Mrs Mean Money Show

Shops are already full of Christmas offerings and scammers are ready to take advantage of the season of goodwill to con us out of money. The message is to trust no-one and to remember that banks, energy companies and the HMRC never send messages out of the blue offering us money or asking for our bank account details to pay us some unexpected money. Mrs Mean checks out new scams and some old favou...

As the Budget looms at the end of November everyone seems to be worried about tax increases that will cost them dear. Hundreds of millions of pounds are being invested in pensions to take advantage of tax relief and similar sums are being taken out of pensions to use the tax-free allowance, which they fear is going to be withdrawn. Meanwhile there are lots of easier and less dramatic ways to pay l...

Mortgages cause worry and uncertainty about how to get the best deals. While people with fixed rate mortgages at historically low interest rates are worried about making ends meet when they have to remortgage there are lots of people who took out loans two years ago and now face enormous exit fees if they want to change lender to get lower mortgage payments. Both problems are tackled by Mrs Mean i...

Autumn is a time of reckoning and it reminds us of the days when the long summer holidays were over and we had to go back to school to a new class and new challenges The holidays are a memory and the credit card bills have arrived. New jobs, new schools, new students, new rentals,all house purchase beckon as we make a new start ahad of winter. You also need to make sure you are getting good value...

Days are getting shorter and it is time to start thinking about heating and lighting bills after months of no heating costs. The energy price cap is set to increase again in October, but there are lots of fixed price tariffs that can save you money. It only takes minutes. It is also time to think about insulation while the foam is cheaper. You can also get boilers serviced cheaper this month and b...

We need to talk about money. Banks and building societies have more than £280 billion of our money in accounts that pay no interest whatsoever. Customers may not realise how much they are increasing the profits of banks, but if they paid customers a modest amount of interest if would cost them £7 billion a year. As the banks will not look after us we have to do it for ourselves. It is time to chec...

The cost of raising a child to the age of 18 has never been higher, even though there is extra government help with child care costs it is still unaffordable for the badly paid and even more expensive for the well-paid. It sounds good to get 30 hours of free nursery care until you find out it is for only 38 weeks of the year, and nurseries can charge those with a good income twice as much as those...

Grocery price inflation is increasing even though 97% of shoppers have a loyalty card, which is supposed cut some prices by up to 50%. It does not seem to make sense. The supermarkets have persuaded us that the cards save us lots of money so that people who forget to take their cards with them when they shop believe they have missed out on big reductions. We have to remember that supermarkets are...

It has never been more important to make sure that we get value for money and Mrs Mean is here to answer your questions. The energy price cap is being reduced in July but most of us can save hundreds of pounds a year by opting for a fixed rate tariff and it only takes minutes. While the Bank of England has reduced interest rates four times in the last year credit card interest rates have never bee...

The good news is that motor insurance premiums are cheaper on average than they were last year. But you cannot rely on insurance companies to offer you the best deals up front. You need to prepare for the challenge and not allow yourself to be locked out of better rates by industry delays. Make sure you get your renewal information at the earliest opportunity because the later you check the market...

Train delays, cyber-attacks, bank fraud, flight delays all seem to be increasing and costing us dearly. But too few of us get redress even though compensation is readily available. It is estimated that around £100m available for delayed rail passengers was not claimed last year despite the number of delayed and cancelled trains increasing. Every day we hear about cyber outages with bank customers...

Bigger bills for energy, council tax, water, broadband, mobiles mean that for many of us our money runs out earlier each month and we have to use credit cards to buy essentials. Credit card interest rates average a frightening 24.65%. And the debt can soon get out of control if you don't pay off credit card in full each month. £71.5 billion is currently owed to UK credit card companies and it can...

Fraud accounts for more than 40% of all crime in England and Wales. On one Monday morning I was contacted by three different people wanting to steal my money. All of us are vulnerable, especially if you are busy and start the week with hundreds of emails waiting for you. Every day I hear from intelligent, competent people about the scammers who have tried to defraud them. If you use email, telepho...

April is an expensive month. Water, energy, council tax, broadband and mobile bills all increase during the month. But it does not have to be a done deal. You can cut hundreds of pounds from your household budget and may actually be able to get a tax gift if you are one of the two million eligible couples who have not claimed the marriage allowance. It can be worth more than a thousand pounds. Wat...

It is time to make sure we are not being ripped off by banks and building societies. There is currently around £250 billion sitting in bank and building society accounts paying no interest according to the Bank of England. And the banks use this money to bolster their profits without suggesting to customers how they could be much better off. Instant access savings accounts pay up to 4% currently a...

Train fares are rising 4.6% this year on March 2. But there are still lots of ways of cutting the cost of rail travel with much cheaper Advance tickets available until minutes before the journey. A few minutes planning journeys can save hundreds of pounds. Buying two single tickets for a return journey is often cheaper. Knowing when off peak fares start is vital. Getting a train a few minutes late...

The race is on to complete property transactions before the stamp duty increase in April. You need to be businesslike and make sure you do not lose money because you are concentrating so hard on beating the stamp duty deadline. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Home sellers and buyers are racing to complete their deals before the cost of stamp duty increases on April 1. The deadline makes property deals even more fraught than usual. There is no time to lose. Sellers have to be businesslike, befriend their buyers, surveyors, agents and conveyancers. Sellers only have to worry about stamp duty if they are to buy another property. And they have to make sure...

Most households can save money on their energy bills. The price cap brought in by the Government and the energy regulator, Ofgem, to reduce bills after Ukraine was invaded is no longer the best deal for most homes. Before the energy crisis millions of us opted for fixed price energy deals to get cheaper energy bills but now more than 80% of households settle for the price cap with its £300+ standi...

First time home buyers are in a race to get their first home before stamp duty increases in April. These could cost thousands extra. It is not surprising that many buyers will not be able to make it onto the property ladder without help from their families. Almost £10 billion was given by parents, grandparents and even brothers and sisters to help buyers to get their deposits together last year. T...

  Millions of pounds in unclaimed prizes is up for grabs, and savers have lost contact with billions more. Now is the time to find out whether any of it has your name or number on it. For starters nearly 2.5 million Premium Bond prizes worth more than £90 million remain unclaimed. The vast majority are £25 prizes with more than 1.75m not claimed. More exciting are the six £100,000 prizes...

There is never time to relax when it comes to making sure you do not pay more than you should. The New Year is no exception and there are financial traps for the unwary that can cost hundreds of pounds. HMRC expects to make £1.2bn next year from late payment interest from taxpayers. Lots of us will be fined £100 for not filling out annual tax forms before January 31 and much more if they do not ge...

Shopping is no longer fun. It is hard work to make sure you do not pay too much or get misled into buying things you do not need or want. Loyalty prices add to the complications and are unfair to shoppers without smart phones or a loyalty card. Comparing prices should be easy but stores choose to provide inaccurate unit information that is difficult to compare. We need to take a list, plan our mea...

We are being beseiged with Black Friday offers everywhere we look. Most of them do not deliver what they promise. But if there is something you need or really, really want make sure you do your research to make sure you are not scammed, charged too much, or sold something that is not worth what you are paying. While you are doing the research you can also prep by selling some of the items in your...

The pandemic and cost-of-living crisis have caused many people to make very difficult decisions about their spending to be able to keep within their stretched budgets. But an alarming number of workers need to look at their spending again if they are to avoid a poor old age. Up to 25% of workers stopped paying into their pensions to increase their take home pay, according to one survey. This also...