Interest

In an urgent private meeting on mortgages with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, and in a separate conversation with Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis has today (Wednesday 21 June) stressed the need for proper forbearance measures for struggling mortgage holders, and the need for banks not to ramp up their profit margins.

Iceland has begun offering interest-free loans of up to £100 to those struggling with the cost of living, with the money to be used on your Iceland shop. But - as with any borrowing for everyday living expenses - be careful as you may get stuck in a cycle of debt. 

Tesco Bank customers will no longer earn interest on their current accounts from September.

Lloyds and Bank of Scotland will be cutting the interest paid on balances of up to £4,000 on their Club Lloyds and Vantage accounts from this autumn – but as the rates can be beaten elsewhere, if you only have the accounts for the interest you could earn more by ditching and switching.

Fixed daily and monthly overdraft fees will be banned and replaced with a single interest rate from next April, the financial regulator has announced. 

The financial regulator has proposed a new price cap on rent-to-own firms to come into place next spring, meaning consumers can't be charged more in interest than they paid for the product. 

Two decent interest-paying current accounts from Lloyds and Bank of Scotland will have their rates cut from July, MoneySavingExpert can reveal - while Halifax is to increase the monthly fee for its Ultimate Reward packaged account.

Some banks will begin raising mortgage rates immediately, in the wake of the Bank of England's decision to increase the base rate to 0.5%.

The UK's key inflation rate hit 3% in September, the highest it's been since March 2012. As a result, there'll be a rise in the basic state pension of almost £5/week next April – and it will mean a number of other changes too.

MSE founder Martin Lewis has welcomed Labour's pledge to cap credit card interest so that no one pays back more than twice the amount of their original borrowing.