AA

Virgin Media, RAC and Sky are the top firms to haggle with, a new MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) poll of over 3,000 people has found, with over 80% of those who tried negotiating with these three firms having some success, compared to 66% on average.

Potholes are costing drivers and their insurers at least £1 million a month due to massive car repair bills, according to the AA.

The AA has wrongly told customers their passwords have been changed, leaving some fearing their accounts had been compromised.

Homeowners will be looking to the skies and to Westminster after being told that future home insurance rises will depend on the weather and further tax hikes.

Car insurance prices are up sharply over the last 12mths, whether you take the AA Index's 20% increase (the average rising from £465 to £561) or the Association of British Insurers' 10%. And both predict rises to continue this year yet many can act now to beat them.

The cost of car insurance policies could rise by up to 25% in 2016, according to the AA, after 20% rises in 2015. But there are ways to lock in a cheap price now, even if you're not at renewal.

More than three quarters of those who've tried to haggle with 10 big-name providers have managed to agree a better deal, with the AA and Sky the companies most open to negotiation, according to a poll of almost 4,000 MoneySavingExpert users.

Millions of households and motorists will see a steep rise in the cost of new insurance policies taken out or renewed from now on, after Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) was hiked from 6% to 9.5% at the start of the month.