PPI policies were sold to people who had mortgages, loans or credit cards. These policies were mainly sold by the banks, but some other firms had been selling them too.

The authorities have indicated that they will be monitoring finance firms for any new and potentially damaging PPI policies that may emerge. They have also indicated that they will use their powers to prevent these loan insurance policies from being sold if they are found to be damaging to customers’ interests.

Earlier this year, the banks were…

She hinted that plans to bring in some kind of pricing regulation for alcohol was still under consideration between the Treasury and the Department of Health. However, she appeared to rule out minimum pricing per unit as this may be seen as illegal under EU law.

Diane Abbot, the shadow health minister, said that minimum pricing had been introduced in Scotland and should also be introduced in England.

The government’s draft proposals on minimum pricing have previously been criticised as the set prices were thought to be too low to have any effect. The final proposals will be published within the next 2-3 months.
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In a move that EU ministers hope will protect consumers, websites will not be allowed to ‘pretick’ any of the check boxes in their online forms if they would result in additional charges. This will prevent customers entering into so-called ‘cost traps’, where they are lured by the promise of something that is free, or are given a price which then increases when pre-ticked boxes are applied for additional fees.

For example, low-cost airlines cannot be sold with a pre-selected add-on amount for travel insurance which the customer must deselect themselves. Services which provide free mobile games…

In the first half of 2011, the amount of petrol consumed by British drivers has fallen. Drivers used 1.7 billion less litres of petrol and diesel than was consumed in the first half of 2008. This represents a 15% reduction in petrol consumption following the credit crunch and recession.

Environmental campaigners have welcomed the news. It is estimated that the reduction in fuel consumption will have saved approximately 4 tonnes of CO2 emissions from exhaust fumes.

This is the equivalent to the amount of CO2 which 0.5% of the total number of broadleaf trees in the UK are able…

Privately offering the procedures, known as ‘stem cell breast augmentations’, has been condemned by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. The surgery is currently being trialled in five NHS centres around the UK.

However, stem cell breast surgery is being offered by private doctors in the UK already, despite the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons advising caution. It is thought that two Harley Street clinics have already treated more than 200 women between them.…

Tesco says it will be focusing on reducing the prices of everyday goods on the shelf from Monday 26th September, 2010. More than 3,000 products have already been discounted, including 14p off certain types of bread and 35p off a kilo of potatoes.

The move is thought to be in response to poor performance as Tesco’s dominance in the UK supermarket price war begins to slip.

The Clubcard scheme is hugely popular and now has more than 15 million members in the UK alone. Members can scan a barcode on a card, keyring or on the…

At present, Ryanair charges a card processing fee of up to £6 per person per flight when a customer books online. This means a family of four would pay almost £45 on top of the cost of their flights, purely in debit or credit card processing fees.

Up until now, customers could use a pre-paid Mastercard from any provider to avoid the fee.

Popular pre-paid cards include the Caxton and FairFX travel money cards. The airline says that as many as 25% of their customers now use pre-paid…

Mr Duncan Smith has suggested that the timetable for this rise in the state pension age, which was set by the previous Labour government, is too slow and the coalition government may bring the dates forward.

Although a decision on whether to change these plans has not yet been made, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have indicated that they are considering using an automated mechanism to control the rise in the state pension age, to the dismay of charities in the UK.

Some campaigners have…

The Which? super complaint was submitted to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) which is responsible for enforcing consumer protection law and competition law.

The complaint called for the OFT to investigate the excessive surcharges. At the end of June, the OFT proposed a ban on the surcharges, indicating that an amendment to the current Payment Services Regulations, controlled by the Treasury, would be an easy way to implement the change.

However, despite recommendations to put an end to these surcharges, the government have yet to take action,…

The tax agreement means that any British residents with money held in Swiss bank accounts will now face a tax charge from 2013.

The money held in the accounts will face an initial one off ‘clear the slate’ tax levy in January 2013. This charge will vary depending on how long the account has been held and the balance of the account up to December 2010. The amount of the charges will be between 19% and 34% and the account holders will be able to retain their anonymity.

Once the initial charge has…