i’m 18 and left home recently under bad circumstances. i‘m trying to figure out finances mainly? i work full time and get paid about £1800 a month, and save about £1300 but have taken some money out of my savings just to pay for a new life and things, so i have about £4500 in savings now. does that feel on track? i’m on a gap year but id get a lot more help at uni with finances so this is just money to put away and not look back on for a while.

also trying to figure out bank accounts. i want to open new ones, i have a good savings thing with natwest (mainly attached because i’ve had it since i was 12 and no one else has access and it feels like mine), but what other cards should i have (thinking another debit and a credit).

and a little odd one, my parents have been sending me some money, which would invalidate my estrangement for sfe, it’s £100 a month and i can’t make it stop or send the payment back (complex family things), and the bank can’t block it. i really want to avoid closing the account, stupid but it’s those little normal things i guess? what do i do?

Hi,

I'm looking into buying a car sometime in the future. My idea was to use a combination of cash and long term transfer balance credit card to purchase the car.

Let's say the car costs 20k, and I pay 10k with cash outright. Assuming I get approved for a credit card with a 10.5k limit, would I be able to pay the other 50% with the credit card? The idea is then to transfer the credit card balance to another long term transfer balance credit card with 36 months. Then I can pay the minimum balance on the credit card until the balance clears.

Are there any issues with this logic?

I'm a fulltime NHS worker who does NHSP extra shifts and I've received a letter from the HMRC saying they haven't received payment for my overdue Simple Assessment. The amount overdue is £xxxx. Anybody who has gone through the same. Any advice and guidance is appreciated.

We've just ditched our advisor (was paying around 1.9% all-in) and moved to a flat-fee platform. Everything's going into VWRP across ISAs, my LISA, pension contributions through our Ltd company, and our son's JISA.

I'm 43, my partner's 38, and we're hoping to semi-retire at 57. We've also got two buy-to-lets we're selling off one a year.

A couple of things I keep going back and forth on:

Is having literally everything in one fund daft? I know it's global, but it's heavily US and that nags at me a bit.

When should we actually start moving some into bonds or cash? 5 years out? 10? And is it better to shift gradually, or just build a cash pot to live off for the first few years?

Our company is a restaurant which was part of our retirement plan, but they way things are going I'm not super confident of the longevity of the business in 15/20 years time.

Anything else you'd do differently in our shoes? Cheers.

Update: thank you to everyone who has responded with helpful comments, we've decided against buying and will look into investing- currently taking notes of all the suggestions and we will research each option, we're also looking for someone who can advice financially but also legally (vulnerabilities and protecting finances from other biological parent)

Original post: Hi, so realistically our kid won't be touching the money until they are ready to buy a home, we expect that to happen after they are 25, they are expected to go to university, they are considered vulnerable too (have a support worker), so we need to take that into consideration. Grandparent has left the money specifically for them too buy a home, we know that, kid knows that, but it didn't specify anything in the will, only that it needs to be held in trust and didn't mention any age. Kid is onboard with what was our initial plan, we find a property, use the inheritance as deposit, rent it out for 10 years or so and then either sell or remortgage for our child to buy their home (hopefully in their late 20s, early 30s). Is this this a reasonable plan? Everyone seems to be putting us off buying as an investment. We are fine with better conditions for renters (we rented for a long time and hated how some of the landlords would behave) and that's why we are open to selling or remortgaging later... depending on the tenant situation at the time. What would you recommend?

Additional information that might be of importance, my kid has a biological parent who is not in their life right now, but may randomly turn up, they are emotionally and financially abusive, so we also need to ensure child's finances are protected (hence the house- meaning the child can't be pressured into taking money out of an account overnight)

Hi all,

I just checked my pay slip and there’s a line that says BASICANNUAL - Backpay and it’s 2x my monthly salary before tax

This is added on top of what I normally earn

I joined the company in February and it’s a huge company, and I’ve been paid the right amount since I’ve joined and I’m unsure what to do? Do I not say anything since it s back pay?

Hi! I’m currently running a tiny business whereby I’m the director and sole employee. Annual turnover is around £45k with annual profit £36k.

I have been a Ltd company for 2 years and I hate it. All of a sudden, I feel much poorer than before, I’m paying high accountancy fees (£115 per month), having to ask before I withdraw dividends and sending my accountant endless monthly statements.

I’d like to go back to sole trader, but would it be worth it? For context, I paid £4800 in corporation tax last year and £1000 in self assessment, plus the £1300-odd for the accountant.

Any advice welcome!

Good Morning,

What other online broker options are available (with timely and reliable customer support) to a UK citizen and a Cyprus Tax resident? I would like some options other than Interactive Brokers that can provide better peace of mind. I am trying to move $1-2m from a traditional bank holding and am finding their lack of customer support concerning for the size of my trades. Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone,

First time posting in here, so apologies about the lengthy post!

I've been recently considering switching my current stocks and shares isa with hargreaves lansdown to trading212. This is due to their fee's for buying/selling stocks, from what I've seen online a fair few people have made the switch already, for the same reasons to save on fee's over the long term.

Some background, my friend who uses HL himself, was the one who got me setup and using a stocks and shares isa account in the first place. As he uses HL, he advised me to get setup the same, as I knew little information, and he had been doing it for 7/8 years using HL.

I'd ideally like to setup a plan where I can invest monthly into a few different ETF funds. The thinking behind the switch, is that t212 doesn't charge any fees for this, whereas HL charge a £1.95 fee per transaction. So, the switch for long term investment would save me a fair chunk over the foreseeable future.

Just wondering if anyone had any advice on how the process works, and how long it takes to fully transfer over. Also, is there any fee's for switching accounts over from HL or t212 side?

Also, I currently have my funds split between the UBS S&P 500 index and the Vanguard US equity index ETF funds. These were the 2 my friend suggested to start with when I initially got setup, as I wasn't sure on how to even start. I'm aware that there is quite a lot of overlap between the funds, in terms of covering the same companies in the US. I'd like to transfer one into the other, but have seen on t212 that the vanguard US equity isn't available on their platform. Any advice on which way to go on this? The vanguard has currently outperformed the s&p 500 so far for me, but I'm aware that can change at any point. Should I just transfer into the vanguard s&p 500 for t212?

I'd also like to diversify my portfolio to expand into other markets such as the EU/Japan so that I don't only rely on the US market and have all my eggs in one basket. I see the vanguard FTSE all world etf is one people have recommended, but there's still 60% US coverage. Any suggestions on ETF funds that are EU/Japan only. My friend said about Fundsmith Equity for EU & Ishares Japan.

Appreciate any advice, I'm aware everything should be taken as a financial opinion, and that there's always risks with investing, and I should do my own research before making any investment decisions.

Welcome any suggestions or alternatives if something works out better in my current situation.

Thank you :)

Just had a pay rise (confirmed last week) starting with immediate effect that takes me over the plan 2 threshold. Received my payslip this morning but student finance has not been deducted.

Does anyone know roughly how long it will take for deductions to start showing on my payslip? Should I mention the deductions to my employer?

I will be in a position next year at the age of 37 to pay off my mortgage in full if I so choose, but in my head I keep battling if I should or should not as its doesnt feel like the best use of my money.

Bit more context, I have £250k in my ISA and £40k from a sharesave due which combined can clear the c.£290k mortgage I have left; house value of £340-350k.

For reference I have grown my ISA at about 1% CAGR above that of the S&P500 over the past 7 years.

I know a lot of people on this thread wont have done this, but I am interested in those that have paid off their mortgage, is there a different feeling you have with no mortgage, or would you have rather kept the money invested and not paid the mortgage off.

Do feel free to ask any questions to help as I am genuinely interested in peoples thoughts.

Hi, so about to turn 27 and have basically 0 in saving and trying to invest smartly from now on

I have currently got
123.6k on my mortgage 4.5%
21,684 on my car 0%
1689 on my card 0%
£36 on anex 40%
£1000 to my mum £500 a month
This is all debt none of it has interest except my mortgage
Total is around 150k

I have 1400 in my current account
1000 in savings account 4.25%
300 monthly saver 6.5%

My outgoing are monthly
£40 WiFi
£13.50 phone
£787 mortgage
£515 car including all fuel
£40 rent

Yearly
500 car insurance
330 home insurance

Incoming
Rent on my house is 820 pm
My salary is around £40 k a year

My living expense for food and hobbies etc is around 1k

I’m looking at a 2nd job just while I build an
emergency fund

Sorry if this is a weird format
Basically my question is
What should I be investing in currently while I grow my emergency fund? As I want access to the cash if necessary

After I have built up 6-10k emergency fund
Where should I invest the rest?

I would like to ask your advice on paying back tax after an underpayment.

I received a benefit in kind from my employer in the previous financial year (2025/25) which meant that HMRC calculated I paid too little tax by £1840, and HMRC said that would be taken out of next year’s salary, starting in April 2027.

However, my tax code has also changed from the standard 1257L to 336L, this started in August and I have tried to contact HMRC several times to ask why they are changing my tax code this year, when they are not going to claim back tax until next year, but they have been unwilling to change my tax code for this year.

My pay slip has come in today, and it turns out that I have been charged £909 for income tax from my post-pension gross salary of £3170. This seems like a massive overpayment as I have calculated that with a standard 1257L tax code, the monthly income tax should be £434.

Therefore, I appear to be paying around £475 more tax per month, meaning that I will massively overpay in this financial year what I owe HMRC.

My question is whether there is anything else I can do in this tax year having already queried this several times with HMRC. I have contacted the payroll team at my employer and have been told this is a HMRC, not employer, issue.

My annual salary is £41805 with a 8.9% employee contribution to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.

Hi all,

I posed here quite a while ago now. I’ll link my post below.

https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/s/DZxAKLMPgI

Just wanted to provide an update on the situation. As many of you guessed the longer the process went on the less amicable it became but as of today the house has officially sold!

I did manage to come to an agreement with my ex about the money my parents gave us so I have that back now to return to them as well. It got very messy towards the end to the point I had to pack all of my things and flee to stay with a friend due to finding hidden cameras in the house but I’m just so relieved it’s over and officially finished.

Silver lining, because of the way things got towards the end and the domestic abuse I was able to take my name off our joint account without needing both persons signatures so there’s no risk I’ll be responsible for any more of his debt. I also found out we’re due a council tax refund so I’m looking forward to getting my half of that.

Thanks for the advice and support which was provided last time. You all really helped me navigate a bit of an uncomfortable time in my life and I’m really grateful

Hey all, was just wondering if anyone had expereinced the same.

Me and my wife use a joint account to pay all our bills, 2 months ago the HSBC app went down for about 3 days meaning we couldn't transfer money into the joint, knowing this I rang up my morgage company and paid the payment over the phone on the day it was due to come out, no dramas or so I thought.. They did say we might receive and email in the following week because things might overlap and just to ignore it.

A month later the morgage payment gets taking out our joint then goes back in within a couple of minutes, I honestly don't usually check our joint that much but I had a feeling that something was a miss, anyway rang them up and paid the payment again same day it was due, they said cause we paid manually it pretty much had over taken the DD so we had to setup a new 1, So I asked to do that and they said it can't be done over the phone it will have to be sent in the post to sign? Its coming up to payment day and we still haven't received anything, when contacting them they keep saying it will be with you shortly and to top it off its coming up as 2 missed payments on my credit?

Anyone experienced anything similar and will the missed payments be removed?

Sorry about the waffling but its really starting to annoy me.

Thanks.

Hello,

First post here, and I’m going to lay it all on the line.

I need some advice, and you’ll probably understand why by the end of this post. 😅

I applied to do an MSc at the University of Leeds and was awarded a partial scholarship because I’m care-experienced. This scholarship helped somewhat, but I was still left with substantial tuition fees to pay, which I planned to finance with a postgraduate loan.

Fast-forward, and I’m doing really well at work and on my MSc, but I become ill and have to rely on statutory sick pay for nearly four months. I end up spending the remainder of my postgraduate loan on living costs rather than tuition fees, leaving an outstanding balance of around £1,100 out of £14,500.

Somehow, whilst recovering from my illness (my final operation is due next week!), I manage to complete my research dissertation, achieve 85%, and earn a distinction overall! This was a mammoth effort and absolutely vital to helping me secure a job, pursue a PhD, and set myself up for a career.

I’ve now spoken to my university and explained that I cannot afford to pay the outstanding fees. I’m in debt because of my prolonged sickness and the costs associated with my MSc, and I cannot realistically borrow any more money to cover the balance.

The university knows I have no family support, and I was awarded a scholarship precisely because of my circumstances. Yet they’re unwilling to work with me to find a solution. It seems to be a case of paying the fees or not graduating.

I understand that they need to protect their interests, but this is a genuine situation that could have a significant impact on my life and essentially waste hundreds of hours of hard work and dedication.

I need some advice. Is anyone aware of any organisations that offer scholarships or financial support to academics from disadvantaged backgrounds?

Do you think the Tuition Fees team’s decision is final, or can anyone suggest a creative solution I could propose to the university?

I know this is a problem of my own making, but I’m just looking for any ray of light in what feels like a pretty bleak situation!

Thanks for hearing me out.

So I'm on the brink of leaving my job, I'm fairly certain I have a good reason for it.

My plan is to go freelance. I already do some freelance on the side but would need to get a lot more work in order to cover my outgoings.

I also have a decent emergency fund saved up, which I believe would reduce my UC but not cancel it out altogether.

Is there a way I can get confirmation that I'm eligible for UC before I leave my job? As I know that just quitting without a good reason can affect eligibility.

I heard there is an online calculator, but I'd rather get actual confirmation rather than just estimates.

Hi all,

Wasn’t sure where to post this but have seen others make posts about the energy ombudsman before so thought maybe someone may be able to offer some advice.

Essentially 18 months ago our electric metre stopped working, we reported this and they sent out a technician to install a new smart meter and what followed was 18 months of back and forth with them.

We were told that they couldn’t install a new meter as there was an issue with our gas pipes and that they would report this to northern gas for us. They never did. We found out when reporting as separate issue and sorted this out ourselves.

We were then told there was a separate fault with the metre that needed to go through the dno and that we needed to raise this. We did and were told it was up to a technician on site to report it and there was nothing we could do.

We then entered a formal complaint and spent 12 weeks arguing back and forth, even though they acknowledged in their email to us that the flow to the dno had to be raised by a technician onsite, they continued to say we needed to do it and chase it up. When we refused, they then agreed to send a technician out who after all that time found out that the fault was incorrectly reported and we finally got a smart meter installed.

Now comes the billing issues, we continued to pay our direct debit throughout. They charged us £707 back in July based on estimated readings and a further £300 last month (each bill was for the past 3 months), all based on estimated readings. The person handling our complaint stated this was based on average readings calculated from the date of our last successful read and they have adjusted the bill to account for the fact they can’t charge us past 12 months. The issue is that the date of our last reading was put in by the 1st technician who came out AFTER our metre stopped working so completely false as you couldn’t get a read from it, paperwork we have even states they couldn’t get a read.

We have looked back at the last year including how much they have charged us and what we have paid and it makes zero sense at all. Seems like they are just wacking on crazy inconsistent estimated readings and charging us whatever. It is not inline with previous years usesge when our metre was working. Based on the above, we went from credit to nearly £500 in debt with them and they are now demanding we pay nearly £300 a month for the next year to clear this which also makes zero sense as £40 odd would go towards the debt and there is no way we are using £260 in gas and electricity each month.

Since our metre has been installed we are actually on track with a monthly bill of around £120 a month for gas, electric and standing charges although do understand that this will go up over winter and down in the summer.

We are giving them one final time to come to an agreement with us so rectify all of the inconsistencies and then plan to go to the energy ombudsman if they disagree but we are curious as to what the process is like and based on the above information if we would have a good chance.

Hi, first time posting.

I was self-employed until October 2024. I had a few unpaid invoices from different clients on ceasing trading. I deregistered from self-assessment in 2024 as I did not anticipate those invoices ever being paid. In May 2025, one was paid. I discovered this by chance in summer 2026, when checking my old business bank account. This month, two more invoices have been paid.

As I’ve deregistered from self-assessment, how can I declare these sums? I called HMRC when I first discovered the May 2025 payment. They said they would post out a form, but this never turned up. I called again to chase it up and the person I spoke to said that I was within the trading allowance and didn’t need to declare, which I don’t believe is correct.

I started a PAYE job the day after ceasing trading in October 2024, if relevant.

Any advice gratefully received!

I'm looking into setting up a bare trust for my children, funded by their grandparents who live outside the UK.

The setup would be:

• Settlor (grandparent): Non-UK resident
• Trustee (parent): UK resident
• Beneficiaries (children): UK residents

I've contacted a couple of providers, but they said they only support bare trusts where the settlor, trustee and beneficiaries are all UK residents.

Has anyone managed to set up a bare trust with a non-UK resident settlor?

If so, which provider did you use? Are there any providers that support this arrangement, or anything else I should be aware of?

Any advice or experiences would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I received an offer from Vanquis for a balance transfer totalling around £940. I intended this to come off my higher balance capital one card, but I do have two accounts.

Stupidly, I've rushed this and ended up mixing up my cards (both have similar ending 4 numbers) and have put my £200 limit card in around £750 of positive credit after clearing the balance in it.

Due to me trying to resolve this amongst also trying to merge my two accounts, its flagged for I'm guessing fraud and whilst they've realised it isnt fraud they have decided to close my accounts, fairs fair i have no qualms but this still leaves the £750 of positive credit.

I spoke with Capital One and they say Vanquis have to request the money back, which does contradict what I was told prior to my accounts being blocked, but I spoke with them anyways.

Vanquis state they cannot recall the payment as it was through their app and the only small chance I would've had was if I'd done an over the phone transfer.

Took this back to Capital one and they once again repeated the same line, which by this time Vanquis's agents had finished for the day.

I've logged a complaint with Capital One, but has anyone dealt with this issue previously and how did they resolve it?

Prior to being blocked their message team had tried to just refund the balance to my bank which I can only assume is what triggered this issue and that person specifically stated they cannot refund the payment to Vanquis so I'm just really confused right now.

Had also requested at that time if they can just move it to the correct card which I was told no.

I've been using the same accounting firm for a few years now and have traditionally not declared expenses as an income. This is because I send receipts to the client for travel etc and they cover that but no more. So I make no money off the transaction. I dont try and scam HMRC by claiming travel as an expense if its been covered by the client.

I'm now with a new accountant with the same firm who insists that I have to declare all expenses paid to me as income. I'm finding it such a pain to do esp with MTD. I'm a sole trader earning around 50k a year. I've read conflicting things about not having to declare or definitely having to declare. Can someone help!

Hi everyone. Yesterday around 5 PM, my NatWest account was restricted and disappeared from mobile banking and Apple Pay out of nowhere after I made multiple transactions on a digital trading card app (buying and selling packs, where the payouts were routed from a Canadian corporate name).

By 1 PM today (20 hours later), NatWest texted to say the review was complete and they fully restored my access without asking any questions or locking my app.

While this restriction was happening, I happened to get an automated email from ClearScore saying a "change has been added to your NatWest report." I can't see the specific change on my dashboard yet as it's still processing.

I am incredibly anxious that NatWest might have secretly placed a unfair hidden CIFAS marker on my file during that short review, and that the ClearScore email is flagging it—even though my account is fully open and back to normal. I've already submitted a Cifas DSAR to check for absolute peace of mind, but the wait is making me paranoid.

Has anyone experienced a quick 20-hour automated freeze like this at the end of the month? Is the ClearScore alert just a massive coincidence? Any similar experiences would really help calm my nerves. Thanks.

Evening All. I have a 0% balance transfer deal on my credit card, which expires on 30 November. I will almost have cleared the debt by then, but there is a chance I will have about £500 remaining. The APR would be 22.48%. I appreciate it is not ideal to pay interest on this, but I can clear the £500 balance and any remaining interest with my December pay if required. My question is, does not paying off the balance in full by the end of the deal have any impact to my credit rating?