Financial news

• NatWest customers can hit £780 by end of 2025 using savings account method

  01-01-2025 16:50 via express.co.uk
  
  The method aims to get people in the habit of saving money every month.
  
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• Bright future beckons for organic health hero Biona

  04-01-2025 16:10 via express.co.uk
  
  A healthier, fitter you this yeae- if that's the plan then UK organic brand Biona has a feast of nutritious, plant-based foods and drinks to keep your resolutions on track and help the planet too.
  
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• Fab FOUR salon is a cut above for beauty seekers

  04-01-2025 15:26 via express.co.uk
  
  Perfect for new year new year dreams, hair and beauty salon business FOUR is a shining example of what can be achieved by women entrepreneurs for their customers
  
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• Urgent warning as economic crisis looms because Reeves ‘cannot make the damn sums work’

  04-01-2025 11:16 via express.co.uk
  
  Chancellor Rachel Reeves is scaring the hell out of economists. They say she's driving the UK into a needless crisis because she can't get her maths right.
  
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• Red alert as economic crisis looms because Reeves ‘cannot make the damn sums work’

  04-01-2025 11:16 via express.co.uk
  
  Chancellor Rachel Reeves is scaring the hell out of economists. They say she's driving the UK into a needless crisis because she can't get her maths right.
  
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• Lloyds Bank customers see £545 vanish from account as alert issued

  04-01-2025 11:08 via express.co.uk
  
  The bank has warned people to be vigilant when shopping in the January sales as it revealed the amount of money its account holders have lost to online scams
  
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• First Direct giving free £175 to customers in January

  04-01-2025 10:00 via express.co.uk
  
  First Direct is giving a £175 cash boost to customers in the New Year.
  
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• Push to raise income tax threshold from £12,570 to £45,000 - new HMRC update

  04-01-2025 09:13 via express.co.uk
  
  The government is due to respond to a new petition which says current income tax threshold "has been kept unreasonably low for far too long" after it gained more than 10,000 signatures
  
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• State pensioners are 'too embarrassed' to admit they need key benefit worth £1000s

  04-01-2025 09:00 via express.co.uk
  
  Older Brits are being urged to apply for a benefit that unlocks other financial assistance over fears some may not admit to needing it.
  
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• New year, new start … Is 2025 the right time to become your own boss?

  04-01-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Going freelance is not without risk but if you want to shed the shackles of the 9-5 here’s how to plan it properlyHas the new year spawned thoughts of a new career? Or have you long been considering striking out on your own and being your own boss?Whether you are considering going freelance because of a desire to shake off the shackles of a nine-to-five job, or as a temporary move as a result of a sudden redundancy, it’s a growing club to join. Continue reading...
  
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• Losing my ‘haunted’, mouldy flat was awful. I swore I’d get it back – and I did | Claire Jackson

  04-01-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Some people long for a storybook house, but I found sanctuary in a home in the woods, where saucepans were said to move by themselvesIn our end of year series, writers and public figures remember the place or time when they felt most at homeWe’re playing with a Playmobil house. Well, my friend’s son is playing with it. I’m moving my plastic familiar unsurely around what is, proportionately speaking, a cavernous room, awaiting his next instruction. The child scoops up a selectio
  
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• Finance expert shares five methods to save £5,000 in months

  04-01-2025 07:54 via express.co.uk
  
  The expert said that you can start off saving a little bit at a time but it can grow to a substantial amount with his method
  
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• Barclays hit with criticism over 'rip-off' charges for mobile phone users

  04-01-2025 06:40 via express.co.uk
  
  A customer was frustrated as they felt 'trapped' in their situation.
  
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• 47 shops set to close every day in aftermath of Body Shop and Carpetright closures

  04-01-2025 06:05 via express.co.uk
  
  Retail experts have warned that "worse is set to come"
  
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• HSBC makes major decision on mortgage rates after Halifax move

  03-01-2025 17:57 via express.co.uk
  
  The high street giant has issued new interest rates on fixed rate deals running for two, five and 10 years.
  
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• ‘Astonishing and appalling’: British Gas battles customer anger over energy bill struggles

  03-01-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Complaints ratio for Britain’s biggest energy supplier is almost three times higher than its rival Octopus Energy“It has been both astonishing and appalling in equal measure,” says Jonathan Hattersley, 66, from Cambridgeshire. He is one of thousands of British Gas customers left frustrated by Britain’s biggest energy supplier.The gas and electricity supplier helped its parent company, Centrica, to a profit of £1bn for the first half of the year. But while the FTSE 1
  
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• Meet the young families stuck in their starter homes thanks to the UK housing crisis | Kirsty Major

  03-01-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The arrival of a child is a good a reason as any to upsize, but this is no longer an option for many ‘second steppers’When Ronan and his wife lived as property guardians in Walthamstow, east London, owning a place of their own seemed out of their reach. But in 2018, an opportunity presented itself: a development offering compact one-bedroom flats at a discounted price to people living in the local community.The couple had no plans to start a family and the flat seemed suited to their
  
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• ‘They’ve heard so much wrong information’: Selling heat pumps across Germany’s political divide

  03-01-2025 11:13 via theguardian.com
  
  Green heating has an image problem, especially where climate-sceptic parties hold sway. Now energy groups are promoting them on grounds of cost, status and energy securityA few dozen people had gathered on the dancefloor of the nightclub in eastern Germany when Stefan Vetter took to the stage, his face chequered by neon lights that bounced off spinning disco balls, and flicked through PowerPoint slides of homeowners and their heaters. “We know that oil and gas are not getting cheaper in fu
  
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• Experience: I paid £55,000 for a beer

  03-01-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  When I asked for the receipt, the bartender printed it out and put her hand over her mouthI’m a cricket journalist from Sydney, and in 2019 I was in Manchester to cover the Ashes. After dinner, I stopped for a beer at the Malmaison hotel. I’m pretty fussy about beer and I love an English bitter. I asked the bartender if she had any ales. She offered me a European pilsner, though eventually got me a Deuchars IPA.There were a few cricketers in the bar, so I was
  
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• Homes for sale in remote parts of Britain – in pictures

  03-01-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  From a ‘treehouse’ hovering over the Welsh countryside to a farmhouse in a wooded glen surrounded by dense forest in Scotland Continue reading...
  
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• ‘It didn’t come as a surprise’: UK workers on being forced back into the office

  03-01-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Some welcome cuts to hybrid working but others feel less productive and are considering change of job or country• Post-Christmas blues as UK bosses try to turn back clock on hybrid workingChristina says it is a “logistical nightmare” working out the school and nursery runs after being ordered to return to the office for three days a week from January. “It didn’t come as a surprise but it was devastating,” she says.The 34-year-old chartered accountant from Scotl
  
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• Second-home council tax rises to fund police patrols in Devon and Cornwall

  02-01-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Force could receive extra sum of up to £6m when local authorities double rates for holiday homes from AprilFunds raised by increasing council tax bills for second-home owners in Cornwall and Devon are to be used to boost police patrols across the two counties.Devon and Cornwall police could receive up to £6m when local authorities in their region double council tax rates for holiday homes from April. Continue reading...
  
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• Premium Bonds prize draw results for January 2025 - have you won £1million?

  02-01-2025 11:18 via express.co.uk
  
  The prize fund rate has fallen this month but there are still two £1million jackpot prizes.
  
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• UK house prices rise for fourth month in a row, says Nationwide

  02-01-2025 10:52 via theguardian.com
  Cost of average home in December reaches £269,426, with value increasing over year by almost £12,000House prices rose for a fourth consecutive month in December, ending 2024 on a “strong footing”, Nationwide said, with the cost of an average home hitting £269,426.The building society’s monthly tracker found prices in December rose 0.7% on the previous month and were up 4.7% on an annual basis. Continue reading...
  
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• Pensioners with these 10 health conditions can get £434 DWP payments

  02-01-2025 09:50 via express.co.uk
  
  The benefit, which is usually paid every four weeks, is tax-free and isn't means-tested.
  
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• £4,278 of freebies and discounts for people on Universal Credit in January

  01-01-2025 19:20 via express.co.uk
  
  Those claiming Universal Credit can get as much as £4,278 of freebies and discounts in January alone.
  
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• Russian gas flows to Europe via Ukraine cease as transit agreement expires

  01-01-2025 18:54
  
  Ukraine president hails ‘one of Moscow’s biggest defeats’ as deal’s end brings power cuts in breakaway Moldovan regionRussian gas has stopped flowing to Europe via Ukraine, ending a major energy route that goes back to Soviet times and had even survived three years of full-scale war between the two states.Ukraine cut off the transit route after an agreement signed in 2019 expired in the early hours of New Year’s Day, marking a new milestone in Europe weaning itself
  
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• EDF Energy admits 'this isn't ideal' as it issues New Year’s Day price warning

  01-01-2025 18:33 via express.co.uk
  
  Gas and electricity supplier EDF Energy has issued a £1,738 price warning to take effect on New Year's Day.
  
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• At best, 2025 will be a year of slow economic recovery. As for the worst? Brace yourselves | Larry Elliott

  01-01-2025 18:10
  
  With threats of recession, global fracturing and increasingly angry voters, Labour’s sticky start is unlikely to get any easierThe 2020s have been a dismal decade. Five years ago, when the first reports emerged of a new virus that had its origins in the Chinese city of Wuhan, it was hard to imagine that Covid-19 would have such a devastating impact. Yet within months, the UK was in lockdown, the global economy was in a chokehold, trade flows had dried up and governments were spending freel
  
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• It’s time to get serious about stamp duty on shares, a terrible advert for London

  01-01-2025 17:46
  
  The number of listed companies fleeing can’t be ignored – cutting or abolishing the tax could revive the capital marketLast year was another depressing one for departures from the London stock market. Back in January, it was Flutter heading for the exit. The owner of Paddy Power, Betfair and Sky Bet got itself a secondary listing in the US and said it would quickly convert it into the primary one, which it did in May.When December arrived, we were still on the same theme. Ashtead Gro
  
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