Question Time: Time to ditch Premium Bonds? Do student loans cost more for middle earners? Credit on a low income?

The Martin Lewis Podcast

BBC

Business

4.4 • 929 Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In our Question Time podcast, Martin Lewis gives you answers on anything and everything, including: how does the ISA limit actually work, is the online safety act really working, how can I get credit on a low income, is it time to ditch premium bonds, do student loans cost more for middle earners, and when does savings interest actually count for tax purposes?

If you want to ask Martin a question, you now can! His Question Time podcast lets you ask Martin absolutely anything and everything (within reason!) – so if you’ve always wanted to know his favourite sandwich filling, how many sugars he has in his tea, or have a very complicated question about your personal finances, email it to MartinLewisPodcast@bbc.co.uk.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:07.7	Of course, the big issue is tax.
0:10.4	Make sure you're filling up your cash-iscer allowance each year.
0:13.4	It's like a chicken, isn't it? Cock a van.
0:15.7	You absolutely have to protect yourself and be incredibly skeptical about any advert you see on social
0:21.4	media. At that point, premium bonds start to look good value. Hello and welcome to the cunningly
0:27.3	named the Martin Lewis podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is the
0:31.8	question time podcast where I really don't know what it's going to be about because I answer your
0:36.0	questions about absolutely anything and everything, brackets within reason, close brackets.
0:41.6	This week, you asked me, is this the time to take money out of premium bonds?
0:46.5	Do middle earners pay back more on student loans than higher earners?
0:50.6	It's a complex but fascinating answer that one.
0:53.0	How does the cash ICER allowance really work? Is it per
0:55.9	year or in total? Do you, I mean me, Martin, think the online safety act is really working? And
1:02.1	finally, when you get interest on savings, when does it count? How do I know which tax share it
1:07.6	falls in? Play the theme tune.
1:35.4	Okay, welcome to this new edition of my question time podcast, where I'm joined by the wonderful, the fantastic curator of questions, producer Matt.
1:40.4	Hello, Martin. Hello. Hello. I'm really not happy with that, but I don't think you're going to drop it, I do. By the way, I know some of you would like to write in the podcast to Dear Matt, as well as Dear Martin, feel free to write Dear Martin and Dia, the curator of questions. I think you should just say Matt. No. I think you should. This is a title. I've got letters after my name. I'm giving you letters before your name. Yours doesn't spell something that we shouldn't say on the podcast. Well, no, it doesn't quite know. It's like a chicken, isn't it? Cocker van. Oh, right. Cochavan. It's fine. Bonjour. It's fine. And mine starts with the C as well, so we're all sort of fine. Shall we go to a question? Yes. I've got one to start you from Josie.
2:19.3	She's saying me and my partner have £60,000 in premium bonds.
2:24.3	Is it now time to start looking to invest the money somewhere else?
2:27.3	It's an interesting question.
2:29.3	We've discussed this before, probably six weeks ago.
	...

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