Jaguar Land Rover is offering £150 a month towards the cost of insurance to help drivers cope with rising premiums amid a spike in thefts. Read this and the rest of today’s consumer and personal finance below – and leave a comment on any of the stories we’re covering.
Wednesday 8 May 2024 19:05, UK
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Wetherspoons has revealed it is seeing soaring demand for Guinness among younger drinkers.
The Irish stout has become “fashionable” among younger generations, according to JD Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin, who has also seen a rise in ale sales.
Wetherspoons, which runs 809 pubs across the UK, said like-for-like sales increased 5.2% over the 13 weeks to 28 April compared with a year earlier, with total sales up 3.3%.
The company has now said it expects annual profits to be “towards the top of market expectations”.
Toyota has warned it faces an impending drop in income after it was forced to cut down production to address a safety scandal.
The carmaker, which is the world’s largest by sales, had a record net profit of 4.94trn yen (£25.5bn) in the year to March.
But earlier this year it became embroiled in a scandal after it emerged one of its subsidiaries had cheated on safety tests.
The Japanese government subsequently ordered the supplier, Daihatsu Motor Co, to halt production of its entire line-up.
Toyota has now warned net income will fall 27.8% this financial year to 3.57trn yen because of investments.
Morrisons has acquired 38 convenience stores and six fuel forecourts in the Channel Islands.
They are located on the islands of Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney.
The supermarket acquired the stores from its long-time partner SandpiperCI.
More than 500 employees from Sandpiper CI will be transferred across.
Underwhelming box office performances have signalled cinemagoers might be starting to tire of superhero films.
And now Disney has announced it will cut its output of Marvel content, moving to two television series and three films per year.
The company’s chief executive, Bob Iger, said Disney would “reduce output and focus more on quality” particularly when it came to Marvel.
Some 33 Marvel films have been released since 2008, but recent releases such as The Marvels and the latest Ant-Man film have underperformed.
The Marvels was the lowest grossing film in the franchise’s history, generating just £165m – less than its budget of £219m.
At the same time, Disney Plus revealed worse-than-expected subscriber numbers and a slowdown in its traditional broadcast television business.
Its shares dropped 8.5% in morning trading.
Brighton Palace Pier is introducing a £1 admission fee.
It has been implemented to cover the rising costs of maintaining, repairing and operating the 125-year-old structure, The Brighton Pier Group said.
The group said in the last five years the annual cost had risen to £11.6m.
The admission fee will come into force from 25 May and will apply weekends in June and then the whole of July and August.
It will not apply to locals or children under two.
Anne Ackord, chief executive of Brighton Palace Pier, said: “We have, to date, been able to offset and absorb these costs but we have now reached the point where, in our view, it is sensible to implement a small admission charge.”
She said the fee would help the pier be “with us for generations to come”.
Jaguar Land Rover is offering £150 a month towards the cost of insurance to help drivers cope with rising premiums.
The company announced the initiative will help those who own cars covered under its in-house insurance division that are registered between 1 May 2023 and 30 September 2023.
In order for it to apply, the vehicle cannot be worth more than £150,000.
If your car is eligible, Jaguar Land Rover has said it will make the contribution for up to three years.
It comes after the company launched Land Rover Insurance in October after reports suggested car thefts were pushing up the costs offered by mainstream providers.
“Customers of luxury cars and other luxury items are experiencing an increase in thefts due to organised criminal activity in the UK,” a spokesperson said at the time.
“The desirability of our luxury vehicles, coupled with concerns around thefts, has recently led to challenges in obtaining insurance cover for some clients.”
An airline entirely dedicated to dogs is arriving in the UK next month – but it will cost you more than £6,000 for you and your pet to enjoy it.
Bark Airlines will start by flying two routes – from London to New York and New York to LA. But it is hoping to add more to its roster soon.
During the flights, your pooch will be given free access to roam the plane and will be provided with treats, as well as a beverage of their choice during ascent and descent to help with the change in pressure.
On its website, Bark Airlines brags about being the first of its kind due to it being built “from the ground up” for dogs.
The experience is very high end, with a concierge greeting you and your dog before the flight, a free pass through security and only 10 people per flight.
The cabin also comes prepped with pheromones, music and lavender scented towels to help keep the beloved pets calm.
A “just in case” bag is provided too, filled with leashes, poo bags and snacks.
However, it comes with a hefty price tag of £6,400 for a one way ticket and under-18s are not allowed on board.
Money struggles are forcing more than half of new mothers to return to work earlier than planned, according to a survey.
Weekly statutory maternity pay and maternity allowance are now worth less than half the £400.40 minimum wage for a working week.
Maternity Action, which spoke to more than 1,000 new mothers, found 62% rely on credit cards or borrowing from friends when pregnant or on maternity leave.
Meanwhile, 59% have either returned or are planning to return to work earlier than preferred after the birth because of money worries.
At least one mother described how it would take “years” for her to recover financially from the cost of maternity leave.
Just 13% of women on maternity leave benefit from employers’ occupational maternity pay schemes, down from 44% in 2008, according to government research.
Some are unable to claim statutory maternity pay due to self-employment.
Ros Bragg, director of Maternity Action, said: “The low levels of maternity pay and benefits come as a huge shock to many trying to start families.
“We’ve heard from women skipping meals, relying on food parcels and becoming anaemic because they can’t buy healthy food.”
The French capital is about to raise the cost of public transport – impacting any city-breakers or those heading to the Paris Olympics this summer.
Metro ticket prices will rise by more than 85% from 20 July, jumping from €2.15 (£1.85) for a single ticket to €4 (£3.43).
The price for a city bus ticket will double from €2.50 (£2.15) to €5 (£4.29).
It comes into force six days before the start of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and will remain in place until 8 September.
The price of transport passes will stay the same, meaning regular travellers such as residents should be unaffected.
To avoid the extra cost, you could buy a weekly travel pass.
These are priced at €30.75 (£26.39) for zones 1 to 5 while a Navigo Day Pass costs €8.65 (£7.42) to travel across two zones.
Tourists can also buy a Paris Pass which is aimed at people travelling for the Olympics and Paralympics.
The banking group has said some of its branches will close starting in September and continuing until May next year.
Job cuts will be in the fraud operations department of the bank, central operations and staff who work at the branches earmarked for closure.
After this round of closures, TSB will have 175 branches across the UK.
It announced earlier this year it would make cost-saving plans including cutting jobs and closing branches.
Trade union Unite said the decision by the UK high street lender was a “grave mistake”.
“The decision to close a branch is never taken lightly, but our customers are now doing most of their banking digitally and we need to move to a better balance of digital and face-to-face services,” a spokesperson for TSB said.
“We remain committed to a national branch network and through innovation and integration with video, telephone, digital, branch and other face-to-face services TSB customers have more ways to bank with us than ever before.”
See the list of closures here…
A new savings account is offering customers a rate of 5.2% AER – making it a market leader.
Raisin UK has partnered with Al Rayan Bank to offer the one-year Fixed-Term Deposit account.
Those who deposit £1,000 can expect to have £1,052.00 in their account by the end of the year.
The minimum deposit is £1,000, while the maximum is £85,000.
Customers will not be able to withdraw from the account for the year.
It is operated under Shariah principles, meaning interest cannot be earned but some of the profit the bank earns will be returned to you – meaning you can grow your savings without earning interest.
Anna Bowes, co-founder of Savings Champion, tells the Money blog…
“It’s good to see that although the markets are expecting the base rate to fall in the near future, the anticipated date for this keeps being pushed back, and this seems to have stimulated a little bit of competition among some savings providers – in particular fixed-term bonds – pushing rates upwards.
“This latest increase from Al Rayan Bank, available both directly and via the Raisin UK cash platform, is exactly what we like to see, and hopefully it will create a little more competition from other providers – pushing rates further in the right direction.”
Anna points out this rate can be beaten with shorter fixes but in that instance “you’ll need to find another home for your money on maturity, so fixing for a bit longer could actually realise more of a return in the end”.
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