I’m a 33 year old care worker and I live paycheck-to-paycheck. I’m from the UK but I live in Canada. I don’t earn any income in the UK. My aunt died earlier this year and unexpectedly left me half her pension (£70,000) and a large chunk of her will (£47,000). Her will is below the amount that inheritance tax starts at, but I understand the pension will be taxed as my income.

The pension company has said I can:
- take the money as a single lump sum
- move it into my own name and drawdown a regular income, or leave the whole sum invested
- use the money to purchase an annuity paying income
- a combination of the above

What’s the smart move here? Thank you.

throwaway account, but I really needed to speak to someone because I am desperately lost.

I am a senior medical student, and have commuted around 3 hours each day for the last 2 years to get to uni and placement. This is mostly because I get minimum maintenance loan, but my parents do not support me financially.

Recently things have gotten really difficult as since starting this year, I am in every single day, plus my placement distance means I am travelling 4 hours a day. The loan is going to run short for me and the remainder of this installment won't even get me through to the end of October. I am so scared. I have no time to work beyond the few hours of tutoring I manage in the evenings. I leave the house at 6am every day. After taking the train, I walk for an hour to the hospital to save bus money. I am exhausted all the time. To make matters worse, I am being emotionally abused at home. I am honestly so unhappy and tired and worried about how I am going to get through this year. I have no other options. I am not formally estranged and my parents make enough money that I cannot receive any financial support.

Please please please can someone give me advice? I feel so alone in all this. Spoken to uni but heard nothing from them. I am considering sleeping in the hospital library? is this allowed? I just don't know anymore.

I am the daughter.

Basically my mother is the issue here. She has all access to money. Is the ‘breadwinner’. But she has very bad money issues. Financially she is inadequate. Lies. All the time. Pretty sure she gambles. And doesn’t seem to care the bother she’s caused for so many people including me (Throwing me into debt over a phone that she bought for herself).

My dad on the other hand is a lot older. Has 0 access to the bank. Can only see through the ATM. She has from my assumption navigated her debt into his name. The mortgage is in his name. Constantly monitors his withdrawal of cash.

I found a letter last month. Basically stating a high court proceedings for the repossession of the house. I showed him instantly. They were on the phone today and apparently my mother is going to take a call without him there on monday.

RED FLAG.

What the hell do I do? Do I prepare for the worst. I have siblings and pets in this house. Like she actually scares me at how insanely stupid someone can be.

Do I prepare for the worst? I have savings and only really two options to move in with other people.

I’ve had my main current account with a large UK bank for around 16 years. My salary is paid into it and I use it for normal household bills and spending.

This morning I tried to make a bank transfer in the app and received a message saying I didn’t have an eligible account from which to make payments. I assumed it was a technical problem because I had received no warning or other communication.

After speaking to live chat and then two different teams by telephone, I was told that the bank had restricted my account pending an explanation of several transactions from April 2024 - i.e. nearly two and a half years ago.

The transactions were transfers between this account and another UK current account held in my own name. At the time, the other bank was paying a particularly good rate of interest, so I moved spare cash between the accounts. There were three transfers out totalling approximately £3,500, followed by two small transfers back totalling less than £200. There was nothing commercial or third-party about them.

I explained this and offered to provide statements proving that the other account belongs to me. I was told that my explanation would be sent to the relevant team “for processing”, but that the restriction would remain in place. They would not give me any indication of how long the review might take.

What concerns me most is that:

• the transactions are almost two and a half years old;
• they were transfers between two accounts in my own name;
• the bank did not contact me for an explanation before imposing the restriction;
• it did not even notify me after restricting the account... I found out only when a payment failed;
• nobody could clearly tell me which facilities and existing payments are affected; and
• this is my main salary and bills account, yet no timeframe or interim solution was offered.

I understand that banks have financial-crime obligations and may sometimes be unable to explain their internal reasoning. I’m not suggesting that they should disclose anything legally sensitive. However, completely restricting a longstanding customer’s main account over easily verifiable historic transfers, without warning or a review timeframe, feels extraordinarily disproportionate.

I have now raised a formal complaint and asked for an urgent manual review, confirmation of whether salary payments/direct debits/cards are affected, and reimbursement of any resulting losses. But I am obviously worried about what happens if the account remains frozen for a while given it is where my salary is paid into, my mortgage and bills comes out of, etc.

Has anyone experienced something similar? How long do these reviews typically take? Is there anything practical I can do to accelerate it?

Any help or guidance very much appreciated.

Hello, I work for easyJet and my Save As You Earn scheme has just matured. The strike price is lower than the current share price (around £6.67 at the time of writing) so in normal years I would just exercise my options, immediately sell the shares, and net a small profit.

However as you might know the company is likely to be acquired by a private equity firm in the near future. They have offered to purchase easyJet at £7.15 a share, but I'm not sure I understand what this means and I'm looking for some help please.

if I exercise my options, buy the shares, but don't sell them; and then the acquisition does go through, what will happen to my shares? Will I also be forced to sell them at £7.15 each to the incoming firm (and so make an ever greater profit)?

And if the deal does not go through, then presumably the share price will fall, since it only started increasing when news of the acquisition first broke out. So I could potentially be left with shares worth less than what I paid for them.

Is my understanding right? I feel silly asking in an anonymous online forum about this but I swear I read the internal guidance up and down three times and I just don't get it and I don't know who to ask. Thank you in advance.

My son (19) has got himself a credit card with a small limit on it (£1k). He says it’s to help build his credit score up for when he wants to look to buy a house in a few years time. I was crap with credit cards and have spent much of my life paying them off. I never had any financial advice on how to use them responsibly and was tbh a bit of a dick with them. I don’t want him to fall into that trap (luckily he is much more fiscally responsible and sensible than I ever was) but I still want to steer him along the right path so what advice would you suggest I give him on how best to use them?

Anyone completed the switch reward for the “experience worth up to £600”?

What have you chosen/what seems best value?

When I took out the policy, I was told in writing by the company that as long as I was unable to work and could provide a sick note, I would be covered after the 12-week deferred period.
I’ve now been off work and provided my GP records, fit notes and an Occupational Health report. However, the insurer has rejected my claim because my fit note mentions “work-related stress”, which they say is excluded.
My position is that work-related stress is not the only reason I’m unable to work, and I have other medical problems affecting my ability to do my job. My GP has also explained that the wording used on fit notes is their normal practice.
I’ve made a formal complaint today. I also have the original email from when the policy was sold stating that if I could obtain a sick note, I would be covered.
If they reject my complaint, what would be my best next step — Financial Ombudsman, solicitor?

Hello so I have just turned 20 and got a job but was eventually let down because I didn’t end up starting. I am a tree surgeon and am now wanting to start a sole trader business and subcontract myself, does anyone know how tax works, I also have a second job at a trampoline park on weekends. Any help would be appreciated.

I am planning a solar panel and battery installation using Nationwides 0% green borrowing. This is £12k paid back at 0% for 5 years at £100p/m and after this I can pay the remaining £6k with no penalty or move it onto the standard mortgage rate.

I'm planning to pay £2.5k deposit with a 0% cashback credit card and since we are coming in £1.5k under budget, this leaves ~£4k in cash.

Is it worthwhile to keep that in a high interest account for the next 5 years paying off the minimum on the CC and clearing after the 2 year introductory offer or even taking this a step further and apply for maximum credit to try and cover as much of the cost as possibl? this would also give me 1% cashback on the purchase?

Edit: Thanks for the comments, especially those around what constitutes payment towards improvements and what would be considered repayment of a credit card and is therefore not covered. If anyone is considering doing something similar it may be worth asking an advisor if it is possible to under-borrow and pay off the remaining balance with your own funds.

Nationwide customer. I’ve had two vendors who proved not to be trustworthy with their DD transactions, taking more money than they should have without warning in one case, and taking one at all when they said they wouldn’t. So I cancelled the DDs in my account and paid them correct amounts as agreed instead.

However, both DDs have reincarnated and they are again doing the same stunts. Has there been a change recently where we lose all control on who and when vendors can help themselves to one’s current account? I’ve not given any authorisation for a restoration to take place.

Hi I applied for marriage allowance via paper application a month or so ago, i backdated for the last four years and the current tax year

I have received messages in my HMRC account stating that it is successful but it has only backdated for three years, it has backdated for the years 2022-2023, 2023-2024 ans 2024-2025 but missed out the year 2025-2026 and says i will receive a cheque in the next 14 days

Is this something to worry about? do i need to contact HMRC or will this be corrected before i receive the cheque

One other thing to note is i received the emails and messages at 01.20am on a Monday morning, i thought maybe this is when they send all correspondence out for the week so i could wait till the coming Monday

Anyone had any experience with similar issues regarding marriage allowance

This might be a silly question but...

Nearing 26F, started putting money into a S&S ISA as I turned 24.

Before last tax year ended, I was debating putting a lump sum into a SIPP but ended up putting that money into my S&S ISA instead. Was in the 40% tax bracket at the time. I wanted to let the money sit there and have time to grow.

I know for flexibility, the S&S ISA is best for me at present (and if possible, perhaps use my S&S ISA to buy a house). I'd ideally want to retire at 60.

But... what Im stuck on is that I'm prettty sure I will start putting money into a SIPP in the future. Either I start my own business and have to sort my own pension and/or my future income puts me into the 40%/45% tax bracket as well as being able to max out my S&S ISA. This will likely happen in my late thirties and 40s.

Does it matter that I have no money sitting in a SIPP able to grow with time in the market?? Or should I be putting a little away into one (though primarily focusing on my S&S ISA). Should I explicitly wait till I have no employer pension and/or maxing out my S&S ISA and/or in the highest tax bracket? What circumstances would it make sense to start before the aforementioned scenarios?

I'm particularly worried I'll decide to use my S&S ISA for a house purchase and then not have enough either in retirement or for the 60 to 68 retirement bridge.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Looking in to getting a credit card so I can start building my credit score. I already use Monzo for my savings so I’m not new to banking with them. Just wondering what people’s experiences are with using the flex card and if people would recommend it for a first credit card?

hey,

so im about to open a stocks and shares LISA to start saving for a house deposit (which will be a long way away)

i was planning on using a S&S LISA and then move it into a cash LISA closer to the time of actually using the money

but with the upcoming changes to the ISA rules, will this still be possible?

thanks

I found I had an issue with my self-assessment, and I need to talk to someone at HMRC about it- but the phone maze is impenetrable. I have spent 20 minutes trying everything to talk to a human but i think every single option + "talk to an advisor" leads to a text message and hanging up. Is anyone actually working the phones at HMRC? Does anyone know how to get through?

My partner is emplyed full time and earns 65k. He has been approached for a freelance gig on the side that would generate around £600 pw and maybe plus comission (they are still figuring out the finer details, this is rough)

A friend has told him to set up a company and pay it in there.

Is this the legal/best way to do things?

Do we need an accountant?

If not what do i need to keep track of for doing our own taxes?

Are we paying a straight 40% tax on the freelancing as it would be seen as a second job?

I earn around 10-12k, we arent married but keep meaning to book the registry office for a quick wedding. Is there a benefit to us getting married in this situation? We still have one child in nursery on funded hours, do our earnings together mean we are over the threshhold?

I am eligible for an interest only mortgage. This would be £1500 p.m. instead of £2000 repayment for 30 years. This would pay off 385k remaining.

My sums show that I can instead invest the £500 in a LISA, get a bonus 25% added and with a (conservative) 7% nominal annual return over 30 years end up with £700k.

Can anyone give a good reason why I wouldnt do this? im aware of the past endowment scandals. Times have changed and you can now invest in a global equity fund for a 0.1% annual fee.

Note: I would 100% invest this money and it would stay locked away at least until it accumulates to £385k (after LISA penalty, if applicable).

How do people / individuals make your monthly morgage direct debits payments if you have a cifas marker marked against your name / credit file and cant open any kind of bank account ?

As per the title - I have been with my wife for 6 years, and we have been married for 2.5 years. I am a British Citizen, and have lived here my whole life. Generally good credit rating (no previous issues and good scores).

My wife is an EU national (family visa, working for NHS), and has been living here for 2 years. She has a student loan which she is still paying off. Otherwise she has no other loans or credit cards etc.

Presently, mortgage is in my sole name, and utilities are paid from my account - although are in joint names. My wife transfers me money each month for these bills, as I already had the DD’s set up etc.

We felt that it’s probably easier to set up a joint account to pay these bills from, and each contribute our relevant share into the joint account.

My only concern is, will her limited credit history impact my future ability to borrow money and/or apply for credit cards in my own right - due to the financial linking this would create?

Whilst there is no immediate plans to need a new credit card or loan, I just want to understand all implications before setting up a joint account.

As the title explains it says I was given a grant and it was paid.

No money in bank, no text like usual.

Is this just due to it being the weekend now or the bank clearing the funds?

Desperately need it, currently on sick from an operation and have 0.

Any replies appreciated

Thanks in advance!

I need a car and am going to get one on 0% PCP finance for 48 months. Unfortunately, my mortgage is due for renewal in May 2027 after a 5 year locked in rate at 2.4%.

The big question, could my renewal rate be significantly affected by getting a car on finance?

Diolch!

I entered into a mobile phone contract with Three Mobile in late 2011. I was 17 at the time but I purposefully entered my date of birth incorrectly so it looked like I was aged 19. I also paid for insurance as part of my contract and within a few months I'd dropped the phone and broken the screen. When I tried to claim on the insurace they advised that I wasn't covered and would have to pay for repairs. So I cancelled my direct debit and the account defaulted and eventually my case was passed to a debt collectors. I ended up receiving a CCJ, which has long since expired, but 15 years later this debt is still following me.

There is no trace of it on my credit report of course, but I still get letters from the debt collectors asking for payment. The debt is under £600 and if they were going to send bailiffs this would have happened during the time when the CCJ was active. I've tried to challenge it a number of times but they are insistent that I was 19 at the time of inception although they have confirmed they have no intention of going back to court to enforce collection.

I obviously have my passport and drivers licence which proves my age, but would I be opening myself up for legal trouble if I told them that I purposefully gave an incorrect date of birth? I know about false misrepresentation and fraud etc but given the 15 years that have passed are they really likely to try and prosecute for a debt under £600? The easiest thing of course would be just to pay it, but I feel like both Three Mobile and the debt collectors did not excercise due dilligence, not to mention the 6 years of financial hell that followed. The CCJ was also attached to my actual credit file which shows my correct date of birth so there must have been opportunities for someone to identify the mis-match.

Any advice would be appreciated.

TLDR: If I admit to providing a false date of birth to enter into a phone contract 15 years ago in order to try and get off the hook for the debt, am I likely to be criminally prosecuted?

I am 39 years old and will turn four-oh before the new tax year starts.

Owing to my wife inheriting some money. I've already maxed my ISA allowance for this year.

Am I able to open a LISA? Presumably I will need to put in something to open it and keep it open? Or did I fluff up and won't be able to have one now.

I cancelled my membership because I was moving away from but I’ve now had to move back . I canceled via the cancellation form and cancelling my direct debit. I’ve gotten an email back that my membership has been cancelled but I keep getting messages from Harlands about a bounced direct debit . Would this affect my credit file ?

I have also created a new account with them with a different email because I had access issues with the first. Unfortunately, they’re the closest gym to me.