£ NOTES

RCI Bank (0330 2000 300) has increased its savings rates. Its easy-access Freedom Savings account now pays 1.2%, up from 1.1%; one-year fixed rate is up from 1.46% to 1.56%, and two-year fix is up from 1.71% to 1.81%. Charter Savings’ (0800 032 9999) one-year Cash ISA now offers 1.21% instead of 1.16%.

Stock up on beauty bits with this week’s Star Buys at Superdrug stores and superdrug. com – until July 25. Garnier Ultra Lift Night Cream is down to just £4 from £9.99, Pro Care Rechargeable Toothbrush is £10.99 instead of £24.99 and Joop Homme (125ml) has been reduced from £56 to £27.

TSB is introducing iris recognition to its mobile banking app in September – the first in Europe to use this form of biometric technology. Customers with a Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8+ smartphone will be able to log into their account simply by glancing at their phone.

Santander now has talking ATMs across its entire UK branch network. They enable blind and partially-sighted customers to plug earphones into a socket so they can hear instructions. Online electricals firm AO World has warned it faces “challenging” trading despite reporting a rise in sales.

Takings ticked up by 2.5% in the three months to June, even though that was against a strong period the same time last year. UK revenue rose 6.2%, while sales in Europe leapt 58%.

Vodafone saw its UK sales drop 4.5% to £1.5billion in the three months to July. Global sales fell 3.3% to £10bn, largely due to its Indian arm. Vodafone received the most complaints of any mobile phone operator from January to March, said regulator Ofcom.