A Martin Lewis listener has revealed that he has managed to save more than £3,000 in less than two weeks, thanks to multiple pieces of handy advice from the financial expert.
Writing into Martin's BBC Sounds show The Martin Lewis Podcast - which airs every Wednesday - listener Adam explained how two simple hacks have helped him save a small fortune in the long run.
Reading Adam's email inbound, show producer Isobel, said: "Hi Martin, I just felt inspired to thank you for your advice. I've been listening to your podcast for two weeks and have already saved £3,728.
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"He goes on to tell us - he said that he did this all in one hour - 'First came the help to save scheme' which we talked about last week, it turns out him and his wife are eligible."
Martin chimed in: "If you're on Universal Credits or other benefits you can put up to £50 a month into a help to save savings account over two years. Then you get a 50 per cent bonus of the highest amount you had in it."
Isobel continued: "On his calculations with £50 per month for both of them, at the end of the four years they'll have £2,400. He also said that he took your advice on a balance transfer credit card, applied for one of the top results on the eligibility checker, which estimated he only had a 20 per cent chance of acceptance, but he was accepted.
"Now he has a credit limit of £3,500 with an interest-free balance transfer for two years. So the debt that he preciously had was costing him 20 per cent APR, and now he can focus on other debts."
Martin explained: "So for every £1,000 of debt he had on other credit cards he's now saving £200 per month. Balance transfer of course is where you get a new card that pays off debts on old cards for you, so you now owe the new card hopefully 0 per cent. The best way to do it - especially if you struggle - is to go via an eligibility calculator, which will tell you your odds of getting the best cards.
"But a balance transfer again to remind everyone isn't about new borrowing, that's about shifting debts to cut the cost of existing borrowing."
Isobel added: "So now he's got that interest free period and he thinks he's going to be able to have about an extra £1,400 because of that interest saving."
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