:00:00. > :00:14.That is coming up after this, Your Money with Declan Curry.
:00:15. > :00:25.Hello and welcome to Your Money. Your weekly guide to making the most
:00:26. > :00:29.of your cash. Till death do you part, how to track down the pension
:00:30. > :00:38.money you are owed after your partner dies. A guide to the virtual
:00:39. > :00:43.currency of bitcoin. And what bank account should you pick if your
:00:44. > :00:48.A`level results have sent you the college?
:00:49. > :00:52.Hello. When your husband or wife dies, you don't always know what
:00:53. > :00:56.arrangements they have made for both of you in old age. The pensions
:00:57. > :01:00.minister warned this week that more than 10,000 retired widows have less
:01:01. > :01:08.money than they should have because they have lost track of their little
:01:09. > :01:15.husband's pensions. Tom McPhail is pensions expert `` is a pensions
:01:16. > :01:20.expert. Does that estimate sound about right to you, 10,000 widows
:01:21. > :01:25.who should be getting pension money but are not? Yes, it may well be
:01:26. > :01:30.more than that. It is important to bear in mind that it is not just the
:01:31. > :01:34.widows or widowers may be losing out, in some cases it is former
:01:35. > :01:41.spouses. They may also potentially have a claim if they still have some
:01:42. > :01:47.financial dependency on an ex`partner. There is clearly a lot
:01:48. > :01:54.of money not ending up where it should. Estimates of ?3 billion.
:01:55. > :02:01.This should be allocated to people. Thousands of widows and widowers are
:02:02. > :02:06.missing out financially. How do you start the process of tracking this
:02:07. > :02:12.money down? Do you need to work out where your late partner worked and
:02:13. > :02:17.then go to that place of work and say, was there a pension? The
:02:18. > :02:22.obvious starting point is any paperwork. There is the Government
:02:23. > :02:26.pension tracing service which you can find on the Government website.
:02:27. > :02:31.There are commercial organisations that also offered to do this,
:02:32. > :02:39.sometimes for a fee. You do not need to pay them to do that. Go back to
:02:40. > :02:43.former employers, to any old pension schemes you do know about, and ask
:02:44. > :02:50.the question. They will ask for information like date of birth,
:02:51. > :02:56.national insurance number etc. You can always ask a financial adviser.
:02:57. > :03:01.Hopefully through one of those free sources you can track down any money
:03:02. > :03:07.you are entitled to. You could be going back over decades past
:03:08. > :03:14.employment. Former employees `` employers from 20 or 30 years ago.
:03:15. > :03:20.You mentioned former husbands and former wives, and that they may also
:03:21. > :03:27.be entitled to some money. What about civil partnerships? Generally
:03:28. > :03:30.it is at the discretion of the pension scheme as to how they
:03:31. > :03:34.allocate death benefits. The obvious starting point would be current
:03:35. > :03:38.spouse. Anybody who can demonstrate financial dependency, and this may
:03:39. > :03:51.be a respective of whatever the deceased member's instructions
:03:52. > :03:53.were... Anyone who can demonstrate they had genuine financial
:03:54. > :03:56.dependency on that individual may have a legitimate claim on death
:03:57. > :04:02.benefits distributed by the pension scheme.
:04:03. > :04:07.Thank you very much. If you think you have lost track of a pension,
:04:08. > :04:10.Tom mentions the Government run service which can help you track it
:04:11. > :04:35.down. If you are a saver and you are
:04:36. > :04:39.hoping for a rise in interest rates later this year, you will not be too
:04:40. > :04:44.pleased by the latest tea leaf reading from the Bank of England.
:04:45. > :04:46.Governor Mark Carney had earlier hinted the Government should not
:04:47. > :04:52.rule out an early rise in interest rates. Now he seems to have changed
:04:53. > :04:56.his mind. It next year after all. People who go to food banks to get
:04:57. > :05:01.emergency supplies of food are to be given free advice on how to manage
:05:02. > :05:06.their money and avoid debt. A pilot scheme will be launched by the the
:05:07. > :05:11.Trussell Trust this September. It is being paid for by a donation from
:05:12. > :05:18.money campaigner Martyn Lewis. And the Premier League is back this
:05:19. > :05:24.weekend. If you live near a ground, it may make your house or flat more
:05:25. > :05:31.valuable. Prices of homes near Premier League rounds have more than
:05:32. > :05:35.doubled in the last five years. A change in overdraft charges at
:05:36. > :05:38.HSBC and first direct. At the moment if you go deeper into the red
:05:39. > :05:45.without advance permission, you are charged a one`off ?25 fee. From
:05:46. > :05:50.November, that will be replaced by a fee of ?5. You will be charged that
:05:51. > :05:54.every day that you are over your agreed limit. There is a cab. ``
:05:55. > :06:04.Capp. HSBC and first direct will text you
:06:05. > :06:09.if you go over your limit. If you get the balance back by 11:45pm, you
:06:10. > :06:15.will not be charged the fee for that day. Bitcoin is, you may or may not
:06:16. > :06:24.have heard of them. Some people get very excited about them. Others
:06:25. > :06:31.think they are enormously risky. We asked our technology expert to give
:06:32. > :06:35.us the lowdown on bitcoin 's. Here in the traditional seaside town
:06:36. > :06:41.of Swanage in Dorset, a bar of chocolate from the local newsagent
:06:42. > :06:48.will cost you 65p, or 0.019 bitcoin 's. Andy James, owner of the
:06:49. > :06:54.newsagents, started accepting the currency this summer. He is the only
:06:55. > :07:00.bitcoin trader in time. The or the customer comes in, selects the item.
:07:01. > :07:04.We select bitcoin payments on the screen. That opens up what we need.
:07:05. > :07:14.Then we put the mountain. For instance, ?1 50. `` the amount in.
:07:15. > :07:19.It puts a cold on the screen. The customer scans that with their form
:07:20. > :07:22.and accepted. It sends the bitcoin is from their accounts to our
:07:23. > :07:30.account. His first customer was Scott Green. A friend of mine sent
:07:31. > :07:34.me a photo of the bitcoin logo in the window. I came down here to buy
:07:35. > :07:38.a kit cat just to see if it would work. I thought if you can buy a kit
:07:39. > :07:44.cat in Swanage, this guy is the limit. There are about 11 million
:07:45. > :07:49.bitcoin is in the world right now but you will never see one because
:07:50. > :07:51.they have no physical appearance. They are created by computers
:07:52. > :07:56.solving complicated maths problems online. That means you can only buy
:07:57. > :08:03.them or spend them using your computer or your smartphone. The
:08:04. > :08:09.value also goes up and down a lot. Are they safe? The bottom line is
:08:10. > :08:14.no. If the value was to drop, there is nothing to boy it up. If there is
:08:15. > :08:17.a run on the pound, the Bank of England stepped in. If there is a
:08:18. > :08:23.run on bitcoin, nobody steps in. If trust breaks down it is worthless.
:08:24. > :08:26.There have been a lot of high`profile thefts. Tens of
:08:27. > :08:30.thousands of dollars worth of bitcoin tab and stolen. In the UK
:08:31. > :08:47.there is a steady stream of bitcoin buyers. Digital currency? I have
:08:48. > :08:53.never heard of it. I have never heard of it. But I probably would
:08:54. > :08:56.use it. I would, yes. It sounds really interesting. If it was
:08:57. > :08:58.introduced to me I would probably use it. I would, yes. It sounds
:08:59. > :09:06.really interesting. If it was Used it once before to receive money. It
:09:07. > :09:13.was a website job that I did. It is good. A little bit slow. Bitcoin
:09:14. > :09:16.describes itself as experimental. Obviously it is a risky investment.
:09:17. > :09:26.But here in Swanage it is a currency that may just float.
:09:27. > :09:29.If you got the A`level you needed, congratulations, you're off to
:09:30. > :09:33.university. Time for a few extra lessons on managing Your Money. What
:09:34. > :09:40.is the best bank account for you to get? Matt Saunders is from go
:09:41. > :09:47.compare in Cardiff. A great university city. Bank accounts for
:09:48. > :09:52.students, they offer all sorts of free gifts and inducements. Now they
:09:53. > :09:55.ever worth the gift on the wrong or should you look beyond the flashing
:09:56. > :10:01.gimmickry and look at the essentials of the account? Exactly right. The
:10:02. > :10:06.key rule for choosing any financial product is to do your research, make
:10:07. > :10:09.sure you understand what your incoming and are going to be whilst
:10:10. > :10:13.you're at university. Choose the products that are right for you.
:10:14. > :10:18.There are a number of gimmicks and inducements to encourage students to
:10:19. > :10:23.take certain accounts out. The advice would be to look at what the
:10:24. > :10:27.inducements are, or the benefits. Is it something you would normally
:10:28. > :10:31.purchase? Is it something you are looking to purchase? Is it something
:10:32. > :10:36.you are going to use? Way that up against the potential for the
:10:37. > :10:40.flexibility account against overdraft charges and overdraft
:10:41. > :10:44.interest you may be paying on the accounts offering these inducements.
:10:45. > :10:49.How big the overdraft is, how long it will last etc. No exactly. It
:10:50. > :10:54.comes down to how you are going to use the account. Look at what
:10:55. > :11:01.overdraft is suitable for you. If you're looking to borrow money from
:11:02. > :11:04.the bank, you are looking for the cheapest possible option. This is
:11:05. > :11:08.not free money. You are expected to pay that back at the end of term or
:11:09. > :11:13.the end of your education. Look at your ability to pay it back. Is
:11:14. > :11:25.there much of a difference between the accounts? They tend to look
:11:26. > :11:32.fairly similar. The overdrafts are detailed as guaranteed or limited.
:11:33. > :11:35.The limits are not applicable to all applicants. There are credit
:11:36. > :11:42.searches to decide what the limit is. The guaranteed limits are
:11:43. > :11:49.guaranteed when you apply for the account provided you are accepted.
:11:50. > :11:53.If you know you will be using ?1500 on the account it is worth going for
:11:54. > :11:59.the account but if you might need more, take a risk and go for the
:12:00. > :12:08.higher limit itches and guaranteed. Thank you. That is all from us. You
:12:09. > :12:17.can keep up`to`date all week long on the BBC business website. On social
:12:18. > :12:19.media we have updates on Twitter. More next week. Thank you for your
:12:20. > :12:37.company today. Goodbye. The headlines are coming up. Now,
:12:38. > :12:38.time for