Money blog: 10 million homes have days to check their energy meter reading to avoid paying too much (2024)

More now on the IT issues affecting people who bank with Nationwide, HSBC and Virgin Money.

Customers of all three have been hit with problems affecting their banking services today.

On what is pay day for many across the country, some customers have been unable to receive their salaries or pension payments.

According to the website DownDetector, more than 7,000 problems were reported at about 8.45am this morning.

The site also shows a spike in reports of outages for high street bank Virgin Money and building society Nationwide.

Customers of the banks are particularly upset by the timing of the glitches, with many people needing to pay their bills.

"I'm waiting on money coming into my bank which is still not received even though it's been sent. I can't pay any bills. Even though I have the money for bills," said one customer on X.

"My bills are bouncing and I can’t pay for a train ticket I need in the next hour," said another.

Bank responses

Nationwidecustomers complained on X they had not received their wages into their accounts.

The building society said it is "aware there is a delay with some customers receiving their salary or pension payments today".

"These payments are being processed, and will be paid into your account today," it added. "Sorry for any inconvenience this is causing."

Virgin Moneyaddressed its issues on X this morning, warning customers not to attempt to process payments a second time if they had already tried once,

The bank issued an update on X later, adding - as of 11.08am - it is "aware of intermittent issues with accessing online banking and our app, which we're working to resolve as quickly as possible".

HSBC apologised to its customers and said its IT teams were working on the issue.

In a second update at 12.22pm, the bank said customers could now log into personal online and mobile banking but could still not view recent transactions.

Earlier, we brought you the news that HSBC customers have reported IT issues with mobile banking and the bank's app (see 9.37am post).

Now Nationwide has also said there was a "delay with some customers receiving their salary or pension payments today".

Read more in our breaking news story...

By Emily Mee, news reporter

A car was stolen roughly every eight minutes in the UK last year, according to DVLA figures.

Some 64,087 vehicles were reported stolen - an increase of 5% on the previous year.

While car thefts are on the rise, reports have also highlighted a growing trend of "car cannibalism" - when criminals rip parts off cars to order.

Bonnets, bumpers and headlights are among the parts often nicked by thieves.

It might sound like a familiar refrain at this point, but consumer rights expert Scott Dixon says the cost of living crisis is largely to blame.

Scott, who runs The Complaints Resolver, told us the costs of spare parts and insurance have "rocketed" post-COVID - driving opportunists to turn to crime.

He also pointed to a scarcity of decent second-hand cars on the market currently, saying people are "holding onto their cars for longer because they can't afford to change them".

How can you protect your car?

Scott says there are numerous ways you can prevent your car from becoming a target - and many of them are cheap and simple.

Get your keys recoded

If you're buying second hand, getting your keys recoded can give you additional security.

Scott says it's possible the person you bought from could have copies of the keys, allowing them to steal your car or break in.

Fit a tracking device

This should be fitted professionally, and while it won't stop your vehicle from being stolen, it will increase the chances of police being able to track it down and return it.

You should be aware, though, that you'll need to pay a fairly costly annual subscription fee.

Secure your number plate

Some thieves will take number plates so they can steal petrol from forecourts - and Scott says some are now doing this to escape ULEZ fines.

He recommends getting anti-theft screws to secure your number plate.

Keep your car tidy

Handbags, phone leads, sat-nav holders and paperwork can all attract the attention of opportunist car thieves.

Scott says many people are "too careless and complacent" with this - and it's completely free to fix.

Fit a steering or handbrake lock

You can get these on Amazon for less than £20 each - and because they're visible, they can also act as a deterrent.

A pedal box, which encases the pedals in a highly visible metal box, is another option.

A good wheel clamp - Scott recommends this one- can be bought on Amazon for about £30.

Another visible deterrent is a sticker to say the vehicle is alarmed or has a tracker fitted.

Think about where you park

Thieves are more likely to target quiet and dimly lit areas, as well as quiet side streets, Scott says.

If you can, try to park in a well-lit and busy area - preferably with CCTV.

Install cameras

You could keep your dashcam recording through the night (which could capture anyone walking in front of the car) and put up signs stating you have cameras around.

Fit a car alarm or immobiliser

Although most modern cars have these fitted, older cars often don't.

Plus, having a professionally fitted alarm or immobiliser could lower your insurance premium.

Etch your car windows

You can buy a car window etching kit for less than £15, including warning stickers to show the identification number is traceable.

If you have your Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) etched onto the doorframe, windows and steering wheel, it can deter thieves from stealing the vehicle or its parts as it will be harder to sell stolen parts if they're personalised.

Window tinting

Of course, you'll only be able to do this to a certain extent as the law states the front windscreen has to let in at least 75% of light through. For front side windows, you need 70%.

But there are no rules around the rear windscreen or rear passenger windows, and having a tint can deter criminals from looking into the car.

Take steps to prevent relay theft

An increasingly popular way to steal cars is through relay theft - when criminals use devices to relay signals from the car key to the car.

One person will get near enough to the key inside the house to pick up the signal, while a second person will hold another device next to the vehicle.

All keyless cars are vulnerable to relay theft - but in particular, Audi, BMW, Ford, Hyundai, Land Rover, Mercedes and Volkswagen cars are the most popular targets.

You can help prevent it by keeping your keys in a "Faraday pouch" - which has a lining preventing the keys inside from receiving or transmitting radio frequency signals.

A pack of two is available online for roughly £8.

Another option is to use a metal container, as the relay device cannot pass through metal.

You should also avoid storing your keys near doors or windows.

Forget the bank of mum and dad, the bank of gran and grandad is coming into play as parents struggle to afford school trips.

Some 23% of parents say they have had to make cutbacks - even to essentials - to fund them, while 10% said grandparents had paid for the trip and 8% said an aunt or uncle had chipped in.

The research, undertaken by public sector insurer Zurich Municipal, found one in five financially pinched parents felt embarrassed about struggling to pay for trips.

"School trips bring a plethora of benefits to young lives, it's heartbreaking to see so many could miss out due to cost," said Tilden Watson, head of education at Zurich Municipal.

"These trips can also expose some children to new places and experiences that they wouldn't necessarily get to enjoy with their families so they really do offer a window to the world they otherwise wouldn't see."

OnePoll surveyed 1,000 parents of children aged five to 16 across the UK in May.

More than a third (35%) of parents believed school trips are critical to their child's education.

A major bank has apologised to its customers for IT issues.

In a post on X just before 9.30am, HSBC said: "We’re really sorry that some customers are having issues accessing personal online and mobile banking.

"Our IT teams are working hard to get these services back to normal.

"You can still authorise online card purchases via SMS."

ByJames Sillars, business reporter

The FTSE 100 is on course to end the week on a positive note, opening 0.4% up at 8,211.

Energy stocks are leading a march north following a rough few days for shares generally.

The reason, however, is not great news for us consumers.

Resurgent oil prices are driving the performance, with Shell and BP among the early winners.

The Brent crude contract for August delivery is currently trading just below $87 a barrel, leaving oil costs on track for a third week of gains in a row.

There are a wealth of reasons for the surge but analysts are crediting hopes of a US interest rate cut for the latest lift.

Meanwhile, on the high street, shares in JD Sports are among those dragging.

Its stock opened more than 4% lower after Nike flagged yesterday a downgrade in its own revenue expectations for the current year.

That saw 12% wiped from Nike's price on Wall Street.

The UK's economy grew slightly more than expected between January and March, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has just announced.

It was previously estimated that it grew by 0.6% during this three-month period.

But the ONS has revised that figure up - ever so slightly - to 0.7%.

Chances are, that won't change how most people feel about their personal finances.

The change could be a talking point in the ongoing election campaign, though.

Follow the latest on the race for Number 10 in our politics blog:

It can be hard to balance the demands of eating well without spending a lot.

In this series, we try to find the healthiest options in the supermarket for the best value - and have enlisted the help ofSunna Van Kampen, founder of Tonic Health, who went viral on social media for reviewing food in the search of healthier choices. We also speak to dieticians each week.

It's important to note from the outset that in this series, we don't try to find the outright healthiest option, but help you get better nutritional value for as little money as possible.

With the weather finally getting warmer, this week we're looking at ice cream.

"With so many options out there, how do you fancy a 63% reduction in your sugar consumption and some savings for your wallet too?" says Sunna.

What's in our ice creams?

"Technically speaking, ice cream is just frozen milk and cream with a bit of added sweetness," Sunna says.

But as time has gone on, we've progressed to less and less cream and more and more sugar.

"To give you an example, Mars Bar Ice Cream is only 31% milk and cream, while the traditional Mackie's ice cream is 81% milk and cream," Sunna says.

"When you remove the cream, quite clearly you lose a lot of the creaminess and smooth texture, so manufacturers have turned to gums (like guar gum, locust bean gum, tara gum) to give the creaminess while lowering cost," he adds.

"The problem is some of these gums have demonstrated to be gut disruptive and hard to digest."

How much sugar can we eat?

The NHS recommends adults have 30g of sugar a day, with that decreasing to 24g for seven to 10-year-olds and 19g a day for four to six-year-olds.

"A cut in sugar is not just good news for our waistlines, but also for our overall health, contributing to a balanced diet without the same spikes in blood sugar levels," Sunna says.

Those spikes can cause sudden drops in energy, spates of hunger and potentially lead to type two diabetes.

How much sugar is in ice cream?

Let's look at some popular examples to compare the sugar content and the impact on your wallet...

• Cadbury Flake 99: £4.25 for 4x125ml and 22.9g sugar per ice cream (5.5 teaspoons)
• Magnum: £3.25 for 3x100ml - 20g of sugar per ice cream (five teaspoons)
• Solero Exotic: £2.75 for 3x90ml - 12g of sugarper ice cream (three teaspoons)
• Mars Ice Cream Bars: £2.75 for 4 x 49.5ml - 12g of sugar per ice cream (three teaspoons)
• Cornetto Classic: £3.50 for 6x90ml - 10g of sugar per ice cream (2.5 teaspoons)
• Milk Choc Ices: £1.60 for 6x70ml - 7.3g of sugar per ice cream (under two teaspoons)

"Assuming you have one ice cream a day across, hopefully, 30 days of sunny weather this summer, and you'll find yourself saving over 105 teaspoons of sugar from your diet this summer if you choose a Choc Ice over a Cadbury Flake 99," Sunna says.

That's a decent saving for your health - but what about your wallet?

"Choc Ice is firmly in the category of win-win, as it's 65% cheaper than a standard Magnum," he adds.

That's a considerable £24.30 saving over 30 ice creams.

The nutritionist's view - fromNichola Ludlam-Raine, dietitian atnicsnutrition.com...

"Shop-bought ice cream isn't a product that I recommend having daily, and luckily for the UK population this isn't something that is too hard to stick to, given the distinct lack of sunny, warm weather.

"I recently had a Mars ice cream and although I really enjoyed it. I needed two to feel satisfied, as they were so small - which doubled my sugar intake (to 24g).

"The good news, though, is not all the sugar quoted on the label is free or added sugar (and under 30g a day of this is acceptable within the context of a healthy balanced diet), as some sugar will be naturally occurring in the milk.

"Choosing ice creams where milk is the first ingredient is always preferable - or plant-based/fruit-based alternatives if you have a milk intolerance or allergy.

"The evidence regarding thickeners and emulsifiers on gut health is still in its infancy, and most of the studies are small and have been done on rodents, with relatively large amounts of the additives being used.

"Some emulsifiers may also confer benefits due to their prebiotic effects - but with gut health, the key is to add in more fibre, natural colour and plants."

Read more from this series...

Every week we take an overview of the mortgage market with industry experts, while the guys at Moneyfactscompareround up the best rates...

We start this week with the exclusive interview Sky News' Ian King conducted with the chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group - the UK's biggest lender.

Charlie Nunn warned homeowners not to expect a return to the ultra-low interest rates seen for most of the last 16 years.

"We've just come off a decade where mortgages have been in the 1.5-2.5% range," he told King.

"The expectations the market have is that interest rates probably won't get below 3.5%. And that means mortgages, or the new normal for mortgages, will be in that 3.5-4.5% range, not 1.5-2.5%."

Mr Nunn's comments earned applause from brokers and mortgage experts, with the industry news service Newspage speaking to a range of voices...

"I agree with Charlie Nunn: ultra-low interest rates are history. The public is adjusting to the new normal of 3.5% to 4.5% mortgage rates. Nunn's comments highlight market reality and urge borrowers to adapt now."

Ranald Mitchell, from Charwin Private Clients

"If you're a first-time buyer, you may not see ultra-low interest rates in your mortgage lifetime. But that doesn't mean a return to good interest rates isn't possible. We should see rates beginning with a 3 or even a 2 in the not-too-distant future, especially for those with good deposits or equity."

Ben Perks, from Orchard Financial Advisers

For now, the focus of many mortgage holders has been on when the Bank of England will start easing rates from the current 16-year high of 5.25%.

June had been touted but this month's meeting came and went without a change - and the delay means more people coming off mortgages secured in the ultra-low era are facing significant hikes.

About three million UK households are still set to witness hikes in their mortgage repayments over the next two years, the Bank has said this week.

Its Financial Policy Committee (FPC) added there were likely to be "very large increases" of more than 50% for the mortgages of around 400,000 households.

At the moment, around 35% of households with mortgages, or more than three million, are paying below 3% for a range of reasons - like existing deals which pre-dated the recent crisis - and are expected to see an increase between now and the end of 2026.

A typical household rolling off a fixed-rate mortgage before the end of 2026 is due to face a jump of around £180 a month, the committee said.

There has been some good news for borrowers this week though, with a handful of major lenders cutting rates in response to falling swap rates (these dictate how much it costs lenders to lend).

"Fixed rate mortgage reductions from prominent lenders such as Barclays and HSBC dominated coverage this week, as last week’s inflation announcement continued to prompt speculation of an imminent cut to base rate," says Caitlyn Eastell from Moneyfacts.

Turning to the best deals currently on the market, Ms Eastell says the lowest two-year fix for first time buyers with a 5% deposit comes from Halifax.

Priced at 5.63%, this deal has a £999 arrangement fee and offers a £250 Green Home cashback incentive to those purchasing eligible properties.

Moneyfacts also rounds up the best overall deals - looking beyond just the headline rate.

Ms Eastell adds: "As a first time buyer, every penny counts and you may have already exhausted your savings building up a 5% deposit, as well as covering legal fees and removal costs.

"It's important to consider the true cost of any deal you commit to, so if you are looking to save on the upfront cost of your mortgage, then a Best Buy mortgage may be a more cost-effective choice.

"This week,Hanley Economic BStakes one of the top spots of our Best Buy tables for a two-year mortgage. Priced at 5.69%, it offers a free valuation and £250 cashback incentive."