Money

It's only when you climb inside Ford's new Focus hatchback and drive it that you realise what a cracking family car this really is. If you stuck a premium Audi badge on this then people would be raving about it. But because it carries the familiar everyman blue oval Ford badge, the care and engineering attention to detail that has gone into the new Ford Focus can be easily overlooked. Here's why it should make you rethink buying that Audi or BMW.

A Jaguar XJS being sold at auction next month with just 840 miles on the clock has proved that sticking a potential future classic in storage for 28 years can backfire. Despite having barely been used in a conscious effort to safeguard it in the hope that values would spiral as a future classic, the high estimated auction figure is less than half the adjusted original price of £81,014.

More than one million couples in the UK are missing out a tax break that could improve their finances by up to £900 – just because they don’t spend a few minutes filling in an online form. Those married and civil partnered couples are eligible for the Marriage Allowance worth up to £238 per year, according to HM Revenue and Customs. They can also receive backdated claims of up to £662 as a lump sum

This is the moment when country cottages - roses blooming bountifully around front doors, bees buzzing, birds singing - are looking their absolute best. Wouldn't we all like to be in the garden of one on this broiling week? Tourists with some cash in the bank understandably snap them up across the country, from the cob and thatch of the West Country to the half timbered variety of the Welsh Borders to the glowing golden stone of the Cotswolds

There's little in life more frenzied than booking a hotel online. You could be planning an off peak trip to the back end of nowhere and it seems there'd still be an inordinate number of people looking at the same hotel as you that very minute. The competition watchdog said today it's worried about 'pressure selling' and tactics to rush customers into making a booking decision. But while I find it annoying, I wonder whether it's exactly what I want out of a hotel booking website.

One in three over-65 homeowners are considering downsizing in the next five years, but for many a lack of appropriate housing makes this impossible. More than 620,000 over-65 homeowners say they have looked into downsizing but cannot find a suitable home in their area while another 500,000 say they've considered moving but would not be better off financially as a result.

The claimed answer to Britain's housing crisis is for developers to pull their fingers out and get many more properties built, with the belief that if you build it, low prices will come. Except the answer is not that simple. And this week, the Letwin Review said developers deliberately build slowly so as to not bring down house prices.

The new beastly branch, opened last month, is thought to be the largest in the country and comes at the time of an 'alarming' rate of bank closures. This is Money took an exclusive look around - including its feature, safety deposit boxes accessed by fingerprint.

Magnitude Finance, which has 13 of the 23-man England squad as clients, said it has been preparing numerous vehicle finance packages for players and their wives and girlfriends ready for when the tournament ends. This includes the Bentley Continental GT (inset left) and Lamborghini Urus SUV (inset right).

'It's a question of working out who's got a good business model, who makes a profit, who's borrowed too much money and has a balance sheet that will evaporate at the first sign of trouble.' David Miller, investment director at Quilter Cheviot, and a committed stock picker with decades of experience gives us his tips on buying shares..

Shares in the carrier, which trades on London's junior stock exchange and offers budget flights across a number of African countries, soared 136 per cent after it said it would secure $12m (£9.1m) of emergency funding. The firm, dubbed the Easyjet of Africa, said the fresh funds will provide it with 'sufficient working capital for the remainder of 2018', having warned on Wednesday that it had burned through more than half its remaining cash in a month.

Back in the Nineties, I bought a fund called Jupiter Income. I'm sure many of you bought it, too. It was at the top of the performance tables by some distance. It continued to fly for a few years, until the manager and market conditions changed. But it delivered a handsome profit before I sold it.

John and Dell Lavers, from Plymouth, have only used the online retail giant to buy inexpensive items, such as a mobile phone cover, a watch strap and a few CDs. But, when checking their bank statements in January last year, they noticed a rogue payment of £194.59 for an Amazon order they didn't recognise. The couple immediately alerted their bank, Lloyds.

The tumultuous collapse of BHS in 2015 marked just the beginning of a grim episode, during which Debenhams' market value has crashed to just £218m and House of Fraser has been forced to call time on half its stores.

Angelgate, near Manchester, was part of a drive to bring high-end housing to cities in the North. Some 320 buyers handed over £33m but the plot pictured yesterday(bottom right) is an abandoned building site. Among the victims were Gabriel Ward, bottom, who paid a £3,000 reservation fee for his Angelgate flat in January 2015 and Mehdi Sadeghian spent £5,000 to reserve a £150,000 two-bedroom flat.

Airbnb, the home-sharing website, is allowing properties to be listed in places such as New York, Singapore, Japan and parts of Spain, where many short-term holiday lettings have been restricted or banned. Tourists are arriving at properties to find 'No Airbnb' signs posted inside the buildings, security guards who want to interrogate them and a hostile reception from other residents.

The new lean and mean £225,000 DBS Superleggera accelerates from rest to 62mph in just 3.4 seconds and takes its inspiration from Aston Martin's beefy long distance cruising models which over nearly fifty years have been driven on the big screen by British secret agent 007.

During the divorce the assets except his pension were amicably split 50/50. As this was his only income my wife agreed that he could keep the pension. But this was a private agreement and was made without any expectation that he would be diagnosed with cancer and die only a few years later. Does my wife have a legal claim on the pension?

Virgin Money has today launched a savings account which offers its interest in air miles with the Virgin Atlantic airline. The bank hopes to lure savers into the one-year fix with 1,400 Flying Club miles for each £1,000 saved, instead of traditional interest.

Everyone remembers their first motor - they're usually old, well used and flirting with the big scrapyard in the sky. These are the 10 models you're most likely to find if you are searching for a car for less than £1k. From top, left to right: Ford Fiesta, Renault Clio, Nissan Micra, Vauxhall Corsa, Renault Megane, Ford Ka.

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee kept interest rates on hold at 0.5 per cent, in spite of forecasts of a 90 per cent chance of a rise just three weeks ago. Policymakers voted 7-2 for a hold, with the two members who called for a rise saying that they believed there were 'upside risks' for inflation.

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.