NOTES

Parents coughed up £151million in fines over the past 12 months for late pick-ups from nursery, school and childminding services. Research from Direct Line reveals busy working parents have been late on average three times and been charged £25.10. But 259,000 have paid out more than £100. Many fines are on the clock with charges ticking up at £1 every minute, while others can be a £50 flat fee.

Interest on savings accounts with variable rates has risen for the fifth month running for the first time in almost a decade. Analysis from data firm Moneyfacts shows the average easy access rate has risen from 0.4% in October, 2017, to 0.62% this month – the first time it’s stood at 0.6% or higher since April 2016.

A total of 945 data breaches in the first six months of this year led to 4.5billion records being compromised and people put at risk from fraudsters. The most recent major hack was at Google+ which caused the web giant to shut down the site.