Dear Listener

Let me confess I was curious rather than expecting anything marvellous when I agreed to be Chief Judge for the Financially Speaking competition for 13 and 14 year olds. How wrong I was. On Tuesday evening I sat there in awe listening to 21 school pupils speaking for two minutes without notes on a topic of their own connected to personal finance.

They began with a warning about inflation, moved through scepticism about the cost of the Olympics, the importance of keeping your receipts, even a warning about the economic crisis and the riots. And a moving talk from second placed Britania Tulloch about how she discovered the meaning of poverty going back to her roots in Jamaica http://bit.ly/K7prJI  

There was some very useful advice too that could have come straight from Money Box – the dangers of easy credit, the importance of saving, how to plan your finances – and some great slogans Earn-Plan-Spend and Strive-Save-Thrive. That last was from Subrina Blake who the judges voted winner of the Financial Speaking Awards 2012. I must say she was my top choice too. The essence of her Save Do Not Splurge talk derived from her own family – Mum is rubbish with money, Granny is great, do what Granny does. Her speech in full http://bit.ly/IDE7i7

We also heard a strong plea from third placer Natasha Dodd to take great care with credit cards “used wisely they are a great companion. Used foolishly they are your worst enemy” Hear more http://bit.ly/IYqgBv 

The top three were all young women and indeed only a third of the twenty one finalists were male. Read more here http://bit.ly/InV6aw

***IN MONEY BOX THIS WEEK***

Two High Street banks have admitted they have not always complied with rules set down by Parliament in 2009. They have not allowed all customers to cancel continuous payment authorities on their debit or credit cards. The law – the Payment Services Regulations 2009 – says they must and refund any money wrongly paid over. We explain the law and what you can do to get compensation if your clear instruction has been ignored.

Peer to peer lending is a growing – but still tiny – business. Several small firms now offer this alternative way for those with money to earn interest and those without money to borrow at reasonable rates. One firm has recently cut the interest rate lenders can charge. We discuss how this business works – and if it is a good idea for those with money to earn interest on it and for those needing money to borrow cheaply. Peer to peer lending is not regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

The Financial Services Authority is contacting 76,732 people on what are called -suckers lists-. They are lists of people who have been conned once by a financial fraud and thought to be ripe for defrauding again. We hear from a victim. And I ask the Head of Unauthorised Business at the FSA if he has done enough to stop these persistent crimes.

Monkey With a Pin is the intriguing title of a book by investor Pete Comley. It refers to an annual UK share picking contest when a computer simulated version of that animal uses a ditto pin to pick shares – and recently came in the top ten per cent. I talk to Pete Comley with and Mark Dampier from financial service provider Hargreaves Lansdowne.

And just in case we do not have time to squeeze it in, HMRC is apologising to 12,000 people who it took out of the self-assessment regime but then wrote them a letter warning them of daily penalties to begin on 1 May. Whoops. If you have not returned your self-assessment form for 2010-2011 and not asked to come out of self-assessment then daily penalties of 10 pounds a day up to a maximum of nine hundred pounds will be imposed from 1 May.

Four items to fill our 24 minutes of prime time Radio 4. You can hear the whole show live at midday on Saturday, repeated Sunday 9pm, or anytime online at www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moneybox. Remember you can put in a regular order for our podcast. More than 200,000 listen that way each week. It is free.

There is more information on our website www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox where you can also download transcripts of past programmes and send us ideas or problems you want us to look into.

This newsletter is available at bbc.co.uk/moneybox/newsletter around the time it hits your inbox - tell your friends who do not subscribe. And you could join more than 30,500 people who now follow me on Twitter to enjoy - or rant about - my random but timely thoughts on money and a few other things whenever I am awake at www.twitter.com/paullewismoney 

I am back on Wednesday with Money Box Live at 3pm taking questions on powers of attorney.

Best wishes,

Paul

PS. I will be on Breakfast on BBC One on Saturday talking about one of the items in our programme probably around 0850. And back on Breakfast on Thursday morning with another money story, probably 0640 and 0820. But times can change at short notice.

e-mail Paul Lewis