Mrs Mean Money Show

It is the peak holiday booking season as we look forward to summer sunshine. But first of all you need to make sure you get a great deal for your flight, hotel, hire car and holiday money. And as soon as you book you must protect the dream with travel insurance.We tell you how to avoid being ripped off by hire car companies, which are the best days to travel, and how to avoid extra

Millions of credit card customers face a big increase in the cost of their borrowing, but many will not know. Barclaycard is reducing the minimum payments that customers will be charged from July. Someone owing £2,500 will have a minimum payment of £71. 21 from July down from £89.96 - an apparent saving of £18 a month. But this move alone increases the cost of paying off balanc

Children are very expensive, especially if you work. The government has increased the financial help it gives towards child care costs so that the parents of two-year-olds can now get a contribution towards the costs. But this is still likely to be a lot less than is needed. The official line is that two-year-olds are entitled to 15 hours free child care a week if the parents each

Loyalty is the latest tool that supermarkets use to lure us into their stores. Big signs and advertisements suggest we can save lots of money but in reality you need to take a calculator, check prices carefully on grocery websites and allow extra time if you are not going to be ripped off. Loyalty cards offer cheaper prices to customers who have them. But this loyalty is fickle and

April is the cruellest month when many of our household bills increase. The battle to tame inflation has not yet been won so we have to cut our household bills wherever possible. Even energy bills that are set to be reduced by 12% on April 1 are still more than twice what they were before Ukraine was invaded. So there is no better time to check all our household bills to find out w

It is crunch time for millions of homeowners whose fixed rate mortgages expire this year. They face much bigger monthly payments.After 14 interest rate increases over the last two years, and no sign from the Bank of England that there will be a reduction any time soon, many are fearful they could lose their homes, and may be putting off finding out just how bad the news is. It may

Succeeding in your A level exams is vital for the school students wanting to go to university this autumn. But almost as important, as their studies, is working out how they will afford to live whilst they are at university. The government has increased maintenance loans for undergraduates by 2.5% for students going to university this autumn. This comes after a 2.8% increase last y

Tax returns have been filed so it is now time to find out if there is any money that HMRC owes you, and the quicker you are the more you might get. The current tax year ends on April 5 and if you make a claim before then for an allowance you should have then you may be able to backdate the claim to 2019.And there is lots of money waiting for you to claim it. There are 2.1 million c

Insurance companies are competting to charge us more. The average homes' insurance policy already cost 36% more this year than last, before storms Babet, Ciaran and Debi damaged thousands of homes causing half a billion pounds worth of damage. And then came the even more powerful Henk.While the insurance companies will find reasons to increase our premiums we all need to make

Banks make billions a year by charging borrowers lots and paying savers little. Now with mortgage rates coming down as banks compete for customers savers have to be nimble if they are not going to lose out. Now is the time to find out whether you can get a better return on any savings you have. Banks are already reducing the interest they pay on deposits and have long paid little o