Energy fixes are back! | Best ISAs for 2026/7 | Council Tax Change

20:24Martin Lewis:There is no comparison for the tracker tariff because it's impossible to do. The tracker tariff by octopus, the unit rate that you pay for your gas and electricity, changes every day based on the underlying wholesale rate. There's also the agile price, where the amount you pay for electricity changes every half hour based on the wholesale rate. And some days on Agile recently, we've seen the price be way more than the price cap. And other days, they've been paying you seven pence a kilowatt hour to use electricity. So if you charged your electric car at that point, you might have made, you know, five, six, seven quid.

20:53Martin Lewis:Be paid to charge your electric car. Tracker doesn't do that, though. Tracker moves every day. Obviously, when wholesale rates are going up, it's not been that cheap. Before the Middle East conflict, it worked quite well for many people. The problem with moving off tracker is what they say is you can leave tracker, but you can't come back for nine months because what they don't want people doing is saying, oh, it's an expensive period. I'm just going to nip off for a month, go on to a normal price cap and then come back when it's cheaper. You can't do that. So if you leave the tracker tariff, you've got to leave for at least nine months.

21:24Martin Lewis:Again, if this conflict looks like I would probably hold another week and see what's going on in the news. If we're at the end game of this, right, then you're probably better off staying on the tracker. I can't know because I haven't got a crystal ball, but you're probably better off. If we're not at the end game of this, you might just want to say, I want to go risk averse and I'm going to get myself a fix that's as cheap as I can get and then I'm not playing with this volatility. Will says it should be the law that the energy companies have to put you on the cheapest tariff. David Cameron talked about that.

21:50Martin Lewis:Unfortunately, what is the cheapest tariff? Right? So I'm, even I, who does this for my job, I'm sitting there going, well, if you fix right now, It's cheaper than the price cap and it's cheaper than where the price cap is predicted to go in July and maybe cheaper than where the price cap is in October. But also you might fix in two weeks time and it'll be cheaper. You have to. There are two types of the standard variable rate that is the price cap and moves with off gem. And then there's fixes, which is basically if you think of the company goes, oh, there's a bit of cheap energy over there. I'm going to buy a chunk of it and I'm going to sell it to you at this price.

22:27Martin Lewis:Well, that'll be gone. And in a week's time, that'll be gone. And whatever they can buy it for at that. So what is the cheapest? So you wouldn't be allowed to have fixes. Do you see what I mean? OK, no, I get that. But you could express it as, well, not the most expensive, not default. So the... Which is the price cap. So the price cap was set up for the people who don't take advantage of switching so that they wouldn't be charged extremely outrageously ripped off prices compared to everyone else. They'd only be charged ripped off prices compared to everyone else. You know, it's not as outrageously bad as it would have been otherwise.

22:58Martin Lewis:But the idea, what you would do, and listen, I'm not against a regulated pricing market, but if you said everyone needs to be on the cheapest, well, so someone who's on the Octopus Agile tariff, that price moves every half hour. How do you compare that to a price cap tariff? And how do you compare that to a fixed tariff? There isn't a definition of the cheapest. It's why I have to spend half an hour explaining it. Okay, Stephen. It's a long one, this. my EON fixed tariff is ending 6th July. Until 49 days beforehand, I have to pay£100 to move suppliers. If I move to another EON tariff, there is no exit fee.

23:34I pay£84 a month by direct debit. What should I do? Switch now at a higher rate with less available fixes, taking a hit to be safe from future rises, and check available switches within 49-day period or wait until fix ends.

23:48Martin Lewis:So what you're basically saying is, do I move to an EON tariff because there's no early exit penalties, even though I'll pay more to fix now because those fixes are cheap. I need to be really straight. I don't know. I do not know. There is no right answer. Now, you might think that's a bad answer. But then again, the other way to phrase that is there is no wrong answer. The only way to answer your question is to have a crystal ball. I don't have one. You don't have one. If you're risk averse, you may as well lock in now at a price that you're comfortable with, even if it's more than you're paying for the next month or two, because you know you can lock in at less than the price cap on predictions for the next year.

24:25Martin Lewis:If you're not risk averse and you're willing to play the volatility, then you might hold off and wait and cross your fingers. But there is no right answer. What I can't, which is why my big messaging this week has been for everyone on the price cap. If you're on a price cap tariff, not on a fix, which is already cheap, you're on that default bog standard, we're just going to protect you from being extremely ripped off, but you're still going to be ripped off effectively. I'll phrase it that way. I'm not trying to make a political point. Just think about it. It's not price cap is not a good price.

24:52Martin Lewis:It's capped. It's not a good price. It's the maximum they're allowed to charge you. If you're on that maximum, they're allowed to charge your price cap, which 60 % of people are right now, you can save money straight away because you can move to a tariff that's 4 % cheaper today. And we are pretty certain the price cap's going up in July. So the saving you make from July to October will be way more than 4 % because the price cap is going up. and based on current predictions, you will still save substantially in October and in January. But the October and January could change, which is why if you do move to a fix, don't get one with two big early exit penalties, the penalties you have to, just in case if the whole world changed and energy suddenly got really, really cheap, then you'd pay your 50 quid exit penalty, you'd get off that tariff and you'd get yourself a new fix in October or January if it did get much cheaper.

25:38Martin Lewis:But the sensible risk-averse thing to do right now is to lock in cheaper than the current price cap based on current information. Paul is currently with Eon paying for what he uses each month rather than building a pot. Would I be able to get this on a fix? If he's doing that and you mean you're on a direct debit on a variable direct debit, well, most fixes are available on monthly direct debit. If the firm offers variable direct debit, they will often allow you to fix on it, but it does just depend on whether the firm allows you a variable direct debit.

26:14Martin Lewis:Tell us, have you ever made a financial blunder that felt disastrous at the time, but later turned out to be one of the best money moves you've ever made? Why don't you start with Julie? Julie took out critical illness policy over a 25-year term, remaining fit and well, it seemed like a total waste of money and a bad decision. Nearly cancelled it several times. 24 and a half years in, I was diagnosed with cancer. Sorry to read that, Julie. I had a small op and no good as new. Excellent. It paid out 50k. I invested it and that 50K is now worth 75K. I'm bridging the gap from early retirement to age 67.

26:50Martin Lewis:Unbelievable. So 25-year term and you got ill at 24 and a half years. If it had been seven months later, you would have got nothing and the whole policy would have been... Just worth a note on critical illness because when do you think a critical illness policy pays out? Oh, God, I don't know. I dread to think. You would think when you've got a critical illness would be the relatively obvious answer. Critical illness policies pay out when you've got a specified critical illness that's on the list of critical illness policies. So or something critical, you know, it might be that you've lost an arm.

27:23Martin Lewis:It might be that you've lost an arm and a leg and just losing an arm isn't enough. It might be that you've got one cancer, but it wouldn't necessarily cover another cancer. The problem with buying critical illness is you sort of need to be an independent financial advisor and a GP to really understand what's covered. I'm not saying it's a bad policy. I'm just saying never assume that you've got something you think in your head is a critical illness. People assume I've got cancer, it's going to pay out. Which cancer? Where's your cancer? How severe is your cancer is? Just a little side note on that.

27:51Martin Lewis:Louise, then. Do you want to do Louise's? Having to sell my dream home divorce. Thought I'd be homeless or somewhere really rubbish. I actually had a mortgage broker tell me to find a man quick as I had no hope of getting a mortgage on my own. No thanks, love. Got that T-shirt already. Well done you, Louise. Market changed and after the deed was done and I have a lovely house with over half the mortgage paid and I'm not married to a total rotter anymore. Win-win. Well done, Louise. Dominic, forgot to renew my fixed rate mortgage so I was paying the over-the-odds variable for a while. Finally got round to getting a five-year fixed rate two weeks before the Lids Trust budget.

28:26Martin Lewis:Oh, perfect timing. Well done. Richard, my mother accidentally ticked the wrong box and committed my father to contribute three times as much as he intended into his pension. That was 58 years ago. Laughing now. Wow. Well done. Neil, finance to Jaguar I couldn't afford at the age of 32. felt sick signing the paperwork, spent three years obsessing over every penny to pay it off early, built habits that changed everything. Sometimes the mistake is the lesson. I properly love that one. I properly love the idea that you made a mistake, you had to suddenly become much more rigorous with your finances, and then that paid dividends for years later because you learnt that lesson in financial control.

29:03Martin Lewis:Shall we do one more, then we'll stop? Yes. My dad sent my mum to the bank in the late 1980s to buy£2 ,000 of Guinness shares. It sounds sort of Victorian, doesn't it? Off you go. I thought it was£2 ,000 worth of Guinness at first. £2 ,000 worth of Guinness shares. She misheard and bought 2 ,000 shares at£3.25 each. OK, so nearly£7 ,000 of shares. My dad was fuming, but the value grew year on year thereafter. Despite recent falls in value, they're still worth over 50k. Oh, well done. So well done, Jason's mum. Jason's mum. There we go. Accidental fortune. I love some of those.

29:41Martin Lewis:Shall we just do a little bit on cash ISAs for five minutes? Yes, go on. I'm going to do a lot more in the podcast. We're going to take all your questions in the podcast. So it's just, look, as we've talked about many times before, not just cash ISAs, ISAs, on the 6th of April, every UK adult aged 18 plus gets a£20 ,000 ISA allowance. Right. And with that ISA allowance, it is just a tax wrapper. It's a wrapper you can put around savings or a wrapper you can put around investments, which means it is not taxable. And not taxable is really important to understand. It's not the same as tax free. Let me try and do this with you, Adrian.

30:21Martin Lewis:So roughly how much you're allowed to earn a year before you pay tax on it? About 12. £12 ,570. So if you earned£10 ,000, that money isn't taxed because it's below the threshold. But it is taxable because it counts towards the threshold. That's why we always say the state pension is taxable. Many people have the whole argument about the state pension is going to be higher than the tax free threshold. State pension has always been taxable. But if you've only had the state pension, it wouldn't be taxed because it's below the threshold. ISAs are not taxable. taxable. The amount of interest you earn in a cash ISA or the dividends you earn in a shares ISA or the capital gain in a shares ISA is not taxable.

31:06Martin Lewis:Not only do you not pay tax on it, but it doesn't count towards the allowances that you have on everything else. And that's why for people who are looking to save or looking to invest, it's really worth considering putting money into an ISA. And for cash ISAs at the moment, the best cash ISA rates are better than the top normal savings rates. So even if you didn't need the tax because you weren't going to be taxed on your savings anyway because you can earn£1 ,000 of interest a year tax-free in normal savings, well, you may as well open a cash ISA because a cash ISA is just a savings account that isn't taxable.

31:39Martin Lewis:Do you want to do one or two questions and then we'll move to Mastermind? David, can you confirm there is now a£12 ,000 limit on cash ISAs? I've heard different things and also any recommendations about to invest safely in stocks and shares ISAs. I cannot confirm there is a£12 ,000 limit on cash ISAs because there is a£20 ,000 limit on cash ISAs. The current plan is from April 2027, so next April. The limit on cash ISAs will be reduced to£12 ,000 for people aged under 65 and will remain at£20 ,000 for people aged over 65. The ISA limit from April 2027 in total will still stay at£20 ,000. So just to be clear, that means next year you could put£12 ,000 in a cash ISA and£8 ,000 in a shares ISA because it's a total.

32:28Martin Lewis:You could put£5 ,000 in the cash ISA and£15 ,000 in a shares ISA. What you can't do is put£20 ,000 in a cash ISA because the maximum you can have in a cash ISA if you're under 65 from next year will be£12 ,000. But it doesn't start yet. It hasn't started. And the reason I say it's planned, I mean, it's going to happen, but it's not locked into the legislation of how they'll do it yet. OK, Helen, when the ISA allowance goes down for the under 65s, will it increase back up to 20 ,000 when I turn 65?

32:59Martin Lewis:So here's the thing I don't yet know. What counts as being 65? So I don't know that if that the ISA allowance will increase in the year that you turn 65. So let's imagine your birthday is in June. and from April 2027, you were to turn 65 in June 2027. I don't know if what would happen is from April, while you're still 64, you would get the full 20 ,000 allowance or it would only happen in June when you turn 65, you'd get the full 20 ,000 allowance or you'd have to wait until your first birthday where you were 65 on the 6th of April. We just don't know. So once you're 65, you'll be able to get the£20 ,000 allowance on cash ISAs.

33:50Martin Lewis:Before you're 65, you won't. But the exact definition of what being 65 is, I haven't got yet. Do you understand what I'm saying? There is, that hasn't been defined yet. Rob has 2K in a standard savings account. Would it be better in a cash ISA or a higher rate savings account? We'll be adding to it to use for emergency funds. Well, almost certainly. I'm making some assumptions here that you're not a higher rate taxpayer, Rob. you would not earn enough interest on that to pay tax on it. So the tax at the moment certainly isn't an issue for you. You want to put it where the interest is highest. Now, that could be if you banked with Santander.

34:26Martin Lewis:It has a£4 ,000 easy access account you can get 6 % interest on. But other than that, if you're looking for easy access, the top paying cash ISA, which is trading 212, it's 4.62%, but you can't get it got out of your ret. You have to go via a comparison site, beats the top paying normal easy access savings at 4.5 % with Chase. I'm guessing it's easy access savings with fixed rates, normal savings beats cash. So you may as well open a cash ISA. You don't need the tax allowance, but the rate's higher and you want the harsh rate. OK. Anton, can I reinvest my ISA with the interest and add£20 ,000 to it?

34:56Martin Lewis:Reinvesting is that you need to transfer. If you take your money out of an ISA, then you are opening a new ISA if you put it back in another ISA. So you need to go to a new ISA provider, fill in its form. It'll have a form saying, do you want to transfer? and you can transfer, by the way, without putting new money in. You don't need to be adding new money with most firms you fill in and it will move the ISA from where it is. So it's with the new provider. You transfer that, it doesn't count towards your£20 ,000 because it's only new money. You're allowed to put£20 ,000 of new money in an ISREC.

35:25Martin Lewis:So if you've already got money in from past years, you can transfer it without a problem. That's me answering lots of my questions. Now it's time for you to answer yours. Play the theme tune.

35:40Can I just say my self-esteem is at a very low level. I had to get up at 3.45 this morning to get a train. I set my alarm for 15.45. Oh, no. Therefore, overslept, missed the train, punished mercilessly with the extra fare. I'm on a low, Martin. OK.

36:01Martin Lewis:Today's Mastermind question, is 5 % interest higher than 4 % interest? I'm joking, that's not the question. I don't trust you. I think it was a trick question. Adrian, the score stands that you've got 17 right and 36 wrong in this three-option multiple-choice quiz, which means, sadly, you are... Oh, it's meant to go no better than random chance. We'll need to get that sorted in the future. OK, yeah. OK. Now, listeners, our Adrian has gone to a neighbour's barbecue, hoping for now more taxing than an undercooked sausage and an exciting discussion about the proper use of tongues. But then... Thank you.

36:39Martin Lewis:But then one of the neighbour's friends spots him, makes a beeline and, having heard he does this show, instantly assumes Adrian is at least money-adjacent, a cut-price financial oracle in crops. Nobody would listen... Listening to this show would reach that conclusion. Don't wreck the format. Not wanting to let Five Live... I touched your foot under the table, then. It was quite comforting. I enjoyed it. Not wanting to let Five Live down, Adrian decides to lean into it. Yes, he says. I actually feed Martin most of what he said on the podcast. It's just a radio conceit that I ask the questions and he answers.

37:11Martin Lewis:The woman looks impressed. Adrian looks pleased. Until she hits him with her query. She's just had a pay rise to£49 ,300 a year, which is£970 below the higher rate tax threshold. She's also got money in savings, which, conveniently for this question, earn£1 ,000 of interest outside of an ISA. She says to you, Adrian, of course, as you may know, the personal savings allowance is the amount of savings interest you can earn each tax year without paying tax on it. It's£1 ,000 for basic rate taxpayers and£500 for higher rate taxpayers. So my question is, will I pay tax on this interest? And as she's not me, it's only a two-option multiple choice this week.

37:58Martin Lewis:You see, I told you I was trying to help. P.S. We will ignore pensions. So, will I pay tax on the interest? If so, the question, your options are A, yes, you'll pay tax on£500 of it because your earnings plus interest push you into the higher rate tax band. Or B, no, all£1 ,000 is tax-free because your earned income makes you a basic rate taxpayer. Therefore, all of your savings interest, you get the£1 ,000 tax-free and therefore it's not going to be taxed. The£1 ,000 takes her beyond the high-rate tax. Does that mean she suddenly has to pay on... She loses the£1 ,000, drops to£500. Even though she's only£30 over the minute.

38:43I think she probably... I think it's probably daft, so she probably does.

38:51Martin Lewis:So she will have to pay tax as a high-rate taxpayer? Yes. Yes. I'm not going to do final answer Right Because I'm being nice Play hallelujah I'm not going to give you a chance to uptown Do you feel better? Oh yes Yes Now I haven't got long to explain this So I'm going to run straight on Forgive me Well done Adrian The savings interest does count So bizarrely Someone earning£1 ,000 of interest On top of£49 ,300 salary Would tip into the higher rate That would slash their personal savings allowance From£1 ,000 to£500 Which means they would pay£30 of that interest would be taxed at 40 % and£470 would be taxed at 20%, leaving them with net interest of£894.

39:35Martin Lewis:Bizarrely, if the same person's interest had only earned them£950, not£1 ,000, so they'd just earned less interest, all the£950 would have stayed tax-free because they're a basic rate taxpayer, and they would have actually earned£54 more net interest. It's a quirk in the system for people who are around that threshold. It's interesting. It's probably not that practical for many people, but I enjoyed it and you got it right. Well done. Thank you very sweetly indeed.

40:05Martin Lewis:Ah, time to move into our pod only stuff and podcast producer Simon is with me. Hello, Simon. How are you doing? I'm excellent. I'm delighted to be here. Since we last spoke on air, people have been up to the moon, round the moon and back again. And you're over the moon to be here. I am over the moon to be here. I assume they downloaded previous episodes to listen to while they were on the journey. People don't believe this, but I was over the moon that Adrian finally got a mastermind right. I have genuinely this year, I decided to be nice Martin, not mean Martin, and try and be supportive of him getting the answers right.

40:41Martin Lewis:And I think it's thrown him. I think he can't quite cope with the fact that I'm not trying to catch him out. So I was very pleased he actually got one today. you got the right I mean it was a two option multiple choice it's normally three option but we'll let him off and we'll give him a tick because the BBC get very there's a lot of rules at the BBC when it comes to competitions and quizzes because if you got it wrong today you would have had to come down to one choice multiple choice yeah exactly that would have been a nightmare for compliance yeah some television companies have been caught out with similar things in the past we shall move on swiftly so I think what we'll do in pod only I think we covered energy mostly if you've got any more questions remember you can always get in touch with the Martin Lewis podcast at bbc.co.uk They might be asked in this main pod or they might be asked in our Question Times podcast where you can ask me questions on anything and everything.

41:24Martin Lewis:But we've got lots more ISA questions I know to come. So why don't we get into some of those with you? What have you got? Yeah, we've got one from Sue. I have an ISA with Lloyd's which will mature in September. I want to transfer it all to a better one, but I've already used up my£20 ,000 as I opened a different one I can't transfer into. Which bank allows me to open an ISA but will only transfer with no extra deposit? I mean, I can't give you a direct answer on that, except most of them is my answer. There is very few say you have to have new money to be putting new money in to get a transfer.

42:00Martin Lewis:There are some that don't allow transfers. But generally, if they allow transfers, then you can do a transfer without putting new money in. The reason I can't answer is I don't know whether you want easy access or one year fix or two year fix. It depends. There are some very good sources out there that update every day what the best cash ISAs are. And you can use that and you should be able to find that. So we've got this one in from Liz. If I already have an ISA with one bank, can I set up another one with another bank, please? I'm very confused as different banks tell me different info. Yes, you can.

42:31Martin Lewis:It is absolutely not a problem. What you are not allowed to do is put more than£20 ,000 of new money into ISAs in a tax year. It used to be that you could only open one ISA of each type, so one cash and one shares ISA, in a tax year. That rule has now been changed. You can open multiple cash ISAs in a tax year as long as you're not putting over£20 ,000 in them. So you could have three different past year cash ISAs if you wanted, and then you could open one fixed cash ISA with one provider this year and one easy access cash ISA with another provider this year as long as you're not putting more than£20 ,000 in the ISA in the tax year, you'll be fine.

43:11Now, I feel like I'm stepping on producer Matt's toes here as I'm going to introduce a caller into a podcast, which is normally his. That's question time for me. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we do have Jenny on the line from Christchurch. Yes.

43:23Martin Lewis:Yes, hello. Good afternoon, Martin. Hello. Hello, Jenny. What can I do for you? Part of my question's been answered. basically I have a one year fixed ISA which is due to expire next week. I have another ISA that's going to expire in August and I'm wanting to know what the best rate is for another one year fixed but would take transfers in should I wish to transfer my money in later in the year from the other ISA. Does that make sense? Yeah so it's often very difficult to do that to put the money in in August in the same ISA that you're doing a fix now. So you generally, because you have to fund them.

44:06Martin Lewis:I'll tell you what I would do if I were you, right? And of course, there's no right or wrong. Generally, if you're using cash and you're using them for the same purpose, so as in an easy access or a fix, and you just want a one-year fix, you want fewer ISAs rather than more simply for administrative reasons that if you ever want to transfer the ISA, you're not having to transfer five ISAs, you're only having to transfer one ISA. Make sense? Yes. Right. So here's what I would do. When your current transfer ends next week, I would move that into the top easy access ISA that allows transfers, which the top easy access cash ISA that allows transfers at the moment is Monument for new customers that pays 4.28%, right?

44:52Martin Lewis:So I'd probably move this money into Monument. I would have it sitting in there until August when your other one matures, and then I would transfer that into Monument, which is easy access, so you should be able to do so. Then you will have all of your money in that easy access cash ISA. At that point, I would transfer that cash ISA, the Monument one or another top transfer one, into the fix that you want at the time. Now, of course, there's a minor risk that fix rates might get a little bit worse during that time that that's the cost of doing this the slight risk although currently interest rates are predicted to be relatively stable for the year although we're in a very volatile world things can change but i think for administrative purposes that's probably what i would be doing in your circumstances how does that sound that sounds fine so this monument one is variable as well so that could go down in interest rate between now and august that's a risk we run is that correct yeah Yeah.

45:47Martin Lewis:So its interest rate is 3.74 % variable and there's a bonus of 0.54 % for a year. It could, again, if it did, you could always transfer it to another easy access in the meantime. I think it would be unlikely to see it dropping substantially if UK interest rates didn't drop. That's very helpful. And should I have any extra money, which I haven't at the moment, I still can open another cash ISA within this tax year with any amount up to£20 ,000 because I'm over 65, correct? Your age is irrelevant this year because everyone can put£20 ,000 of new money in the cash. It's next year when your age will become relevant.

46:25Martin Lewis:But you are absolutely right. And I'm just going to do this because people get so confused on this. I want to make this really clear. You put that money in in previous years. So those are previous years ISAs. The fact that you put them in a fix that is maturing doesn't stop it being previous years. The fact that you transfer it to a new provider doesn't stop it being previous years. So you have not opened, put new money in an ISA this year. So you have a zero, you've used zero of your ISA allowance, which means you have the full£20 ,000 still to use. And I know you understood that, but I wanted to phrase it that way because I think some people really fight on this.

47:02Martin Lewis:That's past year's ISAs. And the key thing to understand, of course, is once money's in an ISA, it stays tax-free year after year after year. So you get£20 ,000 this year. If somebody put£20 ,000 in on the 5th of April was technically the last tax year, so they could now put another£20 ,000 in today. They'd have£40 ,000 in ISAs. And next year, if they're over 65 like you, if we're talking cash ISAs, they could put another£20 ,000 in. Then they'd have£60 ,000 in ISAs. And also important to understand the interest that goes into the ISA isn't not only do you not is that not taxable, but the interest earned on the interest isn't taxable because it's all still money inside the ISA.

47:40Martin Lewis:So, yeah, absolutely. You're doing all the right thing. Thank you. I only just learned that from your TV programs last year because I got so confused myself with ISAs and probably came unstuck a few years. So did that explanation just did make sense? Yes, it did. Good, good. Because it sounds really funny, but it's all there in my head. I get it. But sometimes when you really get it, you don't know what bits other people don't get. So you have to sort of spell it out a bit more. And thank you for telling me that I got it right. That's appreciated. A bit that I didn't understand, which I know some of my colleagues don't understand as well.

48:12It is so important to not, as I did one year, close your ISA down. You need to make sure that you tell your new provider to move it across for you. And I came unstuck and then I lost my ISA allowance for that year.

48:25Martin Lewis:Well, we had a question earlier where someone talked about reinvesting. No, no, they talked about reinvesting. And I don't like that term because you're not reinvesting. It's savings anyway. But the money is saved and you're still saving. You're just moving provider. There's no re in it. And that's why it's a transfer. You'd never withdraw that. Then it's outsized and nicer, and then it is new money when you put it back in, with the exception of some flexible ISAs. But we'll ignore that for a second. Thanks, Jenny. So let's do a few more, Simon. That was a really good, really good caller. Now, you might have to put your foreign correspondent hat on for this next one from John.

48:58Martin Lewis:Hello, this is Martin Lewis reporting from central London. That's not foreign at all, is it? He wants to know, is it a good or bad time to open a stocks and shares ISA with the volatility in the Middle East? Yes, it is a good or a bad time to open a stocks and shares ISA with the volatility in the Middle East. So look, clearly there are two ways to look at this. There's volatility, stock markets have dropped a little, therefore it's a good buying opportunity, or stock markets might go down further, therefore it's a bad buying opportunity. I think if you're talking about putting money in a stocks and shares ISA and you're talking about for the right reasons, investing for a long term money that you don't need for five years and that you're going to do that in a nice widespread of investments like a global tracker fund or an S &P tracker or a FTSE tracker, then you just have to accept that there is never you.

49:49Martin Lewis:You will never know what the perfect time to put money in is. And actually, the answer is start putting money in. And hopefully the longer period it's going to be in there, the more growth you'll get. Now, there is a method that investment advisors talk about, which can help sort of help you with that volatility. So let's just imagine you're putting£10 ,000 in the stocks and shares ISA and you're putting it away for a long time. You could put£10 ,000 in now, but you could arrange with the provider that it sits in its cash part of the stock. So you can hold it in cash within stocks and shares ISA for the moment.

50:20Martin Lewis:That may all change next year, by the way, once the regulations change over the£12 ,000 limit. But anyway, and then you could say, well, I've got£10 ,000. Over the next 10 months, I'd like you to buy£1 ,000 a month worth of that tracker fund that I'm putting my investment into. And therefore, it's called pound cost averaging. Because you're drip feeding the money in, that sort of helps smooth out the short term volatility of whether you buy at the right moment or not. So if you're worried about that volatility, you might want to adopt that tactic. But nobody knows. If people knew whether it was a good or bad time to buy, then they would all be buying.

50:55Martin Lewis:They're only predicting. I mean, by definition, the markets are unknowable. So but what you're they're unknowable in the short term, but in a broad spread of investment over the long term on the balance of probabilities. So we can never say perfect. Then investing will outperform saving. So don't let it put you off the volatility. But you might want to spread the time that you're putting the money in. that might make you feel more comfortable. Although, again, in the long run, if this was the bottom of the market, you would have been better if you put it all in right now. But we don't know. So you can't get it wrong because there's no way to get it right.

51:25Martin Lewis:So you just have to do something sensible. I hope that helps. Let's do a couple more, Simon. If you take off your foreign correspondent hat and put your Mystic Meg hat on to show you... So I realised when I said it a moment ago, many years ago in the early noughties, I did do some reporter packages for the BBC and I remember for telly, and you had to sign it off, Martin Lewis, BBC News. and one of my colleagues on the business section at the time was called Marcia Hughes and I'm always jealous because she got to go Marcia Hughes, BBC News and I thought it would be so much cooler to have a rhyming sign off but I didn't, anyway, I digress, carry on Well, well, you know Marcia, I don't know where you are these days but I hope you're doing very well But you know, it's the podcast game that you did move away from that and into this Yes, of course, right Shelley wants to know, using your crystal ball are ISAs and other savings interests rates likely to rise or fall?

52:15Well, Shelley,

52:18Martin Lewis:Taurus is ascending. And when Taurus is ascending, that means the financial markets are ascending. But Virgo is descending. And when Virgo is descending, that can impact the cent. Anyway, so the question is, what's going to happen to interest rates? Don't know. We heard the boss of the Bank of England say today, as I'm recording this anyway, that he doesn't expect, don't expect interest rates to be jumping up as some people have predicted. I mean, the world is so volatile right now. It really is pure crystal ball gazing. And I don't believe in crystal balls, which will give you the view of where I am.

52:51Martin Lewis:It's looking like the market prediction earlier in the year was that interest rates were going to drop. Now is that they're going to be relatively stable. But we're pretty uncertain about those predictions. But I think certainly in the imminent term, with inflation rising, as it definitely has done, even though we've not had the numbers, March inflation and April inflation is going to be higher than February's inflation because of those input factors coming in from the Middle East. I think it's very unlikely that we will see interest rates cut and the Bank of England governor's warning that they probably won't rise.

53:22Martin Lewis:So you get somewhere from in the middle of that, they're going to be roughly stable. But that is a crystal ball. So, Corporal's asking, if I take a two-year fixed ISA, what happens after the 2027 change? Will it continue? Absolutely nothing at all happens. The 2027 change, the dropping of the cash ISA allowance to£12 ,000, only affects new money being put in in that year. If you're putting money into a cash ISA in this year, whether it's a two-year fix, a one-year fix or easy access, then that's this year's allowance you're using. Once money is in a cash ISA, it stays tax-free as long as it's in the cash ISA, year after year after year.

54:00Martin Lewis:The change next year will have zero impact on money already in ISAs by the 5th of April, 2027. And that, to me, Simon, seems a pretty good place to stop. OK, so we're going to leave that there for today. I hope you've enjoyed it. Loads of subject cash, ISAs, council tax, energy bills, Adrian getting a mastermind right. Wonders never cease.

54:23Martin Lewis:That's it for this week. We tend to put out a new episode every Thursday and Monday, which is our Question Time podcast, where you can ask me questions on absolutely anything and everything, open brackets within reason, close brackets. If you've enjoyed today's pod, please tell your friends you've been listening to the Martin Lewis podcast. And why not leave us a review or subscribe and tell them to do it too? Then your pockets will be pleased with you. And if you haven't enjoyed it and you've been listening this long, then maybe you need to ask yourself, why didn't you just turn it off?

55:06Martin Lewis is the founder of MoneySavingExpert.com. But of course, other consumer and price comparison websites are available. You can get in touch with Martin's podcast production team by emailing martinlewispodcast at bbc.co.uk. The offers and rates mentioned in the podcast are correct at the time of recording. However, if you are listening on demand, it's worth double-checking as details can date. Remember to subscribe on BBC Sounds and leave us a review however you listen.

55:37Code-Luigi