Money

So-called ‘smart’ energy meters designed to help households save money are making it harder for people to switch to cheaper deals. The meters are not always compatible between energy suppliers. It means that if you switch gas or electricity provider you may also need a new smart meter. Last month, The Mail on Sunday revealed that the £11 billion project to get 26 million homes to install high-tech meters is costing households an average £420 in higher energy bills. The meters allow users to watch in near-real time how much electricity and gas they are using in the home. They do away with bill estimates as readings are taken remotely by a supplier using radio waves. 

Instead of buying a new car outright and owning it, drivers of the new Swedish XC40 sports utility vehicle will have the option of paying an all-in fixed flat-rate monthly subscription of £629, which includes road tax, insurance, and scheduled maintenance - in the same way customers pay for their mobile phone service.

This week the team take a look at whether interest rates really could rise before the end of 2017 and what to do next with your mortgage rate. We also look into pension problems, talk about our collective energy switch and whether you should be excited about the new £10 note.

While the value of some used diesel cars might be in decline, there are some 'performance' diesels that are still great - even by today's standards - and could potentially rise in value. Clockwise from top left: VW Touareg V10 R50. Audi A4 B7 3.0 TDi Quattro, Peugeot RCZ HDi, Jaguar XF SDV6 275.

It was a family affair as chef Rick Stein, his business partner and ex-wife Jill and their three sons shared a £240,000 dividend last year. The payout, up from £150,000 the year before, reflects how far Stein’s fiefdom has grown since he and Jill opened The Seafood Restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall, in 1975.  Filings show each owns 38 per cent of the firm, while sons Edward, Jack and Charles own 8 per cent each.

The total figure for the year ending March 2017 was £239billion, down substantially from £273billion in the same period a year earlier, Office for National Statistics data revealed today. Separate figures published by HM Revenue & Customs today show the number of residential property transactions also fell 0.5 per cent between July and August.

Belatedly, it seems that the financial watchdog, Bank of England and MPs have woken up to this steadily growing pile of borrowing from our future. Their pledges to investigate and act are welcome but come a considerable time after they should have done - this is not a new problem.

Figures buried in an official report show banks are lending more money to borrowers who can barely afford to get on the property ladder than at any time since the financial crisis. These are classed as homebuyers who put down just 5 pent or 10 per cent as a deposit - and then borrow at least three and a half times their salary, or two and three-quarter times their salary for couples.

Former pensions minister Steve Webb was at This is Money HQ to answer readers' pension questions in a live web chat - or as we called it here at This is Money, a Webbchat. You can read the answers to his questions here.

My wife ordered three bridesmaid dresses from Amazon Marketplace costing £150.23 with postage. The colour was not as described and they were the wrong sizes. They were sent out on March 14 and we returned them to China on March 25. We sent them by Royal Mail's international signed for service, which cost £22.65 and insured the package for £150.

About 400,000 Ryanair passengers have had their flights cancelled at the last minute - ruining their hopes of a smooth autumn getaway. Here, we tell you how to handle the bookings chaos, protect your rights and make sure that your holiday doesn't get ruined...

Tougher times for Britain's small army of buy-to-let investors have seen the UK tumble down the rankings of the best places to invest in property in Europe. Research by payments firm WorldFirst ranked the average yields available on buy-to-let investments across Europe and found that Britain had fallen from 15th place in 2016 to 25th in the space of just 12 months.

Own a classic British car and panic each time you book it in for an MOT in fear it could cost you a small fortune in repairs? New rules confirmed by the Department for Transport last week say any car over 40 years old will not have to endure a roadworthiness examination. That means any car built before 1978 will be MOT exempt from May 2018. Here are 10 iconic British cars that fall into the 18-year window created by the rule change.

Pension and insurance deals could enter legal limbo, leaving British expats and other EU residents facing financial hardship if their payouts are cut off after March 2019. The threat to UK expats has prompted influential House of Commons Treasury committee chair Nicky Morgan MP to throw her weight behind industry calls for the issue to be addressed in the Brexit talks.

Parts of the UK appear to be turning into a buyer's paradise, with property prices across the country falling by an average of £3,360 in one month. In August, the average cost of a home in the UK was £313,663, compared to £310,003 this month, Rightmove's latest House Price Index reveals. Those at the top of the housing ladder are benefiting the most from the price drops, with average prices for homes in expensive areas like Kensington and Chelsea in London falling 14.3 per cent in one month to an average of £1,845,692.

Would you lose sleep over the amount you plan to invest if it got wiped out in a market crash? If your answer's 'yes, it would cripple me emotionally and financially', think again about whether you're ready to invest. So, what amount of seed money is ideal, how long should you be prepared to lock it away, and what should the general state of your finances be before you enter the world of investing.

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?

Worries over debt in the economy have been raised in the latest bank Financial Stability Report in the wake of fresh speculation that interest rates may rise sooner than most expect. The latest MPC meeting led one investment bank, Nomura, to suggest a rate rise could come as soon as August. Economist George Buckley said comments from Bank chief economist Andy Haldane's and the 5-3 split made an early move more likely.

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.