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DON'T believe the fake 'Martin Lewis' or 'MSE' ads |
Martin: 'Are you paying off a student loan? Over 4 million graduates are due £100s of overpayments back!' Student loans, like tax, are repaid via the payroll - but only if you earn over a threshold, and what you pay is in proportion to earnings. And just as millions can reclaim tax overpayments, many uni leavers can reclaim unwittingly overpaid student loans. Our Freedom of Information (FOI) requests indicate that over four tax years (6 April 2019 to 5 April 2023) likely more than 4 million overpaid, and many more did before & since. When I did a video explainer on this last year, it went viral & we drowned in successes, such as Kayleigh's: "I wanted to thank you. I've just found out I'm due just over £800 through having made 5 repayments to my student loan when I hadn't reached the yearly threshold." Full info in reclaim student loan overpayments, but in brief... The big four reasons you may have overpaid the student loan
How to reclaim (you can go back as many years as you like)... There's no time limit here either, so even if this was a decade ago, you can still do it. If possible, gather old payslips, your payroll number and a PAYE reference number. But if you don't have those, don't let it put you off - this can often be done in a phone call, and now a new system allows some of the claims to be done online. Full free help in how to reclaim student loan overpayments. Should you claim the money back if you've overpaid? Overpaying on normal loans is a good thing - it means you clear the debt quicker and pay less interest. Yet student loans don't work like normal loans. It's complex... see Should I reclaim overpayments? for plan-by-plan details (spoiler alert: for many, the answer is 'yes'). |
Exclusive. The top 20 celebrities used by scammers - beware ads with these people in. We've exclusively analysed data from Action Fraud on public figures, & yes, it does include our Martin. Full top 20 with tips to avoid scams. 1p personalised photo birthday / wedding / thank you greetings card delivered (normally £3.84). MSE Blagged. No typo - it's just 1p via our exclusive code including delivery. 5,000 available. Card Factory £239 Hoover 'pet edition' cordless vacuum for £119. MSE Blagged. Or £229 'home edition' for £109. 5,500 codes available. Hoover Top savings: 5.2% easy-access tax-free cash ISA (min £1). Not only is it the top easy-access cash ISA (ie, you can withdraw money whenever you want) but Trading 212's 5.2% AER* (min £1) pays the same as the top normal open-to-all savings too, so if you're saving up to £20,000, it's worth a look. You can normally put in new money & transfer in from other cash ISAs (though with transfers, over-demand means it's saying open now & it'll let you transfer by approx the end of July). While it's a share-trading platform, it should all work like normal, though you can read more about its complex structure. Far more options in Top savings & Top cash ISAs. Extra 30% off already-reduced preloved Zara, White Stuff & more clothing. Used-clothes site Thrift+ has 60,000 items in its up to 80% off summer clearance, & our code gives an extra 30% off £20+ orders. Thrift+ New. How to get money out of your pension - avoid the tax trap, annuities, drawdown & more. The final Not The Martin Lewis Podcast has just launched, where Martin asks specialists key questions on subjects he doesn't cover. They delve this week into taking your pension, including: Avoid the tax trap | Annuities | Drawdown | The 25% tax-free lump sum | Plus far more, & it's now embedded, with transcript, in our Pension need-to-knows guide. Amazon 'Prime Day' predictions - will the 40% off Ninja air fryer return? Prime Day's next week & it perversely lasts two days, & while many deals are often meh, there can be hidden corkers. Prime Day predictions. Related: 1-click check to see if you can get £15 off £30 at Amazon. Netflix axing its cheapest ad-free 'basic' plan. Find out what this means for you in our Netflix shake-up news. New. How student loans REALLY work (tuition fees, living money, rents, etc) - crucial if you or your kids plan uni in the next few years. This is the big topic of this week's The Martin Lewis Podcast (just to confuse you, it's separate from the Not The Martin Lewis Podcast on pensions above). It's now embedded, with transcript, in Martin's 2024/25 student loans guide. All this & more via BBC Sounds | Spotify | Apple or wherever you get your Martin fix. |
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Car insurance costs level off after big year-on-year rise Use Marc's success as inspiration: 'I saved £618 via the Compare+ tool' It's the too-little-discussed inflation that has been the final nail in the coffin of many budgets. Car insurance, already a grudge purchase for many, rose substantially again over the year to May/June 2024 (Consumer Intelligence says 34%, MoneySuperMarket 19%). Overall its now up around 70% since 2021. Though things seem to be levelling off somewhat... Yet big savings are possible, as Marc found when he emailed last month: "My car insurance renewal increased by the princely sum of £800 (for a 14-yr-old car, and I've 30yrs' no-claims), roughly a 305% increase. Using your Compare+ Car Insurance tool, I got a like-for-like policy for £182 [a saving of £618]. So I'm taking the Mrs to lunch courtesy of your good selves! 😊😊" Full help in Cheap car insurance, but in brief...
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What has Keir Starmer promised to do for the pound in your pocket? We group his answers from our Leaders' Debate, on energy bills, rents, first-time buyers, WASPI, carers, student finance & more. See Labour's pledges. Interrail 20% off sale - unlimited travel on European trains & ferries. Gets adult (aged 28+) 7-day pass for £259. Works in 32 countries but NOT in the UK. Interrail sale The Sun '£9.50' holidays are back... but are they ever really £9.50? Our analysis suggests otherwise, though decent savings are still possible. For hols from now to July 2025. The Sun holidays Buy now, pay later firm Laybuy falls into administration. If you're a customer, see full Laybuy help. 'Free' sports sessions for kids aged 5 to 16, including football, netball, swimming, taekwondo & more. Via promotional packs of Capri-Sun juice (normally £2 to £5). 'Free' kids' sports |
AT A GLANCE BEST BUYS
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Credit cards want you to spend on them, so much so that some pay you to do it. They of course hope they'll earn far more in interest. Yet just neuter that by setting up a Direct Debit to repay the card IN FULL each month, then provided you don't withdraw cash on it, bust your credit limit or see it as an excuse to overspend, it's interest-free and you're quids in (don't do it if not). Yet a boost - clearly targeting middle Britain - on one of our long-standing top picks is about to end.
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THIS WEEK'S POLL Are you going on a summer holiday this year? With peak summer holiday season fast approaching, we want to find out whether you're going away this summer, and if so, how much you're planning to spend, and whether it's more or less than you typically do - especially as many are still feeling the squeeze of the cost of living. Vote in this week's poll. Over half of MoneySavers use several comparison sites when shopping for home insurance. Last week, we asked how many comparison sites you use when shopping for home insurance. Just over 3,000 of you responded, with more than half telling us that you browse at least two different sites when looking for deals - important as they can cover different insurers, and often have different prices for the same insurer. We were also pleased to see that fewer than 5% of respondents let their home insurance auto-renew - the worst thing to do for a cheap deal. See full home insurance poll results. |
MONEY MORAL DILEMMA Should I get my fence fixed and send my neighbour the bill after he messed it up? I had my garden fence repaired and stained, and it looked great. Then my neighbour spray-painted his side, and it came through and went all over my side as well as my path, shed and some of my plant pots. I was devastated as I'd spent a lot of money on that fence. I spoke to my neighbour, who said he'd fix it, but did nothing. I chased over several weeks, but still nothing. I've considered getting it fixed and sending him a bill, or should I just let it go and sort it myself? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should I bill my neighbour over botched fence? | Suggest a Money Moral Dilemma (MMD) | View past MMDs |
MARTIN'S APPEARANCES (TUE 9 JUL ONWARDS) Wed 10 Jul - The Martin Lewis Podcast, BBC Radio 5 Live, from 6pm (listen to previous podcasts) |
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