:00:00. > :00:00.harassed by him. Now, on BBC News, it is time for
:00:00. > :00:12.this week's Your Money with Declan Curry.
:00:13. > :00:21.Hello and welcome to Your Money. Your weekly guide to making the most
:00:22. > :00:26.of your cash here on every week on BBC Television. Just days left to
:00:27. > :00:29.fill up your tax form online. If you get child benefit and you are doing
:00:30. > :00:34.a tax form for the first time you might have to act today. We have
:00:35. > :00:38.some advice. Clever savings using your smartphone to control your
:00:39. > :00:44.central heating. Brian Milligan finds out if it saves us money. Top
:00:45. > :00:52.tips on getting more from our savings. Well, let's start with a
:00:53. > :00:56.look at savings and how we get more from them and how we make them work
:00:57. > :01:03.harder for us in this New Year. One of your resolutions maybe to have
:01:04. > :01:08.been make the most of your money. Anna will make sure that's one of
:01:09. > :01:12.the New Year's resolutions you maybe able to keep. Welcome to Your Money.
:01:13. > :01:17.Some basic things to consider. Interest rates for savings accounts,
:01:18. > :01:20.really, really desperately low. Particularly in accounts where you
:01:21. > :01:26.have had money in for a while and you have neglected it and the bank
:01:27. > :01:31.has neglected it? There is two things there. One is where you had a
:01:32. > :01:37.bonus rate on an account. So the rates may have been paying for than
:01:38. > :01:41.2%, but with some bonuses it is dropping to 0.1% and also just in
:01:42. > :01:44.general, lots of rate cuts over the last year. We have had over 1400
:01:45. > :01:50.cuts to existing savers accounts. So you have to keep a close eye on your
:01:51. > :01:56.savings. You have to be sharp eyed and keep an eye on the tanl and keep
:01:57. > :01:59.an eye on what's on offer elsewhere and don't be shy about moving your
:02:00. > :02:03.money. It is your money and you are allowed to move it? You have got to
:02:04. > :02:07.vote with your feet. Don't just sit-in one of these accounts paying
:02:08. > :02:10.you no interest. And there is no bonus for loyalty now? Not really.
:02:11. > :02:18.Sometimes there are, but you have to keep an eye on that. Don't assume
:02:19. > :02:21.because it has a word li preferential or loyalty. Check out
:02:22. > :02:24.what's available and find the best account for you. Another way of
:02:25. > :02:29.making your savings work harder is by paying as little tax on them as
:02:30. > :02:33.you are legally allowed to. Of course, most people are allowed to
:02:34. > :02:37.get a tax efficient ISA account, but if you want to make the most of
:02:38. > :02:40.that, in this tax year, there are only a few months left? That's
:02:41. > :02:45.right. It is up to the 5th April in this year. So you have got to do
:02:46. > :02:51.that. If you haven't used your ISA allowance you have half of your ISA
:02:52. > :02:57.allowance can go into a tax savings account. Why not get it tax-free. It
:02:58. > :03:03.is a use it or lose it allowance. Exactly. There is a new one after
:03:04. > :03:08.April? Yes, every year. Again, the interest rates on some of the ISA
:03:09. > :03:12.accounts that are for cash are low particularly if it is an old ISA
:03:13. > :03:16.that you opened several years ago and you haven't touched the money
:03:17. > :03:21.since it went in there, you are allowed to move that to a better
:03:22. > :03:25.performing account? Not all of the ISA are the best ISAs will accept
:03:26. > :03:31.transfers, but look for one that does and the key thing if you are
:03:32. > :03:41.transferring your ISA is you let the new provider pool the money. Don't
:03:42. > :03:45.cash it in or you lose your allowance. Child Trust Fund some of
:03:46. > :03:49.this emhave been rubbish? It became a forgotten account because the
:03:50. > :03:55.junior ISA was brought in. The good news is that hopefully as long as
:03:56. > :04:04.nothing changes from April in 2015, you will be able to transfer from a
:04:05. > :04:10.Child Trust Fund into a zwrunior junior ISA, you can get 2.65% on the
:04:11. > :04:13.best Child Trust Fund so it is worth having a look at that. Some bank
:04:14. > :04:20.accounts will give you more, but you have got to promise, you won't make
:04:21. > :04:23.that many withdrawals? That's a key thing. We have seen accounts in the
:04:24. > :04:26.past with bonus rates and the bonus rates as we talked about earlier,
:04:27. > :04:30.the rate can drop, but also a lot of the best buys now restrict the
:04:31. > :04:34.amount you can take out. If you take out too many times, the rate will
:04:35. > :04:38.drop. If you want more for your money, you have to agree to lock it
:04:39. > :04:43.away for a longer period of time? That's right. You get over 3.5% if
:04:44. > :04:46.you lock it for seven years. That's a long time for not a really great
:04:47. > :04:50.rate. Have a look at what the best rates are and find the best accounts
:04:51. > :04:54.for yourself. Thank you very much for joining us.
:04:55. > :05:00.Speaking of the big bucks, how often have you seen one of these? It is
:05:01. > :05:04.the old ?50 note. If you have got one, you have got to spend it, bank
:05:05. > :05:10.or change it by the end of April as it has been withdrawn from
:05:11. > :05:16.circulation. Shops can refuse to accept it. Speaking of banks, over
:05:17. > :05:19.300,000 of us switched our current accounts to a different bank in
:05:20. > :05:25.October, November and December last year. That's a fifth more than the
:05:26. > :05:32.same months in 2012. Switching is so much easier now. The banks will keep
:05:33. > :05:37.an eye on our old account for a year. If they make a mistake, they
:05:38. > :05:43.are supposed to pay for charges or interest. More information on the
:05:44. > :05:49.Payment Council website. If you want to pay for something in
:05:50. > :05:57.the shops using your mobile smartphone, five banks say they will
:05:58. > :06:01.let you do it. Pay day lenders are to get more information about us if
:06:02. > :06:04.we apply to borrow their money at their massive rates of interest. It
:06:05. > :06:08.should mean they won't give loans to people who are already up to their
:06:09. > :06:12.necks in debt. And it has become cheaper to rent a
:06:13. > :06:16.home in England and Wales. The property website LSL says the
:06:17. > :06:20.average cost of renting slipped by 1% from November into December. Most
:06:21. > :06:25.parts of England and Wales saw rents fall.
:06:26. > :06:29.As well as using smartphones to buy stuff in the shops, how about using
:06:30. > :06:33.one to control our central heating? As Brian Milligan found out, there
:06:34. > :06:38.is an app for that and it could save us money. Using GPS technology,
:06:39. > :06:43.smartphones can track your movements such as your journey home by knowing
:06:44. > :06:47.exactly where you are, your phone can keep why you are heating
:06:48. > :06:53.switched off until you need it. When you are an hour away, the system
:06:54. > :06:57.begins to come to life. Knowing when you are likely to alive and taking
:06:58. > :07:03.into account the forecast temperatures, the boilers ramps up.
:07:04. > :07:06.Phone will sense your actual approach so by the time you come
:07:07. > :07:11.through the door, the house and the hot water are warm. The owner of
:07:12. > :07:16.this house paid ?250 for the system just two months ago, but he is
:07:17. > :07:21.noticing the savings. It is saving us, I think, probably about 20 to
:07:22. > :07:27.30%. It is difficult to say because I haven't had a full quarterly bill,
:07:28. > :07:33.but I have worked it out based on the daily figures it gives me and it
:07:34. > :07:37.should pay for itself within three years. Other systems offer greater
:07:38. > :07:40.savings, but they are more expensive to install. In this house for
:07:41. > :07:45.example, you can actually control the temperatures in individual
:07:46. > :07:50.rooms. All from your phone and from anywhere in the world! Why heat your
:07:51. > :07:54.sitting room first thing in the morning for example when no one is
:07:55. > :07:58.using it? Well, with the help of these wireless controls on the
:07:59. > :08:03.radiators, you can shut off the heating in here. In fact by doing
:08:04. > :08:09.so, its makers claim you can save up to ?400 a year. Independent experts
:08:10. > :08:13.say such savings are possible, but mostly for people who live in large
:08:14. > :08:18.properties. Comparing someone who lives in a large detached property
:08:19. > :08:22.which might be leaky and use a lot of heating to someone in a one
:08:23. > :08:27.bedroomed flat, the person in the larger property will have a greater
:08:28. > :08:31.saving potential. For the first time, your lifestyle
:08:32. > :08:40.could have a bearing on the amount you can save. The more you are away
:08:41. > :08:47.from home or the more hectic youred schedule, the more the savings could
:08:48. > :08:58.be. Just chatting with Anna while Brian
:08:59. > :09:02.was giving us that report. There was one other thing she said and it is
:09:03. > :09:06.something we might want to look at and that's how the interest that you
:09:07. > :09:14.earn on current accounts has stepped up. This is somewhat of a surprise
:09:15. > :09:18.because current accounts were the Cinderella of banking. You didn't
:09:19. > :09:22.expect to get a lot for your money at all, but Anna says she has been
:09:23. > :09:30.looking at the tables and there is the one, two, three account from
:09:31. > :09:36.Santander paying 3%. You need to put in ?500 and you are only allowed two
:09:37. > :09:44.direct debts, but 3% is not to be sniffed at given the rate of
:09:45. > :09:48.inflation and the Nationwide, the building society, building societies
:09:49. > :09:53.say because they don't have share Holders, they are -- shareholders,
:09:54. > :10:05.they are able to offer better deals. A Nationwide account as long as you
:10:06. > :10:10.put in ?100 are paying 5%. That's an interesting change in terms of the
:10:11. > :10:14.interest you can get that current accounts are back in the reckoning.
:10:15. > :10:17.That's something we might want to take a look at in future programmes.
:10:18. > :10:22.So we will do that. Are we going to talk about tax? Yes, we are.
:10:23. > :10:25.The reason we want to talk about tax is because many people are finding
:10:26. > :10:29.this month that they have to sent in a tax form for the first time. If
:10:30. > :10:33.you are well off and you are claiming child benefit, even if you
:10:34. > :10:37.have never filled up a tax form before that has changed. The rules
:10:38. > :10:42.have changed on that. If you are a couple getting child benefit and one
:10:43. > :10:48.of you is earning over ?50,000 a year, you have to register, fill up
:10:49. > :11:01.the tax form online and pay any tax that's owing within the next few
:11:02. > :11:06.days. Tina Riches, splendid name for a tax expert, welcome to Your Money.
:11:07. > :11:11.This may catch a lot of people on the hob. If you are in this group of
:11:12. > :11:15.people who are getting child benefit and there is someone in the couple
:11:16. > :11:19.who was earning more than ?50,000, who has to fill out the form, the
:11:20. > :11:24.high earner or the person getting the benefit? It is the person with
:11:25. > :11:30.the higher earnings. You have to look at the family as a whole, and
:11:31. > :11:34.where there is a family with someone receiving child benefit, if one of
:11:35. > :11:39.them is in receipt of income, not just earnings from a job, but all
:11:40. > :11:45.your income, over ?50,000, you are affected by that, which means...
:11:46. > :11:49.That is the magic number, ?50,000. If you have a couple were both of
:11:50. > :11:54.you are earning but both earning less than 50,000, you find, you
:11:55. > :11:59.don't need to fill up a form just because you are getting child
:12:00. > :12:03.benefit. Quite right, yes, Declan. And the deadline is the 31st of
:12:04. > :12:08.January, of course, but if you have never done it before, you might have
:12:09. > :12:14.to act this weekend, because it takes time to register and wait for
:12:15. > :12:17.the password. Well, yeah, there are two steps to getting registered. If
:12:18. > :12:22.you have not done anything at all before, you need to tell HMRC that
:12:23. > :12:25.you need to fill in the self-assessment return, and you can
:12:26. > :12:33.do that online through their website. And then, once you get what
:12:34. > :12:38.is called a UTR code, which can take some weeks, you have to register to
:12:39. > :12:43.do the online return. So if you have not done anything at all until now,
:12:44. > :12:48.you are probably not going to get your unique tax reference code
:12:49. > :12:55.through in time. What those people would need to do is not panic, but
:12:56. > :13:00.do register as soon as you can, but make sure you do pay the tax by the
:13:01. > :13:04.31st of January. Don't just send a cheque to the revenue, because they
:13:05. > :13:08.will not necessarily be able to tie that up with your records. What you
:13:09. > :13:13.need to do is go to the part of the website about paying HMRC, and you
:13:14. > :13:17.can download a payslip which asks for all the necessary information
:13:18. > :13:20.such as your national insurance number, and posts that with your
:13:21. > :13:25.cheque to them. Eventually, they will tie that up. Any tips for the
:13:26. > :13:29.rest of us who are filling up the tax form, not in couples with
:13:30. > :13:36.someone well off blaming child benefit, but the 10 million others
:13:37. > :13:41.also who have to fill the form to mark what the top tips? Right, well,
:13:42. > :13:46.first of all, if you have not done the bit about registering online,
:13:47. > :13:50.you must do that before Tuesday to make sure you get an activation code
:13:51. > :13:56.in time so that you can get into the part of the website that enables you
:13:57. > :14:01.to do the return. You also need to make sure that the return is in by
:14:02. > :14:06.midnight on the 31st of January. Now, I would not leave it until the
:14:07. > :14:10.last minute, because, you know, they're all waste problems with
:14:11. > :14:14.broadband or, you know, websites et cetera, and you don't want it to go
:14:15. > :14:19.down if you are trying to do it at the last minute. -- there are always
:14:20. > :14:23.problems. Last year a lot of people actually did it on the last day. If
:14:24. > :14:26.you have not got all of your information, if you find you have
:14:27. > :14:30.got a bank statement missing or something like that, the best thing
:14:31. > :14:34.to do is put in your best estimate, and mark on the return that it is a
:14:35. > :14:39.best estimate, so at least you can get the return in on time. Because
:14:40. > :14:49.there is a ?100 penalty is the return is late. Tina Riches, we will
:14:50. > :14:52.leave at there, thank you for all of your advice on this, at a time of
:14:53. > :15:02.the year when many people who pay tax are a little bit...
:15:03. > :15:09.You can get updates by following our feed on Twitter. Thank you for
:15:10. > :15:13.watching this week, more again next week, CNN, bye-bye.
:15:14. > :15:27.-- see you then. You are watching BBC News, and these
:15:28. > :15:31.are the headlines: Police Scotland, who have been searching for the
:15:32. > :15:37.missing three-year-old Mikaeel, have found a body which they strongly
:15:38. > :15:40.believe to be his. His body has been detained for questioning by
:15:41. > :15:41.detectives as police seal off a bungalow belonging to a family
:15:42. > :15:44.relative.