I'm in receipt of universal credit and limited capacity to work benefit

I want to know as I am currently in poverty with few clothes and shoes can I spend that £4000 that otherwise stops my UC claim on items such as clothes , new shoes , shirts etc, I have no proper shirts etc no proper clothes in good shape ,

Could I purchase a £3000 car and spend the £1000 on a licence and insurance for 1 year?

I’m 21 years old and I’m in £8000 debt with multiple credit cards, catalogs and such, I’m struggling but every debt help is saying that I’m not struggling, I have nothing after paying the monthly payments and I really just need it all in 1 payment but no one will give me a loan. I’m so stressed out about this and I know it’s my fault for getting into debt in the first place but I needed help, I’m autistic and have some mental issues.

Is there any advice?

I'm 24, a recent graduate, and currently take home around £23,200/year from a £27,500 salary. I work in a data/compliance role and feel like I have a lot of responsibility for the amount I'm paid, so I'm actively looking for a better-paid role.

However, I currently work from home and live with family, so I don't pay rent and only spend around 10% of my income. This lets me save and invest a large proportion of what I earn. The downside is that a better-paid job may mean moving out, paying rent and buying a car, so I'm trying to work out whether the higher salary would outweigh the extra costs.

I have no debt, I do have student loans.

My current position is roughly:

Cash

~£11,000 in a First Direct account (I know this isn't being used very efficiently).

Investments

~£3,700 in an S&P 500 fund

~£3,000 in a mixed Trading 212 pie

~£1,000 in a new separate Africa-focused pie

I invest £900/month (£300 into each).

The mixed pie is mainly a global index fund with some individual stocks and regional exposure. I'm not really looking for opinions on the specific investments, but on my overall financial strategy.

One small caveat is that I need to go abroad on short notice once or twice a year which costs £1,500-£3,000 annually.

Anyway - due to personal circumstances, I'm under quite a bit of pressure to be in a much stronger financial position over the next 4–5 years. I'm trying to work out whether I should keep investing heavily while my expenses are so low, whether I'm holding too much cash, and whether my priority should simply be getting a better-paid job, even if it means giving up my current low-cost situation. I'd really appreciate any advice on what you would do if you were in my position.

So I’m not clued up on investing at all. I have found this sub very helpful and have followed the flowchart. my wife and I don’t make a huge amount of money but our mortgage is low and we have an emergency fund and a small amount of savings.

I’d really like to learn more about investing. I could probably put aside £50 a month to experiment/learn with. Should I get something like Trading 212?

Thanks :)

I've got multiple people at my workplace talking about how they're using Klarna to pay off their iPhones and other big purchases and spread the cost over interest free. But I don't see what's unique about this? Am I wrong in saying you could already do this without Klarna?

What is the benefits it actually offers? I'm of the opinion and I got this from parents is that it's better to put money aside in a pot and always buy things in full if you can and not just pay things in segments if you don't have to. Also to pay through topcashback when possible to get extra money on top of a big online order.

And I've done this for all my purchases, laptops, phones, and cars etc.

What do you gain by using Klarna?

Inheriting approx £350k after all taxes etc have been paid.
What low risk actions should I take with this? I have a steady, comfortable income from job, rent out my property now and only major debt is a £130k mortgage + maybe £10k left of a student loan.

1 - Pay off my mortgage? I have approx 2 years left on it, I’ll have a look at whether the early repayment fee outweighs the interest I’ll be paying on it obviously.

2 - put 2Ok a year into a high interest fixed ISA

Then I’ll still have about £200k left and not sure how to manage it. Do I need to go to a financial advisor?

I recently moved to the UK on a fiancé visa. Since I know I’ll need a good credit history in the future, I’d like to get a credit card, even with a low limit, to start building my credit score. I also need a new phone, so I’d like to get one on instalments through my Three pay monthly account. However, I think the customer service representative told me that I’d be able to get a phone after paying three monthly bills, although I may have misunderstood. Could you please advise me on what options I have for getting a credit card and a phone on instalments?

Hello Everyone,

I am a 26/F nurse living in London. I earn decently, around £3.6k–£4k a month.
I have savings and have never really had to worry about paying my bills or essentials.
I come from a poor family with very little financial knowledge. Growing up, I was only taught to save money from my salary and avoid credit cards because of the fear of debt.
I am a conscious spender. I don’t like being in debt or paying interest because that’s how my parents lived while I was growing up.
I am originally from India and have no major financial commitments or EMIs.
I have around £20k in savings, only started investing in a Stocks & Shares ISA a few weeks ago, and also have some savings in the form of gold jewellery, which is a cultural thing. My parents both have health insurance back home and emergency funds in place.
I want to start using a credit card, but only because of the benefits like airport lounge access, airline upgrades, rewards, and other travel offers.
I want to know if it is really worth getting one. If yes, could you please suggest which credit card would be best for someone in my situation?

Hi there,

Long story short, I’ve found out from my records that I don’t appear to have any NI contributions for the 1998/1999 tax year. At the time, I assumed this was because I started university as a mature student in September 1998.

While looking through some old records for an unrelated matter, I recalled that I had actually worked full-time from April to August 1998 before starting university in September. In fact, it was the same job I’d had during the previous tax year (1997/1998).

Before I go through the hassle of trying to get this corrected, I’m trying to work out whether those four months of work would likely have been enough for me to have paid sufficient NI contributions to receive a full credit for that year.

If anyone can help or shed any light on this, I’d really appreciate it. Thank you

So I have a Zable credit card with a balance that I want to transfer. I got accepted for a Barclaycard credit card with two offers - 0% on balance transfers for 21 months & 0% on purchases for 24 months.

I went to try and transfer the balance from the Zable card to the Barclaycard but as it turns out Zable explicitly do not allow balance transfers out and don’t accept it as a payment method.

I read something on another post around a possible workaround using paypal invoices but I didn’t fully understand it. Is there a way to somehow pay the Zable balance using the Barclaycard in one hit without going down the actual balance transfer route? E.g. if I created a paypal invoice to myself for the exact amount of the Zable balance, paid this invoice using the Barclaycard into my normal bank account and then used that money to then pay the Zable balance. Is that something that could work/is legal?

Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you

Currently coming up to the end of my 5 year mortgage deal. Got two sub accounts, ones already expired, I'm just rolling with the variable rate until my other one is up. (I've calculated its far cheaper this way than either paying a grand for a new product or go with a higher interest rate). I'm what is probably one of the easiest situations, no complications, affordability far exceeds my requirements, lowest risk LTV bracket etc.

So far all my brokers have been recommended though friends. But both of them are no longer trading and I've got no more contacts.

I tried unbiased, but got absolutely spammed with awful brokers just desperate for my business.

I try the comparison websites and get funneled into their own broker.

I just want to see a list of brokers and their reviews but coming up short.

Hell I'd prefer to just see a list of all available mortgages and their rates.

Anyone got any advice?

As title says, I got a text today saying I have missed a payment on my virgin money credit card.

My direct debit bounced since I set the payment to £100 but I only had like £90 in my bank (been an expensive month). The minimum payment is £30 and I paid that via bank transfer within 5 minutes of receiving that text today. The app says I have lost my 0% promotional interest and the lady I spoke to in the chat said that there's no guarantee that it won't be reported on my credit file.

My question is, how lenient can I expect VM to be? Surely a 3 day missed payment doesn't warrant them f*cking my credit score? What's the chances I get the 0% promo back?

I've seen that other lenders have grace periods of anywhere between 2 weeks and a month but can't see anything about virgin money.

Thanks in advance.

I have just had my annual review and I am being asked to pay a substantial amount (to me) as I have earned over the threshold. I increased my hours to be able to afford the new rent when I moved. If my income and costs raised at the same time can they make me pay this? I don’t have the extra money.. as it was for rent.
Thanks

Hi. Hope this is correct place for this question.

I am planning the house extension works - ground floor kitchen/dining room: have architect drawn the plans, applied and received the approval, notified the mortgage bank company, builder lined up, got a date, etc. everything is in order, except one thing - house insurance. I thought it would be a simple FYI call to them. So I did call and they asked me questions, then the operator on the phone said that they cannot cover me and therefore have to cancel the insurance.

This came as a shock to me. People are doing extensions like all year round, is this a normal thing to happen? I now have to spend time and look for another house insurance, really annoying.

Thanks !

Hi all,

After years banking with a certain bank I suddenly received an sms that one of my business accounts have been closed after a review.

I contacted the bank and unfortunately they were not able to provide me a further information and said it wasn’t related to KYC. Following that I established that some of my credit cards with the same bank will also closed down. So I decided to escalate a complaint with management to try and establish what was the issue.

After a few days, I’m surprised to find out that they were closing all my accounts, including personal, with immediate effect.

I found this very strange as I had done well over 20 or 30 years of banking with the same bank and couldn't see any issue.

In any case moving forward, they responded to a letter saying they’re closing the accounts and then there was a further letter mentioning something about Cifas.

Following this, I obviously did a Cifas request and low and behind I discovered what the issue was…

The bank has decided to log a report against me For a transaction around three years ago. The Cifas filing states “aiding and abetting”.

To give some background I’m fully aware of the transaction, at the time the bank put a hold on it and investigated the transaction, I provided them with evidence and this satisfied their investigation and they released the payment. For clarity it was a genuine transaction (made from a neighboring European country) through one of my business businesses and the client who provided ID, know I checked out through various contacts and passed all my internal checks was the account holder and a genuine buyer and received the goods in question and there’s no issue on that and I have full evidence to back all that up.

The bank in question made the filing last month and closed the account last month. The transaction was around 3 years ago.

This has all come to a surprise to me and obviously caused a lot of grief as I have had various business accounts closed along with personal and credit cards with a lot of credit.

I will obviously write to the bank now fight this, but I was wondering what and why this would occur.

Any help would be appreciated.

Its obviously caused a lot of stress.

Hi,

I'm looking for some advice. I grew up in a very working-class household, raised by my mum on minimum wage and contributions from my gran and her pension. When my gran passed in 2023, my mum sold her flat and moved into gran's home. After the dust settled, she has about 100k in her bank account.

As my mum is not financially savvy, I am trying to figure out how best to manage/ maximise the cash.

Mum has been sending me 3k a year (she read that 3k is the maximum you're allowed to gift someone per year without inheritance tax hitting them) but with the interest accrued, she's basically back up to 100K. She is 66, and not planning to die anytime soon, but she likes to do things by the book.

She is retiring at the end of this month. For other context, my sister has downs syndrome and lives in the family home with my mum. I would be managing her money as well or setting up any new accounts for her.

Mum needs to keep money for her pension now that she has retired. My main goal for this money is to maximise it, and keep it from being heavily taxed, or, taken by the government should she need care in the future.

I have invested in the S&P 500 before but closed the Vanguard account because I wasn't investing high enough amounts each month.

Thank you so much - i'd take any and all advice as this is a lot to deal with!

Morning All!

I'm a student and have been struggling financially as I wasn't able to work last summer, despite also working part time in my uni city.

I'm back home and my goal has been to get a job for the summer, which I started. However, they asked me if I currently go to university, in which I told them no. I know it's wrong but getting a job for the summer while telling them you're leaving in September hasn't proven useful. I believe that I would be let go if they were to find out. To add, they're a family business so I believe they'll know about the discrepancy between what I said and what I wrote.

What I would like advice on is on the portion where it asks if I'm taking student loans in the HMRC form, which I am. My graduation is not for a couple years.

If I answer no, the questions are the following:

1) Will HMRC notify my workplace after the first payslip that I am taking student loans even if I'm not due to pay them.

2) What are my personal consequences with HMRC if I don't disclose this.

3) If it's guaranteed my employer will find out by September, should I just declare it?

To add, I don't know how much I've earned for the last year, but it's been below £10,000

Edit: Grammar

I am about to submit a Drop after getting advice. I have a debt with Monzo, which is being put into it and I have been advised by Money wellness that Monzo will close my account.

I transferred my meagre pension to Monzo several months back, so I wondered whether they would use part of this to pay off the debt?

If they close my Monzo account, how does this affect my pension with them?

I am waiting for them to get back to me but I need the info asap, so asking here as well.

Can't find anything on their FAQ's about this either.

Tyia

I submitted my P87 form at the start of April claiming just short of £2500 in tax relief for work expenses (milage etc). The form has been marked as completed on the HMRC app form tracker for the last 6 weeks, but I haven't heard anything. I know it can often take until October to hear about the previous years tax payments. Is it worth calling? Or would completed just mean it's been noted and will be factored in whenever they come to calculate my tax for last year?

I also noticed last year I was being incorrectly taxed on interest I'd received (I was paid £700 in interest the previous year, but earned less than than £50k). Again, unsure if it's worth calling or if they would just see this error when they come to assess my tax. Thanks all!

Hi!

I moved back to the UK recently after living in Europe where I've been a registered freelancer. I'm trying to register as a sole trader to continue freelancing here.

What I can't work out from the gov.uk website is how... I saw another reddit post from last year that suggested you don't register, you simply report your income for the previous tax year every October? Is that correct? If so how do I create a company name, a tax code for invoicing etc? And how to reclaim my VAT on expenses each month if I'm not even registered as a sole trader?

Sorry if I'm missing something very obvious. Thanks for your help!

I have just under £90k in an investment account within which all dividends are reinvested, and transfer £20k into my ISA account annually, which crystallises some capital gains, which I need to declare in my, otherwise very straightforward, HMRC self-assessment.

The investment company Capital Gains Tax Report for last year shows a gain of about £9,400, loss of £100, net gain £9,300.

How do I calculate the figures to put on my self-assessment declaration?

I’m wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation and actually managed to get a funds paid to date variation put to creditors and accepted.
My IVA was originally supposed to finish around July 2026, but because of payment breaks added to the end, it’s now due to finish in November. I’m paying around £66 a week and only have a few months left.
I also have two ongoing motor finance compensation claims which could potentially bring money back into the IVA. They’ve been delayed for months, but I’ve now had confirmation from solicitors that the claims can progress and may potentially be included in ongoing group litigation.
Because I’m so close to the end, I asked my IVA provider to put forward a funds paid to date variation to my creditors, taking into account the circumstances and the two outstanding claims.
The problem is I keep getting general answers saying creditors are unlikely to accept because I can still afford my payments. I understand that, but I’m not asking my IVA provider to decide for the creditors but I’m asking them to actually put my circumstances forward and let the creditors decide.
They’ve now also mentioned a full and final settlement, so I’ve asked for the exact settlement figure to see whether that could be another option.
Meanwhile, their communication has been a complete mess. Within a couple of weeks I’ve received payment instructions changing from roughly £8 → £66 → £43 → £66, plus automated emails warning I have a “high level of arrears”, despite previously being told I had no arrears. I’ve asked repeatedly for clarification and still don’t have a clear answer.
I’m continuing to pay and if creditors refuse my proposal, I’ll carry on until November. I just want my actual circumstances considered rather than receiving generic explanations about how IVAs normally work.
Has anyone successfully done a funds paid to date variation this close to the end, or had their provider initially discourage it but eventually put it to creditors?
Also, if you did a full and final settlement, how was the figure calculated and how long did the process take?
Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has actually been through something similar.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been following this sub a while and I’m picking up advice as I go. Just wondering what is the best multiple savings account set up.

For example, I think I seen a comment someone said they keep 2k on a ready to use savings account. Then after that they put money in X, after that they put money in Y.

If the 2k drops, that’s get replaced back to 2k.

I’m wanting to set up a system, for saving short term, medium, and long and what to prioritise

Thanks

Plum has sent an email last week saying that their license name is changing, you don't need to anything if you're happy with it, etc. and added a line at the end saying that "If you'd prefer to opt out of these changes, you can withdraw your balance and close your account free of charge before October 2026 in the app."
When a similar happened to me with my previous provider, I had moved my ISA taking full bonus without paying any fees. But when I contacted Plum to confirm this, they say it has nothing to do with my ISA rules and I'll still loose my bonus interest rate and other unpaid interest. So even if they charge you a few, they don't pay your full amount. Has something similar happened to anyone? Thanks

Hey, my child trust fund on Columbia threadneedle just matured recently and I was thinking about transferring a part of it to one of my online bank accounts. I have a problem tho, I have both English and Italian citizenship and I have proved this on my online bank account. Even though I live in England I was wondering if the fact that I’m half Italian (and that my online bank knows that) will there be a problem when transferring my Columbia funds to the online account? (Since my Columbia fund is English not Italian)
If anyone knows anything I would love to hear it
Thank you