2024

Planning on having your Christmas food shop delivered by Waitrose? You can now bag your delivery slot as bookings have opened today (Wednesday 2 October) for all shoppers.

Nationwide has completed its takeover of Virgin Money, meaning the bank's savers and borrowers could become members of the building society in future. The Virgin Money brand will also be phased out eventually – though there's NO change for new or existing customers of either brand for now.

If you use your mobile abroad, your provider will now be forced to automatically send you clearer alerts about roaming costs under new rules from telecoms regulator Ofcom, which take effect from today (Tuesday 1 October). The change follows our long-running campaign for consumers' roaming rights to be increased after existing protections ended post-Brexit.

Santander has cut the rate on its popular easy-access savings account – which paid 5.2% at launch – to 4% from today (Tuesday 1 October). Yet you can easily beat this new rate by switching elsewhere – which you're allowed to do without penalty.

Planning on having your Christmas food shop delivered by Ocado? Bookings are now open if you bought a delivery pass on or before 1 September 2024, though it's not clear yet when other shoppers will be able to book their slots.

Fixed-rate mortgage deals have gotten cheaper in recent weeks – but will this trend continue following the Bank of England's decision to hold the base rate at 5%? We've spoken to five mortgage brokers to see what they think is next for mortgage rates. Here's what they told us...

First-time buyers paid the Government an estimated £1.8 million in fines for taking money out of their Lifetime ISAs (LISAs), new figures for the 2023/24 tax year show. MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis is renewing calls to the Government to stop those who are using LISA savings for their intended purpose – buying a first-time property – having to pay these unjust penalties.

Fixed-rate mortgage deals have gotten cheaper in recent weeks – and brokers say rates could still come down a bit more, despite the Bank of England's decision to hold the base rate at 5%. So what, if anything, should you do about it?

Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, which are all part of the Lloyds Banking Group, will shut at least 292 of their bank branches in 2024 and 2025, the Group has confirmed.

Aggressive council tax debt collection practices – even after missing just ONE payment – are putting up to two million people at risk of serious harm, new research from charity the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute (MMHPI) has found. The charity's chair and founder Martin Lewis has called for Government action and urged local authorities to look at their methods in the meantime.