MONEY MORSELS

New branches

NEWCASTLE Building Society plans to open four new branches by the end of this year, increasing its total from 27 to 31. The UK has lost a third of its bank branches in the past five years, according to a Which? report last month.

Savings risk

SAVERS risk losing up to 72 pc of their investment if they misplace their share certificates. Computershare charges £73 for reissuing a certificate worth £101. Equiniti would charge £65 for an investment of the same value.

Car cover hikes

CAR insurance now costs an average of £783 a year, up £23 since last year. Almost half of drivers who renewed their policy between July and September had their premiums hiked by £53, according to Confused.com. Legal transparency LAw firms may finally be subject to greater transparency after the Legal Ombudsman said it is consulting on whether to publish its decisions in full (as most other types of ombudsman do). The body says this would make clients better informed when choosing a lawyer.

Losing interest

THE number of credit cards with interest-free purchase offers has dropped by almost a third over the past two years. The length of time a borrower can benefit from these deals also fell from 32 months to 26 months over the same period, according to Defaqto.

Contactless craze

CONTACTLESS payments accounted for half of all debit card transactions in July, UK Finance figures show. A total of 647 million purchases were made using the tap-and-go technology, outstripping the combined number of PIN payments and online transactions for the first time.

Benefit review

THE Office of Tax Simplification has called for a review of Child Benefit amid concerns it is far too complicated — particularly for families earning more than £50,000 a year and at risk of an unexpected tax bill for unwittingly continuing to take the handouts when they were no longer entitled to them.

The advisory body also recommends the Government considers cases where families have lost out after moving in with a new partner.

Vodafone blunder

AROUND 40,000 Vodafone mobile phone users were wrongly billed up to £10,000 in roaming fees over the weekend. Paul Freegard, 60, was in Spain when he noticed he had been charged £9,100 for using just 2.7 megabytes.

Vodafone has apologised and says affected customers won’t have to pay the charges and will receive compensation.