Despite the better long-term returns, many with plenty of rainy-day savings in cash are reluctant to invest any extra money they save. The main reasons they give are often that they aren't rich enough yet to invest, they do not want to risk losing money, or it is too complicated. These are valid reasons, but they are not enough to dismiss investing altogether. Here's why you should bother.

A new online tool which rates the customer service provided by energy suppliers has been launched. It will allow consumers to see how good the 18 biggest energy suppliers are at providing service and help them make informed choices about switching. The tool uses a star rating system from one to five, with the number of stars awarded to each supplier based on a combination of factors, including complaints, ease of switching, ease of contact, bill clarity and switching guarantee.

A five-pound note was sold on eBay for £60,100, but now the auction is over, the winning bidder has failed to stump up the cash and has not been in touch with the seller. So what happens next? Can they be forced to pay? In other auctions, the buyer is on the hook for the purchase the minute the auction is won - so why is this not the case with eBay?

How do you decide on a good fund or investment trust to invest in? Picking funds is one of the jobs of Schroders' head of multi-manager Marcus Brookes, he joins us on the Investing Show to explain how he identifies the best opportunities.

Three Santander customers have collectively lost £36,200 in the last month to a terrifying text message scam - and the bank is refusing to refund. Ruth Quinn from Kent, Ron Williams from Southampton and Rod Owens from Coventry have had £15,000, £12,000 and £9,200 stolen respectively in the scam first reported by This is Money last year.

I received a letter in November claiming I had a debt of £1,966.87 with Automobile Association Personal Finance. The letter came from PRA Group of Kilmarnock, Scotland. It said the original agreement had been taken out on December 12, 1986, with a balance of £1,328.87 and offered a final settlement payment of £132.89.

Tesla's Model X has grabbed headlines thanks to its outlandish falcon wing rear doors. But the Model X is, of course, about much more than the doors. This is Tesla's crack at the lucrative luxury family SUV market and so it needs to be comfortable, impressive and drive well. We put the electric SUV to a family test.

Across the country punitive business rates threaten the survival of many High Street stores, cafes and restaurants. Around 510,000 businesses face higher bills from next month. Some say the huge increases will force them to close, stripping our High Streets of vital services. Though bigger stores still pay more overall, business organisations say the smallest shops are forced to shoulder too much of the burden.

Online gambling firm GVC Holdings lifted shareholders’ spirits along with the market as it announced a second special dividend for the year. The 15.1 euro cents payout means a total for the year of 30 euro cents. The firm, whose brands include Sportingbet and Betboo, said group profits rose 26pc to £177m while revenue was up 8pc to £752m. Chief executive Kenneth Alexander hailed its £1.1bn purchase of rival Bwin in September 2015 after a heated bidding war with 888 Holdings Plc.

Sales in the DIY giant - which has stores in the UK, France, and other European countries - rose 2.3 per cent in the year to January 31. Total revenue was up 7.5 per cent to £11.2billion, while profit soared 38.2 per cent to £759million, but this was mainly driven by the fall in the pound since Britain's Brexit vote.

British products like Wall's ice cream, Johnnie Walker whisky and Jordans Country Crisp breakfast cereal are becoming staples in homes across the world? Bedfordshire-based Jordans, for example, is the second biggest- selling cereal brand in France, while Johnnie Walker owner Diageo is enjoying booming sales of whisky in countries such as Mexico.

The price of the average home in the UK rose by 0.8 per cent to £218,000 in January from the previous month and by 6.2 per cent, or £13,000, compared to January last year. The first UK house price index by the Land Registry and the Office for National Statistics, which is based on mortgage completions, shows that prices continued to rise despite fewer sales and 'moderate' demand as supply showed no sign of improvement.

The switch date of 1 September was missed after she moved into her cottage in Cumbria despite the previous owners already having a working BT line. Over the past six months she has been going back and forth with BT trying to get the line fitted.

When Britain's banks were near collapse in the 2008 banking crisis, we found a staggering £850billion to bail them out. Yet faced with what many believe is another emergency - a growing strain on the NHS - could we not find more money to support it? In this episode of the big money questions, economist Ann Pettifor offers her take on the conundrum.

Asking prices in the Midlands are rising faster on a monthly and annual basis than anywhere else in the UK. The latest monthly index from property listing website Rightmove showed that the average UK asking price for newly-listed homes increased by 1.3 per cent in March - but the East and West Midlands led the way, with rises of 2.1 per cent.

Investment advisers regularly regale us with ideas about where we should be putting our Isa money. But where do they invest? Jeff Prestridge asks five leading experts how they use their Isa allowance. (Pictured: Blackdown Financial director Neil Rossiter with his wife Lisa and children Libby and Evie).

The Swiss ski resort of St Moritz is a favourite among celebrities from Pippa Middleton and Claudia Schiffer to Angela Merkel, but it's notoriously hard for non-Swiss residents to buy property. One firm's found a - slightly convoluted - solution. We went to see what it was all about.

Interested in saving into a stocks and shares Isa but not sure which platform is for you? Boring Money's Holly Mackay run through some of the best stocks and shares Isa platforms for investors - from the time poor, to the cost conscious to the inexperienced.

Charlotte Gilmour was delighted when she stumbled across a perfect holiday property (top left) on popular bookings site Airbnb last month. She had been hunting long and hard for a place large enough to accommodate 11 family members for a trip to be paid for by her 86-year-old father as a treat. But the booking for which she handed over more than £5,000 turned out to be a sham. Fraudulent villa sites can also catch out holidaymakers (bottom left).

The Minor Investor column picks over the dividend heroes list to find some Steady Eddie investment prospects to choose over a cash Isa. These five investment trusts all have a decent dividend that's likely to keep rising - so as not to spoil their long-term records - and four can be bought for less than the sum of their parts.

This Easter, two out of five of us will pick up a paintbrush, hammer or power tool and tackle a do-it-yourself task around the home. The average spent on DIY by homeowners each year is £1,000, on everything from changing a lightbulb to decorating the bedroom or tiling the bathroom. This expenditure can more than pay for itself in the added value it brings to the home if the work is done well.

To clear the average national household debt of ?13,000 at 6% interest with a monthly repayment of ?100 will take around 17 years. There are, however, plenty of simple ways to make significant savings on your regular spending that could clear your debt - or boost your savings - in less than a year. This is Money's top 50 - updated - money-saving tips may appear light-hearted but are deadly serious.

Choosing the right DIY platform is crucial but a wealth of choice and changes to charges have left many investors scratching their heads. We pick some of the best. We also highlight why investing in an Isa makes sense, as it should protect your hopefully growing investments from tax forever.

The amount you can save into a pension ultimately depends on what you can afford - but the longer you leave it the more you will need to save. We tend to put ambitious targets on our hoped-for income in retirement and then underestimate how much we will need to set aside to achieve that. So how much should you save?

Inflation pushed up to a higher than expected 1.6 per cent in December, but pressure remains within the range that the Bank of England is expected to disregard in its interest rate decisions. Rate setters did not meet in January due to the shift from monthly decisions, the next MPC meeting and announcement is due in early February, alongside the Inflation Report.

Despite endless media coverage of the political wrangling and financial speculation, the average Briton can be forgiven for remaining confused about what 'soft' and 'hard' Brexit really mean. But a clever table put together by HSBC cleaves some clarity from the murk.

Compare your pay to the national average and see whether your employer treated you to a pay rise in line with the the rest of your profession. Farmers, care and air travel assistants were big winners on the pay scales in 2016. Travel agents, careers advisers and probation officers lost out.