Car finance next steps, free £30 Amazon, new 1yr 4.55% savings fix WITH access, £540 beauty £150, 500Mb Sky £25/mth, new cheapest loan

Plus Martin's savings tax glitch, £57 full breakdown cover, £2.50 cinema, diesel emission claim news

                                                           

14 October 2025 | View in browser

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THE TOP TIPS IN THIS EMAIL Important: Car Finance Mis-selling - what you should do now: - Already complained? - Not complained but had car finance? - I've used a claims firm - what do I do? - How much will be paid out? New. 1yr 4.55% savings fix WITH access Full service breakdown cover £57 Martin's got a new YouTube channel! Ends. Free £30 Amazon just to open top bank account £540 of Fenty, Medik8 etc beauty £150 Martin's bizarre savings tax glitch Ends. 500Mb Sky broadband '£25/mth' Diesel emission claim news Big new top spending card: 1% cashback New. Cheapest 5.8% loan £50 to £300 'free' John Lewis gift card New Martin's Money Question Time pod! Martin: 'You'll be surprised on student loan interest...' Cinema deals: £2.50 tix & more 'I slashed my water bill by £180/yr thanks to your social tariff info' FREE postcode lotto: win £100s Free TV audience tix, eg, Martin's show MSE App-date, eg, track energy switch This week's best buys: 14mth no-fee 0% debt shift, 40GB Sim £4/mth & more Money Moral Dilemma: Should work-from-home housemate pay more rent? BEST BUYS & TOOLS MSE Cheap Mobile Finder Credit Club including free credit report 0% balance transfers Compare broadband deals MSE Compare+ Car Insurance Best bank accounts Top savings accounts Credit cards for bad credit Credit Card Eligibility Calculator Loans Eligibility Calculator Mortgage comparison Compare travel money Cheap Energy Club Best Sim-only deals

Martin: Important Update Car Finance Mis-selling: what you should do now If you bought a car, motorbike or camper van on PCP or HP from Apr 07 to Nov 24, it may be one of 14m agreements now due c. £700 compensation Just as we pressed send on last week's email, the financial regulator, the FCA, announced a consultation for the biggest redress scheme since PPI, with a predicted £8.2 BILLION to be paid out - so I rapidly put my instant analysis video in the email. Since then, we've started to interrogate the 360-page consultation and work through the key question you're asking: "What do I do now?" And while it's called a 'consultation', this is the regulator setting out its plans. It must legally consult, but barring legal challenge, my guess is there'll be few major changes. So let me take you through what I think right now... Find listening easier than reading? This is the core subject of my latest Martin Lewis Podcast with a full explanation and Q&A on how to claim, how much, what you need to do, claims for deceased relatives & more. Listen at BBC Sounds | Apple | Spotify or elsewhere good (& mediocre) pods are listed. PS: Transcript here. Under this scheme, there are now THREE ways you may have been mis-sold. And you may've been mis-sold in more than one way, which is why the totals below add up to more than 14m agreements. With all three, the key is that what was happening wasn't disclosed to you (which it only was in a few % of cases), so... There's no way to know you were mis-sold without checking. The whole point is they didn't tell you what they were doing! Discretionary Commission Arrangements (DCAs). 11.4m agreements. This has been our focus for two years, so if you've already complained, it's likely about this. Here the interest rate was increased, in order to pay the dealer or broker extra commission. DCAs were banned on 28 Jan 2021, so this only applies to finance agreements prior to that. Contractual ties. 3.2m agreements. This is where a broker didn't adequately disclose it was working exclusively with one lender, or that one lender had a right of first refusal, eg, the dealer said: "We'll go to a panel of lenders to find you the best car finance" but, in reality, one lender had first refusal, so the 'searching the market' was false. Unfairly high commission. 2.9m agreements. If the commission paid to brokers or dealers was BOTH over 35% of the total cost of credit AND 10% of the total loan cost, then without disclosure, this is seen as likely excessive and thus mis-selling. Already complained using the free MSE tool (or any DIY route)? Over 3.25m complaints were sent via our tool complaining about DCAs. What to do now depends on how (& if) the firm replied. If it said you DID have a DCA: then compensation is very likely. So sit tight and wait until the redress scheme hopefully launches in early 2026, then the firm should write to you saying if you're due a pay-out. You won't need to do anything, unless you want to opt out of the scheme then (see below for more on that). If it DIDN'T say you have a DCA: the regulator says even if you only complained about DCAs, the lenders must investigate ALL THREE mis-selling types for that agreement. Your claim is logged, so that should happen, yet if you've been mis-sold for a reason other than a DCA, you'll be contacted on an OPT-IN basis, ie, you will need then to confirm you want the pay-out. Yet for now, there's not much point in doing more. Not complained, but had car finance? You needn't do owt now, but I'd suggest you do... If you bought a car on PCP or HP finance from Apr 07 to Nov 24 for domestic use (or as a sole trader for work, in which case the loan must be under £25,000), this is a sit up and take note moment. Under the current plans, firms will have to identify and contact all the relevant mis-sold cases to ask if they want to OPT IN. That's good, but there's a risk those who had older agreements, have moved house, or got married / changed name may miss out. I think a safer route is to put a complaint in (the FCA boss agreed when we spoke), and be part of the group for whom it's all done automatically. How to complain? Don't pay anyone to do it. You can DIY it free. Though our free tool was designed just for DCA cases, so we're expanding it and adding more firms in. That'll take us about a month to get right. So either... Wait while we update the tool. We'll notify you via this email when it's ready. There's virtually no risk waiting (barring boredom) as the qualification dates are set, just as long as it's done before the scheme starts in early 2026. Complain now anyway, either DIY it or use the free tool - even though it only asks about DCAs, the regulator says firms must still consider all three forms of mis-selling for each claim. There's also the regulator's help. I've signed up to a claims firm - what do I do? The redress scheme is designed to make DIY easy, so claims firms won't add to the process. Last week a collection of regulators warned about claims firm practices. Yet if you've already signed up, the main issue is some contracts say they can charge you a cancellation fee, and it's payable on cancellation, ie, now (others say a success fee is due if you win, even if you cancel - do check). If you stick with them, the regulators say you should only be charged for work done. Truth is, this is going to take time to play out. There's a bit more on the claims management issue here, but we've a workstream set up to explore it, and may even do a template letter. More in a month or so. How much will be paid out? The FCA estimates that under the redress scheme, people will get back 2/3rds of the commission paid, an average £700. The calculation's the same whichever way you were mis-sold, even if you were mis-sold in more than one way (with the exception of a few thousand extremely high commission cases who'll get more). To get technical - so do skip this if it confuses you - the regulator will usually take the mean AVERAGE of: - 17% of the interest you paid (its assessment of the typical cost of the market distortion caused by mis-selling). - And the total commission paid to the dealer or the broker. Interest of Bank of England base rate + 1% (not compounded), over the time you were owed, will be added. I think this should at a minimum be compounded, and we will put that in our consultation response. Though if you had extra costs due to the mis-selling (eg, you took out other high-cost lending), you may, later, be able to argue for more interest. PS: See my why car finance compensation figures are lower than many expected blog, if you're thinking that. The reason you can opt out is that there is another way to do this. This note explains the regulator's redress scheme, yet you could also go to court, and if you won, you may be awarded more (though 30% or more would likely go to pay claims firms/lawyers' fees). I've made the call that MSE and I will focus on the redress scheme, and all our info above is about that. I've done that because most people contact me saying: "Can't they just make it easy and quick?" Plus, with my experience of past PPI & bank charge reclaims, my view is this route will see millions more get redress. Ultimately, neither route is perfect. It's possible the regulator has compromised somewhat to pre-empt the car finance industry doing a judicial review (if they did, I'd probably push people towards court instead, which'd cost firms to do case by case). So while court is a more militant option for some, we're focusing resources on helping people through the regulator route.

 

 

DON'T believe the fake 'Martin Lewis' or 'MSE' ads Lots of scam ads litter social media and even newspaper websites - some of these lie that we or Martin promote Bitcoin, binary trading etc. See Fake ads warning.

 

 

 

New. Best of both worlds! Top 1yr savings FIX locks in a 4.55% rate, but unusually lets you withdraw if needed Or if you want true easy-access, get 4.5% (variable) from a BIG name There's been little to cheer for savers in recent weeks, with successive Bank of England rate cuts lowering savings rates across the board. But this week, a new and unusual fix tops the charts... let's get straight to it. New. Top 1yr fix 4.55%! Protect cash from rate cuts. With normal fixes, you lock your money away, without access, in return for a guaranteed rate of interest. Yet the new top 1yr fix Marcus (part of Goldman Sachs) 4.55% AER* (min £1) is rare as it lets you close the account, without notice, to withdraw, and you just lose up to 90 days' interest. See our full list of Top fixed savings, but in brief... - Top 1yr fixes: Marcus 4.55% AER* (min £1), LHV Bank 4.46% AER (min £1,000). - Top 2yr fixes: JN Bank 4.42% AER (min £100), Afin Bank* 4.41% AER (min £1,000). - Top longer fixes: 3yrs JN Bank 4.45% AER (min £100), 5yrs Secure Trust Bank 4.51% AER (min £1,000). Top cash ISA fixes let you withdraw too. Top fixed cash ISAs have to let you withdraw money, but again they can charge an interest penalty for doing so. However, rates are lower, so they're best only if you'd pay tax on the interest in normal savings. - Top 1yr fixed ISAs: Tembo (via Investec) 4.27% AER (min £500), Zopa 4.22% AER (min £1). - Top 2yr fixed ISAs: Bath BS 4.15% AER (min £1), Vida Savings 4.12% AER (min £100). - Top longer fixed ISAs: 3yrs Secure Trust Bank 4.11% AER (min £1,000), 5yrs UBL UK 4.22% AER (min £2,000). How long should I fix for? Interest rates are no longer predicted to fall as quickly as was thought, yet things can change. Right now, fixed rates are pretty even whether it's one to five years, so if you can comfortably lock money away, and you strongly value certainty, then fixing and fixing for longer is a good option. Yet of course you don't have to put all your money in one place, you can hedge your bets with several different fixes of different lengths. New. Top easy-access savings 4.5% from a BIG name. These are the bog-standard accounts you can put money in to and take money out of when you like. So if you're earning a lot less on existing savings, ditch and switch - 4.5% is the minimum most should get. All rates are variable, so will likely move with UK base rate changes, and can move with providers' whims (though those with bonuses effectively give you a minimum rate guarantee for a time). - Top easy-access savings: New. Ulster (part of NatWest) 4.5%* (min £5k) pays 1.75% plus a 1yr 2.75% fixed bonus. Chase (part of JPMorgan) 4.5%* (min £1) at 2.5% plus a 1yr 2% fixed bonus for newbies (you'll need to open Chase's current account to access this). Full info in Top savings. - Top easy-access cash ISA: If you haven't used up this year's ISA allowance, Trading 212 4.51%* (min £1, max £20k/yr) at 3.85% plus a 0.66% newbie bonus. Full info in Top cash ISAs.   Can you boost interest further? Some specialised options pay even more... - 50% bonus for many on Universal Credit or Tax Credits. See Help to Save. - 25% bonus for first-time buyers aged 18 to 39. See Top Lifetime ISAs. - Earn up to 7.5% if you can save monthly. See Regular savings. - Prefer to invest? Higher returns, but more risk. See Stocks & shares ISAs.

 

Martin's got a new YouTube channel. More vids than a Blockbuster in 2002. Check out Martin's YouTube & subscribe if you fancy. Ends 1pm Wed. Free £30 Amazon voucher just for opening a Santander account. Open a new Santander current account via the special links below, and even if you don't switch your main bank to it, you'll get a link to claim a £30 Amazon voucher from 17 Nov (if not, check your spam folder). The Everyday* account is its bog-standard fee-free account, so is your best bet if you just want to grab the voucher. Edge* is a top (joint) bills account, it costs £3/mth but it pays 1% cashback (max £10/mth) on Council Tax, water, energy, broadband and other bills you pay from it via Direct Debit. Its debit card also gives near-perfect exchange rates abroad, so it can be very useful to run alongside your main account(s). Edge Up* is similar, but better if you've bigger bills as it pays a max £15/mth cashback for a £5/mth fee. Full info in our Santander Edge review. £540 of Sol de Janeiro, Fenty, Medik8 beauty £150. 15-item beauty box, including lipstick, body scrub and serum from popular online beauty retailer. Lookfantastic Martin Vid: 'Bizarre! When you earn MORE by getting paid LESS savings interest.' Watch Martin's new YouTube video on the hole in the tax system with a bizarre effect. Ends Thu. 500Mb Sky broadband '£25/mth'. Switchers can get this 500Mb Sky broadband & digital line deal for £30/mth (available to 60% of homes) and you'll be emailed your choice of a £120 prepaid Mastercard or shopping voucher within 4mths (check spam folders if not). Factor that in and it's equivalent to £25/mth over the 2yr contract (some postcodes may be eligible for a slightly cheaper deal - we'll tell you if so). Want other options? Use our full broadband comparison. Joined a diesel emissions claim? The need-to-knows as first major trial begins. It's a crucial step towards potential compensation for up to 1.6 million drivers. See diesel claims update. Big new top way to pay in UK & abroad: 1% cashback on all spending. A reminder the new fee-free Lloyds Ultra credit card gives 1% cashback for 12mths on all usual spending on it, uncapped, plus near-perfect exchange rates (& the cashback) abroad, making it a winner everywhere. See our Lloyds massive best-buy write-up for full info. Yet only do this if you always pay it off IN FULL each month to avoid the 12.9% rep APR interest. New. M&S cuts loan rates to 5.8%. Loans are for NEEDED (fixing broken kitchen, not a holiday-type needed), planned, budgeted-for expenditure. Borrow as little as possible and repay as quickly as possible. If in doubt, don't. But if you need one, it's getting cheaper - M&S Bank (links via our eligibility calc) has cut its rates, making it joint-cheapest with Tesco (Clubcard holders only), at 5.8% rep APR on £7,500 to £25,000 loans. Find the cheapest loan: Your cheapest depends on whether you'll be accepted. Our eligibility calc will tell you where that's most likely to happen... Up to £3,000: lowest rate 9.9% | £3,000 to £5,000: 9.7% | £5,000 to £7,499: 6.5%. Get £50 to £300 John Lewis gift card if buying big-ticket electrical item, eg, cooker, TV. On 390+ items from £369. John Lewis isn't always cheapest, yet factor in the gift card for a planned purchase, and it may be. See JL gift card. New Martin's Money Question Time podcast! Is cash king? Should you keep some mortgage debt? Can I reclaim student loan taken off my bonus? You ask the questions (including this week - 'has he got more buff?') & Martin does his best to answer in this week's Money Question Time pod, where you set the agenda. To suggest a question, email producer Matt at MartinLewisPodcast@bbc.co.uk.

 

 

DID YOU MISS? - £290 of beauty in £60 M&S Advent calendar - FREE WILL if you're 55+ - Ikea deals: £1 weekend breakfast | £10 off for students - £90 Kärcher window vac £48 with code - £37 Ted Baker prescription specs or sunnies (normally £135)

 

 

Are you paying £100s for breakdown cover? Get roadside recovery, home start & onward travel for £57/yr The days are getting shorter, the weather worse, so bluntly there's a greater risk of breakdowns and accidents (and it being colder while you wait for rescue). Firms can use this to pump renewal prices up at this time of year, so it's crucial to use our Cheap breakdown cover guide to check you're getting what you need. Let's take a quick spin through the highlights... Cheapest full service policy £57/yr for you and your partner. Full service means roadside recovery, home start & onward travel (ie, if you break down, they'll ensure you get to your destination). There are two policies vying for this: - AutoAid* has been among our top picks for likely nearly two decades, and usually gets strong feedback. It's £57.28/yr, covers you & your spouse or live-in partner in any car you/they drive. If your car's 10+ years old, there's a £25 call-out fee. If it's 16+ years old, you pay £79.18/yr (plus any call-out fees). - Eversure Gold* costs £57.50/yr and has similar cover. There's no call-out fee for older cars, though it won't cover cars that are 15+ years old. The feedback we get is decent, but not as glowing as for AutoAid. Both use local recovery operators rather than their own fleets, which helps slash the cost, and based on anecdotal feedback, the call-out times tend to be similar to the big operators. Want a new AA/RAC policy? Use a cashback site to save 35%+. Sign up to a new policy via a cashback site and you get a chunk of the introducer fee the site gets for sending you to the breakdown insurer, so it costs you less. However, this is only for new policies, so if you're with the AA, go for the RAC, and vice versa. Here are the cheapest policies for two people we could find, so you'll likely pay more, but you can use this as a benchmark for what it's possible to get... - Basic cover: £80/yr, but cashback can be £29/yr, so the total cost is £51/yr. - Full service: £114/yr, but cashback can be £40/yr, so the total cost is £74/yr. We tend to be wary of going for deals just for cashback (as it's never 100% guaranteed), yet if you want the AA or the RAC - as there's limited choice and the cashback here is such a big chunk - it's often the cheapest route. See AA/RAC cover. More than four in five people who try to haggle at renewal succeed. NEVER just auto-renew, always haggle. Mainstream breakdown cover success rates are higher than any other sector. Of those who tried, the AA and the RAC had success rates of 87% and 84% respectively in our June 2025 poll. Full help in breakdown cover haggling tips & techniques. Susie emailed earlier this year: "Just wanted to say a huge thank you! I just saved £96/yr on RAC breakdown cover - a short phone call to renewals, all sorted, paying less than I did for last year's cover! A little bit of encouragement and support from MSE always spurs me on to have the courage to get a better deal." A few more quick tips... far more in the full Cheap breakdown cover guide. - Double the value of your Tesco vouchers when buying an RAC policy. If you've got Clubcard vouchers, you can use them at double the face value (so £10 becomes £20) to purchase cheap RAC cover. - If you also need travel insurance and mobile phone cover. Packaged bank accounts can be a very cost effective way of getting everything together. - Driving in Europe? Make sure you've cover there too. You can get annual cover or just cover yourself for the time you're away. See cheap European cover for options and info.

 

Martin Vid: 'You'll be surprised what the student loan interest rate really is!' For how much it really costs and why you might not pay it, watch Martin's new YouTube video on student loan interest confusion. Cinema deals: 5 Vue tix £22, or £2.50 Cineworld on a Tue (via Tesco Clubcard). See all cinema deals. 'I slashed my water bill by £180/yr thanks to your social tariff info.' Success of the week. Maureen emailed: "I phoned my supplier after reading about social tariffs in your weekly email. I had no idea it applied to water companies too. After a 10min phone call, where they went through basic income and expenditure questions, I was put on the firm's 'Extra Lite' plan as I receive Pension Credit. It means I don't need to be quite so frugal with my laundry needs and have had my water charges slashed by 50% (from £29/mth to £14/mth, a saving of £180/yr)! Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention." If we've helped you save or reclaim (on this or owt else), please tell us about it. FREE postcode lotto with £200+ daily prize. Over £1 million has now been given out to MSE users, with one user winning £3,800! It sounds too good to be true, but it's legit and costs nothing as it's funded by ads. Pick My Postcode Free TV audience tickets, eg, Martin's show, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Graham Norton etc. If you fancy being part of the experience for these and more (though there's a clear highlight 😉), see free audience tix. New. MSE App-date - track your energy switch and more... If you recently switched energy tariff via our Cheap Energy Club, you can now track your switch progress in the app, plus get alerts when cashback will be paid & your fix is ending. You can now also control what notifications you get in the app. Download (or update) for free via Apple | Android.

 

 

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AT A GLANCE BEST BUYS 0% balance transfers Longest 0%: Barclaycard (check eligibility) 35mths 0%, 3.45% fee, 24.9% rep APR interest No-fee 0%: Barclaycard (check eligibility) up to 14mths 0%, 24.9% rep APR Best bank accounts Free £150 + £60 cashback: TSB Spend & Save Free £200 + perks: Barclays Bank Account Broadband top picks Fast fibre (100Mb+): Vodafone '£21.84/mth' Superfast fibre (500Mb+): Sky '£25/mth' On Universal Credit or similar? Check all discounted social tariffs Cheap insurance Car: Use our Compare+ Car Insurance tool Home: Try our Compare+ Home Insurance tool Cheap loans £5,000 to £7,499: M&S (check eligibility), 6.9% rep APR interest £7,500 to £15,000: M&S (check eligibility), 5.8% rep APR interest Top savings accounts Top easy-access savings: Chase 4.5%, min £1 Top easy-access ISA: Trading 212 4.51%, min £1 Top one-year fix: Marcus 4.55%, min £1 Top energy deals Use our whole-of-market Cheap Energy Club Cheap Sims Up to 3GB data: Lebara, '£3.18/mth' for 3GB 4GB to 9GB data: Lebara, '£3.43/mth' for 5GB 10GB to 30GB data: Lebara, '£3.70/mth' for 10GB 31GB+ data: iD Mobile, '£3.88/mth' for 40GB

 

 

MSE NEWS - Top story: Forced to share PINs, left open to fraud - Martin Lewis calls for carers' cards and third party help

 

 

MONEY MORAL DILEMMA Should my housemate who works from home pay a greater share of the rent? I live in a house-share and while I'm at work six days a week, my housemate works from home. Our landlord wants to put our rent up due to the increasing cost of bills, which are included in our rent. While I'm rarely home, my housemate has a fan or the heating on every day, as well as using the cooker, kettle and so on. Given that bills are included, should he pay more rent than me? Enter the Money Moral Maze: Should my homeworking housemate pay more rent? | Suggest a Money Moral Dilemma (MMD) | View past MMDs

 

Some Halloween competitions... - Win a trip to see Beetlejuice on Broadway in New York - Win a haunted house biscuit tin from Biscuiteers - Win a cosy Halloween movie package ... from the MSE Forum comping boards - Win a theme park night out + gadgets - Win a Fortnum & Mason Halloween hamper - Win the new Lego Jack-O'-Lantern pick-up truck

 

 

MARTIN'S APPEARANCES (TUE 14 OCT ONWARDS) Wed 15 Oct - Good Morning Britain, co-presenting, ITV1, 6am Thu 16 Oct - Ask Martin Lewis, BBC Radio 5 Live, midday

 

 

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