It was not long after the coronavirus first hit that consumers began sending pleas for help to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), concerned at the way the finance industry was reacting to Covid-19. “It was inquiries rather than full-blown complaints at first,” says the chief ombudsman, Caroline Wayman. “We were seeing things that we just…
The first time I met Anne Boden was last December at a glitzy awards ceremony where I knew no one, felt out of place and was skulking in the loos. In she bustled – she’s smaller than me (I’m 5ft 1in), older than me (she’s 60), a little eccentric and perhaps the friendliest person in…
Using a mobile phone can be can be a more expensive business than many people bargain for. Research from price comparison site uSwitch suggests almost half of consumers don’t check their bills every month. Those who do, can get a nasty surprise – with international calls, roaming charges and spending on computer games top of…
Pasta Any Italian knows that unless Nonna made it with her own bare hands this morning, unfilled pasta is best when dried, packaged and stored in a cupboard. Those bags of “fresh” pasta in the supermarket chiller cabinet are the worst of all worlds. Claggy, eggy, pricey and wholly incapable of not scrambling a carbonara,…
With much of the UK in lockdown and many businesses forced to close for at least four weeks, household finances are set to be squeezed again. This week, charities said they had seen an influx of middle-income families who needed to access food banks after being plunged into crisis by job losses and gaps in…
Consumers have been warned not to fall prey to fraudsters who are targeting Amazon Prime customers, many of whom became members for the first time during the Covid-19 crisis. Security experts said fraudsters had been phoning people claiming to be calling from “Amazon Prime security” and saying their Amazon account had been compromised in California,…
