Free £310 bank switch | Winter Fuel Shenanigans | Energy Price Cap to fall but you should still fix

25:24So I'm going to keep going. HSBC, 42%. Bank of Scotland, 43%. Halifax, 48%. Lloyds, 48%. Great. RBS, 57%. NatWest, 54%. Santander, 62%. Chase, 83%. Starling, 85%. Nationwide, 82%. Monzo, 86%. And First Direct, 92%. Great. Hopefully you heard your bank in there. You'd be a great racing commentator, the way you... And they're coming up on the far side now. And his first direct is starting to overtake. So it's coming up and Nationwide's coming on the foreside and who's going to win? Who's going to win at the contest? And his first direct, great. That's very, that's almost worryingly good.

26:08I interrupt this podcast for more of the podcast because you had more questions about bank switching that I didn't manage to get in with my hour with Adrian. So I've got podcast producer Simon with me now to ask me them and we'll get on to energy switching and the mastermind later. So, Simon, what have you got for me on bank switching? Let's close this off. Yeah, so we got sent this one by James. How can you get the reward of switching if no direct debits coming out of your account or have less than£1 ,200 going in a month? First of all, most of the bank accounts I'm talking today don't actually have minimum monthly pay-ins.

26:40Let me just double check. TSB doesn't. First Direct just wants you to put£1 ,000 in. NatWest reward. If you want the£36 a year cashback, it does have a£1 ,250 a month minimum pay-in and co-op doesn't have a monthly minimum pay-in. But anyway, what the monthly minimum pay-in is, it's a way of almost setting a minimum salary that you have to have to have, say,£1 ,250 going into the account. But there is a way to jemmy that. So let's say you earn£1 ,000 a month and the minimum pay-in is£1 ,250. All you do is you have your salary going in there, that's£1 ,000. Then at some point in the month, you take£250 out or you move it to another account.

27:17You have a savings account, for example, and then the next day you move it back. Because you have to pay in a total of£1250 in the month. It doesn't have to come in one chunk. So as long as you're doing that, and many people do jemmy that in order to be able to get through that criteria. As for direct debits, again, not every bank account, the TSB doesn't require you to have two plus direct debits going across, but many of the others do. What I would do with that, and we use this trick when we do set up mule accounts, which I think there's another question coming on in a moment. If you need it, set up a direct debit.

27:50Sometimes there'll be a minimum, it might be a minimum£2. I mean, set up a direct debit to charity. Go and set up a direct debit to a couple of charities to pay£2 a month or£1 a month. They don't like it that much because it can be administrative costs. Or choose someone else or go and find something that has a very low direct debit just so you can keep the direct debit going. Or alternatively, if you're paying bills anywhere by direct debit, and for example, you don't have direct debits because you don't want to switch your main account because you're happy with that. Well, just move a couple of small bills.

28:17Have a couple of small bills coming out of this secondary account by direct debit, you know, your broadband, for example, your mobile phone, if it is set up by direct debit, and just have those two with this account. Keep it mindful in order to get the bonus. What's next? Charlie, I want to use an abandoned account as my switcher. So this is what I talk about in Mule account. People who switch bank accounts, right, I'll let you carry on with the question in a moment. People who switch bank accounts regularly. They effectively, they have their main bank account, but then they have a bank account set up just for the purpose of switching to get switch bonuses.

28:48This is for the regular switchers who are playing the system. It's a very different way of doing it to what I've been talking about, but you can make money from it. You've got to be diligent and know what you're doing. So the abandoned account, carry on with the question, yeah? Well, I think Charlie's wanting a sort of how-to guide on how to do that. He's saying, is there a way around having to set up a direct debit standing order requirements that First Direct has? He doesn't want to switch his banking bills. Yeah, it's exactly what I've just talked about. You either have to take a couple of bills from your normal account and just have those attached to and linked to your mule account so that when you move it, an easy ones to manage would be a good choice or alternative, you have a couple of direct debits set up for some very low subscription cost type service or giving to charity if they will allow the direct debit to be set up.

29:29Jenny asks, all the offers to swap accounts that I've seen say you need to close the old account. Are there anywhere I can keep the old account open even after all the direct debits have been transferred? So the key point here is most accounts require you to use their seven-day switching service, which automatically closes the old account and moves everything for you. So it is quite tough to get a switching deal. There is one at the moment. I'll come to it in a second. But I would say if you don't use their switching service, then you will have to manually move all your direct debits and standing orders.

29:59They won't do it for you because they will still be with your old account. So in terms of it's one or the other, Either they do everything for you and they close your old account, or alternatively, they don't do anything for you and you have to move any direct habits that you want. Now, the one account at the moment that is giving a startup bonus when you don't have to switch is the Santander Edge account. People remember at the beginning of the year, my New Year's resolution was to try and say Santander properly rather than Santander. It's mentally I'm trying very hard. Hopefully I'm doing it all right.

30:32Now, new and existing customers opening a Santander Edge account via various links available online can get a£30 Amazon voucher. Now, Santander Edge is my top pick for bills accounts and joint bills accounts. You pay a£3 monthly fee for it, but that's usually outweighed by the 1 % cash back up to a maximum£10 a month you get on council tax, water, energy, broadband bills that you pay on it via direct debit. It currently also gives 1 % debit card cash back on supermarket fuel and travel spending, but that is being axed on the 8th of September. We've just learned that this week, which quite a lot of people are annoyed about.

31:10The debit card also gives you near-perfect exchange rates abroad. And the key to this is that you can open it without switching. So the link isn't available everywhere. You'll have to go and find where it is. It's the Santander Edge current account. You can get 30 quid. But no, the big bonus is they want you to be, you use them as your main bank account. So they want you to switch out of your old bank account. That's part of the incentive. That's what they're paying you to get is they're paying you for your main custom. Why do they do that? Because your bank account is a building block to all of your finances.

31:41It has lots of data about you and they want to use it to cross sell you other products. So they want your main bank account with them. Finally, we've got this one from Darren Martin. He's saying that you said to use an ATM abroad on Barclays reward card. I thought taking money out on a credit card was a no-no. Both of what you say are correct. So the Barclays reward, this isn't about bank accounts, it's a totally separate subject, but let me answer anyway. The Barclays reward is my current top pick overall card for spending overseas because it gives you near-perfect exchange rate, has no ATM fees, and it gives you 0.25 % cash back on your spending.

32:14So the cheapest way to spend abroad is to use the Barclays reward card. and you can also use it for cash withdrawals because it doesn't have an ATM fee and it doesn't charge you interest if you pay off in full. Some credit cards, if you withdraw cash on them, will pay you interest even if you pay it off in full on the cash withdrawal. The Barclays reward card doesn't do that so it's safe to use abroad. But you are right when I talk about credit scoring. Withdrawing cash on a credit card is seen as a bad sign in credit scoring and can put lenders off. however just making a few small cash withdrawals on a card overseas is not the same as making regular cash withdrawals on a credit card which is a sign of you've got credit problems so it isn't too much of a problem I would always choose the card to spend on it anyway because you get the rewards you get the cash back on spending you don't get it on cash withdrawals rather than withdrawing cash but if you're going abroad and you want a bit of cash in your pocket and you have that card let's say you get two three hundred quid out always do it in a bigger transaction just do in one lump sum because that reduces the ATM fee.

33:21Taking two, three hundred quid out once and then spending on the card for everything that you can spend on the card and just using that cash when you need it so you don't have to withdraw a second time isn't too big a deal. So you are right on both. I have said it's the cheapest way to spend abroad and the cheapest way to withdraw cash abroad. There are other cards that equal it for withdrawing cash abroads but it also isn't generally good to withdraw cash on a credit card but that's more generally that you're doing it all the time and you're doing it in the UK because it's a symbol of bad credit behaviour.

33:47Right, Shall we get back to the show with Adrian?

33:52Let's do our telluses. What's the plural of tellus? Tell I. Tell I. Let's do our tell I. Got it. When have you saved a fortune by pure accident? For example, forgetting to cancel an insurance policy and then later realising you could claim on it. I've got Facebook, you've got X. I'll start with Tracy because it's a good one. Or a sad one as well. In COVID lockdown, when I had more spare time, I reviewed all our direct debits. There was one I couldn't work out what it was for. You were just talking to me about this in the break. Always got to Google it, folks, and find out what you're paying. That really annoys me because sometimes you go, you know, we should have to spend the time.

34:29It should just be clear. Yeah, well, it's about the merchant codes and everything going in anyway. It'll get better as open banking improves and the data improves. Some sort of insurance, but I couldn't think what. So I started making phone calls. It turns out it was pet insurance from more than from one of our dogs that had died over four years earlier. I'm sorry to hear that. I didn't recognise it because it was in the name of the underwriter on the bank statements. After some wrangling, they claimed I hadn't cancelled the policy, but I knew I had, they agreed to repay me on production of a death certificate from the vet.

35:01So it's probably included in the cover. It was over£3 ,000. Darlow, changed jobs and due to lack of communication between my former and new employer, I was put on an emergency tax code. This was brought to attention a few years later. I was able to claim a rebate from HMRC, which amounted to thousands. Family holiday to Florida paid for. Yes, although that is your money just coming back to you later, but I can understand why it's an improvement on cash flow. It's a bit like PPI payouts. Everyone's like, I wish I hadn't been missold PPI. Well, no, you had the excess cash in the advance. I don't get this one.

35:34If anybody can explain this to me, I think I'm too young to understand this. Sammy, I was born three weeks early, and because it was days before the end of the tax year, my parents received a few hundred pounds and bought their first colour TV with the cash. So we've got to be talking the 1970s there. What would the few hundred pounds of payments be? I can't quite work it out. I must be missing something. Right, okay. I'm not sure if you can clarify matters there. Someone in the Five Live ecosphere listening right now, get in touch, text us, email, you know, think it really heavily and Adrian's got that ESP, you'll get it.

36:11And with the magic of podcasting, we did actually get an answer to that. So I'm going to give you the answer straight away and move it from later in the programme where it originally came. I've got an explanation on that kids' tax rebate thing. You'll like this. Oh, yeah, go on. It's from Kate in Altrugram and says, Rare I know something that Martin doesn't. I've never experienced that feeling, Kate. You must tell me what it feels like. But anyway, explanation of the 1970s tax rebate for children. I'm fully aware, as I was born on the 5th of April at 5 minutes to midnight, And the midwife was motivating my mum, saying, think of the money.

36:46Because at that time, you had a tax allowance based on how many children you had. If you had another child in that tax year, you were eligible for that tax allowance amount for the whole tax year. So the later in the tax year you had the child, the bigger the rebate. How fantastic. My parents got the full year's allowance paid out to them, like your other tax year. They used the money to buy their first colour telly. Oh, you see? Well, we don't have that anymore. I didn't know about that. Fascinating. Thank you so much. I have just been to school and I love it. On a family holiday to France, Danny accidentally booked a cabin for the return crossing.

37:19It was a terrible crossing. Everyone was being sick. He was glad of the cabin. I mean, that's a benefit through your own incompetence. Exactly. Something good happened. Susan, and this is about her husband's incompetence. When I met my husband, somebody else had set up his car insurance to auto renew. He wasn't aware of this and was also paying yearly by car, so double paying. This was AA insurance. When we started living together, I noticed this when I started looking at the family finances. I spoke to the AA and he was refunded over£1 ,000. Needless to say, 15 years later, he stayed with me.

37:51And in 2021, I accidentally fixed my energy bill for 24 instead of 12 months. Q, energy crisis, completely unaffected. Yeah, I mean, ding, ding, winner, winner, chicken dinner. I made a terrible mistake once. Well, not a terrible mistake, but it really worked out for the best. Very briefly, I've got some friends in Croatia who asked me to find them a book called The Art of Selling. And I've tracked it down, bought it. This was 20 years ago. Bought it, took it to Zagreb. Bought it for 400 quid, the gap in the stores. No, no. But it was, look, I tracked this book down, The Art of Selling, got it, triumphantly put it on their dining table in Zagreb.

38:31And they didn't want that book. They wanted The Art of Selling. Oh, no. However, they started flicking through this art of selling. I thought this could do well. And it changed their lives, really, because they translated it into Croatian and made a little business which followed on from that. Oh, well done, yeah. All to do with my incompetence benefiting others. Destroying myself, but benefiting others. Adrian, your incompetence has made this show what it is. I thank you for it. I'll read one more. Yeah, go on. I'll read one more. Evie, a few years ago, I'd asked to cancel a pet insurance policy when the renewal came round as they were increasing it by too much.

39:09And they kept taking the money each month. The dog slipped a disc in her spine, leading to major surgery costing us over six grand, which the pet insurance company pays as they'd continue to be charging us each month. We didn't remind them we'd actually asked them not to renew it a few months later.

39:28we're going to move on to energy bills now because tomorrow is a crucially important date Ofgem the regulator at about seven o 'clock in the morning will announce the new Ofgem energy price cap for the first of July and the predictions are and at this point in the calendar the predictions are pretty robust because the assessment period is now closed the predictions are it is going to announce a drop of between 6 % and 8 % on the energy price cap. The energy price cap dictates the price that anyone on a firm's standard tariff pays. Now, firms can go lower than the energy price cap, it is called a cap, but in reality, almost all of them set to exactly the price of the cap.

40:13So we're going to see a drop, but let's not get too excited about it, because you have to look at what the run-up has happened. Remember, the price cap moves every three months. Last October, we saw a 10 % rise. In January, we saw a 1 % rise on top of that. In April, we saw a 6 % rise on top of that. So a reduction of 6 % to 8 % now will put us back to somewhere around roughly the January price cap level. We will not be going back to the cheap rates that we had last summer. We're still going to be far above where we were last summer. Now, I know many of you always say, yeah, what I want to know is what are the standing charges and unit rates going to be.

40:52We just don't know that. And until it's announced on Friday morning, and some of you might be listening to the podcast after this, in which case I'm planning to put a mini podcast extra out with just an update of exactly what's happened. But if you're listening before, I would suspect most of the cut will be on the unit rate because when it went up, most of the rise was on the unit rate and standing charges will say roughly the same. But I don't know. If that were to happen, that would mean there would effectively be a bigger saving for those who were higher users than were lower users. The big question, though, is you have to look at the market.

41:25Now, while the energy price cap is dropping 6 % to 8%, somewhere around there, I mean, it might be 5 % to 9%, but you can get the ballpark of what it's going to be. If you look at the cheapest fixes on the market at the moment, they are 18 % below the current price cap. The price cap's going to drop 6 % to 8%, but they're already 18 % below it, which means they're roughly 10 % cheaper than where the price will be in July. But if you were to switch earlier on to the cheapest fix, you would get the 18 % saving now. And I've just done an interesting piece of work that I'm going to put out on social media.

42:00I may well have already put it out on social media by the time you watch this, because I'm planning to do it on the Thursday. which is a graph showing that at every point in the last year you would have saved by being on the cheapest one-year fix than compared to being on the price cap. And I strongly think at the moment, as long as you're going for the cheapest fixes, getting the cheapest fix right now is very likely to undercut being on the price cap. If we go forward on the price cap, I'm telling you a drop of 6 % to 8 % in July, that's pretty locked in. The further out you go, the more crystal ball gazing it is.

42:34but I'm going to try and give you an idea. So let me try and paint you a graph of what's going to happen in future. Now, I prefer to talk in percentages because the percentage move is far more important, but to try and help you understand this, I'm going to use a figure I rarely use, which is the typical use figure by Ofgem. I'm going to give you the price that someone paying typical use would pay on the price cap as it moves. Now, currently on typical use, you're paying£1 ,850 a year. In July, the prediction range is a drop of between 6 % and 8%, which would take you down to between£1 ,700 and£1 ,733 a year.

43:14So a drop, if that rate were to continue over a year, of around£110. Then in October, the range of predictions is between it going up at that point by 0.3 % to down 4%, which then means on typical use, the price varies between 1 ,662, remember it's 1 ,849 at the moment, and 1 ,705. In January, the prediction is currently very little change. It's between minus and plus half a percent. And then the following April, those who do predict most are predicting it's going to go up again by about 4%. Now, if I were to summarise that for you, if you found it complicated, basically, it might drop a tiny bit in October, but the current predictions are it's going to stay roughly stable after that.

43:58Now, remember, the cheapest fixes are 18 % below, which on typical use is a price of around£1 ,520. So if the predictions are right, at no point over the next year will you get anywhere close to a price as low as the cheapest fixes are available for right now. We do have Margaret from Chester La Street. OK. Who's got a question on this. Margaret, how the devil are you? What's your question for Martin? Hi there. Hello, Martin and Adrian. Hello. My question is this. I have a dual fuel fixed contract, which is due to end on the 25th of August. Now, with the 49-day rule, I know I pay no exit fees from the 7th of July.

44:41So I've had a look on a price comparison site, and I can get a deal saving me approximately£120 a year. Compared to what you're paying now or compared to the price cap? Compared to what I'm paying now. OK. Should I take that or the nearest deal available at or around the 7th of July or is it liable to be worth my while to wait until near the 25th of August when my contract actually expires? Your question is, when do I fix? Not should I fix? Yes. In a sense. Well, I think you're right to wait until July, but there is a risk in doing that. It's important to understand that people often confuse the price cap movements with the movement at which you can get a new fixed rate.

45:33The price cap is set retrospectively. July's price cap is based on the three months to this week. March, April and May's wholesale rates are what dictate the price cap in July. So it's looking backwards. The rate you can get a fix at is what energy firms can buy wholesale rates at the moment they're launching the fix. So the fixes available now are looking at today's prices. And of course, the reason the price cap's going down in July, because prices have dropped right now, if something happens to put them back up in July, you will be paying more on the fix. Even though the price cap's coming down in July, that doesn't mean fixes will get cheaper in July.

46:12They could be getting more expensive because that's based on wholesale markets. Now, we don't currently have an idea of whether they'll get cheaper. You know, if there were peace in Ukraine, if something happened in the Middle East, all of that can impact what's going on. But I think probably the 7th of July, you're okay to hold it's not worth paying exit penalties yet as for whether you wait or not my answer to that i can give you a firm answer on that what do you think it is god what do you reckon yes i think you should do it i'm quite risk averse so my inclination is to take this or the or a similar deal to the one advertised now saving me 120 and take that on the first day i'm able to which I calculate to be the 7th of July.

46:54Well, I think, yes. Because I understand... You've got the 49-day rule. Correct. Yes, because in that period, I don't pay a fee to end my contract early. Correct. You don't pay early exit penalties within the last 50 days of your fix, which is day 49 and onward. You've done that brilliantly. So few people know that. Big plaudits for knowing that because that's exactly the right way to calculate it. So let's just go on this. So on the 7th of July... Now, the first question, can I check, what are your early exit penalties if you were to do it now? I mean, if there were£10 now, you might want to...

47:27£50 for each of the gas and electricity. Yeah, well, it's not worth it then. It's not worth it for that period. You're right. So I agree with you. On the 7th of July, the big thing, the most important point for me is that the fix that you can get on the 7th of July is cheaper than the fix that you are on right now. so there is so the benefit that you would get you get an extra month of cheaper fix if you fix on the 7th of july and that will probably outweigh the variance that we may have in the price that goes on until august if you're on a cheaper fix right now should i get a more expensive fix so i can lock it in for another year i'd be saying no so i think your logic's quite right you're doing exactly the right thing on the 7th of july assuming that's the right date go and do your fix then and hopefully it'll still be cheap thank you thank you very much that's decision made OK.

48:15Well, your expertise... I can't promise to be right, but balance of risk, I'd say. I can promise Margaret is more across it than I am. That's the main thing. So, Margaret from Chester-le-Street, thank you for that. Joanne, is there any indication yet of a social tariff for energy consumption? No. I mean, I've campaigned for a social tariff for years. It's all gone very quiet. There's no major party talking about bringing in a social tariff. I hope that will change. What is hopefully coming is a new lower standing charge alternative price cap. So firms will offer two price caps, a normal price cap and a lower standing charge price cap.

48:45I hope we will see that by winter. Ofgem is still working on it. We might even get an update on it tomorrow. But now I think it's time to play the music.

48:58It's so tragic. I always turn over a new page in my notebook, as though I mean business. And then I'll just do a load of doodles. So in this three option multiple choice money mastermind, Adrian has got nine right and 16 wrong. You are still just running ahead of beating, you know, someone choosing the options by where the snot drips out of the nose on the three of them. So the way you play is as beautiful as that analogy, I think. So here you go. I've just been handed a note by the producers, Adrian. apparently in the Ria of the Year Awards we have been picked in a new talk show pairs category sorry, I've just misread that it's the Year's Talking Out of Your Ria Pairs Award but there's a two grand prize so there's something now clearly to fit the spirit of the show we're going to need to save this and we're getting£1 ,000 each So there is an account online which lists its interest as 4.52 % annual interest and 4.43 % monthly interest.

50:08If you put£1 ,000 in and select annual interest to be paid into the account, and I do exactly the same, but the only difference being I pick monthly interest, at the end of the year, who will have more money in the account? So there's 4.52 % annual, which is you. There's 4.43 % monthly, which is me. We don't take any money out of the account for the year. Who will have more money in at the end? A, me on monthly interest. B, you on annual interest. Or C, we'll both have the same amount. Oh, God, I don't like this because I'm... Well, I don't see. Can I just show my work in 4.52? on£1 ,000 paid into my account annually.

51:00So at the end of the year, I'll have 4 ,000, 4.52%, that which is why. £1 ,045, 20p. If it's paid in monthly, is it paid in every month over the... It's called monthly interest. One is annual interest, one is monthly interest. That's what it's called. But that refers to when it's paid in. No, when it's paid out, when the interest is paid out. We both put the£1 ,000 in at the same time. With annual interest, you get the interest added at the end of the year. With monthly interest, the interest is added each month. Okay. Well, if it's added each month, then... And it's the same account. It's the same account.

51:40So it's... Well, I'm going to... Even though I know it's wrong, I'm going to say I have more, but I can't work out. I don't know why that's wrong. Because you've got a higher interest rate, 4.52 to 4.43. Yeah, so that's all put in at the end of the year. Your monthly interest must be 4, what is it? 4.43. Yeah, 4.43. So that is£44, isn't it, or something? Yeah,£44.30 if you're doing it that way. £44.30. So presumably that's divided by 12. £44, so that is divided by 12 and paid in every month. What's your answer? Unless you're making money. What's your answer? I think it's you. I think it's you because it's something to do with that.

52:26So you're going for A, monthly interest. B, you're paying interest on pay. Yeah, I'm going to go monthly. Okay. Now, often when you get interest these days, you'll see the AER, which factors everything in. But when you're looking at annual and monthly, they don't give you a gross rate. And it's the gross rates that I was quoting to you. 5.2 % annual gross, 4.43 % monthly gross. The key to this question, and you didn't pick up on it, was the phrase, interest is paid in your account and we don't take any out. Now, the reason for the difference here is because if you have£1 ,000 in and you want the monthly interest and you're paid the interest each month and you take that interest out, which is because you've been paid it monthly, that's the point you do it to take the interest out, then that interest doesn't compound.

53:08You don't get interest on the interest. But if you don't take it out, then the interest is compounding. And actually, the answer is C. the same. At the end of the year, you have the same amount. The difference in interest rates on the growth interest is a technical, not a real difference. The annual rate includes full compound interest for the year. The monthly rate by law has to assume you withdraw the interest that you're paid each month. So therefore, it's not counting the interest on the impressed compoundingly. But if you didn't withdraw it and you keep it in the account, it would compound and you'd get exactly the same amount at the end of the year.

53:49And lots of people ask me, tell me I'm going to take annual because it doesn't pay more interest. It's just a technical difference in the way it's accounted because they assume that if you're paid monthly, you take the interest out each month. Nine right, 17 wrong. Sorry, mate. Yeah, yeah. But if I'm helping to inform and entertain the country at my own expense. You're losing his wreathion in its value, Adrian. Just a little aside here. When we're talking about annual or monthly interest, that is only about when it is paid. These days, almost all accounts calculate your interest daily. So the fact it is paid monthly or annually doesn't affect the way it's calculated.

54:30You still get paid interest for each day you have money in the account.

54:38And we had one more quick energy question that we didn't get to. What is it, Simon? Yeah, Jo got in touch. She says, our fixed-priced energy tariff ends mid-June. Is it better to fix again now or wait until after July 1st? Well, this follows on from what we had with the caller earlier. You are already within the 49-day period, so there are no early exit penalties for you switching. The most important thing to remember is the 1st of July is an irrelevant date for fixing. It does not alter the price of fixing. That only alters the price cap for people on standard charges. The rate fixes are set at is based solely on what firms can buy wholesale energy rates at the time.

55:16Yes, there might be some slight competitive moves because the price gap's getting cheaper, so they might feel they need to set it a tiny bit cheaper than they would otherwise, just to give a bit of competitive advantage when people do a price comparison. But there's no point in waiting. If you can fix now with no early exit penalties at a cheaper rate than you are currently paying, I would do so. if you can't, I would wait until your current fix ends. And one final important note, for anyone doing a comparison, make sure you go to a whole of market comparison site, or at least if it's not whole of market, you select to see all tariffs.

55:50Most sites, not all of them, there are some good ones out there, you can work out one of them, most sites will hide tariffs that don't pay them. But when you are doing a comparison from tomorrow onwards, remember, the saving you will be shown is compared to the current price cap, not the July price cap. So the actual saving you will get is going to be lower than comparison sites are showing from tomorrow, because until firms publish their new tariffs for January, comparison sites will continue to list the current price cap rate, not the July price cap rate. Just worth knowing that little technicality if you are going to do a comparison.

56:30And just one quick tip for you this week, because I think it's quite a good deal. It's a year's ad-free Disney Plus for£50 rather than the normal£90. And you also get free Uber Eats delivery. Now, I've deliberately phrased it the wrong way around because that isn't the offer, but I think that is actually the better offer. Uber has its Uber One deal that you pay£50 a year for the subscription to it. And the whole point of it is it's meant to give you free Uber Eats delivery and also can give you some discounts if you're using the Uber minicab type system. But if you sign up to Uber One, then you get 12 months of free Disney Plus, and Disney Plus would normally cost you 90 quid.

57:11So effectively, if you want to get a year's Disney Plus, the best way to sign up for a year's Disney Plus is not to sign up for Disney Plus. It's to sign up for Uber One, even if you don't want Uber One, because that costs 50 quid, and you get a year's Disney Plus by doing it. I hope you got that.

57:29okay so why don't we finish off with a few more of our tellers stories of when people have saved a fortune by pure accident i've got one from allison who says about 12 years ago we got a letter about miss sold payment protection insurance we'd seen this on mlms which is the martin lewis money show my tv show by the way if you happen to be voting for the nta long lists at the moment do have a look in the best presenter and the best factual entertainment program sections I won't say any more, but if you happen to have a look there, make sure you're looking at all the options in there. Anyway, but assumed, because we'd claimed on it, that we couldn't claim it had been missold.

58:04Filled in the form and got£13 ,000 back. Then looked at another company's PPI, again that we'd claimed on, put in a claim and got£17 ,000 back. Wow. £30 ,000. What have you got, Simon? We've got someone from Joanne. My daughter purchased a ticket on behalf of my husband for Strictly Live Tour many years ago. She forgot to uncheck the insurance needed box. so they ended up paying for the insurance. But the following February, they couldn't actually get to the gig as the weather was so bad, deep snow and ice, and then were able to claim. Nice. Those tick boxes that would drive people nuts occasionally.

58:37It might work for you. Angela, in 1989, I opted out of SERPs for a period of time with Prudential as recommended by the man who used to knock on the door. In 2019, thinking it was a con, I started to look into being missold the pension, only to find out I have nearly£50 ,000 sat in there that I can now access. That's actually really interesting because when we were talking about topping up the state pension, you know, doing it before the 6th of April, I know many people are still waiting for their callback. They are getting through the backlog. They're prioritising the people who are near a state pension age.

59:07Many people said to me, what about if I was on SERPs? What about if I opted out? And the most important thing to do is before you look at getting frustrated by that, check where that money went and do you have it sitting in a pension somewhere? It could be, like Angela, very lucrative. You might have 50 grand. Have you got another? Yeah, Anne says, actually, it's another one of your tips regarding student loans. She did a quick check and it turned out she'd still been paying 12 months after it had been fully paid off. She got£1 ,200 back. Yeah, nice. Joe, ages ago, newly married, needed tumble dry for uniforms, couldn't afford one, was going to go down the higher purchase route.

59:41The electricity showroom had marked down a tumble dry by over£300 because it had a large black mark down the front, selling for 50 quid. I couldn't give anything I'm changing the phrasing about the black mark I just needed to be able to dry my uniforms in all weather duly delivered I got out soap and a sponge and removed all of the black mark result I like your story Joe I'm not sure that's a saving by accident I think that is a deliberate saving so I like your story but it gets an uh-uh from me on saving by accident and I think with me being cruel to poor Joe at the end that seems a good way to end this podcast

1:00:20that's it for this week if you've enjoyed it please tell your friends you've been listening to the martin lewis podcast and do subscribe then hopefully your pockets will be pleased with you we tend to put out a new podcast every thursday and if you haven't enjoyed it but for some reason are still listening

1:00:39I got meals. I gotta pay. So I'm gonna work, work, work, work. I gotta pay. I gotta now. I gotta feed. So I'm gonna make sure everybody eats. Martin 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.

1:01:31Radio podcasts.