Money

A coalition of farmers, retail groups and food companies has this weekend issued a dire warning of the consequences of failing to secure a free trade agreement with Europe. As Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to trigger Article 50 on Wednesday signalling Britain's intention to leave the European Union, the group said failure to secure a free trade deal will damage the financial stability of an already struggling farming sector - and would force up prices on shelves.

Plummeting fixed rates look set to trigger a mortgage price war. But borrowers who are tempted by deals as low as 1 per cent or less are being urged to act fast as rising inflation - up to 2.3 per cent last week - could soon spell the end of super low interest rates.

Financial advisers typically recommend that workers maintain a rainy day accessible savings pot of 2-3 months' wages. At the estimated UK average salary of £27,000, that would be £4,500 to £6,750. The Lords Financial Exclusion Committee also condemned the 'scandal' of the poorest people being excluded from basic financial services - with more than 1.7million people in the UK having no bank account.

Digital Mums, which launched in 2014 to get mothers job-ready with in-demand social media and digital skills, is piloting a bursary scheme for those on low incomes to take part in the training. Founders Kathryn Tyler and Nikki Cochrane, who raised £285,000 from a consortium of investors - including David Kershaw and Jeremy Sinclair, chief executive and chairman respectively of advertising group M&C; Saatchi - plan to roll out the scheme this year.

Motorists who buy a car from April 1 onward will be clobbered with higher vehicle duty as part of a new tax grab by the Government - even if drivers are buying modest, low emission family cars. The move is part of Vehicle Excise Duty and was originally brought in by George Osborne as a way to combat emissions.

UK travellers wanting a bargain city escape should head to Cyprus, a Post Office study has found. Paphos is the cheapest destination out of 36 European cities for a two-night stay, meals and attraction fees. Vilnius, Lithuania, came second followed by Riga, Latvia.

Zak Brown gave up his dream of being a Formula 1 driver in 2000 and turned full time to marketing. But his current job is still pretty close to his boyhood fantasy. As group executive director at McLaren Technology Group, Brown is the figurehead of one of the most venerable names in motorsport, but it is also a wider technology company.

It's not a scam or spam or anything to worry about at all, says RICHARD BROWNING: just terrible communication and too few staff doing customer service.

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.

Maike Currie of Fidelity International explains how you can still transfer money into an 'Isa cash park' ahead of the April 6 deadline, and phase it into your chosen investments afterwards. You can also stash it there and do nothing for now, if you're really at a loss over where to invest in the current market climate.

The research looked at the cheapest models to own in 2016 against 2017. It found the cost per mile for the Peugeot 108 increased from 24p to 27p. The Toyota Aygo jumped by over 15 per cent from 24p to 28p over the same period. That means even the most affordable cars to run cost up to £2,800 on average to keep on the road, if you cover 10,000 miles a year.

Having a poor credit history prevents 40 per cent of those applying for credit cards, loans, mortgages or even a phone contract, according to research by BuddyLoans. Borrowers blame everything from the troubles of generation rent to the gig economy and the effects of having a child for their less-than-perfect scores.

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?

Profits at Next fell for the first time in eight years as the retailer admitted it had got its wrong by filling shops with fast fashion trends rather than wardrobe essentials. The chain, often seen as a High Street bellwether, saw its profits fall 3.8pc to £790.2m in the year to January - the first time they have dropped since the financial crisis. Chief executive Lord Wolfson pointed towards shift in consumer spending away from clothes and towards meals out and cinema trips, but he also admitted that Next had not stocked enough so-called 'heartland' products such as office trousers and blouses, focusing too much on snappy trend-driven designs.

What a start to the year it's been for Falcon Oil & Gas. Shares in the company are up almost 400 per cent so far in 2017 and the stock jumped again this week despite not releasing any news. The market is seemingly giving the explorer more credit for its potentially huge shale project in Australia's Northern Territory, with the shares rising 28 per cent to 23.7p in recent days. The project - which could be host to 82billion barrels of oil - has been hampered by a temporary ban on hydraulic fracturing, which is the necessary process to complete shale gas wells.

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.

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.

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.

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.