Student finance debunked – tuition fee rises – is it worth it? | UK base rate cut (mortgage & savings)

24:50Why did you get it suddenly? What do you regret? There's one on Twitter from a former personal finance journalist who I think now works in PR, who was right at the top. James, his name is. I liked his very much. Can you get me that one? Shall we do student finance while those are all being compiled? OK, let's do... Well, actually, I'm just going to give you three and were they qualified by our new impulse rules. My PS5 Pro arrived today, don't need it, but need it. well we don't know what his thought process was what we have is it was an impulse buy but we don't yet know if it was a bad impulse buy if we think of a PS5 Pro as a piece of entertainment and you're going to get hundreds or thousands of hours of use out of it then you know as an entertainment mechanism that doesn't make it a bad impulse buy I am not against people buying things that makes them happy as long as they can afford it and they've budgeted for it etc what I want is things that you've bought that you've just gone this was useless, why on earth did I buy it?

25:46You know, this tends to happen late at night when people have been out for the evening. Yes, and Amazon and stuff is a real vector for it because you can, you know, there ought to be a cooling off period, hadn't there? When I wake up in the morning function, when you can see what you've ordered. Christine, three chickens cost 60 quid, ended up having to spend another£600 on their accommodation. Then there was the avian... Five chickens we're talking about. Yes, then there was the avian... We don't need accommodation for dead ones, Adrian. Then there was the avian flu bird lockdown, so they needed to be inside undercover.

26:15That was another 400 quid. Then they all stopped laying eggs. Vet bills then followed, now standing at£700 in total. Two died, so had one on its own, so I bought two friends to keep it company. Then that one died. OK, it's not a very jolly tale, is it? I think we should do student finance. I've got a lot to do on student finance. I'm slightly worried we're going to run out of time. OK. Actually, I'm going to just give you one. James, while watching TV, I saw a character who had a sword on the wall of their flat, and I thought, wait, can you just buy a sword? You can. I did. And I'm forever grateful HSBC blocked my 2am online purchase as suspicious activity.

26:50And that is from a former personal finance journalist. Oh, is that the one? That's the one. That's the fella. Sword man. No kidding. That's always going to be... James, you're now sword man. The sword man. The sword meister. And that's not the end of the tellers. There's more of your What Did You Buy on a Whim? coming up.

27:08Loads of stuff coming in on student loads. Matthew wants to know what happens when you can't pay it back? Who ends up covering it? This is a very interesting question because the answer is the state ends up covering it. But I go back to the original point before we had tuition loans, the state covered everything. Now, what a lot of people get in touch and they say, well, you know, if the state, if someone has a degree that they don't pay back in full, Therefore, it must be a wasted degree because they haven't managed to pay it back. And I think that is often a fundamental misunderstanding of the student finance system.

27:43The student finance system is set up to be, if you like, a no win, no fee system based on financial success. If you financially succeed on the back of university, you have to contribute towards the cost of it. If you don't financially succeed on the back of university, then you're meant to contribute less towards it. Now, the reason the judgment of whether you pay off in full or not is irrelevant to whether your degree was financially worth it is because whether you pay off in full or not is solely a function of how much revenue the government wants to raise, not a function of the value of the degree.

28:17So let's see if we can work this through together, Adrian. If I were in charge of student loans, the interest rate is currently based at the rate of inflation, and I dropped the interest rate to 0 % rather than based on the rate of inflation, would more or less people pay it off in full if the interest rate was lower? Oh, God, I'm being hopeless today. Is it the same? Is it the same? Less if it's lower. No, more people would repair it in full. Oh, more people, yes. I've dropped the interest rate. Yeah. Therefore, the loan isn't growing as quickly because the loan is smaller. More people would clear it in full in the 40 years before it wiped on the current system, previous systems, 30 years.

29:04So if I drop the interest rates, more people repay in full, would the government gain more or less money? With a lower interest rate. Yes. Less. So they're charging less interest. the state would rack in less money, but more people would clear in full. Now let's do the reverse and go to an absurd level. Let's increase the interest rate to 100%. Would more or less people clear in full if I had 100 % interest rates? Less. Less. I mean, probably only Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk would clear in full. Everybody else would just repay for 40 years. They'd find a way of not paying as well, anyway. Yeah, I'll try.

29:39Everyone else would repay for 40 years at 9 % of their income. it would become effectively a tax, an additional tax of 9 % above your income if you increased interest rates to 100%. Would the state rack in more or less money with 100 % interest rates? Well, in theory, more. Certainly more, absolutely more, unquestionably more, because everybody would just pay 9 % of their earnings above a threshold for 40 years. No one would clear it. So my point on answering this question is, how much is repaid is simply a function of how much money the government wants to get back. You can do that by changing the repayment length.

30:15You can do that by changing the threshold. It is not a function of the value of a degree. So going to your question, who pays if the student doesn't, that is based on this idea that there's some actual cost of your university rather than this is a funding mechanism, a complex funding mechanism, which is what it is. So the answer is, it's really about how much money the state wants to bring in. And the changes to 2023 went from, as I said earlier, it was before 2023, 44p in the pound towards undergraduate degree costs was paid by the state, 56p in the pound was paid by the individual graduate, the 2023 changes made 19p in the pound it's estimated will be paid by the state, 81p in the pound will be paid by the individual graduate.

31:02None of this is a function of who pays or who doesn't. It's just a question of where you shift the pendulum to who's contributing what. But the state's cost, that still isn't the state's cost because that's based on the interest rate they choose to set, not on the government's cost of borrowing. So it's a really complicated piece of finance. But there must be projections for how much is never going to get paid back. Yes, but my point is how much is never paid back is a function of how you set up the finance. No, no, I understand that. But it just seems to be like it's a separate problem. and we don't need to get into it, but a chicken's going to come home to roost at some stage.

31:38No, because this is an arbitrary amount of money. The amount you pay back is a function of the interest rate. Again, if I set it to 100 % interest rates, nothing would be paid back, but the state would rack in a lot more money and would be much better off. So the idea that you can measure the success of the system by how much is paid back is false. That's just a function of the way you choose to set up your finances. That's what I'm trying to debunk here. And lots of people think that, but it doesn't work that way. It's complicated economics. It's not as simple as I haven't paid back, so the state has to.

32:09No, because it's all involved in the interest rates and the threshold and the repayment and how you discount with inflation over time and the government's cost of borrowing. It's so much more complicated. Amanda is concerned. She has her daughter's hoping to go university next year. I'm terrified how much we as a family are going to have to contribute to her living costs. She's hoping to study mental health nursing. I'm so proud of wanting to study this, but I'm not sure we can help her financially. What can we do? Well, look, I think that is a valid worry. My concern about student finance is not about the tuition fees.

32:42Firstly, because unless you have a lot of money or your family has a lot of money and you choose not to take the tuition fee loan up front, tuition fees are not a cost to students. They're a cost to university leavers. You only start repaying nine months after you leave university, So it doesn't directly affect the student at university. What does affect the student at university is the maintenance loan, the living loan that you get. Now, I should state in England, it's a loan. In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, it is a combination of a non-repairable bank grant and a loan. So only in England is it all funded by loan.

33:20And this is the real issue. Now, if you're a parent of a 10 year old, forget tuition fees. What you need to focus on now is how much will I be expected to contribute to my child while they're at university? Now, there are two factors here. The first is the maintenance loan in England has been eroded substantially over the past five years because it has not gone up with inflation. And that is a real problem, especially for those who have come from the lowest income families who are reliant on the full loan because they are not going to get enough to live off. And I'm very pleased to see that the government has announced its uprating living loans in line with inflation from the next academic year.

34:02But that will not catch us back to what we've lost. That will just mean we're not losing any more. But, hey, better than nothing. But in practice, you're going to need more than you can get. Well, there's a second element here, and that is that the loan is means tested. The amount of maintenance loan you get is means tested based for most under 25s on what's called household income, which is a proxy for parental income. It's basically parents' income minus what they're contributing towards a pension minus a very small amount if you have another dependent child. Now, if you have parental income below£25 ,000, you get the full loan.

34:41If you have parental income above roughly, it depends whether you're living at home or away from home, whatever, roughly£60 ,000, you get the minimum loan, which is about half the full loan. So what is the difference? In my view, the difference is an implicit but not explicit parental contribution. The only thing that is changing what your child gets to go to university is your income. So the state's saying, you have more income, you are able to support your child, therefore we're expecting you to support your child. I finally, after about a decade of campaigning, finally got them to put a little note on this into the government documents, into the student loan company documents, which says parents can help by making up the difference.

35:24But that's what's like, of course, you can work, you can do other things. So the answer here, the first thing everyone needs to do, and there are parental loan calculators on the, parental contribution calculators on the internet, which will show you what your expected situation will be, is work out what loan you will get, subtract that from the full loan, and that is the minimum expected parental contribution. It cannot be mandated. You're not forced to do it, but that is what you are expected to do. So even then, the full loan is not particularly generous. So there's a problem here for those on the lowest incomes that the state loan isn't enough.

35:58The real big problem here is those in the middle, those on£40 ,000,£50 ,000 total household earnings, who are going to be expected to contribute, you know, five grand a year towards their child while they're at university. Many people can't do that, so you might want to save up in advance. So what you need to do is work out what your parental contribution is. Parental contributions work as well in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where the total amount you get does change based on parental contribution, although the parental contributions are much smaller if you subtract the maximum you could get from what you're getting on a higher income.

36:33In Wales, plaudits to Wales for this, all the parental contribution does is dictate how much you get is a grant and how much is a loan, but the total amount is all the same. So there is no, the parental assessment doesn't affect what the student gets. They all get the same. So effectively, there is no implied parental contribution, but all of these loans are pretty low. Even without a parental contribution, If you can, you're probably going to need to help them and they're going to need to work while at university. There is, well, actually, Scott says, is it better financially to take the course loan and pay back over 40 years or pay ourselves with inheritance money that could be used towards a future home for my son?

37:16So this is a very common question. When we were on the previous Plan 2 loans, I was very robust that most people should be taking the loan if we are looking purely at an individual's finances here. You need to make your own moral decisions over whether the state should fund and whether you should be doing this if you can't fund. I'm not going to get into that. I'm just going to do the maths. Right. Under the new system, far more undergraduates, the new English system, are likely to repay in full in the 40 years. So that would say maybe you shouldn't be taking it. But the interest rate has been lowered.

37:53The interest rate on the 2023 starter loans is set at the rate of inflation, which in economic terms means there's no real interest. To explain that to people, if I borrowed, if my loan to go to university was the equivalent of 100 shopping trolleys worth of goods, how much 100 shopping trolleys worth of goods would cost, because it goes up with inflation, I will only ever have to repay the cost of 100 shopping trolleys worth of goods, whatever the actual pound amount of that is. So in terms of the purchasing power of having a loan is not eroding under the new system. So if we look at the terms of the student loan, you only repay if you earn over a threshold.

38:40It's wiped after 40 years if you don't repay. You repay in proportion to income. It's paid through the payroll, so there are no debt collectors going to come to call. It does not go on your credit file. Structurally, this is the best form of debt you'll ever get. You'll never have a better form of debt. So my question would be, the first thing to look at is, are you likely to clear in full over the 40 years? If you're going to be a higher earner, then that would push you more towards, if you've got the money, not taking the loan. My next question would be, are there any other uses of money that would be more efficient?

39:15Obvious ones that are more efficient are a deposit for a mortgage and having to prevent you from having other borrowing like credit cards and personal loans in future, which have much worse terms, will generally be more expensive, but even if they're not more expensive, have worse terms. If that is likely to happen, then I would say you would be better to save the money towards that mortgage deposit and reducing a future mortgage than you would be clearing the student loan because it has the best possible terms. Now, an easy halfway house here, especially now there's no real rate of interest. Don't pay it off now.

39:49Go to university. Take the very small hit of inflation rates of interest. You know, it's going to be over the next few years, two or three percent. It's not going to be very high. When you finish university and you're in a much better position of understanding what your potential earnings are, because you might have gone to university wanting to work in the city and you might have left university wanting to be a beat poet traveling around the world, not earning anything. Once you have that idea, then you're always free to clear it at that point. So you don't have to do it before you go to university.

40:17You could take the loan and make the decision afterwards if you chose to, once you understand your earnings potential and whether you're likely to pay it off. But I would always prioritise putting money aside to prevent future other debt, including mortgage debt, ahead of student loans, because it's the best form of debt you could get. You were putting me on the spot with questions earlier. I was very poor at answering. Does that mean I get away with doing Mastermind? No, we're still doing Mastermind. And I know we've got more to do on student finance. just to say, we'll go to Mastermind now. I will be going into carrying on with this when I do the podcast.

40:47So if you're interested in this, please download the podcast later and I'll be doing lots more Q's and A's on that. OK. You sure you don't want to do another one? Play the theme tune, Adrian. Probably got time. Play the theme tune. Play the theme tune, OK. Oh, make it an easy one. I've not covered myself in glory today. OK. So the current Mastermind score is Adrian has got two right in this and he's got three wrong, which is still better than even odds considering it's a three option multiple choice. You're better than a monkey picking randomly, which your predecessor, Nihal, wasn't. So you're still slightly ahead of where Nihal was, but you're degrading.

41:22You've got the last three wrong. I went 2-0 up, then I'm 3-2 down. Now, for those who don't know, the mastermind is a question where there's always a nice charming set-up about Adrian to begin. So Adrian recently fell in love with a shirt, a lovely colourful floral shirt in a sale at his local kitsch store. He couldn't resist, grabbed it on impulse, thinking it would be perfect for work. As an aside, I've often thought when I come in here that Adrian, your voice and delivery doesn't fully get across to the listener how you actually look in the studio right now. I need to say, as he normal does, Adrian's always wearing floral print shirts on his upper body, often accompanied by glittery hot pants and Dot Market Martins.

42:03Well, you're being silly with the hot pants, but the rest of it is true. OK, they're not glittery, just hot pants. I added the glittery bit. So I just want you always, when you listen to Adrian Future, to think of the floral shirt, the glittery hot pants or just the normal hot pants and a pair of Doc Martens with those long, luscious legs hanging out between the two. What a lovely picture of the man you are, sir. Back to the floral shirt anyway. You bought it in the sale, smitten by its swirling patterns of daisies, crocuses and chrysanthemums. You didn't take time to try it on. You took it home.

42:31And unfortunately, let's just say, even for a slim fit lover like yourself, it was just a little bit too tight. Breath restricting. So you take it back to the shop and they say, sorry, sir, you, as I notice, say you should have noticed that we suspend our return rights during the sale. My question, Adrian, are they legally allowed to suspend return rights during the sale? A, yes, within reason, they can do what they like on return rights. B, no, your statutory rights overcome the return right, so you have a right to a full refund if you take it back within 14 days. C, no, your statutory rights mean you have a right to a full refund if you take it back within 30 days.

43:17I would... I'll go for B. I would hope the statutory rights do override. 30 days seems a bit generous. No, I'm going to go for 30 days. I think it's C. So you think your statutory rights mean you have 30 days in which to take this back and get a full refund? No, I've changed my mind. I think it's going to be 14 days. I've got a B. You're going for B? Yeah. OK. Let's do this, shall we? So, Adrian, if you had bought the item online, you have a 14-day right to notify them that you're sending it back, unless it's perishable or personalised, and 14 days after that in which to send it back. so you could have up to 28 days to send it back and to change your mind.

44:01But you did not buy this online. You bought this in your local store. If you buy an item in your local store and it is faulty, if you take it back within a calendar month or 30 days... Faulty as of distinct from not fitting. As in distinct from actually faulty, not satisfactory quality, or not fit for purpose, or didn't last a reasonable length of time, or wasn't as described. then you have around 30 days in which to take it back for a full refund, take it back later if it was faulty, partial refund or replacement. But Adrian, there was nothing wrong with this shirt. You didn't try it on. I mean, one could argue that it was labelled a large and it wasn't a large and therefore it's faulty, but we're going to ignore that slight nuance.

44:46You took the shirt, it didn't fit you, you wanted to take it back. You have absolutely no legal right to return goods that are not faulty. It is commonly misunderstood. Can we have the uh-uh? It's a no. It's commonly misunderstood. Many people think they can. I've been in stores. I've been in shops and someone's having this argument. They've seen me and gone, ah, oh, it's Martin Lewis. Tell them, tell them. And I say, I'm so sorry, but the store is right. Now, if they have a published returns policy that says you can bring things back, then that's contractual and you can take it back. But this store had a sign saying no returns in the sales.

45:21You could have taken it back if it was faulty. You could have taken it back, it was bought online. But if they say, we're not giving you returns unless you stand on one leg, probably break discrimination rules, but we'll ignore that. You stand on one leg and you've got a receipt, then they're right. And if they say no returns at all, then they're right. They can't overrule it if it's faulty. So you have no return rights whatsoever. So in future, when you're buying your floral shirts, mate, try them on first, please. Now, we've finished the bit with Adrian, but I know you've got many student finance questions.

45:50And with me this week, because podcast producer Simon is off having a well-deserved break, is Matthew. Matt, what have you got for me? Hello, Martin. Thank you very much for having me. Yeah, we've got plenty of questions this week regarding student finance. Let's start off with John. Here we go. John says, could someone get in a situation where they never earn enough to clear the student loan, but always earn enough to pay 9 % extra income tax for 40 years? What would be the highest amount that someone could end up paying for their degree under this system? Well, that all depends on interest rates.

46:21Certainly, you could pay in monetary terms, not real terms, easily double or treble what you borrowed if UK inflation went very high. But in real terms, you will repay back what you borrowed. You asked me, could someone get in that situation? Absolutely, they could. In fact, we can look at this if we could go through earnings. Now, people always say, you talk about low earners and middle earners and high earners, what do you mean? I can't give you numbers, I'm afraid. Because the problem is, you could start off when you leave university on a low salary and then suddenly much later on be on huge amounts of money, that would make you a high earner.

46:58Or you could start on a medium salary and stay on a medium salary all of your life. But it's all about factoring in that earnings do tend to go up over your working life, most people in graduate careers. And inflation means average earnings go up and prices all go up. So just conceptually, we're going to have to stick with low, medium and high. So let's go through all the different situations. You've got your£60 ,000 of student debt. You leave and you are a very low earner. Well, you will never repay a penny because you will not earn over the threshold. Now let's say you're a low to low middle earner.

47:37Well in your circumstance you might earn over the threshold at some point so you will start to repay your loan but you will probably not get close to repaying even the starting amount that you borrowed, even the£60 ,000. As people's earnings go up and we start to move from mid to low to medium earners then what you'll find is you may repay everything you initially borrowed but not repay any of the interest. Then you get from medium to mid-high earners and you will repay everything you borrowed plus some of the interest but if you're not clearing it before it wipes by definition you will not repay all the interest that has been added to your loan.

48:19So many people focus on the interest that is added to their loan absolutely understandably psychologically but that is different to the interest that you repay. The only people who repay all the interest that's been added, and this applies both to current students and past students, is those who clear the debt in full within the 40 years for current students, 30 years for past students before it wipes. That is the only circumstance in which you repay all the interest added. If you're someone who does not clear it in the 40 years, then the interest is less relevant to you, whatever the interest rate is because you're not going to be repaying all of it.

48:55So there are a huge panoply of circumstances here that affect exactly how much you pay, whether you just repay some capital, all the capital, some capital and interest, or all the interest. And it all depends on how much you earn. Did that make sense, Matt? It most certainly did, as usual. Good. A few. Here's one from Polly. She's asking she wants to know why the level at which students pay their debt back is now at£25 ,000. She says this has gone down from other plans and importantly is a cat's whisker above minimum wage for a full-time worker. Second part of the question is parental contribution kicks in at£25 ,000.

49:31Again, this hasn't risen for years and therefore low-paid households are expected to contribute. Is it really worth someone doing a degree these days to never get out of debt due to the high interest rates on those loans? I think it's a really interesting question. Let's take those three points separately. First of all, you are right. the threshold has been dropped to£25 ,000. For those on Plan 2 loans, which is English starters 2012 to 2022, you repay 9 % of everything above£27 ,295. For those on these new Plan 5 loans, you repay 9 % of everything above£25 ,000. And that has a big difference.

50:08And that was done so that the state is contributing less to the cost of higher education than it was previously. You then move on to the second point and you're quite right. The point at which you start to have to contribute as a parent has been stuck at£25 ,000 for a long time, which effectively means because we've had high inflation and average earnings have gone up, fewer and fewer people are eligible for the full loan, which is again saving the state money. I could live with that if the full loan was big enough and had gone up with inflation, but it hasn't been. And all of this, for me, you are again right, I think has real questions for social mobility and the ability for people from lower income backgrounds to go on to university when those loans are too low.

50:55So I'm afraid I can't explain why, apart from that's policy and it's saving the state money and putting the burden onto the individual. And they've swung the pendulum. I can't explain why. I can agree that it is an issue. Your third question, though, is really important. Is it worth a student going to university with this higher cost? You say higher debt. I would argue in reality for most people, this is not a debt or not a traditional debt. It was only called a debt because Tony Blair, when he introduced the income contingent loan system, wanted to, had promised not to introduce new taxes, so framed it as a debt, so wasn't introducing new taxes.

51:35I think it is misnamed. Other countries wouldn't call our system when they have systems like ours a debt. They call it something more like a graduate contribution system. And I think we should rename it because it would help people think about it properly. My biggest problem is people have this debt and they see that they think it's a debt and they see the interest being added and they think even if they're on low earnings and not going to clear it, I should pay it because I don't want the interest to build up. And counter logically, that is the wrong way to think of it. and some people are paying off money that they can ill afford to give to reduce the loan, even though it won't save them any money in the long run, because they'll just be paying effectively a 9 % tax.

52:11So let's be really plain here. The fact that the cost has increased, which is primarily because of the 2023 changes to going to university, does mean everybody should think far more carefully, is this right for me? I still believe if university is right for you, grab the opportunity. It can be life enhancing and often will lead to an increased earnings potential. That's absolute. Graduates earn more than non-graduates on average. And for many, the degree pays for itself, but not for everyone. So you need to look into the career, look into your aspirations and see whether you could do it with a degree or would an apprenticeship work or would going into work earlier work.

52:54I'm not saying everybody should get one, but we shouldn't not go to university. If the career you want involves going to university, then go for it. And even though it's going to be more expensive when you leave, do not let that put you off. But the reality for most people, and this is probably a good way to finish this programme if you've got more questions on student loans, we can always do them in the podcast in future weeks. Get in touch with at martinlewispodcast at bbc.co.uk. But the reality for most people is this is what being a student does to you. Currently, if you earn up to£12 ,570 in the UK, you don't pay any tax.

53:31That's the same for most graduates and non-graduates. Then, when you earn from£12 ,571 to£25 ,000, both graduates and non-graduates, and I'm going to say graduates, I mean people who've taken the loan, you pay 20 % tax rate on everything above that£12 ,570. Then the change starts. Once you earn£25 ,000 and on earnings up to£50 ,270, someone who has not gone to university, their effective income tax rate is 20%. Someone who has gone to university, your effective income tax rate is 29 % because you will be paying 9 % towards repaying your student loan through the payroll or self-assessment if you are not a payroll payer.

54:16When you earn£50 ,000 £50 ,271 to£125 ,000. Non-university goers, your effective income tax rate is 40%. We'll ignore the personal allowance being taken away. That does affect it as well. University goers, it's 49%. And once you're top rate,£125 ,000, non-uni goers, your income tax rate is 45%. Uni goers, yours is 54%. But once you're earning that amount, you'll probably start to clear pretty quickly and your student loan will be wiped without that much more time. So the reality is, for most people who go to university, you have to say, the question you're asking yourself is, I am going to pay 9 % more tax above£25 ,000 if I go to university than if I don't go to university.

55:01Is it worth it for me? Is it worth it for me financially because I'm going to earn so much more? Is it worth it for me spiritually, if you like, because I'm going to go and get the job that I want to do? Is it worth it for me emotionally, if you like, because of the university experience and the mind-broadening experience that many people get when they go to university? I can't answer that, but it is important you clinically assess whether it's right for you financially, because if you do go to university, unless you're from a very wealthy background who can afford to buy you a house and pay off your student loans, then you are very likely to be paying for it for much of your working life, but it can still be worth it even though you're going to have to do that.

55:44OK, and to change the tone now, let's just finish this podcast with a few more tellers. Remember the question, what's the worst impulse purchase you've ever made? Why did you buy it and why was it so bad? Matt, what have you got? I've got some absolutely brilliant ones here. I've got one here from Angie. She bought a dark blue jumpsuit about 20 years ago and then immediately realised I looked like a quick fit fitter. Well, and so, yes, she dumped it quicker than the quick fit fitter. You can't dump it quicker than the quick fit fitter. Very good. I'll stop there. Very, very good. Michelle went shopping for a coat for my daughter and came home with a hamster instead.

56:18£20 for the hamster,£30 for the hamster house. I'm sorry to hear that. Not bad. Hamster got a whole house. That's pretty good. There we are. Yeah, I've got one here from Stuart. He said he saw in the window and purchased the first portable television from Harrods in 1985, which is a time I have never existed in. It cost£100 at the time, he couldn't really afford it The screen was two inches wide and it was completely useless So luckily he was able to get a full refund Diane, a camper van, second hand Cost me£17 ,000, took all of my savings I didn't get it damp checked Kept it for a year, unable to dry it, never went out in it Sat on the drive, eventually got rid of it for£9 ,000 And£8 ,000 lost I still cry about that loss I really wanted to get an escape from my working week, pop off at weekends with my dogs to the coast.

57:08My dreams didn't come true that time. Oh, Deanne, that's really sad. I'm so sorry, because in a way it wasn't an impulse buy. It sounds like you'd planned to buy the campervan and that's what you wanted, but it was the specific not doing your due diligence and your checks on what you bought was the problem rather than the concept of the purchase itself. and I've just got one last one to finish which is from Rob Rob says my wife hated my impulse purchase of an expensive revolving chair but then she sat on it and eventually she came round very very good very very good

57:45that's it for this week I do hope you've enjoyed it and please do tell friends who may have children who are going to university or people who are going off to university themselves to have a listen of this There are so many myths and misunderstandings around student finance. It's really important. If you do like the pod, then tell as many people to listen to it as we like. If you do like the pod, then do suggest other people listen to it. And you can, of course, subscribe. We put out a new podcast most Thursdays. I would be delighted if you joined me again. Bye bye.

58:24I 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.