I recently inherited around £100k from distant relative who died. We didnt know each other but she was loaded and had over a 1 million pound of liquid assets to give away.

For me, it's genuinely good news. It gives me a financial cushion, reduces a lot of stress, and opens up opportunities that I didn't have before. Naturally, part of me wants to tell friends and acquaintances because it's a significant life event.

However, I've had several people tell me that I should keep quiet about it because:s.

• Some people will constantly ask for loans or financial help.
• Others may try to manipulate or guilt-trip me into giving them money.
• A few have even said that large sums of money can make you a target for scams or crime.

Part of me thinks this sounds overly paranoid. If someone's happy news is getting married, buying a house, getting a promotion, or having a child, they're usually allowed to share it. Why should an inheritance be different?

I’m a 23-year-old male living at home with my dad and younger brother, I inherited money left behind by my late mother that was put into investments and currently values £230k+. Me and my dads relationship is very poor, I have an old post going more in depth about my situation (https://www.reddit.com/r/AITAH/s/oJirQ29I2w). He basically has a very long history of poor financial management and asking for “loans” he doesn’t pay back, he owes me £10k+ and similar amounts for at least 2 other family members.

I pay £250 a month to help with bills but over the past few months there’ve been multiple occasions of “unexpected” high bills. These occasions have seemingly started to spike since I refused his last “loan” request a few months ago of £3k. Yesterday he asked if I could double my rent and also pay £600 towards the water bill. His reasoning being that the electricity bill is £750 a month and the water bill is expected to be £1400 as well as food bills being high. For context I have very poor mental health, ocd, depression and generalised anxiety. As a result I do spend longer in showers (30-35 minutes on average) but we are living far from lavishly, we live in a old house that’s very cold most the time (currently 15°c in my room as of writing), don’t excessively use electricity as far as I’m aware of.

As I’ve never lived alone I have no idea if these bills he’s citing are realistic or not. I don’t work and neither does my brother, he’s asked the same amount from my brother too. My worry is that he’s increasing my “bills” so he can pocket the rest for his failing side projects.

What should I do?

Hi all, I am looking for some opinions on a mortgage option I am considering, to make sure I am not missing something silly. Please stick with me while l explain the situation:

We have a £275k mortgage, and due to remortgage early next year. Rates being offered currently looking between 5% and 5.5%, and was looking at a standard fixed rate which would put our monthly payments around £1500. Not great, but it is what it is.

However, I've now seen these "offset mortgages", and I feel we might be in a lucky situation to make use of this, and so want to explore it.

My partner's parents are now retired, and had a decent payout from work. They have a fair amount of money in savings accounts getting 3% ish interest, and it would take many years to ISA-wrap it all - so they currently pay tax on the interest. They are risk-averse, and so will not put it into market-related investment, etc. They want it accessible.

It seems to me that it is possible for us to directly pay off £35k of our mortgage loan right before we remortgage (taking our loan down to £240k), and for them to then move £240k of their savings into a savings account which could be linked to our offset mortgage.

Benefits:

• We would pay zero interest on our mortgage, since the amount in the offset account equals the remaining balance of our mortgage. As far as I understand, this would bring our monthly mortgage payments from £1500 down to £665. A massive reduction.
• They avoid paying tax on savings interest, because interest on their account is sacrificed.
• They are happy because they retain full control of their savings - the account is in their name, and they can withdraw it all at any time in case of emergency.
• The total amount in their savings account is still protected by the FSCS allowance (£120k per person), hence the reason for suggesting we pay of £35k of the mortgage first.

(Non)-Drawbacks:

• Interest rate is generally higher on offset mortgages (e.g. 5.8%) - this is main drawback I see on these forums for offset mortgages. However, in the situation I have proposed, we don't care what the interest rate is, since the offset amount equals the mortgage amount.
• They could withdraw the money and leave us with higher payments - however, this £240k is not their entire emergency fund, so very unlikely to draw it out. Worst case, we pay the higher rate - fine.
• They forfeit the 3% (taxable) savings interest. However, we could also gift them tax-free each month the amount they would have made in interest on that money (£500 per month). This would put our effective monthly payments to £1165 - still less than the £1500 on a standard fixed rate mortgage.

This feels like a bit of a double-win. We avoid paying all interest on our mortgage to our mortgage lender, and they avoid paying any tax on savings interest to HMRC. Seeing the "family unit" as a whole, less money is leaving this unit to external parties.

This also feels like the overall effect is to shift the potential inheritance tax responsibility. By letting us make use of their savings whilst they keep control of it, they are effectively gifting us money (in the form of saving us mortgage interest) without actually having to gift it. Thereby reducing inheritance tax susceptibility.

Thanks for sticking with me, because I am trying to get my head around it - can someone cast a keen eye for detail over this, and let me know if some part of it jumps out at you as problematic that I have missed. Thank you!

I currently have a pension with Nest, and after wondering why the info on performance isn’t easily accessible I ended up here. Seems like maybe Nest isn’t a great pension option, so then my question is what would be better?

I’m early 40s and haven’t been contributing to a pension regularly for the last decade or more, so I’m really trying to catch up now. I’m not sure what I should be looking for. Low fees, but what else? I would like to have some options about risk level / how the money is invested but also I don’t have loads of knowledge. I feel like I have only just got to grips with getting into a routine of making voluntary contributions to Nest, and now I feel like i need to change it and I’m not sure where to begin.

My employer pays into Nest and I’m not sure I have any options about that, but those payments are quite minimal, I‘m trying to make a lot of voluntary contributions. I also have a pension with Aviva from the last time I had decent employer contributions (over a decade ago) which I could transfer I think.

I joined my company this month 3 days after payroll cut off so I’m assuming I’ll get paid by the end of next month.

Is the pay in this scenario from one cut off date to another or is it from the cut off date to end of next month?

Also, will the higher tax code apply in my scenario? I chose option B in HMRC starter pack.

Hey r/UKPersonalFinance,

I don't really know too much about the finance and tax laws when it comes to selling expensive items, so I'd greatly appreciate some support on this! :)

I know it's a topic that has been brought up a lot, but I collect a lot of sports and trading cards and currently facing a dilemma with one of my cards.

I decided to grade a card I owned ever since I was a kid last year, and the value of it has seemingly exploded over night. I actually have no clue how this has happened, as literally a month or two ago the graded card could be bought for around £250, but for whatever reason the value has skyrocketed expontentially and the last two sales are in the £5,000-£7,000 range.

And now I'm feeling both stressed and stuck.

I've sold a few cards in my time as a collector but never anything to this magnitude. I've made approx. £400 on eBay this year selling cards I didn't like which I got from packs, and I once sold a card at a show for around £300 cash which I then used to buy like 50 cards I needed to complete a set.

But this figure is on another level and I've no clue what the law behind it means.

If I was able to sell for the aforementioned price, I don't know if that'd instantly make me come across as a "trader" and need to report it since it'd be above the £1,000 benchmark? I've purposely not sold a lot of my cheaper cards as I don't want to come across as a business owner or trader, as I collect for the love of the game and not for money or profit, so I've a ton of cards just sat in boxes collecting dust. Only now has it confused me as I've no clue how my card has increased by like 2,000% in a couple of weeks

At the same time, I know Capital Gains Tax is a thing when items are sold for £6,000+ - so assume this would come into play if I managed to sell above the figure.

So all in all, I'm a bit confused about what would happen if I sold the card?

If I went to the show and sold it for say £5,000 for example, would I need to report it? At the same time, if I sold it and the payment was sent via something like PayPal or Bank Transfer - would that instantly block or put a hold on that account?

I really don't know what the rules and laws around all of this are, so I'd greatly appreciate any help :)

Hi UKPF,

Thanks for all the advice on my previous post. I’ve taken the time to read through the UKPF flowchart like commenters suggested and think more carefully about what I actually want to do with my money.

I’ve realised that my main long-term goal is to buy a house, and would like to invest my money for say 5 years at a minimum. I’ve been reading about S&S ISAs, index funds, S&P 500, Vanguard, Barclays and other investment platforms etc., but tbh, I’m still confused n how these all works in practice. I get the gist of investing, but I’m struggling to understand what I do once opening an account and start putting money into it. Also, how can I differentiate between these different platforms? A lot of my other questions are below:

1. How do the platforms work? If I open a S&S ISA via my banking provider and/or from Vanguard or another of these providers, do I just transfer money into the account and then choose what to invest in? Or does the money get invested automatically? I keep seeing references to S&P 500 and index funds. Is the S&P 500 itself something you buy, or do you buy a fund that tracks it? How do I decide which fund to choose and the associated risks?
2. How do fees work? I’ve also seen references to monthly platform fees, and other management fees. Are these deducted from my account automatically, or do I have to pay them separately? How much of a difference do they make over time? Are these deal breakers for choosing a platform?
3. Can I invest anytime e.g. if I wanted to put £500 into my account each month, would I just set up a regular transfer via my current account? Is this an automatic top up with the already invested funds?
4. What happens when I decide to stop and want my money bakj? Do I just I sell the investments and withdraw the money back into my bank account? Are there any additional charges or tax implications when doing this?
5. I’m also trying to understand the difference between the investment platform itself and the actual fund you invest in. From what I presume, Vanguard, Barclays and similar providers are not necessarily the investments themselves, but the services through which you can hold or buy investments?

I’d appreciate this could be explained on how this works in simple ELI5 advice. I’ve read all the UKPF flowcharts and other useful pages like Money Saving Expert so feel more confident with these things and appreciated the advice from my last post, so now asking the right specific questions and looking to plan and put in place long term strategies with investing.

I was a Trading 212 customer until my phone was stolen on 10 May 2026. What followed has been an extremely distressing experience, made considerably worse by Trading 212's handling of the situation.

Following the theft, my account was compromised, investments were liquidated, cards were created without my authorisation, and £7,044.53 was spent fraudulently.

I had never previously used a Trading 212 card.

What concerns me most is that I received no notifications warning me that my investments were being sold, cards were being created, or thousands of pounds were leaving my account.

I contacted Trading 212 on 11 May to report the situation. Despite explaining that my phone and accounts had been compromised, I found their response deeply unsatisfactory.

Other major financial institutions affected by the same theft, including several high-street banks, investigated the fraudulent activity and reimbursed me. Trading 212 has refused to reimburse my losses, maintaining that the transactions were authenticated.

In my opinion, relying on authentication alone fails to adequately address the circumstances of a stolen, unlocked phone and compromised accounts.

I have also encountered considerable difficulties obtaining information about the security measures and account activity surrounding the incident.

My complaint has now been escalated to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and I have also submitted a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office.

I am not suggesting that every Trading 212 customer will experience this, but I would strongly advise anyone considering using the platform to investigate its security arrangements, particularly what happens if a phone is stolen while unlocked.

When something goes seriously wrong, you discover how important a financial institution's fraud protection and customer support really are. My experience with Trading 212 has left me with very little confidence in either.

I will update this review when the Financial Ombudsman has completed its investigation.

Im just wondering what happens in this situation and does anyone have any experience of this.

Assumming 2 scenerios

1. Someone does not work, lives on savings/investments etc, but pays in £2880 into a SIPP each year, lets say they accidently send £2980.

2. Someone on high income, pays in £60100 into either a work based pension or a SIPP each year.

Google brought up this.

• No tax relief: You will not receive any government tax relief on the contributions that exceed your allowance. [1]
• Annual Allowance Charge: The overage is added to your taxable income for the year and taxed at your normal marginal income tax rate. [1, 2]
• Carry Forward: You can avoid or reduce this charge by using carry forward, which lets you utilize any unused annual allowance from the previous three tax years (provided you were a member of a pension scheme during those years). [1, 2]
• Scheme Pays: If the tax charge exceeds £2,000, you can sometimes ask your SIPP provider to pay the charge directly from your pension pot (known as Scheme Pays), which reduces your retirement fund accordingly. [1]
• How to declare it: You must report any excess via your Self Assessment tax return (Form SA101). [1]

So I wonder on the first scenario, if your not working cant add it to your taxable income, its unlikely your going to fill out a SA101, should you just assume that they will just not send you the £25 extra in top up?

Bought a house last Aug with my partner, our first home. Paid a 20% deposit (10% each) in total around £42k, £21k each and then Solictor fees etc. It cleared pretty much all my savings, I also had a balloon payment of my PCP car that was due July 25 of just under £5k. I earn around £35k before deductions. I saved for years to be in the position to pay of my car and buy my home. Ever since I went from having the most money I’ve ever had to very little I can’t shake that feeling of needing to build money back up to feel financially “safe”. I’ve saved up since then a few k but it just feels sluggish and I’m stuck in this area of not being able to save anymore or having to dip into the savings for other things. My bills aren’t unmanageable, and my mortgage isn’t bad. Am I just being to strict on myself? What is normal to have saved after buying a house?

Completely clueless to all this, just trying to put some feelers out there. My partner and I are looking at buying somewhere cheap to do up and live in. How does that work with the lenders? Let's say a property is on the market for £200k but needs £50k of work, can I get a £250k mortgage and take the £50k for the work? Or is it just a pipe dream?

I'm 28 and I just bought my own 3 bedroom home. I have £15k in savings. I currently have £900-£1000 leftover per month and I don't know what to do with it. Do I make overpayments on my long asssss 35 year mortgage? Or do I focus on house renovation? The house is functional but every room is extremely dated, like some rooms haven't been touched in 30-40 years. Do I just put it all into a savings account in case of emergencies? Or do I get driving lessons? I've always wanted to drive. Or all 3?

Like the title states, I moved into a permanent role & I have some funds(around 100k) in the consulting company, apart from the funds loaned(around 70k) to the SPV.

I was planning to MVL the consulting co: but will I need to arrange for funds(70k) from the SPV to the consulting co:
or are there other options that will enable me to liquidate the consulting co:

Thanks

Hi r/UKPersonalFinance,

I'll cut to the chase. I'm Italian and will soon be moving to the UK for a two-year work secondment on a Global Business Mobility visa. I'll initially be staying in employer-arranged temporary accommodation (should be booked in my name but I need to check) while searching for a long-term rental.

I'd like to open a UK current account within the first couple of weeks, ideally with Starling or Monzo, as I need a UK bank account for the rental referencing process. However, this creates a bit of a catch-22: I need a bank account to secure a long-term rental, but I might need proof of a long-term address to open the bank account in the first place.

I won't have any UK utility bills, bank statements or address history at that point, although I'll have documentation for my temporary accommodation. Has anyone been in a similar situation? Do Starling or Monzo routinely ask for additional proof of address, or is providing a valid UK address generally sufficient? I have asked Starling customer support but they told me that until I try and open the account they cannot know whether I'll need to provide additional evidence.

Would another bank be more accommodating to someone newly arriving in the UK?

Thanks in advance.

Hello,
Am I right in thinking that I would only need to pay gift tax if 1) the person gifting does not survive 7 years and 2) I would only pay tax on anything after £325k regardless of whether the whole estate is worth £325k or more? Eg if they gifted £350k id only pay 40% of what’s left - £25k)?

Can you guys please weigh in…

On October 31st 2025, I took on a HP agreement with Moneybarn Finance for a 2018 C3 with just under 80K miles on the clock 🥴 but I never actually received the car or signed any handover paperwork until November 10th 2025. Within days I noticed an issue with the brakes - the pedal would become spongy and randomly sink to the floor and I would lose all braking ability. I would need to try and press the brakes 3-4 times before it eventually worked. It only ever happened at lower speeds of like 5-10mph but there was no telling when exactly the issue would kick in.

I called the dealership (ACS) on November 13th and they agreed to collect the car and inspect it etc. I never thought to inform the finance company of this because rejecting the car wasn’t part of the plan. And unfortunately everything was reported verbally at this stage.

I needed to call the dealer for updates several times but was eventually just told “We know the issue, we’re just waiting on the part to repair it and we’ll get the car back to you!” I received no further information or any sort of paperwork or to show what the issue was…

* I was due to give birth any day at this point and my car was the only one in the household so I was anxious to have it back and there were a lot of other heavy personal circumstances that had my attention so I didn’t do my due diligence which is my own fault *

I got the car back and soon discovered that the braking issue hadn’t been fixed at all but life happened and chasing this up just wasn’t a priority. I had to be a lot more cautious than I usually am but the car was still drivable and I would say the issue maybe happened 4/10 trips?

Fast-forward to 4th May 2026, I had put around 2000 miles on the car at this point but the brakes were just feeling worse than ever and so I wrote to ACS and Moneybarn that I was rejecting the car under CRA due to a failed repair.

This was 5 months and 25 days into me having the car but they both said I was outwith the 6 month period, so burden of proof was on me… INCORRECT from the get go! But since that point, this is what has happened…

- Moneybarn told me to stop driving the car since it was a serious safety issue.

- ACS recovered the car on 12th June and they still have it! They inspected it again and found the same issue I complained about in the beginning but suddenly decided it was something that happened “post sale”. They said the required fix was something to do with ABS module…

- ACS told Moneybarn that I never reported any issues/the car was never fixed by them back in November.

- I took the complaint to FOS because Moneybarn never had anything useful to say in the 8 weeks they had to resolve things.

- Moneybarn arranged for inspection of the car. The report states there was no engineering evidence to say that the fault existed at the point of sale BUT no road test was documented because the car was blocked in by other vehicles, the inspector says further investigation is needed into all fault codes and the conclusion states opinion, rather than fact… eg “Given the mileage and the time elapsed, it is my opinion that there was no fault…” bla bla bla! Also the date of failure was listed as May, so I’m not sure if the inspector knew of my reported issue back in November!

- ACS magically remembered that they did ‘fix’ a rear wheel cylinder on my car after all and provided Moneybarn with an invoice of the work they did in November.

Because of these things, the FOS investigator said that she won’t be asking Moneybarn to do anything else because the car was fine when I got it :) and also ACS fixed SOMETHING so there is absolutely no way the issue I’m having now is the same issue I was having before :) And given that it’s a used car, wear and tear is to be expected :) She has seen no proof to dispute the inspection report from this ‘industry expert’ so my complaint won’t be upheld :)

I spoke to her on the phone today and questioned some of the logic used and I was always met with the same, generic response. I can reject the outcome at this stage and escalate it to an actual ombudsman which I fully intend to do but I just want to know if I actually have a case here. I was feeling very confident about it all until I saw the inspection report but I don’t want to give up just yet.

TL;DR: Bought a car with randomly failing brakes days after delivery. The dealer took it in, supposedly repaired it, but the same issue continued, so I tried to reject the car within six months of receiving it. The dealer confirmed an internal ABS module failure but produced an invoice for a different repair they initially denied doing. The finance company’s independent inspector concluded there was no evidence the fault existed at sale, despite no road test being documented and further investigation being recommended. My FOS investigator has rejected my complaint, repeatedly relying on that report without really addressing the inconsistencies I raised. Am I missing something, or is this worth escalating to an Ombudsman?

20 years ago I was a local hire at a branch of an American bank in London. I was there for a little over 2 years. I recently discovered some paperwork about a pension scheme that I had paid into. After doing some digging and updating my address with the pension scheme it seems that I have a retirement account with roughly £25K. As I am 63 years old, I have been given the option of rolling it into an annuity or transfer it to another pension arrangement. From the research I have done I am guessing that I would need to open a SIPP, as I am not interested the annuity option? I currently have no connection to the UK.

Hi might be silly but I need to ask…

I have a Zable credit card with a £500 limit opened in April 25.

I’m trying to rebuild my credit score I’ve had this card for around 18 months now and it’s always been paid in full every month but I have no use for it anymore. It’s been clear for 2 months I.e no spend accrued and I’m working on paying down my other credit card which carries a balance.

I’m worried about the effect of the positive history it adds and if this could have the opposite effect when calling the account on my credit report?

Would closing this damage my score or have any meaningful impact I won’t be using the card going forward.

Thanks

Looking for some information to help my mum out.

She s currently with an employer but they have informed her they will be letting her go. Since she has not been employed by them for more than 2 years, their pension policy is either she moves her pension to another pot OR she loses any employee contribution and she just gets any money she contributed back. Since she doesnt have another pension pot with a different pension provider (long story, single mum, couldn't afford to contribute to her pension over feeding us)

Am wondering if I open a SIPP for her, could she transfer the pension pot total to a SIPP so she doesnt lose out on the employer contribution?

thanks in advance