MONEY MORSELS

Faster cheques

BANK customers will soon be able to pay in cheques and access the money within 24 hours after a new digital system was introduced this week. Customers will write paper cheques as usual. But when they take these to their bank or building society, the cashier will take a picture of it to send electronically to the relevant bank.

Pension passport

THE trial of a new ‘pension passport’ — giving savers a summary of the information they need to shop around for the best income options at retirement — resulted in a surge in people seeking help. The passport was sent to 1,000 customers of pension firm LV=, and prompted a tenfold increase in the likelihood of someone visiting

pensionwise.gov.uk (the free government advice service) and a 60 pc rise in people calling its information line (0800 138 3944).

M&S mortgages

M&S BANK will begin offering mortgages early next year. It has not yet announced its rates. The bank, which has 29 branches and more than 120 bureaux de change in M&S stores, offers current accounts, credit cards, loans, savings accounts and insurance.

Switching perk

TSB will pay customers a £130 bonus if they switch to its Classic Plus account via Moneysupermarket.com before December 4. Customers will get a further £125 if they set up at least two direct debits, make 20 debit card payments a month and keep at least £1,500 in the account until June 2018.

Fake deals

FAKE travel tickets, solicitor scams and pensions transfer frauds cost consumers more than £2.6 billion a year. Action Fraud, the national fraud database, says savers lost £2.5 billion in pension transfer scams in the past year. Fake holiday scams cost travellers £7 million a year, while fake solicitors steal more than £16 million a year from homebuyers.