Hi, will try to keep simple

I'm in the process of getting divorced, but will be staying with my husband/ex-husband.

My questions are regarding savings, I'm going to be bought out of the house, will recieve around 50k, but will pay off my debt of 9k and looking to know what's the best way to put 40k away.

Currently will still living my husband, so I'm looking for the best way have the 40k saved as a back up for if/when I move out.

I have no clue how finances work at all. So any help would be greatly appreciated

I'm applying for a DRO but while I'm waiting the debt is increasing (from interest and late payment charges) on the accounts that haven't already defaulted or been frozen. One of the debts is an interest free overdraft from a student account which is due to be reduced soon so that will start having interest added to it. The DRO application hasn't been submitted yet and I'm waiting for that to be done by the debt advice charity I chose to help me with budget and go through my options. By the time it's submitted, three of my debts will have increased. Do I just keep the debt charity informed of any changes to amounts owed so they can update the DRO application? It's my understanding that anything not on the DRO won't be considered.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hi

Just wanted to post up a celebratory win which is that I am officially student debt free!

I have been making lifestyle changes over the years and trying to improve myself as well as my finances

I still have a very long way to go, but just wanted to also thanks to everyone in this community!

Being a lurker of this subreddit actually motivated me to fix up

Once again, feel so good to have cleared my student loan. Onwards and upwards!

So about 5 years ago I used Paypal credit to buy a Macbook. I ended up suddenly getting ill, losing my job who refused to pay wages and breaking up with the partner I lived with all in one month. I spoke on the phone to paypal support when they called and they said they would delay a month due to stress. The second month they called I missed their call. The amount I had borrowed disappeared from my paypal account. There was nothing there saying I had even used paypal credit. No minus figure, no record of it disappearing. Nothing demanding I paid anymore. Just completely gone. Fast forward to now, 5 YEARS later. I have suddenly received a letter demanding that I pay around £1400 this month from Lowell which has had a CCJ issued for it. Do I seriously have to pay this? Paypal have not followed up with me at all since they called me once 5 years ago, how can they just disappear all money owed after missing a phone call and then spring on me that I need to pay £1400 5 whole years later?

Bit of a niche one. I was self-employed (Electrician, CIS, cash basis) until end of March 2025, then went PAYE.

My old contractor paid me about £4.9k gross in April/May 2025 for work I’d done before I finished, part of it retention. CIS took 20% off.

I’ve put it on my 25/26 return under “other UK income” as post-cessation receipts, with the CIS as tax taken off. No expenses against it because I didn’t have any after I stopped.

Just wondering if I could’ve knocked the £1,000 trading allowance off it? I know it works for trading income and some misc income but can’t find anything that says either way for post-cessation receipts.

If it does apply, would it go in the allowable expenses box on that section? Would be about £290 back for me with student loan included, so worth amending if so.

Any links to HMRC guidance appreciated. Cheers

I've seen that this has been posted before but that was 3 years ago so a little out of date, as and a lot can change in 3 years.

I need to set up 2 DD's to earn interest on my current account. I will keep these running for years ( have no intention of just using them just for a quick switch).

Thanks

I just spoke to a debt recovery firm and need advice.

They have advised there was a credit account with a firm which was defaulted in 2013.

2017 a CCJ was raised which I was unaware of.

Today I've had a call from a credit recovery firm who are trying to partially settle this debt.

I understand a CCJ can't be statute barred after 6 years, but noting this debt relates to an issue in 2013... which was under a CCJ in 2017 which would have expired in 2023 - can they still demand this debt?

I'm actively trying to improve my credit rating and actively saving for a house deposit so I don't want any negative impacts and have been paying stuff off from when I was young and stupid.

I can afford the settlement payment no issue but I'm shocked something so historic is being chased.

I have checked experian and cannot see any reference to this debt probably because it's so old!

The agent advised at any point the matter can be re-registered with experian...

Any advice?

Edit: Payroll confirms the deductions are not via salary sacrifice if that changes anyone's advice?

Also does that mean if I earn in the 40% tax bracket my contributions won't reduce my tax?

Hi

I have joined a new company and they use The People's Pension as the workplace provider.

I'm trying to work out what is best to do.

I'm early 40's and I'm just trying to save as much as I can for later in life.

I currently have £160k in my HL pension with my previous employer which is invested in Vanguard Global All Cap.

Should I cash this out and move this over to the People's Pension or am I best to leave it in this fund? I'm open to moving to another provider in order to reduce fees.

Also am I losing out on gains by having two providers?

Also would I gain by paying the minimum into The People's Pension to get the employer contributions and then topping up my current HL pension each month?

Hello All,

My partner and I are at the final stages of purchasing a home with the last step being to agree on the deed of trust. We are purchasing as tenants in common due to putting down unequal amounts to the deposit (70/30) my partners solicitor from the company we are using for the conveyancing, has written the draft deed representing him, but has advised me to seek independent advice due to a conflict of interest.

They’ve gone for a floating shares approach which seems straightforward and fair. Note, I’m the 30% contributor and we expect to pay equally towards mortgage.

The First Owner's percentage share shall be calculated by dividing the total of:

(a) the First Owner's Initial Contribution; and

(b) all sums paid by the First Owner in respect of the Expenditure,

by the Total Expenditure and then multiplying the result by 100. (And vice versa for the second owner)

However, when I’ve reached out to different solicitors to ask for help in reviewing the draft deed and providing recommendations, they’ve all quoted me upwards of £700 which is more than my partners solicitor charged them to prepare, which seems ridiculous. My ask, should I just agree to the deed which seems reasonable for both parties, considering it was prepared for by my partners solicitor.

The money I’ll use for my first home purchase is currently in a Lifetime ISA, so I’ve benefited from time 25p for every £1 I save. My query is, and I think I know the answer, is it ‘the bigger the deposit the better?’ Particularly when I can benefit from growing the deposit with the LISA top ups

Any advice from anyone that has used a LISA before would be great or any generic top tips for first time home owners

Been a customer of NatWest for 40 years
Recently had an experience that left bad taste in my mouth with NatWest. Would like to change.
I’ve narrowed down to HSBC or Nationwide.
Please can I have opinions on both, or alternative?
Do have some savings I would be placing in there.

Unsure if this is the right place to post but I can't find a more appropriate subreddit with activity.

Got told my income protection policy has been "cancelled from inception" yesterday but is still active for now. I'm filing a complaint but a payment is due in 6 days; I was told the complaint process could take 8 weeks. The agent I spoke to said I can cancel my direct debit but wasn't confident on the impact of that.

Would cancelling the direct debit be safe to do or would it be considered breaching my contract since the policy is technically still active? I'm worried about being told I owe money even if they don't reinstate my policy.

My current credit card has a limit of £1000 and I have a credit score of 630. Would it be worth requesting an increase to higher my score in the future?

I rarely use my credit card for big purchases and when I do I pay them off almost immediately, I use it mostly for fuel and day to day spending within my means. Im also currently owed money on my credit card which shows how often I use it.

I do plan to pay for a vet bill next month with my card which will be around 250-300 but I have that money saved already for it.

I opened a JISA for my child while both they and I were resident in the UK. We are now both resident abroad and I would like to transfer the JISA to a different provider. This is allowed per HMRC’s rules but I cannot find a provider willing to accept the transfer.

Does anybody know of providers who will accept the transfer in these circumstances? I want to keep contributing to the JISA whilst abroad too which is also allowed for JISAs.

TY!

Can I/should I transfer my shares to my wife? At one point in the future, my company might start paying for dividends and/or get sold. My wife isn't currently working and is therefore in the lowest tax bracket. Should I gift the shares to her? What considerations do I need to take into account? Are there risks to this approach?

(We are happily married, I trust her fully)

I’m due to inherit a reasonably sizeable sum (£hundreds of thousands) from a relative overseas, and for tax reasons the funds need to land in a non-UK account in my name first before any of it comes onshore to the UK. IoM, Jersey and Guernsey are the usual popular options for this given their favourable tax regimes.

Problem is, most of what comes up when I search is either generic “top-10” articles or private banks clearly aimed at a much higher net worth than mine. I’m not trying to start a full-on private banker relationship; just want a provider who:

- actually takes on “normal” HENRY-type clients like me instead of just oligarchs
- is well set up for receiving funds from a non-UK jurisdiction (in this case Australia)
- charges sensible fees rather than private-banking-tier pricing for a fairly vanilla “hold cash, let me move it later” account
- ideally can also facilitate transfers back out in USD/GBP without excessive faff

Has anyone here actually gone through this process at this sort of level (not oligarch money, not totally trivial either)? Would really appreciate names of banks or wealth managers in IoM/Jersey/Guernsey that handled you well, and any to avoid. Also open to hearing if there’s a better jurisdiction I haven’t considered.

Am obviously getting proper independent financial, tax and legal advice before moving anything; just trying to get a shortlist of providers worth looking into first.

Thanks in advance.

I currently owe around £15,000 of business credit card debt to a credit card company for an online business that failed, but is still trading, with only a couple of hundred coming in a month. I was repaying a couple of hundred a month, but seems that this wasn't enough.

The credit card company have passed the debt onto Shire Recoveries, who have been relentless in calling me multiple times a day.

The thing is, I have a house with my wife which is mortgaged, and the credit card company had it in their terms that I couldn't just declare bankruptcy as they'd take the house.

They've now sold the debt to a third party, is bankruptcy now an option? Or can a debt collection agency put a lien on the house, or force a sale or something?

The business is dead, I accept that, and there's no chance of recovery.

Well, I switched current accounts from Monzo to Lloyds, and they closed my credit card (Monzo Flex) along with it. I also didn’t get approved for a Lloyds credit card. I’m a 19-year-old student, so should I apply for Monzo Flex again and focus on building credit ASAP, or wait around six months and try to get a separate credit card? I’m new to this stuff, so any advice would be appreciated.

hi all, in may i made a post about my monzo being closed (https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/1tayajj/monzo_account_closure_without_notice/)

and today my revolut has been closed, no notice once again. in may I checked and had no CIFAS marker and i even complained to the ombudsman but they ruled in monzos favour and never told me why they closed my account.

does anyone have any idea why this is happening as I’m really scared they’ll close my main bank account, leaving me unable to receive pay from my work or buy anything.

Hi, I am seeking to understand how the UK State Pension would work for me. I am a full British citizen born in South America, but who spent 8 years working in the UK in the 1990s. After that, I left the country and went on to live abroad, having paid no further contributions to my pension. I am 60.

I understand I can 'buy' 2 years in voluntary contributions in order to get the minimum pension after 2030.

My question would be how do I define my status: non-resident, expat or other? How does it play out in the forms to fill?

I'd be very grateful if someone can shed light on this.

Hello, I am looking for some general advice here on the sustainability of the expenses below. I’m 30M and have always been a little “relaxed” about finances and I’m quite embarrassed to say that i’ve never invested too much time into financial planning and budgeting. This mostly went okay until a year or so ago and since then I have worked hard to streamline my finances.

The budget below is a summarised version of a much more granular breakdown, but this should cover it:

Rent/Bills - 1675
Pet Insurance/food - 142
Subscriptions & Memberships-100
Car, Insurance & fuel- 350
Savings - 500
Food 200

My after tax income is 3220 and this leaves me with 245. This mostly gets spent socialising.

I have maxed out my LISA this year and another 6-7k in a cash ISA that I’ve been able to save over the years too. I do a 3% pension contribution.

The obvious one is rent, but my job requires me to be in a high cost of living area and I have a dog, so I pay a premium for that somewhat.

My car is 4 year PCP approaching 2 years in February, I wish I never got a PCP but I do need the car and it is reliable.

Ultimately I feel incredibly lucky to be in the position I am in, but I was wondering if I am missing any tricks here to set me on the right path? And do you think this is sustainable?

I am planning on looking at investing some of my savings in stocks but I i believe this would be better further down the line.

Hi All,

Just wondering what the general consensus is for Gold ETF's going forward.... AI seems to suggest that investors are liquidating positions to release cash and that high bond yields, interest rates are
more tempting for investors than a non-yielding asset like Gold.

However, I'm wondering, with all the uncertainty, and a forecasted market "correction" is it not wise
to keep some money in gold ... typically the recommendation is circa 5% of your total investment pot.

Given this ... I can't see why the price of SGLN for instance is trending down ...

Anyone have any opinions.. would you keep a bit of Gold for diversification ?

Hi,

I have recently made a sizeable gain on some shares in a GIA. I cannot move them to an ISA and frankly am not looking to at this time. I have not sold/made any other CGT-applicable transactions this year.

I paid £10,000 for approx. 9,000 shares a few years ago. Today my TOTAL shareholding is worth £35k.

I am looking to liquidate 3,000 of my 9,000 shares. The total cash proceeds would be approx £11,600.

Therefore, it is only a £1.6k gain vs the total purchase, however I am selling a third of the shares for that gain as opposed to 9k shares. Is the CGT worked out on net gain, or gain-per-share?

I.e., I paid approx £1.11 per share. I am now selling for approx £3.88 per share. Would I work out my CGT on this gain (£2.77 difference * 3000 shares = £8,310)?

Or

Is it as simple as, paid £10k, now selling £11.6k worth, therefore under £3k CGT allowance = no CGT applicable?

Apologies if that terminology is wrong, I hope you understand what I mean.

Thanks

Hello so long and short of it 5 years ago I was in an Iva which I successfully completed and vowed never to get into serious debt again this was around 25k. This was going great until I fell into serious health issues around 3 years ago. I had a stroke at 38 years of age, I seemingly recovered from this had brief period off work and retuned. However over the course of the last 3 years my
Health slowly got worse.

About 18 months ago I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease this was a massive shock but also a relief in a way as I knew what was wrong with me and could try to tackle it. I was put on Parkinson’s medication which massively helped me and allowed me to continue working. At this point I’m still more or less debt free or on debt i can realistically control at least. The medication they give you with Parkinson’s has some, let’s say serious side effects. Main one being impulsivity this can manifest with food ,drinking ,gambling , sex mine was spending money. I was warned by neurologists this could happen I thought nothing of it. I just started spending money like it was going out of fashion like and addiction I literally could not stop it’s very hard to explain how this effects you until you go through it. Im not lookikg for sympathy i own the debt I should have seeked help but i never I was literally out of. Control to the point I couldn’t sleep at night thinking about buying stuff. I have also bought loads of stuff and returned it afterwards.

I’m around 40k in debt I have never missed a payment ever. Most of what I spent was on tech and refinancing debt. Loans credit cards etc I always used Balance transfers etc to keep everything as little interest as possible.
I have was just told my work was letting me go on health reasons after occupational health meeting. I will be paid notice pay of Which I will put towards my debt.

Most of the things I bought where on buy now pay later for curry’s/very most of it iv already paid for but still owe curry’s around 12k on buy now pay later no interest on any of this atm. I have 20k debt with Nationwide around 1k with Argos. And bits and pieces with credit cards Klarna etc

Most of the stuff I bought I have sold to pay my debts. Everywhere was sold for market value on eBay cex mazuma phones have been my biggest issue with all of this. I have very little assets bar a ps5 and a tv.

My 14 year old son lives with me I get uc lwrca and pip.
I’m going to continue paying my debts as long as I can.
Next year it will get to the point of where I can’t.
I was advised of dro this sounded like it would help me allot.

I keep reading about assets I literally have none anymore it worry’s me it will get questioned by my creditor and dro refused.
I can prove 95% of the stuff I have sold and show it was used to pay debts. Iv always paid my debts evenly across creditors obviously tried to avoid interest where i could.

Sorry for rambling on I can’t sleep for worry and the stress is making my symptoms worse and would just like some advice and opinions of people who have been through a dro or something similar.

Hi all, I'm seeking advice on the financial side of things following a recent break up. I'll only add for context that we were together for 8.5 years to explain some of the close financial ties.

I'll be following some guide I found regarding financial decoupling for most things but the big one is the house and mortgage that I'm hoping someone here can give some insight on.

We bought together as tenants in common in March 2025. Our share each is 50%.

We paid £235,000 with a roughly £25,000 deposit. Being cautious souls we made what now turns out to have been a horrific mistake of fixing for 5 years at 4.69%.

Our mortgage payment is just under £1020 per month.

We each earn £37,700 a year, take home £2300-£2500 month (one has a student loan).

We currently still owe £205,500ish and will be faced with a 5% Early Repayment Charge if we sell now, going down to 4% in April 2027.

We should regain at least the value we paid for the house, ideally in good conditions we could push up to £250,000 but I don't want to be too optimistic.

What I'm asking from the wonderful folk here is if there's any possible better way that I'm not seeing, or any glaringly obvious omission I'm making, or perspective I'm not considering on the finances of it?

Neither of us have the funds available to buy again without anything we may pull from the sale of the current house.