Question Time: I got £5k back after calling the pod! Can I move a loan to a 0% card? Claim car finance comp for dead relative?

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

0:29CFO. LinkedIn has a word for that. Bull spend. Now you can invest in what looks good to your CFO. LinkedIn ads generates the highest ROAS of all major ad networks. You'll reach the right buyers because you can target by company, industry, job title, and more. So cut the bull spend. Advertise on LinkedIn. The network that works for you. Spend$250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn ads and get a 250 credit for the next one. Just go to linkedin.com slash broadcast. That's linkedin.com slash broadcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hey, Chicagoland. Wayfair's big sale is here at the Wayfair store. It's Wayday and it's on now.

1:16Now through April 27th, you can score huge deals on everything home in person, like up to 60 % off mattresses, up to 40 % off appliances, and up to 60 % off home reno. Plus, You can take home the small stuff that day and get the big stuff shipped fast and free. Shop Wayday now through April 27th at the Wayfair store at Edens Plaza in Wilmette. Wayfair, every style, every home.

1:43I love a loophole. I'm a big loophole fan. It was obviously beyond what we'd expected, so thanks again. It isn't as quick and it isn't as simple, but it absolutely is doable. Just before we get into that, I think the answer is it would be a struggle. There's a little behind the scenes of the podcast. MPC and ESQ. We're going to reveal that at the end. Hello and welcome to the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is our Question Time edition, where you get to ask me your questions on absolutely anything and everything, open brackets within reason, close brackets.

2:16And this week, you ask me, can I shift a£15 ,000 loan to a 0 % credit card in order to cut my costs? Then we go on to a big success. Just one phone call to this podcast and he got back£5 ,000. Then how do I find out what car finance agreements my deceased father had so we can reclaim for him? And finally, can I trick the bank into thinking I'm a higher earner in order to get them to give me a free£500? Play the theme tune.

2:57I got a mouth. I got a feet. So I'm going to make sure everybody eats.

3:04Martin Lewis:Hello and welcome to this Question Time edition of the podcast. Now, I know many of our listeners have a weight problem. They just can't wait for the man I'm about to introduce. Yes, it's Professor Sir Doctor Matthew Burnham Esquire, our podcast producer, the curator of questions himself. Hello, Matt. Hello. Thank you very much for that. You like the big intro, don't you? I love the big intro. Can we just say, as I should always say, legally Matt only has those titles within the canon of the Question Time podcast. He hasn't actually earned any of those titles. Literally none of them. Literally none of them, but he still gets called them here anyway.

3:41And we're delighted to have you. It is Matt who you need to butter up if you want your question to be asked, because it is he who decides what questions are going to be asked. Although, to be fair, I've heard you're taking some weeks off. Yeah, I'm taking... I think they call that dereliction of duty. A few, yes. You might have to lose a title or two. No, definitely not. If anything, I should gain them when I come back. I'm not sure how that works in any way. But many of you will know, last week we told you

4:06Martin Lewis:that we were giving you the choice of what our contributors to the podcast would be known as going on in future and we'd be launching the new badge that anyone who calls up gives. Matt, don't tell us the answer. We'll do the answer at the end. How many votes have we had? We have had... Drumroll, please.

4:28176 votes. That's not bad, actually, because we did just ask people to email in. Yeah, and we've only given them a few days as well. I know. My daughter wanted to email in because she was very into this. So if it's a tie, she gets the casting vote. Is it a tie? It's not. OK. Not by a long shot. Oh, there's a dominant winner. The choice was between MPC, Martin's Podcast Contributors, also the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, and ESQ, Extremely Savvy Questioners, which will be known as Esquires. That was the choice that you've got. We're going to reveal that at the end. Let's get on and do some proper stuff with the first question.

5:03OK, we'll start with a question from Arvind. They've emailed in to martinlewispodcast at bbc.co.uk. Dear Martin. Oh, no, Matt. Didn't put dear Matt in there. Not even dear Martin.

5:14Martin Lewis:By the way, dear Martin is allowed. You're not in trouble if you do that with me, but Matt does have a little droopy face that happens if you don't say and Matt as well at the end. Arvin says, I have a£15 ,000 loan at 5.6%. Can I take out a 0 % credit card and pay it off? Okay. I think technically there is a way that you could potentially do this, but I think it is going to be very difficult to do in practice for a number of different reasons. The first is that £15 ,000 credit limit on a credit card would be quite difficult to obtain. You need to have a pretty high income and a very good credit score to do it.

5:51Martin Lewis:The fact you've already got a£15 ,000 loan when you're applying will make that more difficult unless you're on a very high income. So ultimately, you might be looking at needing a number of different credit cards in order to do it. And you're stymied in that, because we then have to look at how do you get the debt from the loan onto the credit card. You can't do a normal balance transfer, which is where you shift the debt from an existing credit or store card onto a credit card with a loan. You could get really clever and get a 0 % for purchases card, then do all your normal spending on your purchases card, which would lead money building up into your bank account that you then pay the bank account, then pay the loan off with so that the debt is all on the credit card instead.

6:33Martin Lewis:But that would take a very long time for£15 ,000. So that was almost a theoretical option that I'm ruling out. Which leaves us the main route, which is what is known as a money transfer card. A money transfer card, and they are very rare, is a credit card that allows you to pay money directly into your bank account and then owe the card at 0 % instead. You could then, of course, use the money in your bank account to pay off the loan. Tesco Bank has one. Virgin Money has one. Tesco Bank is 14 months 0%. Virgin Money, 12 months 0%. So you can hear that the money transfer 0 % lengths are much shorter than on a balance transfer where you might get three years, 36 or 38 months.

7:17Martin Lewis:So you'd have to be paying it off very quickly and you're going to struggle with the credit limit. And the fee is normally about 4%. Now, just to get really nerdy, if you have a fee of 3 or 4 % on a 36-month 0 % card, well, it's sort of depreciating over three years. You know, you spread that cost over three years, so it's not that big a transaction cost. but a 4 % fee on a 12-month 0 % card is actually quite hefty. So in practice, I think the answer is no. If you have the ability to overpay parts of the loan, you could shift some of it onto a 0 % card and that might be more efficient. Let's say you've got a£3 ,000 credit limit, you shift some of it onto a 0 % card for a year, you pay off the 0 % card within a year, making sure you make at least minimum payments each month, then you'd have shifted some of the debt to 0 % and that's more feasible.

8:06Martin Lewis:But it is also remembering, I told you it was technically tricky. It's also worth remembering that when you pay off or part pay a loan, there can be redemption penalties. They tend not to be that big. But you would have to calculate if factoring in the redemption penalties and the money transfer fee, it was actually worth doing. So I think the honest answer, unless you're really financially sophisticated and have understood all this quite easily and know what I'm talking about, 5.6 % is not that hefty for a£15 ,000 loan. I mean, it would be very difficult to get one much cheaper. So I think the answer is it would be a struggle and you're probably better off staying where you are and overpaying, if you're allowed to overpay that loan, it's worth checking out if you've got spare money, overpaying the loan to get rid of the debt more quickly or putting a little bit on a money transfer credit card but it is quite a complicated thing to do so a lot of caution in there.

9:02Did that make sense Matt? Yes, I mean you lost me halfway through but I got it, I understand. Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean it is a technical answer

9:09Martin Lewis:and I have to give a full and fair answer to make sure that Arvind understands what he's doing and I would say anyone listening and thinking of doing that listen to it back again and then go and do your reading on reputable sites about how money transfer carts work because you really need to understand the process. Matt, second question in the programme is normally a caller. Yes. Are we playing standard format straight back today? Yes, kind of. A caller, yes, but with a success. And we've already spoken to him on the podcast before. I know. So now this is, oh, just before we get into that, I said last week that because you're now going to be giving badges out to callers, this week was the first time that a caller who's been on the show gets a badge.

10:01Yes. Correct? Correct. Although the badges are not made yet, so they're going to have to wait. No. So this is our first, and he has been on the podcast before, this is our first badge recipient. Yes. Mark in Northumberland. Mark, are you excited you're going to get the first recipient of our badge, which we haven't yet announced what the badge will be, but there's going to be a badge? Oh, wow. I can't believe it. Number one. I mean number one yeah you are number one I mean you're a winner I mean frankly that's your bucket list done isn't it I mean I'm a winner all around here your bucket list just said I want a badge from the Martin Lewis Question Time podcast once that's done you could retire feet up the whole thing well done mate congratulations I'm going to have to get a frame for it and put number one next to it yeah absolutely two time podcast appearance and first badge recipient by the way I know we should be answering the question but we are going to have to come up with a policy that if we had given him a badge last time, would he get a second badge for coming on again?

11:02No, I think it's a limit of one badge per person. You don't need two badges. They're the same thing. Is it not a gold badge? Do we not get a gold badge? Well, he had an argument. If he came on ten times, maybe there's a gold badge. Too many complications now. Shall we get on with this? Yes, so it's your success, isn't it, Mark? It is, yes. Martin, we spoke in January. I gave you a call and asked a question because I'd made a Section 75 claim. Are you a bust builder? Yes, bust builder. That's right, yeah, yes.

11:30Martin Lewis:Yes, that's about your builder went bust. It's not about some, you're not trying to enlarge your chest, yes. No. No, definitely not. So yeah, it went bust and we owed about£7 ,500 and we'd had the Section 75 was rejected. So it was really a cry for help in January and you suggested as a last resort to try chargeback because about 5 ,000 of that 7 ,500 was paid by credit card. Yeah, I remember. So I raised that with, it was M &S Bank. I raised that, it was the same day as the call, and filled the form out, gave them the evidence, and within about 24 hours they said, yes, you've got a valid claim.

12:11I've got goosebumps, I promise you. I genuinely have goosebumps. I'm so pleased to hear it because it was my last thing scraping the bottom of the barrel that I could think of. Brilliant. It was a last chance. And what they actually, I didn't realise I did this, but they actually recredited the money the same day. But I didn't know this either, but it has to go through MasterCard. You've got to wait 60 days before you get it. Because just to explain to people, so the way a chargeback process works, it's actually your card company or bank in this case,

12:44Martin Lewis:asking the vendor, the firm's card company or bank, for a reimbursement because you did not receive the service. So there has to be time for the other people to put in an objection. Yes, and they did. They objected after about four weeks. But to their credit, M &S fought my corner and it was successfully challenged and I got a call. So I got an email a few days ago to say, It had all been successful. It was all complete. And they sent the money through. Oh, wonderful. I'm so pleased. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's not everything that we had, but it was better than the nothing that we thought we were going to get.

13:27Five grand, five grand. You've got to look at it from that perspective, haven't you?

13:30Martin Lewis:Not what you lost because you'd lost everything. And this way you've got five grand of it back. I'm so pleased. Yeah. And so it was a big thank you from us, you know, for the help. And also, well, M &S as well. They actually gave us an additional£250 as an apology because they said they should have also told me about chargeback as well. So they'd missed out on that. But you caught it. So fantastic. I am genuinely smiling. I love this. This is why I do it. Right. Absolutely wonderful. I'm just going for everyone listening. Just want to just do a little bit technical nerdy because I think this is interesting.

14:07Martin Lewis:so you section 75 that mark was talking about is where if you buy something on a credit card that costs between a hundred pounds and thirty thousand pounds the credit card company is jointly liable with the retailer uh so if the company goes bust you can go to the credit card company for it if i remember in your case it was over 30 grand wasn't it it was but i was trying to argue because there was distinct stage payments in there and um but that they didn't they didn't accept so you could I would have gone to the ombudsman with that, but I'd said, I think if I remember rightly at the time, I said I thought it was unlikely the ombudsman would award because there's a hard rule, over£30 ,000, and your transaction was over£30 ,000 for your building.

14:48Well, I did it as well, and you were right. The ombudsman rejected it as though I had to try everything. Yeah, quite right. But now what's really interesting, now Section 75 is much meatier than chargeback, because it's a legal right.

15:02Martin Lewis:Chargeback is a sort of a term and condition of Visa, Mastercard or Amex. So like as an internal dispute resolution process as opposed to a law. But actually, if you have a chance to charge back, they tend to be in some cases more successful because if it's Section 75 and if you had, let's say you had a case with Section 75, M &S Bank would have had to pay and it might have tried to fight you because it doesn't want to pay. But if you're doing a chargeback, M &S Bank suddenly becomes your agent on your side because it's going, well, actually, he's probably got a case for a Section 75 if he doesn't do a chargeback, but we'd far prefer that he does a chargeback because then he gets the money off the vendor's bank rather than off us and we don't have to pay out.

15:51Martin Lewis:So there's an argument that chargeback is in the interest of your card or bank to do because they're not the one shelling out. So often, if you have both cases, what you should always do is you should put in a note, right? You've done this. I know, Mark, I know you've done yours, but just for everyone. I would probably start with a chargeback, but say, if the chargeback doesn't work, I reserve the right to do a section 75, you know, and put that in. And I want to put a note that I would like you to try both. And that way, you actually give them a sort of a vested interest in helping you, which is exactly what happened in this case.

16:26Martin Lewis:And I am delighted. So how did you get with the building work? But did they half do it, do I remember? They made a start. They hadn't done very much. So we've just been waiting really to get the outcome of this before we could restart it. So we're just about to get going again. So the job is back on. Great stuff. I wish you all joy and happiness with it. And thank you so much for getting back in touch. We love a success like this. It's brilliant. Thank you. I had to say thank you because it was obviously beyond what we'd expected. So thanks again. My pleasure. Thank you for calling. and look forward to your badge.

17:00I mean, 5 ,000 is one thing. I mean, 5 ,000. People get money all the time, but I mean, the badge, surely, surely that trumps it. A badge, 250 from M &S. I mean, we want your luck. Cheers, Mark. Cheers. All right, thank you. Bye-bye. Thank you. Mark, I do not think we could have had a better caller to get our first badge. I mean, it was absolutely... Rosie's saying yes in the background. It was absolutely right. Honestly, just listening to that, I was beaming. Yeah. I was so happy. Wonderful. Right, what have we got next? I have a question from Chris. It's a read. Question three, it's a read. He starts, dear Martin and Matt.

17:40I wonder what people think when I say that each time. I'm getting... What, a read? Well, yeah, I'm saying, no, but more that... Should we just stop saying what it's going to be next? Is it very obvious? Because I say it each... I don't know. It's a good podcast. It's enjoyable listening. Just ask the question. I think you're thinking too much into it. I'm overthinking. Right. It's literally my job to overthink. It's literally why I'm here. Anyway. Chris's question, starting with Dear Martin and Matt. Nice. Well done. Well done, Chris. Matt's got a little... I can't... We're not in the same... Have you got a little smile on for that?

18:08A little smile. I've just accepted it. I'm glad you mentioned me. Exactly. And as I say, I think that's right. Yes, you do. And by the way, just to say, if you want to... You know, we're here for saving anything. If you want to save characters, we're fine with an ampersand as well as an M. Oh, yeah. We do like an M &M. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He says, I've seen the Lloyd's Premier account bank switch of£500 with a minimum pay-in of£5 ,000 a month. Could either of the possible loopholes below work or do they need to see a minimum£5 ,000 go directly from your employer into the account? So could you switch an account with the three or more direct debits as requested?

18:44then either one paying, say,£1 ,000, withdraw it, then deposit again five times to hit this criteria, or transfer£5 ,000 from an ISA to hit the criteria each month, then withdraw back to the ISA and repeat to still fulfil the criteria each month. And he also says thank you for the time, guidance and support you've given everyone. Oh, well, thank you very much for that, Chris. Short answer, I don't think it'll work. Long answer, I often have actually suggested that mode for normal bank accounts,

19:21Martin Lewis:where let's say you have to have an income of£20 ,000 effectively or have£1 ,500 going in a month, that if you're just below it, let's say there's a minimum criteria of£1 ,500 income and you've got income of£1 ,300, that what you could do is have your£1 ,300 going in from your salary, then take that out and put it back in again. And therefore, that'll hit your£1 ,500 trigger. And on most normal bank accounts, that will be absolutely fine. Premier accounts, which are designed and designated for high earners, and the reason they're paying, you know, and there are about three or four of them at the moment paying hundreds of pounds, four, five hundred pounds to switch.

19:55Martin Lewis:The reason they do that is, of course, they want to buy your custom and cross-sell you other products, and that's really quite important to them. They tend to have stricter processes and stricter monitoring, so it's much more difficult. Now, I think if you were saying to me, I earn£4 ,800 take-home after-tax a month, could I top it up with an extra£200? I think there's a chance you might get away with it. If you're saying to me I earn£2 ,500 take-home in a month, can I play with the rest of it to get myself up there? I think they will spot it. It's worth saying that I believe that when you apply to Lloyd's for the Premier account that gives you the£500,£3 for switching and the other perks.

20:42Martin Lewis:It asks you to confirm that you can pay at least£5 ,000 a month or have£100 ,000 saved or invested with Lloyds. So you actually, first of all, you're making a declaration and always on a financial form, do not lie. Never lie because it can arguably be fraud. And on top of it, I believe, and this isn't 100 % confirmation, but this is my sort of generalised knowledge of how these type of things work, that they will be monitoring. And if they can see that the account isn't suitable and you're not meeting the criteria, you know, if you're putting£1 ,000 in, taking£1 ,000 out, putting£1 ,000 in, taking£1 ,000 out, and you do that five times, I think they would spot it relatively quickly within a few months and they would get in touch and say, we don't think this is the right account for you.

21:23Martin Lewis:Whether or not they would ask for the£500 back, I don't know, but I think they would have a strong case for doing so. So while I love a loophole, Chris, I love a loophole. I'm a big loophole fan. I started my career by finding loopholes and that was the way I started. I think this is perhaps a loophole too far. That phrase doesn't work. What would be a good phrase? A loophole too far? A loophole too big? I don't know. But anyway, I don't think it'll work.

21:53Are you sitting there thinking, oh, I know what I wanted to ask him? Well, this is your opportunity. If you've got a question, then just send them in to martinlewispodcast at bbc.co.uk. And please do start them, dear Martin. No, dear Matt. Dear Martin. Dear Matt. Now, Matt, I'm styling it out. I've been doing the whole programme on me trying to guess whether it's a caller or a read. And so I'm going to continue to do so. And I'm saying, evens, because this is question number four, is a caller. Close. So it's a question from Jonathan I asked him if he could come on He wasn't available But he has sent us a voice note 75 % of a caller I think I get 75 % right Because a voice note is basically a caller Yeah Oh hold on, hold on, hold on Before you play We haven't catered for this in our badges scenario Does Jonathan get a badge?

22:47Does Jonathan get a badge? Is a voice note a caller for badge purposes? Would you say that because his voice has been on it? I actually am going to say And I think, do you know what? I know you're the producer, so ultimately this is something that you asked our editor, Tom, if you're allowed. I'm going to make, I think, do a voice note, you get a badge. Yeah. Your voice has been on it. Exactly. I think that's right.