The GuardianHousing We're selling a shared ownership home – what is a fair price?The Guardian - Virginia WallisQ We are currently in the process of selling our 40% share in a shared ownership property. The rules of the housing association are that we have to sell for the price a Rics surveyor sets. We had our done
The GuardianJohn Lewis ‘I spent £1,200 at John Lewis – but I didn’t get my £125 gift card’The Guardian - Rebecca SmithersJohn Lewis ran an offer in which customers could get a £125 electronic gift card on purchases of more than £1,000 in August. This coincided with my purchase of six items of bedroom furniture totalling
The GuardianEnergy Phantom debts that have come to haunt energy customersThe Guardian - Anna TimsLast month Michael Jennings received a text and a final statement, both on the same day, informing him that his dual-fuel account was in the red. The statement bore the logo, livery and customer services
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) Average UK earners gained just 2p per hour in two years, TUC revealsThe Guardian - Rupert Neate Wealth correspondentThe top 1% of high earners in the UK have enjoyed a 7.6% real terms pay increase over the last two years, while the average worker’s pay rose by just 2p an hour. A TUC analysis of government hourly pay
The GuardianMoney Help-to-buy Isa: last chance to get up to £3,000 of free government cashThe Guardian - Rupert JonesTime is running out if you haven’t taken advantage of the government’s offer of free money towards buying your first home. That’s because the help-to-buy Isa – with which the government will give you to
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) How can I throw a Halloween party on a budget?The GuardianMy partner has volunteered me to host a bash – what should I do to make it go with a bang? Every week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) Hearing aids: is going private really better than the NHS?The Guardian - Miles BrignallWhen Alan Wright* decided to take the plunge and spend £2,800 on new hearing aids, he thought he was buying a significant upgrade on his old NHS-provided models. The 70-year-old, who had largely given
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) Flat owners get £31,000 bill for balconies ‘left to rot’The Guardian - Rupert JonesIn a nutshell they left the two wooden balconies to rot, and are trying to get us to replace them with metal balconies for £31,000. Kate Farmer Mestre, owner The owners of six flats have been left reeling
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) ‘I set up a funeral firm to help people, not to make money’The Guardian - Suzanne BearneName: Lucy Coulbert Age: 37 Income: £16,000 to £26,000 Occupation: managing director of the Individual Funeral Company I’d never come across a funeral director until I attended my grandmother’s funeral
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) Let’s move to St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex: the yin to Hastings’ yangThe Guardian - Tom DyckhoffWhat’s going for it? St Leonards has come of age. For years, all talk has been of its elderly twin, Hastings, newly colonised by rat-race escapees, with their boutiques selling linocut prints or vintage
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) My Argos receipt faded so much I can’t use my guaranteeThe Guardian - Anna TimsBissell will not honour the lifetime guarantee for a carpet sweeper I bought from Argos because the receipt has faded so much it’s illegible. Argos just fobs me off. SC, Brighton Argos says: “We regularly
The GuardianHousing Evictions cost private renters in England £70m a yearThe Guardian - Robert Booth Social affairs correspondentPrivate renters in England are losing out on about £70m a year when landlords kick them out as missed time at work, cleaning bills and moving costs stack up to £1,400 each on average, housing campaigners
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) Amazon Prime: are calls asking me to renew a scam?The Guardian - Anna TimsI received a call with a recorded message telling me my Amazon Prime membership was being automatically renewed and £39 would be debited from my account. I am not a Prime member and do not want to join.
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) Green Star Energy won’t switch off fraudulent accountThe Guardian - Anna TimsI have had ongoing issues with Green Star Energy. When my bank detected fraudulent activity on my account, Green Star was one of the payees. My compromised bank account was refunded and closed, and my
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) Online, no one knows you're poorThe Guardian - Shauna James AhernI arrive at six in the morning, two hours before the store opens. Awaiting me is an aisle of boxes, stacked up. One last sip of my coffee, then I put on my gloves and take a big breath. Time to go in.
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) Why can’t HSBC help me unlock my John Lewis credit card account?The Guardian - Miles BrignallCan you help me, and countless other John Lewis credit card customers who are locked out of their online accounts? HSBC, which manages the card, recently updated its online security resulting in me being
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) How your title deeds could make you liable for archaic obligationsThe Guardian - Anna TimsThe council has since acknowledged that its attempt to chase the debt was 'untimely' Tom and Lisa Aldiss* had just bought their first home when the demand arrived. A housing association they had never
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) Number of Viagogo customers dives after Google ad banThe Guardian - Rob DaviesThe number of music, theatre and sports fans using tickets website Viagogo has plummeted after its adverts were banned from Google. Google removed Viagogo from its paid-for search results in July, accusing
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) I'm thinking about getting married – will I get hit with more tax?The GuardianQ My long-term partner and I are thinking about getting married, mainly as we are worried that if one of us dies suddenly, the other will face an inheritance tax bill as what we would leave to the other
The GuardianVolvo Volvo sent me a £10,000 repair bill for a three-year-old carThe Guardian - Miles BrignallMy three-year-old Volvo V60 recently broke down on a journey from Scotland back to London. The Volvo dealer in Edinburgh, to which it was towed, diagnosed a snapped timing chain and advised that the car
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) Cavalier attitude of banksThe Guardian - LettersWe go into a high-street bank and we are expected to conduct all of our own transactions. Next to no personal service. Now we discover that communities have to apply to a fund if they want access to their
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) Pensions scandal: broken promises, cruelty and contemptThe Guardian - Yvonne RobertsDon’t give tax cuts to the 1% while ignoring those who have contributed all their lives BackTo60 campaign group member Last week, in a landmark case, the high court decided that almost four million women
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) Is it just laziness that stops me from switching to an electric car?The Guardian - Patrick CollinsonThis feels like one of the “You’re the expert” questions that appear in Guardian Money every week. I have an old-ish petrol-fuelled car, sitting parked outside my terraced home, which I use only at weekends.
The GuardianElectric Vehicles Electric cars: you can now find used deals for less than £7,000The Guardian - Miles BrignallIf the two people behind a major website championing electric cars have both done it, the rest of us should probably take note. Whisper, so not too many people hear it, but used five-year-old electric
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) Powering ahead: six new ways to charge an electric carThe Guardian - Patrick Collinson and Rupert JonesIs this the end of the Shell or Esso garage? An extraordinary array of new concepts is set to transform our streets and cityscapes as Britain prepares to switch from petrol to electric cars. But which
The GuardianDishwashing Can I install my new dishwasher myself?The GuardianMy colleague at work says it’s really easy to do, but I’m not convinced he’s right Every week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) ‘I swapped a job in Cumbria for blogging from the beach in Bali’The Guardian - Carol DriverName: Stephanie Conway Age: 29 Income: About £1,700 a month Occupation: Digital marketing I booked a £300, one-way plane ticket from the UK to Bali in May. I didn’t tell my family I was leaving at first
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) Let’s move to Croydon, south London: is Stormzy’s birthplace the Centre of the Universe?The Guardian - Tom DyckhoffWhat’s going for it? Croydon’s had more reinventions than Madonna, more facelifts than Joan Rivers, risen from the dead more times than Nosferatu. At various times, it has been market town, saffron supplier,
The GuardianPersonal Finance (UK) Do I count as a first-time buyer if my wife already owns a home?The Guardian - Virginia WallisQ My wife and I are both about 50. When we met 20-plus years ago she had already bought a house which I moved into. We have decided now that we want to move and have started looking for property. My questions
