'I've made an offer on a house, but friends say that if the Government offers a temporary respite on stamp duty, I could save nearly £11,000 and take out a smaller mortgage. Is it too much of gamble?' TM, Milton Keynes, by email

 read more

It is not just in Beijing that Britons have struck gold. In what has been a bleak couple of years for investors, the most precious of precious metals has been a runaway success.

 read more

The clock is ticking for those people who have money sitting in dormant bank accounts. Next year, the Government plans to siphon off an estimated £400m held in accounts that have seen no customer activity for the past 15 years and use it to fund youth projects and other good causes.

 read more

It's a music lover's worst nightmare. You have paid out hundreds of pounds to a third party for your spot at a sell-out event. But your tickets never arrive, or you arrive at the venue only to be told your tickets are fake and are turned away.

 read more

In a little over a week's time, thousands of Britons will become the proud owners of a brand new 58-registration car. But in these days of the credit crunch and record-high oil prices, the decision to buy a new car is made as much with the head as with the heart.

 read more

Everyone knows the statistics by now: property prices have fallen almost 10 per cent in the past year and the market is at its quietest since the 1970s. More gloomy figures published on Tuesday by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) show an average of 192 buyers registered on estate agents' books in July, which compares with a peak of 620 in those hazy property days of summer 2003.

 read more

Q. On 18 July at 6.50am, easyJet emailed me to say its winter schedule for London had been issued. I went to its Holidays page to try to book for Christmas but there was nothing later than 1 November. Yet when I checked the airline's Flights page a few hours later, I found flights had been available for some time – and my chosen dates had already shot up from £50 return to more than £335. How can this be fair practice? JR,London

 read more

From the value of our homes to the price of a pint at the local pub, we all know that where we live affects our living costs. But your postcode can also affect your pocket in less obvious ways. Companies are increasingly using precisely where you live in the country to pigeonhole you and your lifestyle, using the information to determine how much you will pay for everything from your car insurance to your pension.

 read more

To what extent should consumers be held responsible for their actions? If a bank lends me more money than I can afford – and I blow it all and end up bankrupt – is it their fault for being an irresponsible lender, or mine for asking for it in the first place?

 read more

The market price of natural gas leapt by 15 per cent on Wednesday, after the news broke that a leak had been found in a key Norwegian pipeline which supplies the UK. It could mean yet more bad news for British consumers, many of whom have already seen energy prices hiked twice since the start of 2008, and who may now be facing a third rise before the end of the year.

 read more

Benjamin Francis, 23, from Brighton is a recent graduate with significant debts and no savings. He is worried because he has no financial buffer, but struggles to save anything. "I am concerned that I have no savings set aside for a rainy day," he says. "Especially in the current economic climate.

 read more

Q. I bought eight rail tickets from the First Great Western ticket office at Stroud station in March to be used for a holiday with friends a month later. I didn't notice at the time that the clerk only gave me six tickets – I was on my way to a funeral and was upset. I contacted First Great Western about this when I realised and it told me to buy the extra two tickets and it would make a refund. But when I made the claim it would not refund these extra two tickets, because these had been used and it says it can only refund unused tickets. The cost of the two replacement tickets was £106.60, because it was now too late to purchase advance tickets. Instead, First Great Western has sent me £43 of vouchers for the unused tickets. PK, Gloucestershire.

 read more

A few weeks ago, the Chelsea and England midfielder Frank Lampard signed a deal that will make him the highest paid football player in British history. The £150,000 salary that he will command every week is more than the average UK citizen will earn in five years – an indication of how much money now swills around in the world of football.

 read more

For my sins, I once held a few shares in a retailer called Upton & Southern. It was transmogrified into a headhunter with the rather more impressive title of Constellation Corporation, and then, following an extensive capital reorganisation, re-emerged under the name Garner.

 read more

Conflict between nations often puts a dent in investor sentiment. This was in evidence recently when the Russian market reacted very negatively to the conflict in South Ossetia.

 read more

Looking over my bank statements, I couldn't quite figure out what had happened. Where had my money gone? I'd been so well behaved, what with limiting my cash withdrawals, taking my own lunch in to work and buying things second-hand. But still I was broke. Again.

 read more

Two of the UK's "big six" energy firms hiked gas and electricity prices today - adding to the misery for millions of hard-pressed households.

 read more

Mortgage lending increased slightly during July but remained well down on the level recorded a year ago, figures showed today.

 read more

My partner and I are close to buying a property, but we're very confused by the various housing indices reporting different price falls – some say we're 10 per cent lower compared to last year yet others suggest between 6 and 8 per cent. One index suggested last week that prices in London had risen! Why is it so different? TT, Bath

 read more

Britain's growing number of financial comparison websites are misleading consumers, often failing to provide users with the cheapest insurance quotes or best value financial products, in spite of claims that they can save their customers thousands of pounds.

 read more