Financial news

• Will mobile health apps make GPs redundant?

  16-04-2016 12:32
  
  Most of the 165,000 mobile health apps available offer advice on diet and fitness but new ones are diagnosing illness and recommending treatmentYou have a fever, can’t eat and you’re barely strong enough to get out of bed. So you phone your GP surgery for an appointment, only to be told that the first one is two weeks away.
  It probably sounds familiar. But could technology offer an alternative? A mobile app, Your.MD, is promising something radically different. Billed as a personal he
  
  Read more

• What insurance is best for a self-employed decorator?

  16-04-2016 08:00
  
  I fell off a ladder and can’t work for six months, and want protection in the futureEvery week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper.This week’s question: I’m a self-employed decorator, but after a bad injury from falling off a ladder, I won’t be able to work for about six months. I never bought insurance so now I’m broke. What do
  
  Read more

• Vodafone messes up my direct debit, then issues a late payment charge

  16-04-2016 08:00
  
  I was promised the charge would be removed, but it never happenedVodafone has completely messed up my direct debit. I had a two-year contract on my mobile phone which expired in September 2015. I had been paying the bill by monthly direct debit, but for reasons not apparent to me, towards the end of the contract the direct debit did not go through and for seven months, from September to March, I kept receiving automated text messages saying I had failed to pay my bill. There was also a late paym
  
  Read more

• Thought you were too old to get a mortgage? Now you can have one at 95

  16-04-2016 08:00
  
  A deal with a cut-off age of 95 has been hailed as a ‘massive shot in the arm for the mature borrower market’Think you’re too old for a mortgage? Think again. Guardian Money can reveal details of a new home loan you can have until you are 95.As the name suggests, the 55+ Mortgage is exclusively for over-55s and is being described as “a flexible way to borrow money in later life”. This isn’t an equity release deal – it’s a standard mortgage where yo
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Stamp duty U-turn brings tax relief for ‘granny flat’ buyers

  16-04-2016 08:00
  
  Changes to new rules for second homes follow outcry over plan to consider granny flats as second homesThe government has announced changes to the rules around the new stamp duty charge on second homes, after it emerged that people buying homes with granny flats would face higher tax bills. However, experts say there is still confusion over how much tax will be paid on properties with separate annexes or holiday homes.The new charge, which came into force on 1 April, means anyone buying a second
  
  Read more

• Sim-swap fraud claims another mobile banking victim

  16-04-2016 08:00
  
  Chris Sims’ account emptied and loan for £8,000 taken out as fraudsters continue to exploit way banks use customers’ mobilesChris Sims was sitting in his Nottingham home a fortnight ago when his iPhone, on the EE network, suddenly stopped working. Within 75 minutes the fraudsters who had hijacked his phone had, through his online banking app, emptied his bank account of £1,200 and applied for an £8,000 loan in his name. But Sims is just the latest victim of a financ
  
  Read more

• Should we bite the bullet and all post our tax returns online?

  16-04-2016 08:00
  
  Those against would protest that it is a gross intrusion of privacy, but there are benefits in public disclosureShould all tax returns be available online? Most people’s knee-jerk reaction is that it would be absolutely horrifying for everyone to see what you earn. It’s an entirely private matter between you, your employer and the taxman. It would be a gross intrusion of privacy if it was made available to the public – and worse, to the newspapers.But these same arguments were
  
  Read more

• Self-employed set up co-operatives to share costs and services

  16-04-2016 08:00
  
  Self-help groups aim to take the strain out of going it along for UK’s nearly five million freelancersNearly five million people in the UK are now self-employed, many in precarious, often low-paid roles, and always anxious about where the next pay cheque is coming from. But a new report reveals that a growing number of freelancers are forming co-operatives to share costs and services.They range from music teachers in Swindon, to a group of interpreters, to taxi driver firms owned by self-e
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• How we helped a family win the £400,000 Royal London refused to pay

  16-04-2016 08:00
  
  Insurer refused to honour a policy in full, but after a series of ombudsman rulings – and our intervention – the firm relentedDental nurse Jodie Hinchliffe was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with her first child when her father, Paul, died in 2012. Two weeks later, baby Georgie came along. Amid the nappies and the sleepless nights – and handling her father’s estate – the last thing she had was the strength to fight a giant insurance company.Jodie was only vaguely
  
  Read more

• Homes for hospitality - in pictures

  16-04-2016 01:01
  
  Chose from a Leicestershire home with a ‘Californian vibe’ to a modern steading in 14 private acres in Fife Continue reading...
  
  Read more

Follow @financialnwsUK on Twitter!