MONEY MORSELS

Cash delivery

TESCO Bank is now offering to send cash free of charge to vulnerable customers who are selfisolating or shielding. Savings and personal current account customers can have a minimum of £20 and a maximum of £500 delivered to their home by Royal Mail Special Delivery.

Isa interest slump

THE average one and two-year cash Isa now pays less than 1 pc interest, says the data firm Moneyfacts. The average rate for a one-year fixed account has fallen from 1.01pc to 0.9pc since the new tax year began on April 6. Two-year rates were cut from 1.04 pc to 0.88 pc in the same month.

Advice surge

DEMAND for financial advice has risen during lockdown, according to deVere Group. The financial advice company says it has seen a 24pc rise in enquiries from new clients in April, compared to March. Nigel Green, its founder, says there was a similar increase after the 2008 crash.

Property problems

PROPERTY complaints rose by 20pc in 2019, compared to the year before, as stated in a new report. The Property Ombudsman, which handles disputes between customers and property agents, received 30,356 enquiries in 2019, with 5,106 becoming formal complaints.

Cards unblocked

VIRGIN Money has reinstated tens of thousands of credit cards following a major backlash. It is understood the lender had written to more than 30,000 customers last week to say they would no longer be able to use their cards, to reduce the chance they would suffer financial difficulty.

Fire claims on rise

LOCKDOWN has resulted in a spike in garden fires, with more families having barbecues and burning waste at home. Admiral said it received three times as many fire claims related to barbecues and bonfires in April compared to the same period in 2018, and 50 pc more than last year.

Lost pension pots

HUNDREDS of thousands of pension pots totalling £19.4billion have been ‘lost’ because savers have not notified their providers of a change of address, according to the Association of British Insurers. The average lost pot is worth around £13,000, the insurance trade body says.

£165m data wasted

HOUSEBOUND mobile phone users are sitting on 165 million gigabytes of unused data, worth £165 million in total, says Uswitch. The comparison site found that non-essential workers are using 500 megabytes less data a month than they did before lockdown. This is because they are using their home wifi instead.