hey, I don’t know too much about how this stuff works so I’ll try my best to explain the situation. Pretty much the mortgage on the house we live in is coming to an end and it turns out my dad was paying interest only mortgage (i think that’s what it is called). He is 74 and I think is too old to get a new mortgage from what i understand, Im 23 and finished uni a couple a months ago and only work a part time job, Before any deductions like tax I earn around 25k a year. We’ve been living in this house for nearly 20 years now so it’s a pretty stressful situation for us and him especially.

So i just wanted to ask realistically what happens in a situation like this ? We live in london, is the only option to sell the house and move somewhere cheaper ? Because from my little understanding of this whole situation we won’t be able to get a new mortgage on the house.

My partner has been self employed his whole adult life and as such has no work pension. We are now looking to setup a SIPP for him.

Both our kids JISA's are with Hargreaves Lansdown in the Vanguard ftse global all cap, and he's thinking of just doing the same for his SIPP.

Without going down rabbit holes, is this a good option or is there another obvious solution? For now it'll be around £100 a month and will increase next year.

Hi everyone,

I’m 21 years old, looking for some honest advice on my finances and the best way to get myself out of debt without completely sacrificing my social life.
I earn around £35k a year, with take-home pay of approximately £2,400 per month. Some months I can earn more through overtime, and my next payday could be around £2,700. Overtime isn’t always consistent though and believe me I would work it every weekend if I could if it meant paying this off a bit quicker.
I’ve built up quite a bit of debt over the past few years and want to get it under control properly rather than just making minimum payments and feeling like I’m getting nowhere.
My current debts are:
personal loan: £7,801 balance - £141/month
personal loan: £11,000 - £217/month
Barclaycard: £2,430 at 0% interest until November 2028, £25/month minimum
Monzo Flex: £1,290 remaining, with payments of £578 on 1 November, £409 on 1 December and £278 on 1 January, after which it should be cleared
Klarna: £682 at 0% interest, £62/month
Overdraft: £570, which I’m planning to clear from my next payday

Expenses include £217 per month for fuel,
£217 for food and £400 for other bills such as insurance etc.
total expenses including debt payments work out to about £1800. I feel my worst enemy at this moment in time is my overdraft which I am currently working towards paying off.
Just looking for advice on how you would tackle this debt and any tips for doing so. I am young

Before I start I want to make it clear I do consider myself fortunate compared to many others with regard to student loans.

I recently totalled up my student loan payments. I've payed 6k in 7 years without making a dent in it. Table below spells it out.

While I consider myself fortunate to be on plan 4, I still find this pretty depressing. I've mostly been ignoring it, however a recent promotion means I will now be paying about £3200 a year (£70k salary). Which is hard to ignore on my monthly pay packet.

Assuming the interest rate stays at 4%. Quick maths says I will repay this in 7-8 years. Paying a further 4k in interest.

I'm fortunate enough to have a 10k emergency fund and 45k in a stocks ISA invested in a global index fund. I'm 30 years old, no kids, although would like them soon, and have recently bought a modest house with my partner. We are both lucky enough to have decent jobs and a comfortable middle class lifestyle.

I'm the kind of person that trys to avoid debt, so my gut wants pay it off and save 4k in interest. My head is telling me stock market returns is likely to be better than the loan interest cost and it's better to have the liquidity.

Am I one of the few cases where paying off the loan makes sense? Or am I better just trying to ignore it and letting it take care of itself?

I'm looking to change career (and my entire life) by moving into fostering. This would mean being self-employed for the first time in my adult life, leaving my employer pension scheme and adusting my life to live on a much lower income.

However, I don’t have a full understanding of the financial implications because I do not know how to compare such different income streams against each other. I'm also not fully confident in my understanding of the fostering tax and NI situation etc.

I wonder if this sub could please offer any help / informal advise / loose guidelines on how I may go about comparing the two?

Personal details - 40yo single. - No fallback for financial support eg cannot expect or rely upon any help from parents, spouse, inheritance etc. - Mortgage repayments £1,100. - Mortgage balance £145k with 17 years remaining. - Have overpaid by £5k. - Current 2 year fix of 4.69% due to expire in 6 months. - Savings £15k (prioritised Additional Voluntary Contributions, see DC below). - No debt.

Employment details - Work in Higher Education sector. - Permanent contract. - Gross salary cost = £93k. - Net salary cost = £72k. - Enrolled in USS pension scheme since 2013. - USS is hybrid scheme with DC and DC. - Employer pays in 14.5%. - I pay in 6.1% (but also make AVC, see DC below). - Defined benefit at 68yo, current balance = £9k PA + £27k lumpsum. - Defined contributions with Target Retirement Age of 55yo = £45k. - Investment options = USS do it for me. - Full NI contributions from 2013 onwards.

Fostering allowance - This varies quite a bit from one organisation to the next. - Assume £500 per child per week (£26k PA, ~£2200 pcm). - I wish to keep siblings together, so minimum of 2 children, maximum of 4.
- Would start fostering with 2 siblings, will take me a while (years?) to be experienced and confident enough to foster 3 or 4 siblings. - Most agencies do not make retainer payments so I will not be paid between placements.

I accept that there will be changes associated with a reduced income, increased outgoings and no longer being part of an employer pension scheme, but I wish to be able to quantity them. Thank you in advance for any assistance you are able to give.

Hi all.

My father passed a few days ago, I am slowly starting to feel more normal. I'm going to be the main person dealing with the financial implications of his death, and despite being fairly savvy with personal finances myself, I am quite simply dreading the process about to be undertaken and what it will potentially cost.

One major issue is there is no will that we can find or have located online, which will no doubt complicate things however I am his only child.

Just to clear up my father's assets:

• 1/2 of a 800K home, bought 50/50 tenants in common with my mother (no legal relationship between the 2 and who wants to stay in it).
• 100k cash in savings (there may be hidden accounts I haven't found yet).
• Around 7 share holdings totalling maybe 10k (again there may be hidden accounts).
• A 230K cash gift to me in 2020 for a home (we expected to beat the 7 year rule, unfortunately not
• 13k car.

On the face of this, it looks like there will be approximately a 100K IHT bill, which will wipe out the cash savings.

I have had a search and the solicitor fees for sorting this are terrifying (easily 10k+ with no real ceiling).

Anyone who has gone through a similar experience, what was your process in trying to get to grips and processing all of this, without the solicitors taking you to the cleaners?

Need advice on behalf of my mum. My Nan passed away and my mum and uncle now own the house 50% each. Their plan is to rent it out to my uncles friend for a couple of years and then will decide what to do. My uncle is normally to the book on everything but this for some reason he is not for this. He is potentially planning to rent it to his friend and not tell anyone he is living there the only thing he is planning to do is change the house insurance to say it is being rented out. Not getting any of the checks/ certificates or declaring the income. My mum is just going along with this as she’s grieving and just letting him deal with it. I’ve tried to explain all of the things she needs to do. I guess this is the wrong forum for all questions but in terms of the tax what are the implications if they get caught, is it unlikely they would get caught . Or am I just worrying and loads of people do this.

Thanks

Hi!

I requested my tax refund online this week (Monday) - today, October 15th, it says ‘HMRC paid you a refund of xxxxxx on 15 October 2026.’ I requested this via bank transfer, and put in my wise account number and sort code. It said thanks, requested received and today says paid you a refund’. The online letter in my HMRC app specifically said to claim it back online and it should arrive within 5 working days.

However when I click ‘what can you do if you’ve not received your refund’ it says :

If you have not got your refund
It can take up to 3 weeks for your cheque to arrive.
If you have changed address, check your personal details are up to date.
You can contact HMRC if you have not received your cheque or your address is wrong (opens in new tab).

I’m a little confused, I requested bank transfer. I no longer live in the U.K., I moved 6 months ago but I still have a U.K. wise bank account open.

Do you think they’ve sent this via cheque even though I submitted all of my details and they accepted them? Or is this just boiler plate language?

Thanks!

I'm turning 18 next month and my mom is telling me that when i have access to my CTF, she wants me to send her all the money so she can "hold it" and give me money from it when i need it and her reason is that she thinks i'm not financially responsible and i'm going to blow it all. I want to tell her no but i also want to just avoid the trouble of going through an entire argument about it. Advice?

I've just received a £400 fine from HMRC for not filing my corp tax return. I'm always sure to select the option to file with companies house & hmrc at the same time but obviously something has gone awry. Companies house have definitely received it & I have paid the tax to hmrc (it's showing as credit on the account presumably because there's no accompanying submission for some reason).

What is my best grounds for appeal? I filed via tax.service.gov.uk fwiw.

Hello, I'm looking for advice.

I have paid just under 50% off on finance of my car However this week there was a major malfunction with my car and it may require a new engine (4-6k)

What are my reasonable options with my finance?

Ideally I'd like to move the finance onto another car if that's even possible.

Tesco has offered me a credit card with a £3,900 limit, a 3.99% money transfer fee and 14 months at 0% interest. I can transfer around £3,700 and repay approximately £267 per month.
My current finances:
Mortgage: £878/month.
Car finance: £93/month, with 32 months remaining and a settlement figure of around £2,600.
Car finance APR: 9.7%.
No other major debts.
I’m trying to calculate whether using this offer could improve my overall financial position. The options I’m looking at include paying off the car finance, keeping the remaining money in an easy-access savings account, or using the money differently in EFT while repaying the credit card.
The transfer fee would be around £147 on a £3,700 transfer, so any benefit would need to outweigh that cost. I can afford the repayments, but I’d like to understand the numbers before committing.
For anyone familiar with these offers, how would you calculate the net benefit after fees, and are there any restrictions or risks I should check before using a 0% money transfer this way?
Thanks.

I'm looking to buy a used car and want to make sure I have the same ease of recouping the full value of the car from a finance lender as a credit card under section 75?

The dealer doesn't take credit card, but does do HP. My intention is to take the smallest amount of HP as possible (I.e. £1k over 12 months) and pay the rest in cash

If something goes wrong with the car in the first six months I can then claim back the full £10k of the car through the HP lender, right?

Looking for some advice. My wife has a 2021Kia Sportage which has 13500 still to pay. we pay 320 per month and we have had it for 2 and a half years with 2 and a half years of payments left. I have just passed my test at 46 years old in an automatic and we can't work out if it is financially better to trade in the sportage for a similarly priced automatic car for us to share or to keep the sportage and buy a cheap runaround automatic for me.

the sportage is now only worth 8500 according to Arnold clark online, so already worth 5k less than what we still have to pay. I would need to take out a loan or credit to purchase my 'runaround'. It would be nice to have my own car but certainly not essential. (Can automatics even be picked up cheaply and still be relied on?) The main times where I would be driving would be in the evening when my wife doesn't need the car.

I have had a self managed pension for a while (43/M) and looking for professional advice as my pension grows. I am pleased with initial meeting and advisor seems very acknowledgeable however the rates are a down payment of 2.45% of my current pot (Approx 190k) and then 0.75% fee annually.
I am ok with the annual fee as it’s slightly higher than PensionBee and comes with advice but 2.45% up front seems high? Just wondered if this was normal.

Hello,

I have debt:

£15k @ 13%, 10k @ 18% & £5,000 on credit card interest free until start of 2028.

I was looking at the finance flowchart, and unsure what to do.

It says I should pay 10k first technically, but when the credit card runs out of interest free, it will probably become 20/30% which is harder to deal with. Should I tackle this first to avoid future interest, then start tackling the 10k?

And if my credit score goes up after I pay off my credit card - is it sensible to refinance the debt IF I get a lower interest rate?

Any advice appreciated. Thank you!

Does any UK bank offer a student-style overdraft where you can dip below £0 arbitrarily with no qualms or fees? If not, is there a way to replicate the behaviour with pots? what i basically want is to be able to have a spending account where i dont have to worry about not having enough money but also where i can just transfer a set amount each month on a standing order. if i spend slightly more than that amount each month the balance goes negative into the overdraft with no costs, but when the standing order comes in it brings the balance back positive and i have slightly less to spend that month. this way, over the year low spending months and high spending months can cancel out, and my card will never reject if theres not enough money like it would with revolut or something

I have had a Monzo account in the past which I did use as my main account, but this was closed in 2022. For the duration of time that previous account was open, I lived at a number of addresses in Scotland.

I now have a new Monzo current account. I only use it for spending when I am on holiday; it is not my main current account. Therefore, most of the time, I keep the balance at £1, and I add funds to the account when I go away. I have lived in England since this account was opened. My parents live in England also.

In April this year, my Mum let me know there was a letter for me at my parents' house. Inside was a new Monzo card, with my name on it. I contacted Monzo at the time to ask why a card had been sent to an address other than mine, which I had not lived at for at least 10 years. I was told it was a clerical error with the card ordering process, and to destroy the card. At the time of this conversation I did not realise that none of my Monzo accounts had ever been registered to my parents' address.

Fast forward to this month, and I am reviewing my credit reports in advance of my mortgage rate expiring early next year. There is an entry on at least two reports that show an episode of identity fraud related to Monzo. The credit reports state that this fraud took place in June this year.

I have contacted Monzo. They tell me that they do not have any details of this and do not have any records of identity fraud. I have asked them how a credit reference agency would have a record of fraud related to Monzo, if neither I nor Monzo reported any fraud. I am waiting for a reply from Monzo.

I don't know whether to be worried about this, and wondered if anyone had any advice?

Hello all,

Had a lot of changes with finances over the last year and worried we're claiming free childcare when we shouldn't be

I work for the public sector - earn 32k a year and am on mat leave from april26 - april27. I'm above the min threshold and below 100k. Able to claim childcare while on matleave so all good there I believe

My husband is self-employed.

He was in a business partnership (both directors) which ended August25. Since then he has been on his own and doing well. Due to poor decisions and misplaced trust in ex-business partner they each owes around 50k debt at the moment (payimg back business loans in the previous business name ) - would love to pay this off asap but thats a question for another time!

From april25 - april26 his tax return showed 98k earnings after expenses and CIS payments.

As were still paying back debt from the previous business we didnt see all that, more like 50k

I was abit naive and when discussing claiming childcare i believed paying the previous business loans count as expenses so thought we were well within threshold of the 100k

My 2yr old had been at childcare since April26. I've been declaring every 3 months were eligible. When discussing finances and savings recently my husband had earned close to 100k already since Jan26 until now, and with his busiest time of year coming up we'll most likely surpass it.

When contacting accountant for clarity if his ajusted net income is over 100k - the account replied :

'Although your turnover is circa £100,000, this does not mean that you personally earn that amount.

You are remunerated through your limited company by way of a salary of £12,570, with any remaining funds withdrawn being treated as dividends. Based on the salary alone you should be entitled to the free childcare.'

However my understanding is dividens count towards childcare eligibility and that info is wrong.

Sorry for info dump, wanted to give the full picture. The accountant sets all the business stuff up, we just follow what they advise regarding business set up and how paid etc.

Thanks in advance!

Hi all,

Looking for UK - US Expat advice. I'm 26, and moving from the UK to New York with work, with my US employment starting on 1 January 2027. My visa currently runs until summer 2029, and my plan is to spend around two years in the US before hopefully returning to the UK.

I have around £30,000 invested in a UK Stocks & Shares ISA with Trading 212, mainly in equities and individual stocks. I'm trying to work out what the most sensible thing to do with it is from a US tax, reporting and practical perspective.

Ideally, I'd like to leave around £20,000 invested in the UK ISA for the long term, partly because I want to retain investments in the UK ISA for when I return. I'm also conscious that, if I sell everything and move the money to the US, I lose the opportunity to shelter that money in an ISA again straight away when I return, given the annual ISA allowance.

I'm aware that a UK ISA doesn't receive the same tax-free treatment in the US, and that non-US funds/ETFs can create PFIC reporting and tax complications. I’ll make sure not to hold any investments that create PFIC issues if I decide to keep the investments in that account. My understanding is that individual stock equity may be simpler.

The options I'm considering are:

Keep the ISA and leave around £20k invested in individual stocks. Ideally, I'd leave the investments untouched while I'm in the US and forget about them until I return. Not sure if this is a viable, or good option, to leave the account as it is and ignore it for the time I’m gone?

Liquidate the ISA before moving and transfer the money to the US. I could exchange it into USD and invest through a US brokerage instead. This seems potentially cleaner from a reporting perspective, but I'd be giving up the ISA wrapper and would need to consider the tax implications of selling and reinvesting.

Update T212 that I’m moving to the US, but complete forms (if needed) to declare I’m holding certain stocks but not selling? Does anyone have an indication to what forms might be required if so, whether capital gains/dividends would need reporting even if the money stays in the UK, and how much of a headache this is in practice? Wondering, if this amount of money is even worth the headache and if it is easier to bring with me.

Keep the UK money but move the investments into a different structure or account. If anyone has found a sensible middle ground, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Another note, I've read about FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) and understand that foreign financial accounts may need reporting if the aggregate balance exceeds $10,000 at any point during the year (which it would). I'm trying to understand how that works alongside the US tax return and whether holding a relatively modest amount in a UK ISA creates much additional cost or complexity. I'm also unsure whether Trading 212 will allow me to retain my ISA after I become US-resident, so that is another practical consideration.

I'm trying to find the least stressful and cost-effective approach for what is, in the grand scheme of things, a relatively modest investment portfolio.

Thanks!

Hello,

I (30M) am just beginning to think seriously about my future savings and finances and am looking for advice on if the decisions I've made sound okay.

I am new to learning about investing so feel a bit nervous about going all in with that. I have around 20k sitting in a savings account with little interest, so I have decided to put half of it into a fixed term ISA with a better interest rate of around 5%, and then another 5k into a stocks and shares ISA with trading 212. In the S&S ISA I was going to opt for the Vanguard FTSE Global ETF, as it seems like a relatively simple option for me.

The nature of my job means I change contract every year or so, ad it's a mixture of PAYE and self employed contracts. Because of this I had multiple pension with different providers which I have consolidated into a SIPP also with trading 212. My pensions from these pots only add up to around 6k at the moment (I've made the mistake of not paying into them when self employed) So obviously I would like to work on building my pension up. Would the best option to be investing all the money once it arrives in the SIPP into a similar ETF as the S&S ISA? Should I continue putting my pensions from future PAYE employers into the SIPP once the contract is over? or is it beneficial to keep a workplace pension?

I am able to save on average £1000 a month, would this be best split between the S&S ISA and my SIPP?

I have no debt apart from a mortgage and no particular short term saving goals. Just would like to know if this all sounds sensible and hear what others in my situation would do

Sorry for all the questions and thank you in advance :)

So there are 3 of us and we all have a bath most days. So that's 3 baths per day on average, sometimes every other day. Other than that, nothing excessive. We pay direct debit and have no meter. I'd £78 a lot, or does that sound right in our circumstances?

Hi everyone.
My parents want to gift me around £100k that I’m planning to use as a deposit to buy a house. Money coming from abroad. Not sure how to prove where the money are coming from / trail them. It’s parents savings over the years - partly in cash/partly on the bank accounts. I can ask them for payslips and bank statements but they are not in English obviously. Will the solicitor be happy with them? Anyone had similar experience? Thanks

Hey folks. A huge thank you to this community for the helpful discussions here. I would massively appreciate it if anyone here could review my savings breakdown and let me know if there's anything that could be better optimised.

I am in my thirties, female, married, no kids. Undecided whether we will have kids.

We bought a house for £485,000 last year with a £50,000 deposit. Our monthly mortgage payment is £2,074. We have completed 1 year of a 36 year mortgage agreement.

Outside of mortgage I have no debts + no student loan payments. I have £21,000 in an emergency fund (Marcus savings account, 3.75% AER).

I earn £110,000 as a full time employee. My monthly take home pay after tax, NI and pension is £5,580.71.

Employer pension contribution: £458.33 (5%) - Nest

Employee pension contribution: £366.67 (4%) - Nest

Mortgage payment: £1,037 (my half) - HSBC, 4.16% interest rate

Stocks and shares ISA: £1,200 (20% of my take home pay rounded up to nearest £100) - Wealthify

Bills: £250

Direct Debits/Subscriptions: £220

This leaves circa £2,873 left a month. I live in London, have a packed social life, hobbies, enjoy eating out, travelling, doing things to the house - the money is easily spent...

Aside from the obvious (decrease in lifestyle/luxuries to put more in savings), I wanted to check if I could be smarter with my pension/mortgage/ISA. Would it make sense to:

• Increase pension contribution instead of putting as much in ISA
• Overpay mortgage instead of putting as much in ISA
• Continue putting 20% in ISA and don't overpay mortgage or pay more pension
• Any other combos I may not have thought about

Please check my homework and tell me where I'm being dumb!

Thank you 🙏

Just opened a Flexible Cash ISA and want to squeeze every last penny of interest out of it.

I plan to keep my ISA savings and self-assessment tax savings in the Flexible Cash ISA. Come January, I’ll withdraw what I need to pay my self-assessment, then top it back up before April so I don’t lose any allowance. Does this sound about right?