Dear listener,

Money certainly does matter. That was the only possible conclusion from the BBC Money Matters Roadshow on Wednesday. More than 400 people were given useful advice by two dozen experts about mortgages, debts, benefits, tax, pensions and – above all – savings and investments. The one surprise in the day for most of us was the huge demand for advice on where to save and invest. Some people queued for more than an hour to see an adviser. And when I walked up and down the queues the one burning question was “here will my money earn a decent return and be safe.”

Of course that has always been the holy grail of making your money work for you. But in these very troubled times with negligible interest paid on savings and the value of investments plummeting from what they were worth a year ago the burning issue of the day was what on earth to do with money – whether it was life savings, pensions, or a small amount in an ISA.

As many of you will have heard, Money Box Live came live from the centre with an audience of Trafford Centre visitors and we poached half a dozen of the assembled experts to give advice on air and then for another half hour afterwards. It was great for the Money Box team to meet our public face to face and be able to chat with them about their concerns before and after the transmission. And some of them even said it was good to meet us!

If you want to see more of what went on there is plenty on the website including a summary of the day: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/your_money/7898667.stm
a quiz http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7892600.stm
useful money saving tips http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7897574.stm
a nice “making of” film about Working Lunch http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7900031.stm
radio and TV highlights (including Money Box Live)http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7893334.stm

No promises, but other roadshows are already being discussed!

*** ON MONEY BOX THIS SATURDAY ***

We are following up that desire for safety and returns on your money with a discussion between a top independent financial adviser and a building society chief. With interest rates tumbling should you now take a risk with your money? Or is now just the time to be wary of get rich quick schemes that seem to promise high returns? 

We all call them “repossessions” though the courts and the industry insist they are “possessions”. Either way the number of people who have lost their home due to mortgage arrears rose by 54% to 40,000 in 2008. But who is responsible for that rise? Borrowers, lenders, or the courts? And who can stop it? An academic who has studied this question tells us her views.

We also reveal that most major lenders make the financial problems of people in arrears worse by adding on a hefty monthly fee when they get behind with their payments. Why?

If you buy something for more than £100 on a credit card your purchase is protected by the card company – or is it? We reveal the loophole in this useful protection.

And the Isle of Man court comes up with a compensation package for 10,000 savers with Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander Isle of Man which collapsed as part of the Iceland events. But a depositors’ action group says “no thanks”.

There might be more. There might be less. Find out what’s in and what’s out by listening to Money Box. Saturday at noon. Or if you miss that the repeat is back this week on Sunday at 9pm. And you can listen online or download the programme or subscribe to the podcast through our website bbc.co.uk/moneybox where there is lots of other exciting stuff, including videos.

Best wishes,

Paul

PS Don’t forget the programme taster on BBC Breakfast between quarter to nine and nine o’clock. If you miss it, you can watch it on our website.

e-mail Paul Lewis