Martin Lewis was back at the helm of his BBC podcast on Wednesday (October 12) to offer his valuable money-saving advice. The Martin Lewis Podcast is released on BBC Radio 5 Live each week and focuses on a different subject to help viewers through the cost-of-living crisis.
The MoneySavingExpert founder answers financial questions from listeners as well as giving his helpful money-saving tricks and trips. This week Martin focused his recent episode around mortgages after homeowners who are becoming increasingly concerned about their mortgages and fear their repayments will become even more unaffordable if interest rates rise to as high as six percent.
After the mini budget was announced on September 23, it was warned that the Bank of England could raise interest rates to help bring down inflation. Ever since then mortgage lenders have been taking deals off the market leaving many people panicking about their mortgage costs.
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But before the bulk of the podcast kicked in, Martin began by addressing a simple way that his listeners could make some extra money in time for Christmas this year.
Martin joined BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Nihal Arthanayake on air to give a tip to those short of cash in the run up to the festive period amid the cost of living crisis.
"Now I know money is tight for many people at the moment so I wanted to start the show with a really easy, simple tip about how to get extra cash in your pocket in time for Christmas," Martin said.
"So this is all about switching bank accounts and there are so many deals up there. To do this, you'll usually need to pass a credit check but it's not too harsh, it is not the type of credit check they do on credit cards it's much easier to get."
Martin added: "You will have to use in most cases the bank's seven working day switching service, which in practice takes around 10 days.
"What that means is, when you switch bank account they will automatically move your balance. They will automatically move your standing orders and your direct debits for you. Your old account will be closed so you have to be aware of that, but they will insure that any payments that go to your old bank are auto forwarded so you won't lose them."
Before getting into the process, Martin then reassured listeners that the feedback he gets from methods like this has always been that it is an 'easy and hassle-free thing to do'.
Martin explained: "The new Nationwide FlexDirect account is paying people who switch to it £200. Customers who are totally new to Nationwide also get five percent interest on up to £1500 for a year, so if you've got that money the interest is worth around £75. Many people also get a year's zero per cent overdraft which is credit score depending.
"One of the keys to this is its customer service is pretty strong, it is not the top rated, it's not up there with first direct which has a reputation of 88 percent great in the polls that I do but Nationwide is 71 percent great which is pretty strong.
"If you were to do this and if you apply now and fulfil all the eligibility criteria, then you would likely get the pay-out sometime in early November so in plenty of time for Christmas."
Martin added: "With Nationwide the minimum pay in is £1,000 per month so they're trying to say pay your salary in please. So if you've got a salary of £12,000 a year as there's no tax on this salary then you're meeting the £1,000 monthly pay in therefore you should be eligible for this."
"What you can also do is, if you earn £900 a month and you need to meet the £1,000 a month pay in, then you get paid your £900 a month paid in, you then withdraw £100 or move it into another account and then the next day you pay it back in. Then you have paid in £1,000.
"You can effectively get £200 just by switching, take the money in your pocket especially at this tough time."
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