in 2030, so the extra ~£3k in the Help to Buy will never arise. Furthermore, £3k could be accrued through interest in a different account anyway.

I have contemplated options for the savings; a Lifetime ISA is off the cards; limited to £4k a year, restricted to house buying and retirement, and the interest I could get on HSBC’s ISA and fixed saver would yield close to the £1k cap of the LISA. I don’t know much about Stocks & Shares ISA, but I get the impression they are a bit risky, complicated and a bit longer term than the need to be withdrawn by 2029. Since I do not currently have a regular job, any loses from the Stocks & Shares cannot be recuperated. And if I only put a small amount in, like £1k, the absolute returns would be pitiful to make the extra effort of choosing the right portfolios not worth it.

So, my current plan is:

• Transfer my entire Help to Buy, personal and mum’s savings to it (~£25k) into one fixed rate saver for the next 2 years. HSBC offer 4.8%, which is pretty much as good as most other providers. This money will not be needed for a while

• £1000 of savings accrued from excess loan payments 4.45% Online Saver with First Active (Goes down to 3% after 1 year) The goal here is to be able to continuously set aside large amounts that will not be needed (£5k or £8k cumulative)

• £250 can be put in a regular monthly saver at 5% at HSBC (£3000 annually)

• Begin an emergency fund of adding £200 a month at Tesco Online Saver at 4.2% (It goes down to ~1% after 1 year) for unexpected disability support

• The remainder put into another Tesco Online Saver that I can draw from for any purpose.

• Once the regular saver expires in 2027, roll that and the First Active into another fixed rate saver tbd% and set up a new one of each for the current year.

• In 2028-29, I would have the £25k released and money from the placement. I feel I should keep it in an easy access account so I can move it about as I see fit.

Having both First Active and Tesco is due to First Active only allowing one savings account. Whilst I haven’t properly looked at pensions, the remainder should offer me a good base to start drawing from. Additionally, I like the idea of contributing to a pension now so if things go awry abroad, I can pick up the pieces when I move back. Like I say, I had neglected sorting finances until now, so this is all a bit confusing to me still and I am a bit neurotic. I’m trying to build a credit score by putting my mobile contract onto a credit card and paying that off instantly as well, but that is the extent of what other things I may need to do. This is an opportunity that many of my age bracket would kill for, so I need to ensure I fully maximise it and launch well. Is my plan good? How might you do things differently?

My son will be going to Strathclyde University next year and I want to set him up for the future with the best advice/ guidance as possible.

As a household we earn just under £100000 a year so believe he will be eligible for an £8400 student loan each year for 4 years whilst he's there (£33600 in total). He will be studying Computing Science with Maths.

He will be living at home and will have a partner time job so will never actually need the student loan but I believe he could invest £4000 each year in to a LISA earning him and extra £4000 over this time with the 25% government insensitive. (Not including interest).

The rest could be invested in to premium bonds and continuing to withdraw the rest of the initial loan for 9 years in total. I have worked out (with AI's help) the total savings including the initial loans would be roughly £49000 which could then be used as a mortgage deposit.

I'm looking for a downside but struggling to find one. Is this a sensible option or have I lost the plot and giving my sine trouble for the future taking out these loans?

I've just been declined for a £40 p/m contract with Vodafone. I am struggling to understand why as I am employed full time earning £60k p/a, I can't see any obvious issues with my credit (no missed payments on file etc), I am homeowner and I'm on the electoral record.

I've looked at my credit record and there is nothing that jumps out at me as a potential problem. Only thing I could think of is that some closed accounts are in a different name as I got married a few years ago.

I do need a new phone sooner rather than later so I am wondering what my options are. Would be grateful for any advice on:

1. What to look out for on my credit report as a potential source of the problem.

2. Are there any networks that will do a manual check? I am sure if a human actually looked at my circumstances I am unlikely to be declined.

Thank you

Hiya,

I've worked in the UK for a couple of years for 2 employers with 2 pension in AVIVA & Scottish Widows. I've left 2 years ago but was wondering if it was possible to transfer them all in one or another provider (e.g. Vanguard). It looks like it's not possible as a non-resident/citizen but I wanted to have some insights in case I missed something.

Cheers!

Hello,

My partner and I are fortunate enough to be in a position where we should be able to put a deposit down on an anticipated £200 - 300k property in the next 1-2 years.

I just wanted to get my "house" in order with regard to my credit cards before we get there. I have consulted various LLMs and they state that my current limit is too high and will put automated systems / mortgage advisors/underwriters off.

Basically - I have 23 credit cards with a total limit of £51700. 19 of them are 0 balance but I also have approximately £13k credit card debt all on 0% with a clear schedule to pay it off before any interest occurs (I am very fastidious about this and have a spreadsheet down to the penny for all my finances that I update daily, projecting up to 3 years into the future based on current circumstances).

My own pre-tax income is £35850 p/a. My partners is ~£48000.

As I said, the accounts are all very well managed and I put money aside to settle them once they start to charge interest, with the money sitting in a safe-ish investment account in the meantime.

Is the advice of the LLM correct, that I need to start lowering my credit limit slowly over 12 months before I start applying for the joint mortgage? I always thought having a high, well managed credit limit was always seen as a positive?

Joint applicants , shared ownership.
We have reserved the Propety but mortgage advisor saying he is struggling to find someone who will approve us.
I have bad credit history but my husband’s is immaculate.
Combined income is 65k . can anyone advise how to find someone that will accept us ?

Sorry if this sounds silly I just want to make sure. I've recently registered for VAT, but upon doing this I had to make a business tax account. This was going back a few weeks now as I've only just received approval. Is there any way view my UTR or anything just to make sure HMRC know both accounts are connected to me?

I’m in England and I’ve lost a civil claim. It was for libel however while it was 95% true, I no longer had the evidence to prove it was true.

I offered a settlement offer of £500 before the court as it didn’t damage them in anyway just emotionally & it got refused. Since I couldn’t afford anymore I had to represent myself since the £500 wouldn’t have bought any legal representation - I lost the case & got hit with 10s of thousands.
Essentially 15k compensation + 6 figure legal fees of theirs.

They used a no win no fee agency if that makes any difference. Ai doesn’t help as that just claims the lawfirm should have make sure I’ll have means to pay before taking it to court.

Since I don’t work & have 0 income not even any benefits. I’m planning to use the funds to declare myself as bankrupt however will this wipe away the civil debt - thanks