Money blog: Amazon Prime price slashed (for some); supermarket refund policies if deliveries are late (2024)

Oreo has released a new limited edition vanilla latte flavour.

The product is already available in select supermarkets and combines a double cream vanilla filling with a vanilla latte one.

Each pack comes with 16 biscuits included and has a recommended retail price of £1.39.

Becky Latcham, brand manager for Oreo, said: "We're absolutely thrilled to introduce Oreo's latest innovation.

"We know Oreo fans love to be playful with the way they eat their cookies so we couldn't resist putting our own spin on the original cookie that people know and love."

People aged 18 to 22 are being offered a half-price Amazon Prime membership in a bid to make the subscription "more accessible to young people".

It means anyone in this age bracket can get things like free next day delivery and Prime Video for £4.49 a month (£47.49 per year) instead of the usual £8.99.

"We're always looking for ways to provide more value to our customers and offering 18 to 22-year-olds 50% off Prime membership helps to make the wide range of Prime benefits even more accessible to young people," said John Boumphrey, UK country manager at Amazon.

He said at an "important time" in their lives, helping young people save will "make a big difference" whether they are heading to university, starting work or moving away from home.

The half-price offer has been open to students since 2014, but this is the first time the company has offered it to all 18 to 22-year-olds.

Every Wednesday we ask Michelin chefs to pick their favourite Cheap Eats where they live and when they cook at home.This week we speak to Aktar Islam, chef patron of Opheem - the first Birmingham restaurant to be awarded two Michelin stars.

Hi Aktar, can you tell us your favourite places in Birminghamwhere you can get a meal for two for less than £40?

I'm a big fan of Tiger Bites Pig. Grab a counter seat and watch them smash out some of the best Taiwanese bao buns in the UK. My favourite is the chicken - it's seasoned with Sichuan chilli oil and topped with chicken crackle. I could eat one every day.

Bonehead is the best fried chicken spot in Birmingham. Their Bonehead and Hothead seasonings are corkers. I usually get the burgers or the strips with a side of Nashville fries. If I'm feeling brave I'll get a pickleback too, but they are punchy!

Qavali is an Indo-Persian restaurant which takes its inspiration from the Indian subcontinent and uses spices and techniques rooted everywhere from Turkey to India. Marinated meat is grilled over charcoal, and often served in richly spiced sauces and broths. I'm a meat eater, so nothing makes me happier than a big plate of grilled meat and this is my go-to.

What's your go-to cheap meal at home?

I tend to cook with a lot of pulses when I'm at home. I usually opt for a roast vegetable and lentil dish. I just grab a tin from the cupboard and use any vegetables that I have knocking around. I add garlic, cumin, and chilli. It's so simple and flavourful. Serve with a roast chicken - perfect.

We've spoken to lots of top chefs and bloggers - check out their cheap eats from around the country here...

If you regularly order your supermarket shopping online, chances are you'll have had a delivery turn up late at least once.

The bad news is that if you didn't try to claim back any extra you paid for a specific delivery slot, you may have missed out.

The good news is you now know for future.

Consumer group Which says: "If you paid extra for special deliveryand your order arrived later than agreed, you can claim back the extra delivery cost as the service wasn't delivered."

We asked Scott Dixon, from The Complaints Resolver, to go into a bit more detail - and he flagged S49 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which states:

"Every contract to supply a service is to be treated as including a term that the trader must perform the service with reasonable care and skill."

Scott says: "Late delivery would be considered as a breach of contract under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, as you paid for a time-specific delivery as part of the contract you entered into.

"You could request a refund of the delivery charge as the time-specific part of the contract constitutes a breach and has not been fulfilled.

"I would contact customer services and be nice about it, as you are more likely to elicit a better outcome that way given the value involved."

The inspiration for this post was one of the Money team seeing their shopping arrive 45 minutes late last weekend.

They rang Tesco's customer service team who, full marks, took down the details and refunded the £7 delivery charge without much fuss.

Tesco's media team later told us they judge things case by case - but they do encourage you to contact their customer relations teams if there's any delay.

We asked the other supermarkets for their policies.

Asda said...

"Asda always aims to deliver goods within the delivery slot agreed with the customer. However, if an order is delivered outside of this slot, we will let the customer know and they are then able to request a refund for the delivery charge."

Ocado...

"We offer customers a one-hour delivery slot of their choice. If we're running late, we'll always contact the customer directly to let them know. On the rare occasion that we're really late, our customer hub advisors can issue refunds - these are assessed on a case-by-case basis."

Morrisons...

"We work with customers on a case-by-case basis to resolve any late delivery issues."

Waitrose...

"In the event of a delay, the shop makes every effort to contact each customer directly in advance of their delivery to explain the situation and provide an updated ETA. If the customer is no longer able to accept the delivery, we work with them to reschedule it at a time that suits. While delays are often beyond our control, we assess each situation on a case-by-case basis, and Partners can offer a gesture of goodwill when customers are inconvenienced."

Regardless of their policies, it's worth (politely) pushing - as the law is on your side.

The average UK house price ticked up in June, leaving first-time buyers spending almost £2 out of every £5 on their mortgages.

Typical house prices rose by 0.2% to £266,064, meaning there has been a 1.5% increase on the same time last year, a report by Nationwide found.

June saw prices rise at half the pace they did in May, but housing affordability is "still stretched", said Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist.

And Amy Reynolds, head of sales at estate agency Antony Roberts, observed more people were looking to downsize to release capital to live on and pay bills in a "hugely concerning" trend.

A bank with millions of customers in the UK will soon start charging people to use their debit cards abroad.

Metro Bank emailed customers last week to tell them it will introduce a 2.99% charge on all transactions outside the UK, including Europe, as of 29 August.

Anyone wanting to withdraw cash from their account will also pay the fee plus a £1.50 ATM charge.

The bank currently does not charge for debit card use and cash withdrawals in Europe.

Walkers have confirmed one of itssnacks has been discontinued.

The Walkers Stax, which were similar to Pringles, are no longer available in the UK.

Writing on X, a customer said he had been able to find the product abroad and asked if he could buy them over here.

"We used to make Walkers Stax here in the UK, but sadly they're no more," the crisp brand replied.

It also said there were no plans to bring them back to market.

However, it seems like the crisps might not have been around for some time...

In 2021, Walkers replied to another online post saying it was sorry that they were no longer available.

Savers transferred £4.2bn extra into cash ISAs in May, according to new figures from the Bank of England - a record for the month.

It built on the previous record £12.3bn poured into the accounts in April, as people made the most of their annual tax-free savings.

Investment platform AJ Bell said figures show the 2024-25 tax year has "started with a big bang" for cash ISA savers.

Laith Khalaf, head of investment analysis, said: "Early bird ISA savers are no doubt out in force because they know taxes are rising as a result of frozen income tax thresholds."

He added: "At the same time tax thresholds have been frozen, interest rates have risen, making it more likely that savers will breach their tax-free savings allowance," he said.

"That means more people pushed up into the higher rate income tax band, where the personal savings allowance (the amount of interest you can earn each year before paying tax) falls from £1,000 to £500, or indeed to £0 for those in the additional rate tax bracket."

ISA savers can earn tax-free interest on their ISA savings, which are limited to £20,000 each year.

The Mortgage Works has announced it will reduce its rates by up to 0.3% across a range of its buy to let products tomorrow.

The new rates, which will be available to new and existing customers, will start at 3.69%.

Here are some of the deals:

• Buy-to-let - two-year fixed rate (purchase and remortgage) at 3.69% with a 3% fee, available up to 65% LTV
• Buy-to-let- five-year fixed rate (purchase and remortgage) at 4.04% with a 3% fee, available up to 65% LTV
• Buy-to-let- five-year fixed switcher rate at 4.14% with a 3% fee, available up to 75% LTV
  
• Buy-to-let- two-year fixed rate (purchase and remortgage) at 5.69% with a £3,995 fee, available up to 75% LTV
  

"Our products are some of the most competitive in the sector and, with rates now starting from 3.69%, these new deals will improve affordability and help widen market access for buy to let investors," said the company's Joe Avarne.

It comes after The Telegraph reported three major lenders had already cut rates this week.

Halifax and NatWest slashed rates by up to 0.23% - Clydesdale Bank by 0.38%

The cuts come as economists hope interest rates will fall in August, which will increase buyer activity.

Wimbledon is in full swing (sorry!) and the world's best tennis players are battling it out on the famous grass courts in the hopes of being presented with the trophy in under two weeks' time.

But it's not just pride that comes with winning - there's a fairly decent prize fund as well.

This year, the prize for winning the singles is a huge £2.7m - up by an inflation-busting 15% compared with £2.35m in 2023. The prize money is the same for both sexes and has been since the rules changed in 2007.

Players don't have to win the championship to get their hands on some cash though, as there's also a prize fund for getting through each stage of the competition.

Here's a breakdown for the singles championship:

• First round - £60,000
• Second round - £93,000
• Third round - £143,000
• Fourth round - £226,000
• Quarter-finalists - £375,000
• Semi-finalists - £715,000
• Runner-up - £1.4m

Meanwhile, the prize for winning the doubles is £650,000, with runners up getting £330,000. For mixed doubles, it's £130,000 and £65,000 respectively.

Players taking part in wheelchair singles have the chance to nab £65,000 for winning.

Overall, the total prize money on offer across all championships is a whopping £50m - up 12% from last year.

Food inflation has fallen to its lowest level since 2021, new figures show.

New data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC)-NielsenIQ Shop Price Index reveals that food prices in June were 2.5% higher than a year ago.

This was down from 3.2% in May, and marked the fourteenth consecutive slowing of food inflation.

It means the rate is now lower than at any point since December 2021, with the drop fuelled by tumbling prices for staple products such as butter and coffee.

Inflation on fresh food slowed to 1.5%, down from 2% in May, while overall shop price inflation fell to 0.2% - the lowest level since October 2021.

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said the winner of Thursday's general election "will benefit from the work of retailers to cut their costs and prices, easing the cost of living for millions of households".

In the eastern Aegean, the islands of Chios and Kos experienced dangerous fires yesterday - with blazes raging on Kos for a second day today amid tinderbox conditions and unusually strong winds.

The Greek prime minister has warned his country faces another dangerous summer for wildfires.

Beyond the human tragedy these blazes can cause, there's a knock-on effect on tourism in the country.

So what are your rights if your holiday is disrupted by the fires? We've got a quick explainer here…

What if I have a package holiday and face cancellation or disruption?

The Foreign Office is not currently advising against travel to Greece, and with the majority of the country and its surrounding islands unaffected, holidays are still going ahead.

But holiday operators do have the right to cancel holidays for situations out of their control.

If the company you booked your package holiday with cancels your trip, the Competition and Markets Authority says customers are entitled to a refund within 14 days of the cancellation date.

Alternatively, they should be offered a replacement holiday of the same or better quality, or a lower-grade holiday with a partial refund.

If something goes wrong while you're away on a package holiday, Citizens Advice recommends getting in touch with the company or travel agent you booked with as soon as possible.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) advised package holiday customers during last year's wildfires they may be entitled to a partial refund for a trip cut short due to wildfires, depending on several factors including what services were included and how much of the holiday had already been taken.

Will my insurance cover any issues?

This depends on a few things - including when you took out the policy, who you took it out with and what the exact terms and conditions are.

If your policy includes trip disruption or natural disaster cover, you should be covered if you have to cut short or cancel your holiday due to wildfires, according to the ABI.

Natural disaster cover isn't included in every policy, so read the T&Cs carefully.

You're unlikely to be covered if you took out the policy or booked the trip to a specific area affected by wildfires after they were known about. You also won't be covered if you travel against Foreign Office advice.

If you have booked a package holiday with an operator and it comes with an Atol certificate, you'll have extra protections, although you'll still need insurance for health and accident cover.

If you've booked the separate parts of your trip yourself, you're more reliant on insurance and will need to make sure you've got a policy in place that would cover you for wildfires and other natural disasters such as floods and storms.

What are my rights if my flight is cancelled?

Your flight is covered by UK law if it departs from a UK airport, arrives at a UK airport on a UK or EU airline, or arrives at an EU airport on a UK airline.

Under UK law, if your flight is cancelled the airline must either give you a refund or book you on an alternative flight - either with them or a rival airline.

Each airline will have its own cancellation policy for customers.

If your flight is cancelled within 14 days of travel - and you can prove it was the airline's fault - you are entitled to compensation. However, extreme weather and other "extraordinary circ*mstances" mean the airline can get out of paying.

And if I cancel the holiday myself?

If the Foreign Office doesn't advise against travel to a wildfire-affected country or area then under normal booking conditions, you'd be ineligible for a refund.

However, you could speak to your travel agent or holiday company if you're particularly concerned. They may offer a change of dates or destination - but there's no guarantee.

Some holiday accommodation will allow refunds until a certain date - so just check the details of your booking first.