Money digest: today's need-to-know financial news | 24 March 2016

It’s not easy to keep track of household bills. Now new research has revealed that more than a third of people do not know how much it costs to run their home. Householders vastly underestimate the true costs, which are on average £1,505 a month for homeowners and £1,819 a month for tenants. Those surveyed by property website Zoopla believed the monthly costs are just £812 and £1,227 respectively.

Victims of online fraud should no longer be refunded by banks if they fail to protect themselves, according to Britain’s most senior police officer. The Times reports that Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, commissioner of the Metropolitan police, said that the public were being ‘rewarded for bad behaviour’ and needed incentives to update anti-virus software and ensure passwords were safe.

James Bevan of CMC Markets told the Today programme this morning there have already been ‘howls of derision’ from online retailers who say they cannot be held responsible for online fraud. But he says that’s not enough. ‘The fact is that cybercrime is huge and the World Economic Forum says it is one of the big challenges of the 21st Century. All parties in a transaction need to be associated with holding back cybercrime.’ Meanwhile, one in five of the over 50s have yet to start planning financially for their retirement. That’s according to a new study from Barclays Stockbrokers. Despite this, 98 per cent of those approaching retirement said that planning properly for their retirement was very important to them. Research has revealed that almost half of Britons who haven’t bought their own home by their mid-thirties doubt that they will ever be able to do so. With first-time buyers increasingly squeezed out of the housing market, research commissioned by Yorkshire Building Society has found that 49 per cent of non-home owners aged 35 to 40 who aspire to home ownership – equivalent to over 800,000 people in this age range across the UK – think that it is ‘unlikely’ or ‘very unlikely’ that they will ever own a property. As the nation prepares for Easter weekend, it’s likely that many of us will be attempting DIY projects. Bear in mind that in 2015, 750,000 under-5s attended A&E as a result of accidents in the home. And more adults suffer accidents in the home than anywhere else – more than two fifths of people admitting to hurting or injuring themselves within their own four walls. Jessica Willock of Confused.com, which conducted the research, says: ‘This really goes to show how unpredictable life can be – and with only just over a third of people saying they have a life insurance policy in place, many loved could be left struggling should the worst happen.’ If you’re planning an Easter break, then take heed of a warning from Gocompare.com Money. The comparison site has urged holidaymakers to check their plastic and not get caught out with foreign usage fees when going abroad. While taking the right credit card abroad can be one of the most cost-effective ways of spending and can offer you additional protection on your purchases, most cards on the market charge a ‘non-sterling transaction fee’ every time you use your card abroad. The average fee charged is 2.9 per cent, which means holidaymakers could be paying a premium on their holiday spending.