17, i have a cifas mark from being a money mule when i was 15 just wondering how long i will have this for (idk what cat it is)

Hi everyone, I'm so sorry this is going to be a very long post. Its almost 2 am and my mind has gone overdrive with overthinking...

As mentioned in the title, I am currently on DMP with Payplan. Started March this year as debts have gone out of control reaching almost 40k which was something I did not expect. I made many mistakes having multiple credit cards and taking out loans - basically lived WAAAAY ABOVE MY MEANS and thinking I could pay it off but proven rightfully wrong.

My husband and I are currently renting and our contract is due to end next year June. Were hoping to extend it but now worried that because of my DMP, the landlord will reject it? Is this possible? We havent missed rent since we moved in and hoping that will be a plus for us.

But in case the landlord decides to increase rent, we may consider going elsewhere but now with a very poor credit score and defaults - this will prove difficult to rent and I'm highly anxious now just thinking about it. What can I do in case this happens?

Unfortunately, I have not told my husband yet of my financial situation as worried how it will affect him and our relationship. I know that I should be honest with him but its not easy considering what we have gone through the last couple years.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

If I receive a salary finance then will the repayment be taken after my monthly pay is taxed? Or will my monthly pay be taxed first as normal and then repayment is made? Thanks.

Hi everyone, could you please share how much do you pay for life insurance with pre-conditions? And what insurance company is good? My husband is 49 years old with diabetes and had a brain bleeding last month but it was not a stroke and he was not admitted to hospital and he is recovering well. I am thinking of buying a life insurance for him. If anyone from you can share your experience in this topic that would be great for us. Thank you

I wonder if anyone has any experience with taxation on Options trading?

I did have some losses in previous FY's but I made a good gain in FY23-24 which have offset the previous losses as a result, I should pay CGT on those.

I trade with IBKR and have a good activity statement fromt them, however, it is hard to follow especially in multi-leg trades. Also, would I need to record every single transaction? or would it suffice with yearly result and maybe the activity statement as a back up? Especially this FY I started a new strategy when I use long LEAPS and then daily / weekly selling OTM short duration contracts to improve the results (and cater for the theta loss of value on the LEAPS).

I have been very bad with keeping a trade log and i have got myself in a positive but sticky situation with the taxation side of things?I find online some places that suggest options are not taxable, some other places where they are. I, personally, would like to think these might be considered not taxabale due to the time decay factor (similarly as in Whisky the Angel's share).

Open to any advice on this!

So to be blunt, I have ~£50k of unsecured debt against my name. My wife is often worried about it but I've always been very dismissive of any worries about money.

I earn ~£110k but am clearly awful with money, I have ADHD which makes it 10x worse as I'm very impulsive with my finances and tend to just buy anything I want (often using credit...).

It has been a very expensive couple of years for us, we moved house, got married, had a kid and have another one on the way so lots of outgoings; I'm not justifying my debt but it is a contributing factor.

The bulk of my debt is on 2 things:

1. Personal loan of £20k (£17k remaining), I took this out in feb this year to consolidate my other debts, which clearly hasn't worked as I ended up just spending money on the cards I paid off, This loan ends in August 2026 as my standard repayment is £800/month.
2. Balance transfer credit card £15k

The only savings I do/have are for our child. I put a small amount into a Junior ISA for him so it's locked away till he's 18.

So I have £15k on other lines of credit. How can I tackle this? I want to be debt free, I live paycheck to paycheck (yes I know how that sounds given the salary I'm on and I'm fully aware it's completely my fault). I'm not stressed about the debt I'm in as I know I have a very good salary in a good job in a relatively stable industry. I also get discretionary bonus' at work on an annual basis which I want to try putting towards my debt.

So my questions...

1. Where do I start to get out of this?
2. Any tips on how to budget/stick to a budget, I severely struggle with impulsivity which often leads to bad decisions so any specific tips around that would be great.

I have a good job and was hoping to save to buy a modest property in cash but it would mean privately renting for at least another decade, this means more risks of eviction and moving around, being forced to live in unsuitable housing due to not finding anything suitable when evicted. Unfortunately this has happened lately to several of my friends and family friends who were not homeowners as we have a housing crisis in our city. Some of them have young children also who did not want to leave their schools and areas and some developed behavioural and health problems.

I am feeling a bit insecure seeing this.

I just started earning properly this year so have £20k house deposit not in LISA or stocks and shares - I'm Muslim and not sure about interest on these things. I only worked part time and saved that. If I up this to full time I think I will get a big house deposit but again the eviction thing worries me and our landlord isn't the best, and we were renting quite below market prices for our home. Now it's gone up and I have to pay £1,000 for my share of rent before bills.

I'm looking to buy a property of about £300,000.

I was also hoping that if I ever had children after buying, to have a very low monthly mortgage payment such that I would only have to worry about bills and not a big mortgage payment. This would mean I would have flexibility to give up my job or cut back a lot if needed without worrying too much about finances.

Our home is worth c£475,000 and I have c£100,000 left on mortgage. The mortgage is fixed until 2029 at a rate of 2.6% and runs for a couple of years after that. I will be fully paid up by the time I hit 50. As it stands today, we've got around £375k worth of equity and I'd like to know what's best to do in my situation. We could sell up, buy something cheaper and be mortgage free now, or could we somehow use the equity to invest into something that will earn us money. What are the collective thoughts on how to access this equity and or put it to good use? We are not overpaying on the mortgage but this could be done to shorten the term even further.

Two years ago I suffered a neurological attack my entire body went haywire, tingling, migraines, mood swings, impulsiveness, ocd, twitching, jerking, pain, insomnia, ears ringing, vision went blurry, spasms. Fell into depression couldn't get help or anything.

Doing better now no diagnosis yet but Drs thinking it could be progressive multiple sclerosis.
Lost £40,000 k to gambling, betting sites, tiktok, holidays and private medical bills the lot. Complete meltdown because I thought I was dead and everything I had worked hard for gone. No Drs no neuros no one would help me. Currently now at £23k and rebuilding but cash in hand I had excess of £55k. I am doing much better but I am still f...u...c...k..e...d

No debts.

Prior to that I was so good with money, cashback, bank switches, savings, pension the lot. I was always making a quid or two. Married , two kids, £33k income, rental property bringing in £7k. 3 bed house £45k left to pay off in 20 years, £280 per month mortgage fixed for ten years. Total essentials plus food £1000 a month

So you can imagine my utter anger, frustration when this all happened. I was doing well , comfortable in life.

Never touched my wife's money and now I am rebuilding my life, what's left of it. I likely will be in a wheelchair and or worse in ten years they think. Can still work in IT but very challenging. Had years sick leave and lost a lot of income when sick pay was reduced, now back to working at home and can hold on just...

No prior illness in family but this all started after they suspected I had cancer too, wtf!

Have mortgage cover and they will pay off.

How can I rebuild finances quickly, I had probably £60 k in money no stocks and shares just savings and isas but I pay into company pension and share save scheme.

£40k in pension,

£120k tied up in rental property (co share)

Looking to try to turn around this ship before it sinks.

Thank you.

I recall being able to do this back in the day and no drama for doing so. However, Paypal has now got a message next to the card saying a fee will most likely apply from the card provider for sending money to friends and family. As a cash advance basically.

I know Amex this isn't an issue, but I don't have Amex anymore, and I was going to pay my share of costs to friends for some nights out using my virgin atlantic cc instead.

Anyone had any experience with this issue? If it even is an issue? I don't really want to be paying interest and the cash advance fee too, and appearing on my credit score.

Thanks!

I'm looking for advice on whether I should look at buying a property under my current circumstances after I received a £290,000 inheritance.

Currently renting a flat in the South of England with my partner, rent and bills come to approx £1000 pcm and we split this according to income percentages.

Current takehome: £50,500, should be rising to £69,000 next April.

My partner is not in a position to buy currently, so I would be taking on a property solely in my name. I will be moving with work up north for the next 2 years whilst my partner remains down south, so they could continue living in the property if I were to buy. I would then move back in for approx 2 years before moving again with her.

Looking for some perspective on whether it would it be wise to buy somewhere with my inheritance and savings (looking in the £350-400K range) with the knowledge that we might be moving away in the next 4-5years?

Thanks in advance!

I have a personal loan with £5000 left of £16000 @2.9% - 23 monthly payments left of £286. I have been overpaying so that has likely reduced to around 16 months.

I have £6000 in savings, £2000 @6.5% which isn’t touchable until March 2025, and £4000 which is touchable currently in an ISA @4.10%.

I have been happy up until now keeping the £6000 as an “emergency” and overpaying on the loan every month. However, now I am pregnant I am wondering if I should pay off the loan in full ASAP and then save until I go off, continue overpaying until I start maternity leave and then have a break from overpaying or stop overpaying now and save everything monthly?

I am the higher earner in the household.

Take home: £3600-3900 (differs monthly due to unsocial hours supplement) plus £800 contribution from partner monthly for bills etc Monthly expenses (mortgage, bills, food, petrol, life) circa £3200-3400. I can and will easily cut down around £200 minimum off this if I need to go hard on overpaying/savings etc.

Hi. I'm new to the world on JISA, so this might appear basic. I want to open a stock and share JISA for each of my 3 children at Fidelity. I'm not a customer at Fidelity myself. If i opened 3 JISAs, i assume each would have its own online account that i have to log into? Will there be a way to link all the accounts to see and manage all of them from one single place?

... for switching old unused current account to a cash rewarding current account.

any suggestions?

I need money in my bank account can I deposit money into my account by going to a post office doing it over the counter??

Hi everyone. First, I want to say that at 32yo I do know how ludicrously lucky I am to have never had to worry about this stuff before now. I grew up a spoilt daughter in a comfortably middle-class family, I have a good education and a good job, and my ex-husband who I married very young was wealthy. I DO KNOW this is the most ridiculous problem in the history of problems

However. I am now divorced (at great length and expense) because my husband was a violent manipulative basically supervillain who controlled every aspect of my life. Divorcing him was, obviously, 99.9% a good thing, but the .1% is that I have never actually been in charge of my own finances before and holy shit, it's scary. I DO NOT know what I'm doing

I came away with enough for a deposit on a max £300,000 home (less than 5% of marital estate, the family court is catastrophically ill-equipped to deal with domestic abusers vs victims but that's a story for another day, he tried to make me literally bankrupt so I'm happy just to not be ruined AND TO BE FREE). I don't have kids, thank Christ. I've googled UK household averages for all the standard bills, plus a mortgage at about the average rate now available, and plugged them into an online calculator. I've included everything I can think of, and rounded all spends up. According to my figures, I come out after the unavoidables - mortgage, ground rent, service charge, council tax and utilities - with about £1,000/month for discretional spending (to include groceries, clothes, holidays if poss etc) and saving if I can

I have no idea whether this is impossible, difficult, easy or luxury. It could be literally anywhere on that scale, I don't know. I know that sounds absurd, but until two years ago I just paid my salary to my husband and it was spent, and mostly I didn't see where it went. I know how much our mortgage loan was, but it was an offset mortgage and I do not know how much was offset, so I have no idea at all what the monthly payment was

I'm so very aware that until now I've been playing life on easy mode. I knew that, and I left anyway. I'm trying so hard not to look like I want sympathy but I need you to understand the context and why I'm so spectacularly ignorant and scared. I know this is hard to understand from the outside, but my confidence in my own judgment and abilities has been so eroded that I genuinely don't know if I can look after myself. I accept that my situation is not very sympathetic, but if anyone is able/willing to advise me on whether my budget is doable, any big fat expenses I don't know to anticipate etc, I'd be very grateful. Thank you

Currently living with parents paying £400 per month in rent. I take home around £2300 per month and have around £10k in cash and £7k in a LISA.

I was planning to use the LISA to put towards a deposit on an apartment but now I'm having doubts on whether I should even buy an apartment. I highly doubt I would be there any longer than a few years and with current interest rates maybe I am better off just renting and buying a house later when my salary is higher and interest rates are lower.

My main worry is affordability. I plan to stay in Birmingham and apartments are on average £900 per month. Bills included I'm probably looking at £1200 on the higher end for housing costs. Throw in £200 or so for basics and I'm left with £900 to put towards savings and/or other purchases. Is this reasonable? I do expect my salary to increase considerably in the longer term.

Hi! I’ve started working at my first job with a 30k/annum salary. I understand that usually, my first 12k for the year would remain tax free and the monthly payslips would take that into account and tax the balance evenly across the year.

However, as I’ve started this job mid-way through November, my total income for the financial year April 2024-25 would remain less than 12k. Going by this logic, shouldn’t everything I earn this financial year till April ‘25 be tax free because I don’t cross the threshold for taxable income at all for this financial year? I have had no income at all before this.

If this is true, what’s the usual procedure to obtain your tax refund when the time comes? As currently my payslips come with the taxes deducted.

Cheers!

EDIT: For anyone in a similar situation as me I ended up finding the solution here : https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-nic/how-tax-collected/tax-refunds/paye-tax-refunds#8

Hey everyone,

I'm 40 and have a decent chunk of savings in a Scottish Widows pension (£450k) and a new Royal London pension with monthly contributions of £2k and pot of £20k.

I'm mostly invested in global equity index trackers.

Recently, a financial advisor suggested switching to a SJP pension with a higher fee (1.53% vs 0.28%) and investing in their managed fund, Polaris previous their Adventurous fund.

I'm a bit hesitant about this due to the higher fees and the idea of giving up control.

I'm also interested in income protection insurance but have some back issues.

Here are my questions:

1. SJP vs. DIY: Is it worth paying the higher fees for SJP's managed fund? Or should I stick with my current DIY approach?

2. Income Protection: Any recommendations for insurers who might cover someone with who has had back operation.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Added current fee for Scottish Widows pension of 0.28%>

The interest just dropped to 2.60% just under £8k, I'm still hoping to buy at some point but wonder if I would be better off putting it in a better paying interest account

I'm over 40 so LISA doesn't apply to me!

Hello, I'm a little nervous writing this as I'm sure there is some answers somewhere but I wanted to speak to people who may have gone through the same thing. I set up my DMP just 20 min ago. Hasn't been approved yet but my heart is in my mouth. In people's opinion, has the DMP not only been successful but also beneficial?

Fairly basic question but just wanted to double check as I’ve a relatively big purchase to make.

I’m a self-employed sole trader, paying higher rate tax and have recently had to become VAT registered. I need to purchase some new computer equipment for the business (100% business use) which I’ll of course be listing as a business expense.

Since my taxable profit will be reduced by the total amount of the expense, and I can claim the VAT back against my VAT bill, does that essentially mean a 60% saving compared to buying it outside of the business?

I've had 4k in the Santander edge saver for the last year but this will be dropping from 7% down to 4.5% next month. Is it possible to close and reopen a new edge saver to take advantage of the 6% rate? If not are there other alternatives for emergency fund? I've currently got all my bills set up on the edge account for their cashback offer, which I think becomes not worth it if you don't have a high interest saver attached?

Hi r/UKPersonalFinance,

I'll try and keep this as brief as possible whilst hitting all relevant points.

Full disclosure - I'm aware that I have a few older debts but believed them to be statute barred. I have previously made this point to collection agencies a number of years ago, and have essentially ignored them since. I know that this is irresponsible of me but due to poor ongoing mental health and speculated ADHD, I've never been good at remembering details/keeping on top of things like this and they have appeared to snowball.

-A number of years ago, someone advised me to follow a '3 letter' process asking agencies to provide information about the debt to myself, and then ignoring them if they fail to provide this information as it's not legally enforceable, with the aim of leaving the debts in this position until they became statute barred and no longer a problem.

(Due to poor health, my work hours are reduced to a point where I often push myself beyond my capabilities or live in a deficit, I often can't afford necessary healthcare so the idea of paying the debts off was/is still unfeasible.)

-Me and my partner recently applied for somewhere to rent and filled out our declaration stating neither of us have a CCJ. Annoyingly my credit check flagged up as having one, and prior to this I honestly had zero knowledge of the CCJ.

-I recieved a letter the same week (after we applied for the house) from Capquest stating that I do actually have a CCJ. I'm not sure of exact dates but I believe this to be a personal loan from over 10 years ago, initially taken out with Halifax, but speculate it has been bought and sold a number of times since then. I have not acknowledged this debt or made a payment for at least 6 years, probably a lot longer.

My main concerns are, Is it possible for a debtor to actually get a CCJ taken out against you if the debt is legally statute barred?

How would I find out the status of the debt and/or be able to challenge it/point it out to the relevant agencies to ammend this or get it removed?

If I contact capquest and tell them I believe the debt to be statute barred, can they check this for me/can I trust their word?

If all else fails with the above and I have to be responsible for the debt then I'm happy to take action to do so. I'm worried we will now end up losing a rental property which we've been trying for ages to get, and leave us in a tricky position as our current landlord is selling the house we live in at the moment.

With a CCJ, am I still able to contact a third party company to consolidate this and other debts into one payment, or does the CCJ exist separately to this?

Thanks in advance, in a really tricky position and very overwhelmed not knowing right information from wrong information at the moment

Hey everyone,

Bit of a background; I've been in Scotland now for 6 years, moved from the EU, and finally got the news that I'm allowed to stay in this beautiful country without having the worry that they'll boot me out. Yay!

This makes it for me finally the right time to start taking my finances serious in this country where I would like to remain.

I'm 29 and self employed for two years. I life with my partner, they own their house while I pay them "rent".

We have no desire to move anytime soon and purchase a house together, but in the meantime I would also like to keep on moving on the financial ladder myself.

I have 20k in savings, own my car outright, no debts whatsoever including study.

My main concern for being extra careful financially is that i don't have a "if all goes to hell" back up in terms of family. This is what I got and I need to make this work in every scenario.

So my question is .. now what?

My first step I was thinking of was opening a lifetime ISA but that is kind of where my knowledge ends (Never had any form of financial guidances whatsoever)

Recently got the advice as well to start looking into Life Insurance and Critical Illness.

Any guidance is much appreciated for this financial noob 😊

• I've read the flow chart and considering that I'm in step 7-8-

EDIT: for more information, I'm a sole trader and roughly earn between 20-25k after tax. I do see this going up in the following years since my business has a considerable growing trend over the last few years

So earn £62k a year, £80k mortgage no other debts, pension pot spread over a few pension of £47k (reasons) £300k inherited

One piece of advice was to live on the £300k put all my wages in a sipp pay no tax and then take the 25% tax free in 5 years at retirement, no clue if that is even possible

Looking for tax efficient ways, so obviously ISA and other options

What you guys think? Help me educate myself

Hi there,

I'm in the fortunate position where I'm close to maxing out my pension contributions for the year and every year I also max out my ISAs. I was wondering though, with the £1000 bonus if you put £4000 into a LISA doesn't it make sense to move £4000 from my regular S&S ISA's into a LISA to get an immediate 25% return every year?

I'm aware of the fact that you can't withdraw before you're 60 without penalty but apart from that limitation is there any downside to this approach? I already have a cash LISA open with £1 in it from a while back and I plan to buy a house in the next year but I already have a maxed out H2B ISA so I don't think the LISA is going to help me out in that aspect.

I live in scotland.

I have a full time job which pays £28k.

I also do some dog sitting on the side on Rover.

For this financial tax year, I've earned £1100 so far.

As I understand, I don't need to pay tax if I earn up to 1k on a second income. How much would I pay on 1.1k?? Do I just pay tax on the £100 above the £1000 threshold?

As the title states, I'm looking for a bit of a sense check on my situation; I am relatively new to taking a concerned interest in my finances.

This year my earnings shot up massively, so much so that by end of March 2025 I am on track to earn somewhere between 120-140k, which from everything I've read is an inefficient amount due to the 60% "tax trap" over 100k.

My work offers a salary sacrifice pension scheme, which I am not making the most of. I will look to improve this going forward, however in the short term I am considering asking work to cap my monthly earnings so that I earn just under 100k for the tax year. I have 22k left to go, meaning I would ask for 5.5k each month maximum. This would be sacrificing over 50% of my pay each month.

However, I have a plan 1 student loan with 15k left on it, and I'm currently paying around 800-1.1k a month. Obviously this is calculated pre salary sacrifice/tax, so if I reduce my gross earning with salary sacrifice I will be severely capping my net income after tax, NI and the inflated student loan.

My consideration is to simply pay off the student loan this month in one go. I have the savings to do so without impacting my emergency fund and will have maxed my ISA contributions by the end of the tax year anyway.

Additionally, the savings would come out from a regular savings account, which I am aware is again very inefficient due to me being taxed on it.

Overall, this will give my pension a much needed boost, avoid the 60% tax bracket, and see my student loan wiped out.

Are there any glaring flaws in this I am missing?

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me understand this.

I was then wondering, if at the very end of the tax year, could one scrape together enough cash to deposit in their ISA in order to use up all of their allowance, and then at the start of the next tax year, withdraw said cash - to effectively carry over the allowance from the previous year?

Eg:

5.4.25 - ISA balance is 10k. I put additional 10k in to use up full allowance for 24/25. 6.4.25 - 25/26 year starts with isa balance of 20kg. I withdraw 10k from the ISA. Am I able to re-deposit up to 10k without touching my annual allowance?

I know this doesn't sound like such an obvious benefit, but I tend to have enough cash flowing through every month (and anticipate earning more soon) that if the time comes that I have more to save than the allowance, I'll be wishing I had managed to carry it over somehow.

Would this work?