What do you freelance about?

Banking, ways to save money, and consumer rights.

Do you specialise in any particular areas?

I’ve mostly specialised in banking and credit guides and reviews, and some investigations. I’m particularly interested in financial education (or the lack of it), and have covered that, too.

I use case studies and tangible examples to bring numbers and concepts to life, and always aim to give actionable advice.

In my most recent permanent role, I was Consumer Duty lead, alongside being an editor.

What formats do you work across?

In the last few years, it’s been mainly digital writing and editing, with some video and a dash of webinar. I’ve also edited white papers published as PDFs.

While I was at Which?, a few years ago, I did a lot of writing and editing for print.

Are you happy doing corporate work?

Yes. In a recent role at finder.com, my team and I worked on multi-platform branded content, some of which won awards. This type of content has to deliver something original and useful to the audience.

How can PRs help you with your work?

Exclusive data that tells a new story that affects lots of people, and ideally a case study to go with it.

Tell us about the pieces of work you’re most proud of, or any recent highlights?

At Which?, I commissioned several investigations from the excellent data journalist Tom Calver (now at The Times and Sunday Times), based on FoIs and data-scraping. One piece we did was on fraud hotspots - who knew that Norfolk was the capital of dating fraud?

Last year, at Finder, my team and I won 2 content awards for work we did on kids’ financial education. We started by publishing research showing how parents feel really ill-equipped to fill in the gaps. It’s great to see the industry initiatives going on in financial education, but it’s still incredibly patchy.

What are the main advantages and disadvantages of being freelance financial journalist?

Pros: flexibility and freedom to cover new subjects and pursue investigations on a hunch
Cons: juggling and insecurity

What advice would you give to a new financial journalist?

Look around at how publishers are using AI for stories - for data analysis and market alerts, for example. It’s worth reading the latest Reuters Institute report on how media leaders see the direction of travel. If you’re open to using new tools for data analysis, you’re off to a good start.

Go to as many in-person events as you can, to help you build your network. Having a list of contacts is just as important as it always was. LinkedIn is also a great tool for finding experts.

Even if you’re writing for a consumer audience, keep across the trade press as it can be a good source of stories.

When you’re telling a story, what’s the most important thing to remember?

When you’re writing, constantly ask yourself “Why should anyone care?” Better still “Why should this audience care?”

If you write a sentence that doesn’t add anything, get rid of it. Same applies in non-written formats.

What’s the commission you’d most like to undertake?

It would be revealing to get hold of the customer service scripts that companies’ call centres use when people call up to haggle, and uncover all the discounts available, and their triggers.

What was the last article you read that really shocked you?

There are plenty of shocking stories globally, at the moment.

In personal finance, I’ve seen several stories recently where delays have dragged on for months for people whose bank account has been frozen.

No doubt we’ll see increasing numbers of stories about deepfakes. I was shocked when I read this piece by Gabriel Pogrund about a PE teacher who was the victim of a deepfake video, which was made by doctoring CCTV footage from outside a house. It put her career at risk and she could have had a criminal conviction, all because of a fake film that went viral.

Have you won any awards/gained specific financial qualifications?

In 2024, I encouraged my team at Finder to enter more awards. We won 3 content awards - 2 UK and 1 global.

What are your predictions for the main stories that will dominate 2025?

In the UK, I think we’ll continue to see the fallout from the national insurance increase that starts in April.

Interest rate stories will continue to dominate, I’m sure - and that includes covering whether those coming off low-rate mortgages are going to find anything affordable.

Globally, many will be waiting to see if Trump is actually going to do what he’s said.

If you were up for an award for any hobbies/activities outside of work, what would you be likely to win, and why?

I sing with the St Paul’s Cathedral Chorus, and we definitely deserve an award for Best Singing in the Freezing Cold.

Sum up your time as a financial journalist in three words:

Human, data, actionable.

Finally, if you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

A plate of mixed gyoza with salad and a dip. I’d miss crisps, though.