Question Time: What should every teenager know about money? Time of use tariffs: still worth it? Stooze with other 0% finance?

23:18So when you get paid, take a quarter of it or more and put that in a totally separate bank account. Then don't think of that bank account as yours. Yes, you want it to earn interest because if there's any left, you'll be able to get it. That bank account is there to pay your tax when you need it. Then when the tax bill does come, well, it's all covered and it's not a problem. And the interesting thing is the reason many young celebrities, we often read about them going bankrupt is exactly this. They don't put their money aside for tax. They think life is going to continue earning at a high rate all the time.

23:49And then suddenly, when they're out of the spotlight a little bit, or they're just not quite as cool as they used to be and not getting as much work, they're going, how am I going to pay for the tax? It's way bigger than I thought and I'm not earning as much now. So make sure you're managing your taxes and understand, I'm afraid, when you earn, it's not all yours.

24:09Martin Lewis:That was really good. I'm very glad that we did that. Thank you for selecting it. That was good curating of questions. Thank you very much, sir. Now, though, I'm not sure I'm comfortable saying it. We're on an even number. But clearly, because we just had a caller, we can't have two callers in a row. It has to be a read. It's a subversion of the entire format. I mean, this is the Jar Jar Binks of the Question Time podcast. I do wonder if people listening are as freaked out as you are by the fact we've changed the order. They're probably not. No. But they're probably not. Some of them are. I'm sure because some of the people who listen to this podcast will be as bad at me at this type of stuff.

24:46Martin Lewis:But no, they're probably just thinking they've just changed the order of the questions. That's not a big deal. Probably thinking, get on with it. Yeah, get on with it. Right, a question from Julie, who has emailed in to martinlewispodcast at bbc.co.uk. She says, hi, Martin and team. Hello, Julie. I have a question regarding tax on behalf of my son. He's just turned 18 and has a part-time job for 13 and a half hours per week to fit in around his university studies. Good for him. His annual contracted earnings are under£8 ,000 a year, so below the tax threshold. What is the tax threshold, remind me?

25:19£12 ,570. Thank you. However, during the summer months, he has taken on additional shifts and as a result has paid tax from his last two pay packets. Should he be able to claim this back at the end of the tax year? And if so, how? Shilster says he has a uniform, which he's responsible for washing too. okay yeah this is really interesting my presumption of what has happened here

25:43Martin Lewis:is that they are effectively they're taxing him as if he would earn the amount with the additional shifts each month for the whole year so to put this in really simple numbers he's earning eight thousand pounds a year what's that let's say that's six hundred and twenty ish a month i won't bother to work it out exactly but it'll be somewhere in that sort of region so he's earning £620 a month, but let's say those additional shifts put in up to£1 ,200 rather than£620 for a few months, and they will have treated it like he was earning£1 ,200 a month, which is what,£14 ,400 over the year. And they would have taxed him as if he was earning£14 ,400 over the year, which is of course above the threshold.

26:27So about, you know, just under two

26:28Martin Lewis:grand of it would be taxable. But clearly, he won't be a taxpayer because it's only for two or three months of the year that he's earned£1 ,000. The rest of the time, he'll be earning£620. So, he'll be under the personal allowance. What you could do, well, it's always worth mentioning it to the company that he's working for as payroll, but they won't be able to do anything. The easiest way to deal with this is a quick call to HMRC. Look, the truth is the money will come back to at the end of the year. You'll get the money back. So if you don't want to hassle, it will come back or he will get it back.

27:01Martin Lewis:If you want it back now, you can call HMRC and ask them to change your tax code because of it. You'll have to say to them, I won't be earning any more. I know what I'm earning for the rest of the year. It's going to be in this type of region. But you should be able to as long as you can get through to HMRC to do that. As a side note, if he'd been working in the summer and this had happened and he now wasn't going to be working for the rest of the year, It's obviously not relevant in your son's case, Julie, but just for other people who are listening. Then there is a P50 form available via gov.uk that you can fill in to claim the tax back if you've worked and stopped work and you won't be working again for the rest of the year and you won't be earning over the threshold.

27:38Martin Lewis:So I hope that that is helpful. It's a little bit cumbersome, but I think it's a relatively common scenario for people who are doing summer work or for doing extended work in the summer that they pay tax when they shouldn't, but they get it back. Are 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 I'm really stressed. Why? Okay. So, we did a caller first when we'd normally do a caller second on an even spot, and then we did a read second where we'd normally do a read first.

28:23Martin Lewis:We did. What do we do now? Do we just count it that we have transposed the first two so that effectively we've just done the first two in the wrong order? Or do we continue on that basis throughout the entire podcast, meaning that we'll go caller, read, caller, read, read? Or will we go caller, read, read, caller? Do you see what I mean? I see what you mean I don't know if I can take that much change I can take a bit of change I don't know if I can do that But either way it's going to be change Matt A little bit of change is fine Either way we're going to go read to read Right Or we're going to go read to caller But then caller is odd number yet again Either way You breached the format I did But I think I did it I hope this format can be rebuilt I did it well Well the format is Something that we just came up with Yeah I know but I like it It's not real Okay so what are we doing next Are we doing the caller or are we doing the read?

29:20Let's do a read. Okay. Okay. So, third question. Okay. It's normal. It's just a read. It's fine. You can do this. It's fine. Shall I read it? I need to talk to my agent. That's the second time today you've said that. The other was off air. They won't hear that. They won't know. Right. Got one on energy bills and the price cap rise. From Damien, who has emailed it in. He says, hi, Martin, Matt, Rosie, Isabel, Simon, and the many other Matt's. Nice.

29:48Martin Lewis:Well done, Damien. Because there are quite a few. There we are. There we go. There is an Esquire, a knowledgeable Esquire in his own right. Carry on. I think Damien's listened to every podcast. Quite right. He says, I'm sure you'll be getting 1 ,001 questions regarding the January increase and fixing. However, could you possibly cover your thoughts on time of use tariffs? OK, yeah. I fully understand it's crystal ball gazing, but with imminent hikes in the price cap that will already be reflected in the fixed tariffs available, what are your thoughts on sticking with it? time of use on the basis we have already weathered a lot of the higher prices, or is the market so volatile at the moment fixed is a better bet?

30:26I know it's probably more to do with an individual's thoughts on risk, but I'd be interested to know what someone like you does or your thoughts on the subject. It is a complete unknowable.

30:38Martin Lewis:Now, I am going to assume by the fact you're saying time of use tariffs and the way you're phrasing your question, you're actually talking specifically either the Octopus Agile or the Octopus Tracker Tariffs, which are very different types of tariff to a sort of... The other type of time of use tariff would be, say, an EV tariff, where you get one rate during the day and one rate at night. You're talking about the highly variable, specific time of use tariffs. Now, for those people who are going, what's he talking about? What's that all about? I shall explain in brief. You have the Octopus tracker tariff, which is both a gas and an electricity tariff, where the price moves every day based on mainly moving with underlying wholesale rates.

31:23Martin Lewis:And it can move really, really wildly every day. It can be far, far cheaper than the price cap and far, far more expensive than the price cap. In normal times, it tends to substantially undercut the price cap. In current volatile times, it has on many days substantially been more expensive than the price cap. But that isn't the most variable of the variable, even though that's super variable. Then we go to hyper variable, which is the octopus agile tariff. The agile tariff is an electricity only tariff where the price moves every 30 minutes. You are told the price for the next day. I think it comes in at about four o 'clock on the previous afternoon and you can see what the price is going to be.

32:10Martin Lewis:This is a tariff that is best for those people who have flexible and controllable energy usage. A classic example would be if you had home batteries. If you've got home batteries, because in a typical day, if we say the price cap is around or going to be around 27p per kilowatt hour for electricity, roughly in that order, The Octopus Agile Triumph in a typical day, especially on the weekend, can go anywhere from minus nine pence per kilowatt hour, literally you're being paid, to plus 80 or 90 pence per kilowatt hour. So, you know, two or three times the price cap. It will generally be either daytimes or overnight when it's super cheap and it will almost certainly be peak times when it's super expensive.

33:03Martin Lewis:So if you have batteries, now there are also some days where it's more expensive than the price cap for the whole day. It has been recently. There's been days where it's been at 30p for most of the day, then gone up to 60p in the evening, say. But if you have batteries that can charge up a decent capacity for your usage when it's minus, and, you know, we normally get a minus period once or twice a week. So you're literally being paid to use energy and then you use that energy in the peak time. It can work well for you. So I think the Agile tariff is a sort of, it's about your setup. If you're just playing it without any form of setup, I don't think it really is for you at the moment.

33:41The tracker tariff, you know, your question, Damien, is exactly right. It depends on your attitude to risk. Here is the big problem. In good times, these are good tariffs. And these work well for sophisticated users who understand them.

33:56Martin Lewis:But what you can't do is say, which is what everyone who's on them would like to do, go, I'm going to ditch it for the next month or so because it looks a little bit high and then I'll come back to it in a month. That's what you'd like to do. But Octopus knows that and it basically says if you're going to use one of these tariffs you've got to commit to it in good times and in bad. You've got to marry it in fact. It's a fiscal tariff marriage because what it says is if you leave Agile or Tracker you cannot re-sign up to it again for another nine months. So therefore the decision is far more than just about in the immediate future, is it going to be good or bad?

34:33Martin Lewis:I mean, looking at where wholesale rates are right now, then it's not going to be good for the next few weeks. If the Middle East crisis ends, it's going to be very substantially better than the price cap, because if the Middle East crisis ends before the January price cap, when it's currently predicted to go up 22%, comes in, then because the time of use tariffs are absolutely based on the day and things will have shot down, whereas the price cap is based on a time lag, you'll be massively undercutting the price cap if the Middle East crisis de-escalates. It's a gamble. I mean, ultimately, for most people, the big picture of this is a gamble on what you think is going to happen in worldwide Middle East prices.

35:13Martin Lewis:If at some point in the next three or four months, the conflict is going to de-escalate in the Middle East, you're probably better sticking on Agile or Tracker. If it's not, and we're still going to be here in another year's time, you're probably better getting off it because the volatility isn't that much. With the caveat on Agile, that Agile, if you've got all the battery set up, then you can still make it work for you in the right circumstances. Side note to my caveat, caveat to my caveat, that's if you've got the batteries, whether it's worth investing in the batteries to do that, what's going on at the moment changes that equation too, which is another big story.

35:48Martin Lewis:So I'm only talking about people who've already got the type of battery setups and have already done their capital outlay for that. Did that make sense? It did make sense. I mean, I'll be honest, if you're listening and you don't know those tariffs, it probably won't make that much sense to you because these are very specialised tariffs. But there are a lot of people on them and I get questions on them all the time. So hopefully I've helped a little bit. But ultimately, these are tariffs for people who can understand and accept the volatility. And if you can't, you shouldn't be on them in the first place.

36:16Did you just caveat to your caveat to your caveat? No, that wasn't a caveat. That was an explainer. Just two caveats. There was only two caveats. My caveat to that explainer was it wasn't a caveat. Okay. Thank you.

36:30Martin Lewis:I know that the listeners are now fed up of hearing about the format. I've accepted it. I'm at peace with it. After that, it was a very good, interesting question, that last one. It's now, we're even, and it's a caller. It's a caller. Don't worry. You can relax, breathe. We're back on track. We're back on track. It's Dan in Southampton. Hello, Dan in Southampton. What are we doing for you? Hello. Hello, Martin and Matt. How are you doing? Hello. Very well. Lovely to have you on board. At what point, just breaking in, before you've even let you start, I need to ask it to Matt. Matt, at what point does somebody qualify for their badge?

37:05Martin Lewis:Has Dan already qualified for his badge because he's spoken on the podcast? Or is it... What's the crystallisation point? or is it when he's finished his question and interaction? I think it's when he's finished asking the question. Even if he doesn't get an answer, he still asks the question on the podcast. But if he just came on and said hello, you wouldn't get a badge? No. Okay, so you haven't earned it, Dan, yet, so we need a question. Oh, that's a shame. I was going to hang up. That would be really fun if you didn't. It would have been good. We would have enjoyed that and then panicked slightly.

37:34I've got my badge. I'm going. Right, what is the question? Yes. um so yeah so my wife and i are about to buy a house well we're about to move house uh we're completing next week congratulations um yeah thank you so um obviously with that comes quite a few purchases um we're going to need to replace basically the majority of our furniture um and obviously i've noticed that a lot of furniture companies offer things like four years zero percent interest yeah interest full credit on this and that so my thought was thinking about like the conversation around stoozing could I potentially take advantage of those same offers stooze the money away earn interest on it and actually have a four-year period compared to like the zero percent credit cards that usually like 12 months or so actually it's an even longer period and if I'm buying quite a lot of new furniture obviously that adds up to quite a lot of money that could be stoozed so that's my question is whether that's actually going to affect my credit rating because our credit lenders are going to look at me having lots of credit with all sorts of different lenders and start to make me seem like a bit of a risky proposition.

38:41Martin Lewis:So let's just get all this in the round. It's a really interesting question. So the basic answer of can you do it is yes. There's a slight nuance, which I would argue it probably isn't stoozing technically, because the definition of stoozing, which is, you know, it's a term that's been around for about 20 years and I was around in the early days of it. So it There's not a hard definition, but my definition of stoozing, this is very nerdy that we're doing. It doesn't actually affect you in a practical sense, so don't worry. My definition of stoozing is it is when you artificially create a debt in order to make money and profit from 0 % debt.

39:21Martin Lewis:Now, here, the creation wouldn't be artificial. So I would say this is stoozing adjacent, but probably not stoozing in its own right under the technical definition, if you see what I mean. But in terms of the principle, could you deliberately borrow at 0 % to actually buy something? Then you've got the money, but instead of paying it off, you put that money in high interest savings so that you are earning interest rather than paying it off. Obviously, you make whatever minimum repayments they are and fulfil all the criteria. And profit on it, absolutely yes. I mean, absolutely you could do that and the maths would add up.

39:57Martin Lewis:If they're willing to lend it you and they want it paid over five years and you could put that same amount in the savings account and gradually drip feed the payment off so that you're earning interest in it, then you will be in profit from doing so. And that all works well. I mean, just make sure you've got the money is the key to do that. And it sounds like you've thought of that. As for the impact on your credit score, it would have an impact because effectively on the main credit criteria, you're borrowing and you've got a higher credit utilisation or debt utilisation than you would otherwise.

40:31Martin Lewis:So absolutely, when a lender looks at you, they will see the debt. They won't see it's offset by savings and it would look like you had that actual amount of debt and it was a real amount of debt. and therefore if you were making a mortgage application it could probably have a minor minor to medium effect on what you could get i don't think it'd get you rejected but it might mean if you were pushing the boundaries having said all that the question you need to ask yourself and this is always that you know it's a cost benefit analysis is does that actually matter over the period of these loans because yeah once they're gone this will clear itself up very quickly Yeah, well, we've literally, obviously, we've just done a mortgage application.

41:11We've fixed for five years. So I've obviously got that five year window when we're not going to be making a massive application. But it's just things like, I usually use like a cashback credit card, which I need to get a new one, but I haven't done the application yet because I had this mortgage application in process. So at some point in the next six months, I will be applying for a credit card to do my cashbacks, sort of day to day spending and earn money from that. And It's just wondering whether it's going to impact on things like that, like credit cards, potentially like bank transfers. I wouldn't imagine it would.

41:42I think the answer is it could, but I'm not so sure how hugely. And remember, every lender scores you differently. I think the correct answer here with that in mind is you need to step this in the right order. Right. So you've done the big one that's your mortgage.

41:57Martin Lewis:What is your next priority? If it's the cashback cards, once your mortgage goes through, do the cashback card application then. Yeah. Once you've got that done, then apply for the 0 % credit. And it tends to be because the 0 % credit is linked to a purchase and therefore is sort of semi-supported by the retailer, they tend to be slightly easier to get than just a more abstract card, which, you know, is delinked from anything else. And then do the 0 % credit for your stoozing on the back end. And then if you get it, you get it. And if you don't get it, you don't get it. And you shrug your shoulders and it doesn't matter so much.

42:28Martin Lewis:And then obviously, once you're getting towards that mortgage application, again in five years time, probably from a year out, you want to be cooling all this, minimising the amount of debt you've got. Clearly, you must never miss a minimum repayment. That's a nightmare. Clearly, if they ever cool the debt in, you want the money in the bank and you've got it liquid. So you've got it in an easy access saving. So you've got the ability to pay it at any time and you shouldn't be dipping into it. So, I mean, I haven't done, because we talked about stoozing in a pod, I think it was two weeks ago. I did all my caveats there.

42:57Martin Lewis:This is only for the financially savvy who are well organised, who don't have other forms of debt. you know and are doing it tactically to make money this is not something to do willy-nilly if in doubt don't but again I tend to judge by the nature of the question you seem to be the type of person who can manage this and knows what you're doing so it all sounds pretty pretty comfortable to me yeah I just thought it would be easier almost than soothing because you've got these like large purchases so rather than having to like rack up amounts like gradually it's like you're literally paying you know however much money for a sofa and it's a one-off payment you've got the cash you put it in a bank account and you put it in a savings account and you basically forget about it until until that comes around i have i have no worries the way you're describing it my worry is people who go oh i'm going to take a little bit of that saving that savings is not your savings you know it's all about mentality that savings is i've already paid for my furniture with that savings it doesn't belong to me i'm just holding on to it for the moment until i give it to the furniture company and as long as you go in with that sort of rigid principled mindset then And it's an easy way to make a few hundred extra quid, which probably helps offset the cost of whatever you're going to be buying.

44:04I think good luck to you. That's it.

44:06Martin Lewis:Yeah, thank you. I love it. Well done, Dan. It was two weeks ago. It was two weeks ago. I was right. It was good. And Dan, you now have qualified for the badge. Thank you. I look forward to it. But now you can hang up. Can you do it in quite a dramatic way? I don't know if you can do it. It's probably on a mobile. Let's try. How big is the badge? Matt? I mean, it's not massive. how many centimeters in diameter? Three? Three and a half? Four? Four, maybe four and a half. Okay, so it's trying to find somewhere to put it that will have a high impact. Well, you could wear it on your chest at all times.

44:39You could. True, I could put it on my lanyard at work. Yeah, do that. I think that's better. On your chest itself, it would really hurt. I mean, we know people like the pod, but that's a sacrifice too far. You know, on the clothing, on the outside, is what I would say. Should I have not done that then? No, but we don't want to know about your piercings, Matt.

45:00thanks Dan cheers mate good luck in your new house yeah thank you shall we do success and have you got a new success jingle I do and I know that and anyone who listens to the very end of the podcast even after the credits will understand why I know that so how does it work do you say who the success is then we play the success jingle then you do the success or do you play it before you say the name? We've not done it before. I think you say, what should we do next? And then we play that and then we say, we've got a success. So what are we doing next? We've got a success from Alexander.

45:42Oh, I like the jingle. I like it. I like it. Carry on. Success me up. He says, good afternoon, team. I just wanted to say thank you so much for your best bits. How to check if you're paying too much council tax episode in August. Nice. I like the fact the best bits one that's got a note. I think Simon made that one though. It's fine. He says All one great ensemble. He says, I followed your advice and it has been accepted. I dropped one tax ban, council tax ban, and I'll be saving over£500 a year. He says, this is my final house purchase. I could easily see it being a£20 ,000 saving over the next 40 years.

46:21Oh, that's wonderful to hear, Alexander. I get so many council tax successes and they're always good because they're always really big money.

46:28Martin Lewis:Let me do the very, very basics because the best thing to do would be to go and listen back to that episode in August where I do a full hour on the intricacies and the details. The basic premise here is 400 ,000 homes in England and Scotland are likely to be in the wrong band, many too high a band because they still haven't been updated since the 1991 second gear valuation that happened back then. I came up with a system for check and challenging your band, which in a nutshell is, first of all, are you in a higher band than neighbours in similar or preferably identical properties? And you can check that via gov.uk council tax checker.

47:05Martin Lewis:You can check your band and other properties bands there. And if you are, then I would check, because what you want to know is, say you're in a higher band than neighbours, are they in too lower band or are you in too higher band? You don't want their band to be put up. They wouldn't like you. If you are, you then want to do a valuation check, which effectively is working out what your property was worth in 1991. And there are free tools online that can do that for you. But I would see those two simple checks, the neighbour's check and the valuation check, as triage. If you pass those and it looks like your property is in too high a band, then the real work starts and you need to start the application to get your band lowered.

47:43Martin Lewis:But full info on that is in that episode in August called Best Bits, How to Check if You're Paying Too Much Council Tax. Do you know the exact date, Matt? The 13th of August, 2026. Yeah, and do have a listen to that and go through that in detail because, you know, doing it is more work, but the first step is just saying, is this something I'm likely to be eligible for? Thanks so much for getting in touch, Alexander. I'm delighted to hear it. I'm delighted that you'll be saving all that money. That's brilliant.

48:13Now, are we going to a funny and a scant smack? No, I've actually got some sad news instead. Oh, dear. Go on. What were you going to say? I was going to say you're just throwing the format out the window today. I know. I have to do this. But now I feel bad because you've got sad news. I don't know what it is. You do know what this is. Okay. It's proper sad news. What? It's Rosie's last podcast today. Of course it is. GDPR is leaving. Oh. Oh. Well, I mean, you see, she's not actually leaving me.

48:43Martin Lewis:No. So for those who don't know, GDPR, Google Docs professional Rosie, she who must be obeyed, She has been silently fact-checking here. The canon of the podcast says Rosie never speaks, but that doesn't mean Rosie is without influence. A simple flicker of Rosie's eyebrow can literally, well, not actually literally, but can literally knock Matt and I off our chairs in fear and panic about what we've done wrong. And Rosie rules the roost. Rosie is my researcher. She works with me on everything. She's not part of the podcast. She's part of my team. And she is going back to her normal job. We do it as an attachment for a year.

49:20Martin Lewis:Someone comes and works with me for a year to do this. Rosie has been absolutely brilliant, but I'm not noticing because I'm still going to be working with Rosie in her normal job as she continues to go back. And we have, as people know, Isabel is going to be taken over. We would love your views on whether Isabel should keep up the she is seen by us but not heard by you but still of great influence or Isabel should be a louder voice. we would like you to get in touch and do let us know martinlewispodcast.bbc.co.uk As this is the last time We're going to be allowed to say bye bye and thank you or something.

49:56Do we say bye to Rosie? Can we finally hear Rosie? I would love to get Rosie on. Sometimes she has been on, you have told me off in the past we're including little clips of Rosie Just the Easter egg at the end. Just the Easter egg at the end. I'm happy for Rosie but let's break it, let's break, we've broken every other format rule that we've possibly got. So let's break it right now. Rosie, are you there? Yeah, I was saying to Matt, the format leaves with Rosie. Rosie is the format and the format is Rosie. I think the way she said that will absolutely say to everyone why we say with just one flick of the eyebrow, we do what we're told.

50:27Martin Lewis:It was quite commanding. Rosie, thank you so much for everything you've done on the podcast. It's been absolutely brilliant. You were here from the start. You've helped the three of us have developed this format between us and it has been a team effort and it's delightful to have Isabel coming on board, but we're going to miss you. you will always be a solid part of the history of the Martin Lewis podcast. And I know that the listeners, I'm sure, are very thankful for your fact-checking to make sure that we get things right when we're doing it as well. Thanks very much, my love. It's really good.

50:56Martin Lewis:Any words to say, Rosie? I was about to say, am I allowed to reply again? Yes, of course. Of course you are. I was going to say I'm going to miss the podcast a lot. I know. I'll miss you too. Yeah, Matt was like, are you going to cry? but I think Matt's going to cry I think he's going to cry I know you two get on so well it's lovely it's been really lovely and we've had so much fun I mean listeners you will hear that there's often bickers and there's often joke this is a very happy ship this is a very happy ship it is a pleasure that we all enjoy doing it together and you know Google Docs the GD the Google Doc that you put together which is what rules the podcast will continue to live on way beyond once you're off to different and I'm not going to say better, but different and other things and onward and upwards.

51:44Martin Lewis:And I'll see you in the office tomorrow. Thanks, Rosie. Thanks, Rosie. Bye. That's it for this week's Question Time. Don't forget to subscribe so you know when we release a new episode. We put out a new Question Time ep every Monday alongside the Big Topic podcast with Adrian on Thursdays. Aren't you lucky? Two doses of money-saving tips and tricks a week. Do make sure you send in your questions. Just email martinlewispodcast at bbc.co.uk. And don't forget, if you come on the show, we'll send you an exclusive Money Can't Buy Martin Lewis Podcast Question Time ESQ badge. Woo! And if you stay listening, there's a little bit of an Easter egg for you.

52:38I got to feed So I'm going to 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 I haven't listened to your jingles Have you got them there? Oh yeah I've got them here Play them all quickly And we'll all vote on them Alright let's hear number one

53:28So that's one Okay Yeah Thoughts? I want one that says Success of the week though or success no none of them say success ok they're just fanfares right play two ok

53:43ok so I'm giving the first one a 4 out of 10 can you get Rosie's score for the first one and I'll get Isabel's score hands to Isabel how many out of 10 for the first one not this one Isabel's 3 what are you Matt I didn't like that one as much 4 so this is the first one yeah ok so none of us it's not got one second one 7 9 from Isabel 6 from me Rosie 8 So that's currently the one to beat Now all we need to know is does each successive one beat number 2 for you or not That's because we don't need to do the scoring anymore because it takes too long It's really not fun Right let's hit number 3

54:29I don't like that one I sort of quite like it for it's cheesiness Isabel, number two or number three? Isabel's number two. Rosie? I'm still number two. All right, we'll ditch that. Number two, can we hear number two again? Just to confuse things.

54:48Okay, I think it's, I like that one. Right, number four is my favourite. Oh!

54:57It reminds me of like old Hollywood kind of... See, I think I'm going to go. My favourite was number three. Three? Three. I'm 3-2-4-1. But I... And you're 4-2 one of the other two. But Isabel and Rosie are both two, I think. Is that fair? Yeah. Right? I'm happy to go with my second best that gives us a consensus. It's a far higher average. Two is clearly the consensus pick. OK, right. Can we have two one more time, please, Craig?

55:32It's quite good. It's quite good. I think it's good. Yeah? I like the applause that sort of dims out afterwards, still going as I'm talking now. I like that. It gently fades. I like that. So, podcast listeners, Esquires and all,

55:45Martin Lewis:you will be hearing that jingle before you've just heard it now. Yeah. So, actually, they've already heard it. They know which one we pick. Yeah, but they don't know it's special. They don't know the level, how we put ourselves out there with blood, sweat and tears. How much effort went into choosing that. Effort went into choosing that jingle. And also, I think they'd like to know. I think, I mean, we know it's the Martin Lewis podcast, but we all know Question Time is an ensemble. It's a zoo. And all the animals in the zoo, you know, me and you, Isabel and Rosie, all went for number two. I've just realised, sorry, before we sign it off.

56:25Oh, no. Craig, what did you think? Oh, God, Craig. Craig said number three. Craig. You really mixed it all up there. Studio manager Craig, is that the right title? Studio director. I'm sorry, studio director Craig. Craig, was number two your second? Okay. He said yes. It was his second. I think we're all... Number two is the only one that's been in everyone's top two. Okay. So we're still sticking with number two. I really like four. Anyway. I really like three. Don't make me pull rank. I'm trying to be all democratic. It is the Martin Lewis podcast after all. We're going to stick with two. We're going with two.

57:01Well done, everyone. So now everybody in the room.

57:07They've all heard enough. Cut the podcast here.

57:13What's it like to see an El Nino on the horizon? I'm Tristan Redmond, one of the hosts of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. And on today's show, we speak to a climate scientist who's worked for the US government predicting extreme weather events like this year's El Nino. Of course I'm worried because I know these extremes impact people and you can't not be worried about that. What does he see coming? Search for The Global Story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.