Question Time: Can AI improve my finances? Could clearing our mortgage hurt our credit score? Old paperwork boosted my pension!

22:55Martin Lewis:But as many of you listening will have noticed, I said the maximum it can be is£30 ,000. So it's not the deposit that matters here. It's the total cost of what you're paying for. And this seems to be one transaction to me with a total cost of£40 ,000. So in that circumstance, I would say, no, I'm afraid I doubt you would be covered under Section 75 protection. Anyway, carry on. Okay. He says, I understand that once the full£40 ,000 is paid, we wouldn't have protection on one card. One workaround I wanted to check though, would it be legitimate for us to get two quotes, 20 ,000 for the front, 20 ,000 for the back windows, and then I pay for the front windows and my partner pays for the back ones on two separate credit cards.

23:38If the company went bust after installation or full payment or a fault developed, would we be covered then? I think two quotes could work, but they would need to be two separate service contracts. I mean, in common parlance, it can't be a fiddle. So if you put 20 ,000 for the front and 20 ,000 for the back, each with its own quote, each with its own invoice, each with its own contract, each with its own card payment, then each could be treated separately and you potentially could get Section 75.

24:08Martin Lewis:I would want a very good paper trail of all that in place my credit card firm, brackets firms, if there were two different firms, these different credit cards, fights it. And then you could take it to the ombudsman. But I think, you know, I've seen a lot of fighting over big Section 75 claims in the past. and I think if the credit card company knew that of this space it may well argue it's one transaction so you would need to do everything you can to make sure this really is distinctly and separately two transactions it could even be that you do it in two tranches I don't know if that's possible you do one lot of work and then once that work's done then you agree to do the second load of work and you keep them as properly separate transactions that's going on when I would say it would be covered now if you do get to that point and you are asked questions we must always be honest with the credit card company because it would be fraud to tell anything other.

24:58Martin Lewis:I mean, I always remember one case. I'm semi-making up these numbers now. So it doesn't really matter of a woman having read the guide I had. I think she put a£500 ,000 deposit on her kitchen on a credit card and the kitchen was£18 ,000 and the credit card company went bust. And then she obviously went for Section 75 and she went to the credit card company and the credit card company said, Matt... Said what? Well, what do you think they said when she asked for the money back? They said no. Of course they said no. Because they don't want to pay her 18 grand when she only paid£1 ,000 on a credit card.

25:32Right? So they said no. And then she followed up and went to the ombudsman. And the ombudsman ruled in a favour, made sure she got all the money and compensation.

25:39Martin Lewis:As I say, some of those figures may be slightly wrong, but they're in the right ballpark when we go there. So don't expect them to automatically play ball, but absolutely do go through to the ombudsman. Now, look, the best case scenario we have here is you put the money on the credit card, you pay the deposit. the firm that you're paying doesn't go bust, everything's absolutely fine and you never need to explore whether this worked or not. I think splitting it into two properly legitimate separate transactions, it genuinely have to be legitimate and separate, would give you a better chance of having section 75 protection.

26:09Martin Lewis:But I'm not going to give you a cast iron on that because ultimately it'd come down to an ombudsman decision on it and if they thought that this had been manipulated there is a chance they may rule against you and say that it doesn't count. But I think you're thinking in the right direction on that basis. Matt, I want to do a technical note on the back of that answer. Can you do it for me? I'll do it. Here we go. So my technical note, everybody, is just to be really, really accurate. Section 75 applies for a transaction over£100. So a£100 transaction is not covered by Section 75. A£100 and a penny transaction is covered by Section 75 and it includes transactions up and to and including£30 ,000.

26:55Martin Lewis:So a£30 ,000 transaction is covered by Section 75. A£30 ,000 and a penny transaction isn't covered by Section 75. Technical note, over. Now, Matt, if I'd fed in 10 of our past Question Time podcasts into an AI and I asked it at this point, what's coming next? It would say, coming next in the Martin Lewis Question Time podcast, Matt will present a caller to Martin. Because Matt tends to put callers into the even number slots. Would it be right? This week, it would be correct. See, AI does get some things right. Sometimes, yeah. It's Jan. Jan's in Mid Wales. She did tell me where she's from, but she said it's difficult to pronounce.

27:45and do you want me to try and pronounce where she's from in Wales? Yeah, hopefully you make a big mess of it and I can make fun of you for it. That would be great. I think, Jan, correct me if I'm wrong, Bilth Wells? That's very good. Oh, how disappointing, Jan. Where's my clap? Where's my applause? Jan, you should have told him some word entirely different. You should have told him, you know, he pronounced it Cardiff and then you could say, there's nothing like that. I wouldn't be so mean. I would. Some people are nice, Martin. Right, Jan. What can we do for you? Well, I'm coming on to tell you about my success.

28:20On a recent podcast, you discussed how long to keep paperwork for. I realised the importance of this when drawing my NHS pension four years ago. I left the NHS in 1992 and I reached the pension age in 2022. What did you do for the NHS, if I can ask? I was an administrator. I was one of the dreaded administrators. Well, thank you for making the place work. Yeah, that's what I did. So when the NHS pension people contacted me, I looked at what the projection was going to be. And I'd only done eight years in the NHS before I left to have a family. And I looked at the amount of money and thought, that's not quite right.

29:11So I went back to them and said, I don't think you've made the right calculation. And they said, oh, yeah, we have. Yeah, I said, no, you haven't, I said, because I perhaps unusually left the job I was in when I had my baby and went back to a lower paid job. Yes. And the NHS scheme at the time was your best pay, best 12 months pay in the last 36 months you were working in the NHS. So, no, they calculated it as being my last 12 months. I went to appeal and they said no. And I said, well, so I said, well, what information are you using? And they said, oh, well, whatever the NHS had sent them, which was based on just 12 months, 12 calendar months.

29:58Right. You know, starting on a March through to around to a March of financial year. And, of course, my best years were an August to an August. so um they they said oh why don't you go back to your nhs employer and ask them for more information your dog your dog is excited by this story yes very excited what's the dog's name the dog the dog is called bronwen bronwen oh great does bronwen always bark when you start talking money is this something you've trained is no no the postman's just arrived that's what So anyway, they suggested I went back to the NHS pays department. And unfortunately, that NHS pay department had disappeared a very long time ago with mergers and that kind of thing.

30:52So I couldn't get in and they didn't have any information to give me. And so they were saying, no, no, that's right. That's right. And I said, well, you're not. So anyway, I went to that box at the back of the wardrobe. which, you know, you tell us we should all have. And I found my pay slips from 1990 through to 1992, which was the period that it concerned, which gave me all the evidence to go back to them and say, here we are, these are my pay slips. And I went to appeal then, and the adjudicator said, yeah, you're right, they're wrong. And my pension was uprated by 20%. 20%, wow. Yeah. And that's real money.

31:38It was real money. I mean, it was only, I'd only been working for eight years, but I can tell you it made quite a lot of difference when you've got a small pension, when you get 20 % more. Absolutely. How wonderful. It was. I was very pleased with myself because I'm not very good at keeping paperwork, but I did put those payslips in a folder, in a box, at the back of the wardrobe. I've moved house. I've had three children, but I still knew where to find that box. So I was feeling quite pleased with myself.

32:08Martin Lewis:Well, very pleased to hear it. And yeah, so now I tend to talk about this. My whole thing is people always ask me, how long do you keep paperwork for? And the sort of the official rules, whether it's four or six years, depending on your circumstances. My answer is you keep the important stuff forever. It doesn't need to be paper. You just need to keep a record. You can take a photo of it. You can digitise it. You don't actually need the cupboard in the back of the wardrobe. Though if you choose to do it that way, that's absolutely cool. and the reason for this and I'm I talked before on the podcast was I'd written a blog way back when I can't remember 2010 or something that said basically we don't know what the future mis-selling scandals will be we don't know what the future problems will be and lack of paperwork because modern data protection says that firms should not be keeping more data than they need on you so often they get rid of old data but that is the crucial thing that you need to prove your case.

33:02And you are a brilliant example of that. If it wasn't for your slightly, let's call it data

33:09Martin Lewis:hoarding in a nice way. Yes. Your data hoarding has materially increased the amount of money you've got. And the problem when people say, what should I keep is, well, we don't know because we don't know where you'll need it. So as many sample pay slips, as many sample bank statements, as all the signing up to new product documentation that you can possibly photograph and store away in a secured way on your computer or if you want in a box in the back of the wardrobe you just never know when it's going to pay dividends later lovely story jan thank you so much thank you very much and thank you for everything you do you're you talk such common sense oh thank you that's very kind thank you so much very much thank you bye bye you're gonna get a badge of course oh am i oh You are.

33:53I am so pleased about the badge. The badge is coming. I will wear it with pride. Thanks, Jan. Appreciate it. Bye. Thanks, then. Bye-bye. Bye.

34:04Martin Lewis:So, Matt, we've done two callers. We've done two reads. I think we've got space for one more proper question. You want to squeeze one in? Squeeze one in. Oh, let's do it. Breaking the format over here. That was my squeezing in. I don't know what it means. That sounded weird. I have no idea what it was. So I don't know whether you should leave that in. Just carry on. Let's move on and pretend it never happened. This one's from Kate. She says, hello, a bit of an unusual question for you. We've recently got an Amex card, American Express, so we can build up our points for rewards and travel. We're trying to put as much of our monthly spending on it as possible and pay it off in full each month.

34:39Is that your best in full? And pay it off in full. In full! There we go. Carry on. I know Amex have higher card fees for shops than Visa and MasterCard, So my moral dilemma is, should I still use it in small local businesses as the fees will hit them harder and I feel bad because I want to support them? Or do I just accept that they take Amex, they've already accounted for the higher fees and just keep using it? What would you do?

35:02Martin Lewis:I would see it on the latter level. Many small retailers choose not to take Amex. Those who have chosen to accept it have chosen to do so and I'm sure would welcome your business. They have had to factor that in if they've decided to take Amex. Now, Amex used to have its local trader scheme, which was a£5 boost at Christmas if you spent on one of its small trader schemes. But I think, honestly, when I sum it all up, my answer to this is quite simple. If you want to use Amex and it's with a small trader and they accept Amex, just ask them, are you OK if I use Amex? I could use another card, but I get better rewards.

35:37Martin Lewis:Would you prefer me to use another card? If you're feeling it's a moral issue, have the conversation with them. I'm sure they'll welcome you being considerate enough to ask. Some may say yes, some may say it's no problem. Me again, interrupting after we finish recording because you know the drill. It's a BBC podcast. So I put this question to American Express and a spokesperson told me, American Express has a long history of supporting small businesses, including as founder and principal supporter of Small Business Saturday. Accepting American Express is a choice that an increasing number of UK small businesses are making, with the number doing so having grown by 67 % over the past three years.

36:12smaller merchants benefit from a dedicated single rate with no setup costs fees or hidden fees and that was a short one wasn't it that was a short one we did squeeze that in sort of an orange squeezing type thing there right i think we're already in a scan so aren't we yeah i think so i think we're already in a scan some funny territory have you gotten a scan some funny question for me to finish off with of course i do so after you've put your pitch out for people to send them in people are sending them in Good, I'm glad This one's from Constantine Dear Martin and Matt, he says I have a fun question for you both Martin, if you had to undergo a money makeover And drastically cut your costs What would you not be able to live without?

36:58He says, for me, it would be high quality paper towels And toilet paper I don't know why, but I've always bought the best I can afford And absolutely cannot bring myself to switch to lower quality versions

37:08Martin Lewis:Okay, so it's an interesting one So many, many years ago, I invented a thing called the Downshift Challenge. And I was doing it on telly. It's got to be over 20 years ago now. And the Downshift Challenge was simple. It said we would take a family and we would get their supermarket shop and then we would buy an identical basket of supermarket shopping down one brand level from what they normally got. So if they normally went for, you know, taste the difference or finest or whatever it is, we'd go for generic brand. If they went for generic brand, we'd go for own brand. If they went for own brand, we'd go for the savers brand.

37:38Martin Lewis:And the maths was quite interesting. On average, you'd find that by doing that, you would save 30 % on your shopping trolley. You know, so if you were spending 100 quid, you'd now be spending 70 quid. So that was the rough equivalent of one brand level down. And that equation still works today, though it can vary depending on where your start brand is roughly. And the experiment we then did was to get the family to try and see where they couldn't notice the difference. And the rule was, if you can't notice the difference, you go with the cheaper brand. If you can notice the difference, you go back to where you were.

38:12Martin Lewis:And roughly on half the products, they couldn't notice the difference. So it was a way of cutting 15 % on the family shop. I then went on, because it's television, to do double downshift challenge and to do various other things. And it's a format I don't do anymore, but I have seen other people take it up since. Shall I phrase it that way? But for me, it feels a bit noughties. So it's not something I do, although I still have, you know, still talk about doing downshifting. So I have been through this and I think there's nothing wrong with trying a brand level lower and there's nothing wrong as long as you can afford it.

38:42Martin Lewis:If you can't afford it, you have to go low. But if you can afford it with saying, actually, I do notice the difference and I'm willing to pay the extra for quality. Now, on mine, certain things, I'm totally with you on loo roll. Oh, yeah. Agreed. I want my nice loo roll. Agreed. I also, and I do drink colas, I can tell the difference on branded colas, right? And I can equally tell the difference between a main brand cola and its zero or max version and its diet version. Do you know, by the way, the difference between the diet versions and the zero and max versions? I want to say there's absolutely no difference.

39:21It's just a marketing thing. You would be wrong. Really?

39:23Martin Lewis:You would be wrong. Pray tell. So, here we go. When they originally wanted to bring out the diet, the no calorie drinks, the saccharin technology wasn't good enough. So actually, we're going to have to say the brands, actually Diet Coke is an entirely different recipe to Coca-Cola. Diet Pepsi, entirely different recipe for Pepsi-Cola. As saccharin technology improved, they then got to the point where they could basically make the main recipe of the drink and they could just replace the sugar with a sweetener. And that's what the zeros and max are. They're not 100 % identical, but they're basically the same recipe as the main one.

40:06Cool. I thought that was interesting. Matt's not finding that interesting. No, I do find it interesting. I thought you were going to carry on talking. Rosie, Rosie, Rosie's not in the studio with me as we'll discuss more in a moment. Rosie, can you give me, can you tell me, but we cannot be heard, Matt. Okay. Did you find it interesting? Rosie said she thought I'd told her it before. Isabel, and you'll discover who Isabel is soon. Isabel, you can't speak

40:30Martin Lewis:because we haven't made that decision yet. Isabel, interesting or not, you could do it with a hand gesture, a thumb up, a thumb down, or maybe a handy wobble. Thumb up from Isabel. Well done, Isabel. I'm glad Isabel's here. Rosie's going to say she's a sucker. Yeah. So I thought that was interesting. Anyway, there are also, I should say, places, I don't mind downshifting on baked beans, although I like a barbecue baked beans, there are places I would never upshift. Now, I'd never go for the top level on ketchup or mint sauce. Okay. If someone serves me a really posh mint sauce, I love my mint sauce, and I like that sort of hardcore, makes your mouth go, vinegary taste.

41:11Yeah, yeah. And if you get the posh mint sauces or the posh mint jellies, they don't have that because they're all meant to be smooth. I don't want it smooth. I want to be slapped across the face and poked in the eyes when I have my mint sauce. and the same in my ketchup. I want the cheap vinegary ketchup that really gives you a whack. Those are my... So, and yes, I know they're not very healthy, but I don't have too much of them, please. No need to write in about that. So yes, there are places I'd upshift and there are places I'd downshift. And I actually think the key is just to try and to experiment and to see what's out there and what works for you.

41:40The one thing that I... What's you? They didn't ask me, but I would tell you... I'm asking you. Okay. Tinned tomatoes. I would never downshift on a tinned tomato. See, I don't do,

41:51Martin Lewis:I don't like tomatoes. Oh. They're not in the olives, which are evil grapes and no one should ever touch. You don't like olives? He spies olives. Really? And both, the other two women I live with, my wife and my daughter, they are both big olive fans. I love an olive. And I just, evil grape, shouldn't be touched. You have to force yourself to eat them. I can't eat them. I don't believe in acquired taste. Why would I want to acquire a taste? If I don't like it in the first place, why am I going to force myself to get there? It's probably the reason I don't drink beer. There you go. I think we should stop that, Except I have to give the Rosie news.

42:22Oh, yeah. I hope it's good news. It is good news. It's good news for everyone, but it's also bad news. It's both. So the wonderful GDPR Rosie has been my researcher for the last year.

42:34Martin Lewis:And the way we work it, the way that we do it is it is a year long attachment to be a researcher with me. Someone comes off their normal job and they go on, they spend a year. And it's a brilliant way to sort of help someone progress in their career and give them a wider range of experience that comes on. and Rosie, who has been amazing, her year will be up at the end of September. Now, I'm talking about this now because we're taking a break and you're going to have some Best Bits podcasts for the next few weeks rather than some live podcasts. When we come back, Rosie will still be here, but also here, and she is here today in the studio with me, while Rosie isn't in the studio with me, is Isabel.

43:09Give me a nod hello, Isabel, because you can't speak because we have to have that decision. Isabel is nodding hello at all the listeners.

43:15Martin Lewis:Isabel will eventually, by the end of September, be taking over and Isabel will be coming on board and Rosie will be going back to her old job having done a wonderful and brilliant year and I'm very, very grateful to everything Rosie has done. So that's the news. Okay. Is that a shock? It's a shock. It's a shock. I knew Rosie didn't tell me. However, you know, Rosie is an integral part of the podcast. And always will be. Always will be. to the Question Time podcast but we are going to welcome Isabel as well. With open arms. With open arms. Well, I'm not sure that's like... Open ears. Open ears is far better yes when you're someone's boss you can't do open arms it doesn't work like that in the modern age we're not going to go there and so that's the news and yes to finish with that thank you so much to all of our Esquires thank you to everybody who's got a badge and if you come on live you question you get a badge and thank you for everybody who's listening there are going to be some best bits Matt you're in charge of the best bits have you worked out what the best bits are yet?

44:10Yes we've got a plan Are they basically all you? It's all me it's just my voice Okay so basically some Matt only question time podcast No, there's some good questions.

44:17Martin Lewis:They're just the questions, no answers. And then we'll be back full on in September. Thanks for listening, everyone. We really appreciate it. That's it for this week's Question Time. Don't forget to subscribe so you know when we release a new episode. And also do make sure you send in your questions if you've got them. You can email martinlewispodcast at bbc.co.uk. Just address it to dear Martin. Dear Matt. Dear Martin. Dear Matt. I do love that bit. And don't forget, if you come on the show, we'll send you an exclusive money can't buy, because frankly, there isn't a denomination small enough, Martin Lewis podcast question time ESQ badge.

44:58Who wouldn't want that?

45:15Martin 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.

45:48Martin, I forgot to say. What? We've had a badge theft. What? I sent one out to one of our callers and I got an email with a picture and the package had been opened and its contents had been stolen.

46:06Martin Lewis:Hello, is that the Serious Crimes office? We have to report the theft of a badge. An Esquire badge. Yes, an Esquire badge. What are you going to do about it? Or what, you think I'm taking this joke a little too far outside of the envelope? Whee! But it is actually very sad. Are we sending that person another badge? Yeah, I've sent another badge, don't worry. But yeah, our first badge theft. So someone has a badge who isn't an Esquire.