Money blog: Liam Gallagher jokes about Oasis ticket prices in foul-mouthed social media posts (2024)

Visa says it is planning a new service which offers more control and better protection to people paying bills by bank transfer.

The dedicated service for account-to-account (A2A) payments will launch early in the UK next year, it said - with an "easy to use" resolution service that could make it easier for customers to claw their money back if something goes wrong.

Visa said consumers using the service will be able to monitor their payments more easily and raise any issues by clicking a button in their banking app, giving them a similar level of protection to when they use their cards.

Biometrics will also be incorporated to offer a new level of security, it added.

Royal Mail is hiking the price of first class stamps again - this time by 30p.

From 7 October, they will increase to £1.65, while second class stamps will remain at 85p.

In April, first class stamp prices increased by 10p to £1.35, and by 10p to 85p for second class.

Royal Mail said it had sought to keep price increases as low as possible in the face of declining letter volumes, inflationary pressures and the costs of maintaining the Universal Service Obligation, under which deliveries have to be made six days a week.

It added that letter volumes have fallen from 20 billion in 2004/5 to around 6.7 billion a year in 2023/4.

This means the average household now receives four letters a week, compared to 14 a decade ago.

In the same period, the number of addresses Royal Mail must deliver to has risen by four million, meaning the cost of each delivery has also risen.

Nick Landon, Royal Mail's chief commercial officer, said: "We always consider price increases very carefully.

"However, when letter volumes have declined by two-thirds since their peak, the cost of delivering each letter inevitably increases."

He called for the universal service to be adapted to reflect changing customer preferences, saying the financial cost to meet the current demands are "significant".

"The universal service must adapt to reflect changing customer preferences and increasing costs so that we can protect the one-price-goes anywhere service, now and in the future," he added.

Postal regulator Ofcom said this week that Royal Mail could be allowed to drop Saturday deliveries for second class letters under an overhaul of the service.

Up to 60 new Wagamama restaurants could be coming to the UK.

The Asian food chain's owner, The Restaurant Group (TRG), said it wanted to operate between 200 and 220 premises across the country as part of a long-term plan.

It's currently on track to open 10 new sites this year, which would create around 500 jobs, according to The Caterer.

It comes as TRG posted its financial results for the year ending December 2023.

It said Wagamama saw its dine-in like-for-like sales increase by 11%.

It's other brand, Brunning and Price Pubs, saw sales go up by 10%.

TRG's chief executive Andy Hornby said 2023 was a "genuinely transformational" year for the company.

"We traded strongly throughout the year thanks to the phenomenal efforts of our restaurant and pub teams," he said.

"We are on track to open 10 more Wagamama sites in the UK during 2024 and we have acquired 100% ownership of our Wagamama business in the USA."

He added that he was "confident" that the company would continue to grow in the years ahead, despite the "challenging" consumer backdrop.

Amazon has announced it will boost pay for tens of thousands of its UK workers by nearly 10%.

The online retail giant said the minimum hourly wage for frontline staff would rise to between £13.50 to £14.50, depending on their location. For those with 36 months' service, the increase will be to between £13.75 and £14.75 an hour.

Amazon said the pay rise was worth at least 9.8% and will come into effect on 29 September.

However, GMB, the union representing Amazon workers, said the move was "too little too late" from bosses who have been "forced to act by workers' industrial action".

Amazon workers in the UK have staged a series of strikes recently, including a walkout of hundreds of staff at the site in Coventry in March.

The company said it has invested £550m in increased pay for UK operations employees since 2022, representing a 35% increase in the hourly rate over the period.

Amazon UK's country manager John Boumphrey said: "Our frontline employees across the UK Operations network are a huge part of the success of our business and we appreciate everything they do to deliver for our customers."

One of the Big Four accounting firms has told staff it will start monitoring their office attendance in a bid to increase in-person working.

PwC UK told employees that it will be sending out working location data every month to track their attendance, according to the Financial Times.

The policy will be introduced from January to give people time to plan.

The company told Sky News that it had adjusted its hybrid working approach and staff were now required to spend at least three days a week with clients or in the office.

Previously, they were expected to come in at least two days a week.

Laura Hinton, managing partner at PwC UK, said face-to face working was "hugely important" to the firm's operation.

"This feels right for our business and right for our people, given our focus on client service, coaching, and learning and development," she added.

"At the same time, we continue to offer flexibility through hybrid working."

IKEA customers could get their hands on a free breakfast as well as money off their shopping this weekend - as long as they turn up in their pyjamas.

The furniture retailer is offering a coupon for £15 off £50 and a cooked breakfast to anyone who rocks up at their stores in their PJs on Saturday.

You have to be an IKEA Family member to benefit from the offer, however it's free to sign up and can be done online.

According to IKEA's terms and conditions, pyjamas are "soft, loose clothing comprising of the following elements: trousers (or shorts) and a shirt which are worn to bed".

It said it would determine what constitutes pyjamas on the day.

Aside from its store in Hammersmith, London, where only breakfast rolls will be available, customers will be able to grab one of the following meals:

• Free small cooked breakfast
  
• Free small vegetarian breakfast
• Free children's breakfast if aged 16 and under
• Free bacon breakfast roll
• Free sausage breakfast roll
• Free vegetarian breakfast roll

Breakfasts have to be redeemed between 9.30am and 11am.

Reality star Gemma Collins has urged the nation to "pay attention" to their pensions after revealing she did not have one - until today.

The 43-year-old TV personality has joined a campaign encouraging people to take stock of the funds they will have later in life.

She told Sky News: "I myself haven't got a pension. I'm self-employed. I was just like the nation needs to wake up.

"It's September, we're all taking stock of our lives again, we're having that life admin moment and we really need to be paying some attention to our pensions.

"Before we know it, we're going to be old and we're not going to have any money."

The Only Way Is Essex star added: "If I urge the nation to do anything today, it's to pay some attention to your pension, and that's coming from me, the GC."

She explained that she probably had "racked up" some form of automatic pension due to working multiple jobs when she was younger, but she "wasn't aware of them" until she was approached by the campaign.

"I'm definitely putting in my pension from today, and I'm so excited. It's the best decision I've ever made," she added.

Pension Attention is an industry-led engagement campaign co-ordinated by the Association of British Insurers and the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association.

A survey for the campaign found just 23% of people have organised their finances for later life.

The campaign is encouraging people to find out if they have any lost pension savings, log into and check pension accounts and consider how much they will need for retirement

Mark Smith, spokesman for the Pension Attention campaign, said: "Most working people in the UK have a pension, but many don't know how to find information about these savings.

"We're asking all UK adults to think about where their pensions are, what's in them and to ensure that things like names and addresses are up to date."

In a major U-turn, John Lewis has brought back a scheme that will see it price match 25 of its biggest competitors.

The high street giant has said around 30,000 prices will change next week as it reintroduces its "never knowingly undersold" price pledge.

The commitment had been in place since 1925 - but it was ditched two years ago over concerns it was less relevant to shoppers.

It's return aims to boost its value perception among customers and will affect priced offered in-store and online.

The brands being matched on price are:

• AO.com
• Amazon (on technology)
• Apple
• Argos
• Asos
• Boots
• Currys
• Dunelm
• Dreams
• The Entertainer
• Fenwick
• Flannels
• Furniture Village
• Harrods
• Harvey Nichols
• Heal's
• House of Fraser
• Lakeland
• M&S
• Mama's and Papa's
• Next
• Richer Sounds
• Selfridges
• Smyths Toys
• Space NK

Bosses said the pledge will be backed by its largest marketing investment to date, with a significant advertising campaign also launching on Monday.

Peter Ruis, who was appointed boss of the retail business in January, said improvements in technology mean that they can operate a "better" version of the scheme.

"Customers have recognised our quality but there were questions over whether our value offer has been sharp enough in some areas," he said.

"The pricing mechanism we had before wasn't fit for purpose so changing that has absolutely been the right thing.

"What we are doing now, and what the technology is enabling us to do, is really different, and customers will see the benefit of that."