Is it time to ditch your Premium Bonds? | Free Wills | How to lend to friends & family

Martin Lewis (0:01)

Today is a great day to do a comparison. You have a 30% chance of winning more than a savings account. It is so much better. They're not in the same category. Is it really a loan or is it a gift you hope might be repaid? I'm about to reveal something that they never tell you here, Adrian.

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 this is our Big Topic episode where each week we need on one main subject to help you save. Usually much of it comes from my BBC Radio 5 live show with Adrian Chiles, but there's also bonus money-saving tips and tricks for you lucky, lucky podcast listeners. In today's episode, is it time for you to ditch Premium Bonds? They're the UK's most popular single form of savings with over 136 billion pounds held in them. The prices are tax-free. It's a government-backed financial institution. All sounds good, but the irony is, it's often the wrong people who have them. So I'm going to go through who they're good for, who they're bad for, the alternatives, and how to check if you're due part of the over 100 million pounds in unclaimed prizes.

Then the Tell Us. Have you lent money to family or friends? Did you charge interest? And how did it go? I'll also give you my top tips if you're going to do it, on how to do it most effectively. And this week's Money Mastermind is all about what happens to your money when you die. We'll see if Adrian gets it right. But regardless, I'll run through why if you haven't got an up-to-date will. This is the moment, as there are three free, it's not easy to say, three free or cheap will charity schemes on now.

Play the theme tune.

Adrian Chiles (1:51)

Let's start by having a little rant about something not to do with finance or money really, but just something which drives me nuts. And I read this week has driven you nuts as well. Go on, talk us through it. This is an absence of headphones on a train.

Martin Lewis (2:09)

So, yeah, it's funny. I did this post on Sunday. I was on a short train journey with Lara and Safa, my wife and daughter, and we had sat in a train cubicle. And I did this post, I have to say, Adrian, a little bit of frustration from me. I did this post explaining what happened. It is literally the biggest post I have ever done on social media. I spent my life providing useful information and usable information. But this one on Facebook alone had 11 million people viewing it. It's just off the charts. So basically, it was a packed train. We had got on, and as I got on, I had noticed some people moving. They had started moving. And then we sat down. We wanted a seat with the table because we were there as a family. And across us, over the other aisle, was a couple who seemed to be alternatively playing their social media videos on full volume. Now, I had assumed once the train gets going, they would stop. It was nothing like that. They didn't. It kept playing at full volume. I was getting a little bit frustrated, but trying to carry on. I was just catching up on a bit of work because we were waiting to go. I'm not going to try and identify these people or tell you where I was going because it's not about the individual. After about 20 minutes of this, the woman's phone, she started playing something about serial killers and how serial killers kill, which was the final straw for me. And I leant across and I said, excuse me, and I did it very politely.

Would you be able to turn the volume down? That content is inappropriate for my daughter.

To which she said, but it's a documentary because that makes a difference when you're talking about how you kill people. In fact, it's real, it's just so much better for a 13-year-old.

And I said to her, well, that isn't your call. I'd like you to turn it down. And in general, it would be better if you turn the volume down all because it really is quite disturbing. To which point her response was, it's a public train for heaven's sake.

And I said, well, yes, and that's why I'm asking you to turn the volume down and maybe you could use headphones, to which she gave a big sigh and rolled her eyes. She did turn the volume down though, we left it there. She did creep it up slightly as we got nearer to our destination. But that was the point. Now, put it out there.