August 2018

Budget airline Ryanair is changing its baggage policy for the second time this year – unless you pay at least £6 for priority boarding, you'll only be able to take one handbag-sized carry-on into the cabin on flights from 1 November.

Npower has apologised after sending a woman a £6,600 bill and threatening her with legal action – when the money was actually owed by someone else with the same name. Sarah, whose second name we've withheld so as not to identify her, received a letter from Npower last week marked 'FINAL NOTICE before legal action', which told her she owed the company £6,623.43 – even though her energy isn't supplied by Npower. When she received the bill, Sarah said she felt "physically sick" and struggled to get in touch with an Npower adviser – but after MoneySavingExpert stepped in, the company admitted the letter had been sent to the wrong person entirely, and was intended for one of its customers with the same name. It has now apologised and offered Sarah a goodwill payment. See our Energy mis-selling guide for how to complain if you've been left out of pocket by an incorrect energy bill.

Almost one million Scottish Power customers will see their gas and electricity bills rise by an average of 3.7% or £46 a year, after the firm announced its second price hike of the year.

Communications watchdog Ofcom has vowed to put a cap on "rip-off" 070 numbers which can cost consumers as much as £1.50 per minute.

Nottingham Building Society will launch its cash Lifetime ISA next Tuesday – making it only the second provider to offer this type of savings account, which offers a 25% bonus towards buying your first home or retirement.

A cricket fan saved £90 on a return train ticket to watch England's test match against India next week – by splitting his journey into 10 legs and printing out 26 paper tickets.

Virgin has revealed a major overhaul of its Flying Club loyalty scheme which it says will make it easier to earn reward flights and upgrades. The loyalty programme, part of the newly created Virgin Group Loyalty Company, will allow collectors to earn and spend Flying Club miles across Virgin-branded companies from next year. As the new scheme is still in its infancy, Virgin was unable to tell us the full details or provide a likely launch date other than at some point in 2019. But in theory you might be able to earn miles you can put towards a Virgin Trains journey or even a discount off its Virgin Media broadband services. Currently, Flying Club miles can be earned by spending on a Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card, opening a Flying Club savings account for a year, flying Virgin Atlantic or spending with various other partners. These can be used on reward flights, upgrades and companion tickets (for more, see below). For more information on the Virgin Atlantic Reward credit cards, see our Airline Credit Cards guide.

Banks must not automatically assume their customers are at fault if they're targeted by sophisticated scammers, the Financial Ombudsman Service has said.

Ryanair has apologised after sending cheques that bounced to passengers who were owed flight delay compensation.

Some travel insurers hiked premiums by up to 2000% for those who have severe mental health problems, the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute has revealed.