June 2020

Passport renewals are taking much longer than normal – and in some cases more than two months – as the Passport Office battles to clear a backlog, MSE can reveal. And while the Foreign Office still currently advises against all non-essential travel, some fear if that changes they could lose summer holidays worth £1,000s, as they won't be able to travel without a valid passport or get their money back.

The advertising watchdog today launched a new scam-ad alert system, to help tackle the plague of online fraudsters. But while it should help and offers a direct way to report online scam ads, it's "far from a perfect solution", according to MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis.

Children in England who are eligible for free school meals will receive a six-week food voucher to cover the summer holiday period, after a high-profile campaign by footballer Marcus Rashford.

Airlines don't have to compensate travellers whose flights are delayed by "unruly behaviour" by other passengers, according to a new ruling from a European court on a case which involved a passenger biting and assaulting others on board. 

Tens of thousands of Sky TV and broadband customers will see their bills rise in August – though if you're affected you may be able to leave penalty-free or haggle down your bill.

Iceland is urgently overhauling its online payments system after customers had multiple sums ring-fenced on their account for the same order, MoneySavingExpert.com can reveal. In some cases, shoppers have been unexpectedly pushed into their overdraft as a result – but the supermarket says it WON'T refund any overdraft charges incurred. We've seen scores of reports from Iceland customers about this issue in recent weeks. In most cases, shoppers say they've been hit with additional charges which show up as 'pending' on their account after an online grocery order has been amended – either by the customer, or by Iceland itself to account for out-of-stock items. While sums ring-fenced in this way are usually returned automatically by banks, this can take several days – and  in some cases shoppers say they haven't had the money back for weeks or have had to chase a refund. What's more, while an amount is ring-fenced it cannot be spent or used to cover other debits from an account, which means some have then been pushed into their overdraft when other payments have come out of their account.  One Iceland customer said he'd been charged £20 by his bank after being pushed into his overdraft, while another told us they had three additional payments reserved as pending after amending their order three times. Iceland insists no one has actually had extra money taken out of their account as a result of this problem, but it admits the situation is "not acceptable", and says it's working to "completely overhaul" its payment system to resolve the issue. But it says it won't refund any overdraft charges run up by affected customers.  For full help on grocery MoneySaving, see our 30 Supermarket Shopping Tips.

Clothing stores Monsoon and Accessorize briefly entered administration on Wednesday – and although the business was almost immediately bought out, 35 stores are expected to be closed with 545 staff sadly made redundant.

Savers in the UK can longer open new Marcus easy-access accounts, in a fresh blow after months of cuts.

UK holiday provider Hoseasons and its sister firm Cottages.com have changed their coronavirus cancellation policy and given the competition watchdog a formal commitment that they will offer refunds, after a huge backlash from customers.

Renters in England and Wales are set to get another two months' breathing space as the Government has extended the ban on evictions put in place in response to the coronavirus pandemic.