Best bits: How to check if you’re paying too much council tax

**Martin Lewis** (0:00)
They came up with the council tax. And when two middle-aged men get together, there's only one thing they talk about first. This is a substantial amount of money we're talking about for many people who are in the wrong bank.

**Adrian Chiles** (0:12)
I'm just getting some instructions from the wrong bank.

**Simon** (0:14)
Did that go on air?

**Martin Lewis** (0:15)
Hello, I'm Martin Lewis, and this is the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And as I'm taking a wee break for the summer, welcome to a special Best Bits Podcast, selected and put together by the one and only podcast producer Simon. I'm interested to see myself. It's going to be in it. It's being chosen from our Big Topics Pods. Much of that comes from my VPC Radio 5 Live Show with Adrian Charles. Of course, as it's Best Bits, if you hear me mention any specific products or rates, please do double check that they haven't changed, but big picture should all be good. In this week's Best Bits, we'll be starting with five different ways to slash council tax, how you check and challenge your band while you may be missing out on a discount, and why you may be missing out on support, and the two are different. And our Tell Us this week is a brilliant one with Inside a Titch from Aircrew, what they think you need to know when you're planning to go abroad.
Now I promise we're going to get into the podcast proper in a moment. We're going to be talking about council tax, how you check and challenge your band, why you may be missing out on a discount, how you may be missing out on council tax support. But Adrian and I are middle aged men. And when two middle aged men get together, there's only one thing they talk about first.

**Adrian Chiles** (1:37)
I just got the giggles then, Martin.

**Martin Lewis** (1:39)
I know, I saw.

**Adrian Chiles** (1:40)
Every time you come, we meet each other.

**Simon** (1:42)
We start off air.

**Adrian Chiles** (1:44)
We have a conversation like we might have in a care home in 20 years time.

**Simon** (1:48)
It's just air on the discussion.

**Adrian Chiles** (1:48)
All my rotator cuffs gone. I'm just falling apart. I've got a cough. I've got head fever on my back.

**Martin Lewis** (1:54)
On my age, I'm a man in my early mid-50s.
I turned 54 at the weekend. So early mid-50s who does a lot of exercise. And I think you have to make the choice at our age. Either you're not going to do any exercise, in which case your body is going to fall apart because you're not doing exercise, or you're going to do lots of exercise, in which case your body is going to break because you're doing lots of exercise. So I've been doing this press up thing where I wanted to do 20,000, then I increased my chance to 25,000 in a year. But my rotator cuff has now gone, I haven't done press ups for 10 days. I've done 8,400 so far this year, but I'm now off the press ups and it's very frustrating.

**Adrian Chiles** (2:30)
But it says something about your psychological makeup because you reduced it in what you said, the whole thing to a binary absurdity. Is that you either do nothing and fall to pieces, or do so much, you're knackering yourself. There is a happy median. I know it's not as exciting.

**Martin Lewis** (2:44)
I don't understand that. I've never met a clairvoyant, but sorry, that was a happy median. That was a terrible pun. No, I am a binary person. I'm nought or one. I don't have in between.

**Adrian Chiles** (2:54)
You're nought or a hundred.

**Martin Lewis** (2:55)
Yeah, okay. Well, that wouldn't be binary, Adrian.

**Adrian Chiles** (2:57)
No, okay.

**Martin Lewis** (2:58)
To be fair. So, and that is how I operate. So, my exercise, I do cardio every morning. I do gym, not this week because of the rotator cuff, gym session and weight session at least five times a week. And I do my 70 press-ups a day.
And I don't like missing. You're doing press-ups, so didn't you start on that?

**Adrian Chiles** (3:15)
Yeah, I'm just starting. I went to do one.
Well, I couldn't do one at first, and I did one. And I'm building on 60 in March, next March, and I'm going to be able to do 60 press-ups before I'm 60 So I've got up to doing eight every day, and I'm increasing by a tasty sensible.

**Martin Lewis** (3:33)