This is Money Podcast

Britain has been told to stay at home, pubs have been ordered to shut and you’re not even allowed to go to the gym instead. The coronavirus crisis has turned the consumer economy upside down. Businesses and workers risk going bust on an almost unprecedented level, unless a rescue plan that works can be cooked up. Cutting interest rates and quantitative easing was the medicine in the financial cris...

Well, what a week. We've had a Budget, a 0.5 per cent base rate cut and stock markets going haywire thanks to coronavirus and oil price crashes. Why did the Bank of England cut rates to 0.25 per cent on the morning of the Budget and what are policymakers hoping to achieve? How did Rishi Sunak perform in his first Budget as Chancellor and what was announced in his speech? On Thursday, the FTSE 100...

Every year, between March and April, there used to be a cash Isa season. Banks and building societies clambered over each other in the race to top the best buy tables. This hasn't been the case for a while. However, Nationwide - with a new savings lottery - and Coventry - with a new deal - have offered signs of some green shoots this year, but is it even worth having a tax-free savings account any...

On this episode of Making the Money Work podcast, comedian Shappi Khorsandi joins Andi Peters and Simon Lambert to discuss how she built a career in comedy, her unusual life as the daughter of an exiled Iranian poet - and how she once hired Alan Carr to work in a charity call centre. This is the final episode of five in the Making the Money Work series, in partnership with FSCS, that has appeared...

Bull markets don't die of old age, we've been told countless times in recent years, but do they die of coronavirus? That is the question that rattled investors are asking themselves after an astonishing week in which the FTSE 100 has fallen 12 per cent. Stock markets around the world have sold off, as investors dump shares driven by a combination of the fear that a crash is finally arriving and th...

This week, savings have been in the spotlight with National Savings and Investments cutting rates on a number of its offerings, including popular Premium Bonds. Both Marcus Bank and Saga also cut easy-access rates. On this week's podcast, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost look at what's behind the cuts and question: should savers head elsewhere, and what is the point of tucking money away...

From hosting their podcast Nobody Panic, to being in comedy trio Massive Dad, writing scripts and articles, and putting on Edinburgh shows, Stevie and Tessa have a lot of things to juggle. The pair tell Andi Peters and Simon Lambert their tales of living on a shoestring to get ahead in the London publishing world, including sharing a one-bedroom flat and sleeping under the kitchen table. The duo a...

This week started with rumours of a pension tax relief cut and mansion tax, saw the Chancellor fall on his sword, and ended with people none the wiser about whether a Budget tax raid is more or less likely after all that. Sajid Javid exited the stage to be replaced by one of his own men, Rishi Sunak, after an attempt by Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings to take back control at the Treasury was re...

Would you swap your car for an electric one? If the government gets it way, soon many more of us will have to. The proposed ban on selling new petrol and diesel cars was dragged forward by five years to 2035 this week – and hybrid cars were bundled into the showroom clear-out too. If that sticks, this means that by 2030 – just a decade from now – it’s highly likely the vast majority of cars being...

How do you decide to become an adventurer? For Alastair Humphreys, the decision in his twenties stemmed from his love of a challenge, the outdoors and curiosity about the world. The decision led to a life of adventure, in which Alastair has spent four years cycling round the world, run six Sahara Desert marathons, been on an Arctic expedition, busked his way round Spain, spending only money he cou...

It’s Brexit Day – and whether you voted leave or remain, are celebrating, or commiserating, we wish you a happy one. After 11pm on Friday 31 January 2019, Britain is officially no longer a member of the European Union. The big question is, what happens next? On this week’s podcast, Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost discuss both what Brexit means immediately for consumers and travellers, a...

Are tax returns too taxing, why did new overdraft rules backfire, are challenger banks biting and what are the cars that hold their value best? We answer these questions on this week’s This is Money podcast.  It’s tax return time. The organised will have safely filed their tax returns long ago, but there are still plenty of people who don’t yet feel the last minute has arrived. But what if you are...

In this second Making the Money Work episode, Andi Peters and Simon Lambert talk to Olympic bronze medal winner and former professional boxer Anthony Ogogo about how people fund a boxing career and whether an Olympian makes much money.   Anthony tells us about building his boxing career and how an amateur boxer has to support themselves on a shoestring – even when they are heading for the Olympics...

Santander is to cut the rate of interest customers can earn with its 123 current account. It will mean one of Britain's most popular accounts will have dropped from a top tier 3 per cent when it launched in 2012 to 1 per cent. Why has the high street banking giant done this and could it result in an exodus of people moving? Does it signal the end of current accounts with benefits? It is also cappi...

Savers had a resoundingly duff deal over the decade that just ended, as they paid the price for the borrowing binge that proceeded it. Understandably, many feel somewhat aggrieved – like a moderate drinker who got the hangover that should have gone to the party animal. But it’s not just ‘emergency’ low interest rates that turned permanent that delivered the pain, banks and building societies payin...

This bonus podcast episode is from This is Money's new special series Making the Money Work, in partnership with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Andi Peters and Simon Lambert talk to record-breaking Atlantic solo rower Kiko Matthews. How do you fund a life less ordinary? For most of us financial life means paydays, bills, mortgages and attempts to save or invest, but for others it is v...

Does Woodford trump Brexit and the election, were you more concerned about the wealth gap, or do all those pale into insignificance next to the challenges of climate change? On this week’s podcast, Simon Lambert, Georgie Frost and Tanya Jefferies discuss the money stories that shaped the final year of a tumultuous decade. Fallen star fund manager Neil Woodford dominated the financial headlines aft...

The stock market and the pound bounced as Boris Johnson claimed his 80 seat majority in a better-than-expected election win. But will the honeymoon period last into the New Year, beyond Brexit on 31 January, through a Budget in early February and past the negotiations about how exactly our future relationship with the EU will pan out? The Conservative manifesto was thin on detail, but on this podc...

The combined wealth of British households is up 13 per cent between 2016 and 2018 - with the average standing at £286,600. But it's not all about house prices. In fact, the bulk of the rise is thanks to private pensions rather than property inflation, according to the Office for National Statistics. And it says that despite plenty of election claims to the contrary the rich aren't getting richer -...

Will this election really prove to be about Brexit?  That issue was predicted to define the vote, but while each party’s Brexit stance will be at the forefront of people’s minds there are many other factors that now seem to be heavily influencing how the 12 December general election is shaping up. One of the biggest is the battle over the economy and our personal finances. There’s a sizeable diffe...

Labour's election manifesto has been revealed and it involves a huge £82.9billion spending spree – to be funded by a similar tax rise. It outlined a 45p income tax rate above £80,000 and to leave no one in any doubt about its intentions opted to call its new 50p level above £125,000 the Super-Rich Rate. On this podcast, Simon Lambert, Georgie Frost and Lee Boyce run through the main financial poin...

It could be you. It probably won't, of course, but maybe, just maybe, it could be.  That's the attraction of Britain's lottery for its millions of players and this week it reached its 25th birthday.  For self-proclaimed Lottery mug, Simon Lambert, that's two-and-a-half decades of spending money on the draw week-in, week-out because foolishly he has six numbers committed to memory. For some lucky p...

What’s the best new or used electric car on the market, would buying your insurance on the day you need it drive up the price, and does London’s diesel-crunching ULEZ make sense? Those are the questions and more on this motoring special edition of the This is Money Podcast. On it, Georgie Frost and Simon Lambert are joined by deputy motoring editor Rob Hull to talk cars and money. First up, is our...

Insurance claims for burglary rise by a third in the winter months and sometimes it can be down to households not doing basic checks.  This week, editor Simon Lambert, assistant editor Lee Boyce and host Georgie Frost take a look what you can do to protect your home. Elsewhere, can you use Section 75 when booking a holiday on a credit through a third party? We take a look at what common myths many...

What's the difference between loyalty and inertia? Do we get too little reward for the former and show too much of the latter when it comes to shopping and banking? That's the question Simon Lambert, Lee Boyce and host Georgie Frost tackle in the podcast this week. It comes as Tesco – one of the original loyalty scheme pioneers – revealed its new paid-for Clubcard Plus, costing £7.99 per month. Me...