Top Children's Savings | Urgent free cash bank switching | Best ever blags

23:43This is dreadful service. It was totally unnecessary. After he had gone, I said to the lady behind the counter, I'll apologise for my fellow passenger. He's clearly having a bad day. She said, do you know him? I said, no, it was just unnecessary. So I thought I'd apologise for him. The lady said, thanks very much. Would you like an upgrade to business? And he said, yes, please. So he got a business class flight long haul to Japan because he was simply polite and just said, that shouldn't have happened to you. Is that a blag though? Because he wasn't... Well, we don't know his motives between him and his God.

24:16I think reading that, reading that he wasn't doing it to get the upgrade. Yeah. So does... It's like, was the handball intentional? Well, is intent within the blag? Is intent an implicit part of blagging or not? That's the question. In the Chambers' Dictionary, blag is, one, to rob or steal. That's not the context. Two, to scrounge or wheedle. So, I suppose... He did wheedle. Yes. I don't like scrounge, but wheedle I don't mind too much. He wheedle. Don't you find, in your position, if you're recognisable face, that you tend to get either charged double or given something for free? Absolutely.

24:52Not charged double, but given for free. I've definitely been... I have, the one that happens to me a lot, and it is very, very kind and generous, is if I will get into a taxi, if I get into a black cab, and the taxi driver will tell me how, it's often during the pandemic, I got the money for businesses, thanks to you, and it was an absolute lifeline. And I get out of the end, they say, I'm not taking your money. Right. And it's very kind. It doesn't happen all the time, but it's happened, you know, probably a dozen times or so. And so I always feel quite guilty about that. So my answer is, because I'm in a position, you know, clearly those of us who get freebies more when you're in a position that you can afford to pay more.

25:30So my answer always is, thank you so much. I'm going to donate that amount to charity. And I always do donate that amount to charity because I feel that way. Everybody's a winner. He or she gets to make the gesture they want to do to say thank you. And I also don't have to feel guilty about taking something and not paying for something in that case. I mean, some people say in my job, you should just take it. You're the money saving expert. But I think it's a slightly different position. Molly has one, which I think points to an important factor. She said, I had enough BA first air miles, London to Sydney, and a companion ticket, but was impossible to book.

26:04Charmed my way with the reservation team and received return first class for two to London, to Sydney free. Well, that's great, but that necessitated getting hold of a human being, which, you know, I've tried and failed with BA on a number of occasions, I must say, but generally it's harder to get old of a human being. You can't blag with a computer or a chatbot, can you? No, but you can blag on web chat, worth noting, because that's a human being. OK, but most web chats seem to be chatbots to me now. Again, but if it's a human being, and I know many people who've haggled rather than blagged on web chat and got discount codes on web chat just the same way you would in person.

26:47But you're right, you do have to do that. And this and blagging is is generally because if it doesn't involve a human being, then you're probably lying or wheedling and doing something that is of the law. But this way, it is somebody giving you that permission. And in that case, they had the points, but they weren't usable. But they managed to get something that they shouldn't have got. So I do count that as a blag. I'm going to move on to Emma. Bought my daughter a beautiful dress in the monsoon cell in 2015. She was five. Got phone home and found the enormous security tag still on it. rang the store and got a really awful sales assistant who said, and I quote, what do you want me to do about it?

27:19You can imagine my reply. Anyhow, a round trip back to the store, another half hour out of my day, and I returned home with the dress, minus the security tag, and another full price dress by way of an apology. My daughter was very happy. Kate, I booked a Christmas party night. I just read my next one, I'm laughing. Herself and four friends. A week before got a call saying it had been cancelled, but offered an upgrade to their sister hotel for the same price,£20. each, but it was far too far to get a taxi home. Got B &B thrown in, so I got a four-course meal, cabaret, and B &B for£20. So there's a lesson there, isn't there?

27:57When someone's on the back foot a bit because they're letting you down in some way, then they don't take the first offer they give you. Absolutely ask. I mean, I always talk about that in haggling. As soon as someone has agreed to haggle, they've opened the door to a price discount. Even if it's a very small haggle, that's the door open. Susan, when going to a restaurant, they said it was fully booked. But my brother was with us and he looks like Gary Barlow. I said, do you know who this is? And we got a table. Fob my brother offers Gary many a time. So I think the key question to whether that is wrong or not is whether you said it was Gary Barlow.

28:34So if you said, do you know who this is? Well, it's your brother, isn't it? It is a thin moral. moral line. Yeah. I mean, I'm just wondering now if I could, I might try booking at a Gola restaurant. Hello, this is Adrian Charles. Can I have a booking please? Do you think it's going to work? No. No, okay. Emphatically, yeah, emphatically. But I feel it's incumbent on me to do my impression of you at least once a week in the show to keep going forward. What have you got next? Then we'll probably get back to kids' savings. Yeah, opposite. I haggled the price up. This is more like me. Bought a car, tried to haggle.

29:05Dealer was having none of it. He revised the price up buy a quid as a laugh. I took the deal for the sheer comedic value. Oh, well, I'm going to finish on a better one. A few years ago, Amazon put a nice£70 Santoco kitchen knife in my Amazon locker instead of the item I'd ordered, which cost just a few pounds. I told Amazon that it would be inconvenient to me to have to return it, so I will consider it a gift from them. They agreed I could keep it and also sent me my original order. The knife is really good and a pleasure to use. That's a blag. That's a blag. That is a proper blag. That's good.

29:39Absolutely good.

29:42Now let's get back to children's savings. I need to confess something to you. I was genuinely ashamed. This came to me on the same day we were doing When Have Your Kids Helped You Financially? Were they financed? Yeah, with spotting something was too much or whatever. And my daughter came to me with that. She'd just got a temp job and asked me about tax codes. and pay slips. And I just get triggered by anything to do with tax, for reasons it won't go into. But I just realised, even braving a look at her pay slip, I just didn't understand any of it. I couldn't be of any help to her. Well, it's interesting because we're talking about children's savings and one of the things I'd always recommend when you're doing children's savings, I mean, not if they're two, but even if they're seven or eight, is you talk to them about interest and interest is the price of money and you earn more interest the higher the number.

30:37So you do it with them and you give them some financial education. Now, actually, tax codes is in my financial education textbook that people can download for free via the Young Money website. It's a charity that I funded to do it. So it's the Young Money website that you go to. Right. Can you tell me the tax code? I don't know if you don't want to give that out on air. I'm not sure. I don't know. It's just a temp job. Oh, well, that's always going to be an issue. Well, this is what I did. So one tax code says BR. Yeah, that's basic rate. That means pays tax at the 20 % rate, often when someone's just started a new job.

31:09And the next one says 966T. Right, so let's do the number. And everybody, it's really important that you know this. If you get a tax code, it is your legal responsibility to make sure it is correct. It is not your employer's and it is not the tax office. So if it's wrong and you're underpaying, they're going to want money back from you. If you're overpaying tax, you want money back from them. But how do you know if that's wrong? It's a problem because it's really complicated. There are tax code calculators online which will give you an indication of what your tax code is and whether it's likely right.

31:41But it is a really good and also on the back of the tax code, it often explains. So let's just do the number first. 966, you said. Yeah. So what that says is add a zero on the end. And what number do you get? 9 ,660. That is your tax free personal allowance, the amount you can earn in a tax year before you pay tax on it. That sounds too low for somebody who's just starting a job and basic for me. It should be. The standard one is 1257L. That's your standard tax code, which means you can earn the standard 12 ,570 personal allowance. The T, I went on to a tax code calculator as we're doing that.

32:15The T indicates your tax situation is complex or changes frequently. Therefore, we'll need to be reviewed by HMRC every tax year. I think that your daughter has been probably put on a temporary tax code that is too high because they don't have her other situation and she's new in a job and it will need to be sorted out at some point. Go talk to the payroll office and ask why she's on that tax code. But the fact it's a temp job is what makes it all difficult. So it may just have to be reconciled at the end of the year because she's not going to be with them for long. So if you do nothing, does it rectify itself?

32:49Do you get a rebate then or do you get a bill? You should do. You will definitely get a bill and you should get a rebate, but it can take years, which is why first, I mean, and there are millions of people, millions of people a year pay the wrong tax. Millions. Not an exaggeration because tax codes are wrong. So every year when you get your tax code, you should go and check your tax code. You should go onto a tax code calculator, see what it means and see if it's intuitively right. And if it's not, you need to get in touch with the tax office to correct it both ways. If you think you've overpaid, you want the money back.

33:19If you think you're underpaying, they will come for you and that will mean a big bill. Shall we do savings? We've got lots of savings questions. Yes, we've got Suzanne in Glasgow on the line. Suzanne, what have you got for us? I have three children, eight-year-old twins and a newborn. At the moment, I'm very fortunate to be able to save some of the child benefit into the savings app Zupa at 4.7%. This is only because I have to give three months' notice for withdrawing. However, I'm wondering if the savings accounts with the higher interest are best or with a junior either. OK, so whose name are the savings in, yours or the children's?

33:58The children's. Right, so you've got a pretty decent interest rate. OK, so the first thing, and I go back to where we were earlier, unless your kids, they don't happen to be child stars, do they? No. I'm sure they could be. I'm sure they have the talent, but they're not. Yet, you should have said. Right, so they're not going to be earning any money. The question is, if you forgive me asking, do you pay tax on your savings? Do you have enough savings to pay tax on it? No. Well, I mean, there's always a potential that you will at some point, so we have to remember that. In that case, it is unlikely that it makes much difference putting the money in a junior ISA.

34:33The real question about a junior ISA for you, therefore, is do you want at some point your children to be able to have access to that money before they're 18, or do you want it to be locked away until they're 18? Which do you prefer? After they're 18. So if you don't want them to be able to touch it till they're 18, that's what a junior ISA does. People always ask me, I want to give them money, but I don't want them to be able to touch it. I mean, a junior ISA, it does exactly that. Once you put it away, you cannot touch that money. It is illiquid. It is not accessible. You cannot get it out of there.

35:01So putting it in a junior ISA would do that. The account that you said you had it in, I didn't quite hear it. Sorry, the line went at that point. What was it? It's the banking app Zipper. Right. I'm not that familiar with Zipper. However, I have to be honest, the only thing I would check, it's financial services compensation scheme protection. Assuming that's fine, then having it in there isn't a problem. And I'm not sure you need a junior ISA, but you might want to move it to a junior ISA in order that you lock it away. 4.75 % is higher than what's the top junior ISA is paying at the moment. Family building society at 4.6 % if you've got over£3 ,000.

35:39It's Stafford Building Society if you've got less than£3 ,000 at 4.5%. So the rate difference is not much. The rate difference isn't much. In your case, the tax difference is irrelevant. So it's really a question whether you want accounts that they can access or an account where you're locking the money away. Perfect. Thank you. My pleasure. Thank you. Thanks very much for getting in touch. Colin, I want to set up an account for a grandchild where I can put some money into investments for them when they reach 18. I think this means setting up a trust. The info on trust is complex, seems to require a solicitor.

36:12What are the simplest options available? It is complex and it does require a solicitor to answer that question because it's a legal question, not my type of question. But I believe that we have a solicitor on the line because I was expecting a question like that. So I've put one on. You have the details on your console. We've got Laura Selby from Harding Evans Solicitors. Laura, thanks for coming on. you can start your charge clock running now. Martin will be paid. So what's the specific... Just to say, that was a joke. There is no legal contract. Carry on. Go on. So it's the question. It's the question that you've just read out.

36:50Yes. So what does it take to set up a trust? Seems complex, the advice. A, do you need a solicitor? B, I'd ask, what will it cost you to set up? So let's go through when people should have trusts and when they shouldn't. What are they good for? What are they not good for? So trusts are good when you think that the beneficiary isn't really able to deal with the money themselves. If they had it in their name, it wouldn't be the right thing. They might sort of bash the cash rather than looking after it extensively. So a trustee can look after that money or property on their behalf. OK, so you might have a crackpot toddler running around wrecking the place.

37:28You want to put some money away for them, and you can't quite bring yourself to think, well, we don't want to have this, I don't know, suddenly have... And we're certainly talking here investments more than savings. I don't really cover the investment side of it. So you're looking to put money away in investments. How much is it going to cost you to set up a trust? Who do you do it with? Can you do it yourself? Do you need a solicitor? I would recommend seeing a solicitor because there are legal implications. So I think it's best to make an informed decision about it because you need to understand what the terms of the trusts are, what the powers of the trustees are.

37:59And when we're talking about investments, we're usually talking about large sums of money as well. So I would recommend, and not just the solicitor, but also have your financial advisor, maybe your accountant involved, so that they can talk to you as well about the financial implications and the tax implications of the trust. You mentioned the key point here. Ultimately, if you're looking to put away £2 ,000 or£3 ,000 in an investment, it's not going to be worth doing a trust because it's just not enough money, is it? So what should people in that position be looking at? I think if it's just small amounts of money, then perhaps what you were talking about earlier with self savings and things like that, really when it's larger amounts of money.

38:38What type of large are we talking about? At what point does a trust become worth doing? And at what point is it not worth doing? Just a rough guidance. To maintain, run a trust, you want, I would say, about 100 ,000 of money going into that. I think it's best to talk to the financial advisor as well to say, what can you afford to put into that trust? Where's that money going to come from? And then ongoing, what are the taxation implications for running that trust? And is it worth it? Because also trusts have different tax rates and trustees pay different tax rates as well. So there can be quite a lot of administration involved, which can give costs.

39:18No costs come out of the trust fund. So we go back to the original question in a way. And I suppose, let me come in. There are junior ISAs can also be for investment. So if you're not going to be having these sort of large sums over£100 ,000 that you're putting away for your child or grandchild and therefore doing it in a trust, you could open a junior ISA for them, which is an investment type ISA, where the money is growing based on the underlying investment. And, you know, you've got a large, wide range of choice of a junior ISA. If you go for the platforms, your Hargreaves, Lansdowns, your AJ Bells and others like that, you can choose from a huge raft.

39:54And then the child can't access the money till they're 18. When they're 18, it's their business. So that might give you the protection that you need on smaller amounts of money from the child being able to withdraw it. And smaller, we're talking 100 ,000. It's still quite large, smaller, but that might be an easier way. So what we're getting from you, I think, is that people looking at trust, we're talking big bucks. I mean, it's for big bucks. Otherwise, I mean, 100 ,000 is big bucks. Yeah, it is. I mean, I wouldn't like to say that that is just set in stone. And I think, you know, everybody should seek their own advice on that.

40:28But it's basically because there is administration involved in running the trust and cost, then the cost of running it has to be warranted by the amount that is in there. but with a junior actor the things to consider are when when somebody turns 18 are they going to be sensible are they going to do what you referred to earlier about harry styles going around the world following them so you have to weigh everything up so you have to weigh up the cost the amount that you're looking at transferring and what you think maybe the grandchild you know if they're very young a toddler you don't maybe know whether they're going to be sensible you You don't know whether they're going to be influenced by others and they turn 18.

41:11So the risk is if you don't do what we call maybe a discretionary trust, that at 18 they can just do what they like with it. Define a discretionary trust for us. A discretionary trust is where the trustees have discretion as to how and when they advance the money to the beneficiaries. so you would have potential beneficiaries who have to be considered by the trustees but they don't have the right they can't insist on that money so they can't insist on having it they just have the right to be considered and then the trustees can decide when it's appropriate to transfer money for their benefit to them so a discretionary trust can be quite good in that circumstances, but there are sort of tax implications in relation to those, as I said to you about the different tax rates on income, the inheritance tax that applies to the trust as well, and the amount that's in there.

42:09There are other tactics and I'm trying to look at other tactics for people who will be put off by the scale of junior ice that we talked about, investing in your own name and keeping the money yourself, but mentally ring-fencing that for your child. The rest of that is inheritance tax that comes later and moving across. I'm still confused about what the central purpose is of a trust. Maybe I've been constrained. But is it about control? So whoever the... Or is it about tax planning or whatever you want to call it? If I try and sum it up for you, Adrian, we're talking people who've got large amounts of money that want to give it away now so it won't be giving it as part of their estate for inheritance tax.

42:47That's one reason. But they don't want to give the child the control of it so the child can access it and use it for other reasons they don't do. Therefore, they want to keep control of it. You could do it in a discretionary trust. OK. That's the type of summary of the things we're looking at. Thank you so much. Thank you, Laura. Thank you, Laura. Laura Shelby from Harding Evans. Let's go back to savings for the last bit, if you've got anything else. Lisa has a question. My son was fortunate to start up the government trust fund when he was born in 2009. I've heard that other accounts would be more worthwhile than continuing with this.

43:16Is it worth it or can you move this to another savings account that will offer better returns? And if so, which one, please? So the child trust fund is the predecessor of the junior ISA. It works the same way. You can put up to 9 ,000 a year in it tax-free and it's never taxed even on money given by the parent. You can transfer a child trust fund, but if you have a savings child trust fund, then it's far better to transfer it into a junior ISA. It's the same thing, just under a different name, because the top junior ISA rates are better than the top child trust fund rates. So I mentioned before the Family Building Society, Stafford Building Society, Coventry Building Society, Tesco and NS &I all have good junior ISAs.

43:54So what you would do is you'd go and apply to open a junior ISA at a new place. On the form, it would ask if you're transferring across. You would give it your child trust fund transfer details and you would move it across. If you have an investment child trust fund, then it's a much more difficult decision because actually trying to work out which is the best form of thing, whether it's investment or which is the best investment, is much more difficult to know whether the junior ISA will be better than the child trust fund. Remember, too, any child born between the 1st of September 2002 and the 2nd of January 2011 got a child trust fund.

44:26The government added money in. If you don't know where it is and 670 ,000 don't, go on to gov.uk and track down your child trust fund. There might be a couple of grand in there that you've forgotten about.

44:38Now we've got a couple more of your children's savings questions left. So let's just make sure we clear them up before we do anything else. And joining me back, delighted to have you back, is PPS podcast producer Simon. Simon, what have you got for me? Yeah, delighted to be back. We've got this one from Charlotte. My daughter is 14 and has a child trust fund money from the government set up. She's never done anything with it and it's still in the account they put it in. Gets a statement every now and again. She's wondering what happens when the daughter turns 18 and how do they get hold of the money?

45:04Well, what happens when your daughter turns 18 is if it's in a cash child trust fund, it will be converted to an adult cash ISA. If it's in a stocks and shares child trust fund, it'll be converted into an adult stocks and shares ISA. Now, as I mentioned already in the programme, if you have a child trust fund, you can get better rates on savings by moving it to a junior ISA. And that doesn't change anything other than the interest you'll be getting because they're effectively the same thing. What I would always say, though, is when your child trust fund or your junior ISA matures, you should be making an active decision of what you do with it.

45:38So while it will automatically transfer to your provider's top cash ISA, you want to make sure it's going to the top cash ISA or the top savings account if tax isn't an issue for you. So at the point of maturity, you want to look at where you're going to get the best rate and move the money to where it pays best. The second thing that you could look at is moving up to£4 ,000 of it into a lifetime ISA. Now, that's a product that when you're a first time buyer aged 18 to 39, that's how old you have to be to open it, You can put the money in and the state will add 25 % on top, up to£4 ,000 of tax year added in.

46:12So you could move, let's say you've got£3 ,000 in your child trust fund. You could then open a lifetime ISA with that money, put the money in the lifetime ISA, and the state's going to add£750 on top. It's worth remembering, though, you have to use it towards a property that costs under£450 ,000. If you don't, so you buy a property that's more expensive or you take it out for another reason, then you would pay a penalty. You could choose to invest it as well. Of course, I don't talk about investments, but you might want somebody at the age of 18. If you invest over the long term, that will tend to outperform savings or you could spend it.

46:45And the one final thing I would say is if you happen to have any expensive debts, it's unlikely as you've just turned 18. But it is far better to use savings to pay off debts or use savings to prevent you building up debt than it is to build up expensive debts. So they would be the main things I'd be looking at at 18. But in the meanwhile, you might, if it's a cash child trust fund, so a savings child trust fund, you might want to see if you can get a better rate by transferring it to a cash junior ISA. Mandy's asking for a simple savings account for grandchildren without having to do it online.

47:19Is that possible? Yeah, I mean, there are branch-based accounts. The one thing I'd say is not doing it online, online, most young people are going to have almost all of their financial lives online. You might be thinking it's good for you not doing it online, but it's worth questioning, would it be better or worse to have online access for your grandchild? So you might decide there. I go back to that Yorkshire Building Society one day account that's available by branch or post. So you don't have to do that one online. And that would probably be the best one for you. HSBC can be opened in branch, but you would need a parent or guardian to do it.

47:54that pays slightly more. So the other savings accounts I talked about earlier, which are age dependent, remember HSBC needs a parent or guardian with an HSBC account to open it online. Otherwise it can be opened in branch if you're not an HSBC customer. And Nationwide FlexOne, that one is only online or app, so you couldn't do it. So there are many out there, and also always check your local building society. But the question of whether you should do it online or not, I think it's a mix between what's right for you and what's right for your grandchild if you forgive me. Chris has actually asked why the rate's so bad compared to adult accounts.

48:29They're actually much of a muchness at the moment. We have an anomaly currently where we have a few cash ISA providers who are fighting to be the top payer and are all paying just over 5%, about 5.17, 5.18%. And they've been battling between them to be top of the best buys. That's not in normal savings. It's only in cash ISAs. And the reason they're doing it in cash ISAs is you can only put up to 20 grand into a new cash ice for a year. So they're not exposed as heavily as they would be if it were a top normal savings account. If we go to the top normal savings accounts for adults at the moment, you're talking about the 4.8%, whereas for kids, we're talking about 4.5%.

49:05So it is slightly lower. It's just because the market's less competitive, I would suggest. So thanks, Simon. I think that wraps it up for children's savings. And just again, that little note, if this is for your older children, don't do it for them, do it with them. It's a great way to give them a bit of financial education on top of moving their money to where it's worthwhile.

49:26Now let's do a few more tellers. What's the best thing you've ever legally blagged? I've got a few more. Simon, have you got some? Yeah, yeah, we've got this one from Dan. He got an upgrade to the presidential suite for one night in Nairobi for his honeymoon at the Serena Hotel. Very swish. Well, just being on a honeymoon is always a good way to get an upgrade. I must admit, I'm rubbish at all. So many of these were people on their honeymoons. And on my honeymoon, I sort of tried to drop it in all the time and got nowhere. I think I was maybe too sort of subtle and English about it. It needs to be brash and American.

49:55Yes. And I can't say you try harder next time because hopefully it'll never happen. CJ, I hope your wife's not listening. CJ, I once got an extra meatball from the woman working at the counter in Ikea and I thought I'd won the lottery. Amazing.

50:14And you didn't blag that. That's back to your small wins. That is. That's small wins. Yes, indeed. Melanie, replacement bulbs for my car headlights. The garage said they'd charge whatever I had in my pocket. I had a decorative metal lizard that I'd found. Fair swap, I think. Nice. Nice. Rones, my friends lost our tickets to Arctic Monkeys in Berlin. We decided to try and find some spare tickets outside the venue. Met a guy on the guest list. He managed to blag us in. Andy got us free return flights from London to Johannesburg. Wow. That's very good. Gemma. I stayed the night at a Hilton for work about 10 years ago in Leeds.

50:49It was a really nice stay with a lovely meal and breakfast, so I approached the manager directly the next day and thanked them and gave them positive feedback, told them how much I'd enjoyed the stay. So they gave me a voucher for a free night there with a meal to be used at any time in the next year. I wasn't expecting it. See, sometimes it's just being nice is working, isn't it? Amy has gone for a different tack. She doesn't know if this one counts, but she said she wants bartered down some slippers down to a tenner in the flagship Oxford Road Top Shop. The slippers were Moroccan style, so she figured she'd give it a go and it worked.

51:20Another one of those disproportionate small satisfactions here. Darren, when I was about seven, I had Tempe to buy some sweets. Tempe mix-up with the order of the day. Imagine my delight when the shopkeeper popped an extra blackjack chew into the bag, 10 % extra for nothing. Nice. And I think this is a good one to end with, especially after all that's happened relating to Oasis this year. Christine, Oasis concert tickets back in 2005 I was on the train back from London And the guy opposite me was busy stuffing things into envelopes I asked him what he was doing And he said it was concert tickets for the upcoming Oasis gig in Manchester I jokingly said, if they were too spare, I'd love to go He took down my name and told me they'd be too ready to collect on the night And he was right Brilliant performance Wow Wow, just asked and got Nice one, Christine.

52:12Great way to finish.

52:17Now, just time for a quick tip. How much do your Christmas lights cost to run? Here's my rule of thumb. If you're using LED lights, they are by far the cheapest. You're going to be paying roughly on the current price cap about 1p every 12 hours per 100 bulbs that you have. If you've got incandescent lights, that's much more expensive. It's about 1p every hour, so 12p every 12 hours, and that's enough to make you incandescent with the cost, again, per 100 bulbs that you have. So if you run a 100-bulb string of LED lights for six hours a day for a month, it would cost roughly 15p. For incandescent bulbs, it's roughly£1.80.

53:01Clearly, if you use more lights, it will cost you more. So hopefully that gives you a rough idea of what you're going to be paying for your Christmas lights. If you've got a string of 100 of them and the LED, well, even I would say it's not that bad to have a little twinkle this Christmas.

53:19Now let's talk about cash for a moment. Cash payments are on the up. It wasn't something I was planning to talk about. I actually managed to get into the studio a little bit earlier than normal. I was sitting there getting my prep ready to do the podcast and the last item before my hour started, Adrian had someone in to talk about cash. Well, clearly, I couldn't sit there and say nothing could I? So we thought you might enjoy the listen. Have a listen to the cash discussion. Kevin Peachy joins us. Interesting news today for our Cost of Living correspondent about the use of cash. I always find this surprising as somebody who ends up, probably to my cost, just waving my phone to buy stuff.

53:58And when we spoke a few weeks ago, Adrian, I know you were rather taken by the size of the wallet that I carry around. And there's a library card in there. There's some stamps. There's a loyalty card. But there is some cash as well. And it's because retailers say one in five purchases made in cash last year. And here's the interesting bit. That's an increase for the second year in a row. That comes after, as in the proportion of transactions that are made in cash and that comes after 10 years of falls so there has been a reversal why is that well what the the british retail consortium who've compiled these figures are saying is that's because for many people it's easier to budget with notes and coins and then we've all seen bills going up and so it's it's easier to with those notes and coins in your pocket or in your hand knowing what you can spend and so on.

54:53And it probably is a bit of an age thing. 75 % of 16 to 24-year-olds say they use their mobile to pay, but certainly not exclusively an age thing. Martin has lifted his head up, which is an indication that he's got something to say. Would you say this is a good thing if it's coming from the need to budget, Martin? I think it's a very difficult one. Cash is one of the worst ways to pay. You don't get rewards, which you would get on the right form of debit or credit card. you have far less protection. I mean, cash is completely unprotected. If you buy something in cash and it is not delivered or the company were to go bust afterwards, you have zero protection.

55:30On a credit card, you have Section 75 protection, which means the credit card company is jointly liable with the retailer. So you could go to the credit card company instead and it's actually easier because you can then take them to the ombudsman instead of court. With a debit card, you have chargeback protection. But if it works for people and budgeting is their necessity, then I'm not against it. And if it works for you, then do it as long as it works right. Now, it's interesting. As someone who never uses cash, I have a tenner kept in my wallet. That's all I ever do just in case of an emergency that I need it.

55:58And many people in the digital age don't use cash. I have, however, been involved and was one of the supporters of the campaign to maintain cash. Because while it is very easy as we transfer to a digital age for people just to go, well, there's no point in cash anymore. For many older people, cash is absolutely a lifeline. And when we still have a generation of people for whom they can only use cash and find other purchasing methods more difficult to use, then I think as a society we have to protect cash. We need to encourage stores to take cash, especially in London and other urban areas these days.

56:31There are many places that don't take cash anymore. And I think it's an accessibility issue for me.

56:40That's it for this week. If you've enjoyed it, please tell your friends you've been listening to the Martin Lewis podcast and do suggest to them and do it yourself. Why not subscribe? If you haven't enjoyed it, why have you been listening this long? It's your own choice. You could have switched off earlier. You have agency, you know, and that's what this podcast is about, teaching you that you have agency and you can make the...

57:11I 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.