Laura Whitcombe

Within the space of a week, it has been announced that another 189 high street banks and building societies will be shutting their doors through the course of 2017. Last week, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank outlined plans to close 79 branches. On Tuesday, HSBC reported it will close another 62 branches on top of the

Britain’s biggest mobile operator EE has been fined £2.7 million for overcharging more than 30,000 customers. Between July 2014 and July 2015, the company added almost £250,000 to the bills of customers who called its 150 helpline while abroad in the European Union. They were incorrectly billed as though they had made a call to

There are just 19 dreary January days left to complete your online self-assessment tax return and – here’s the important bit – pay what you owe. Miss the midnight deadline on Tuesday 31st January and you could face a stiff financial penalty. More than 10 million of us were organised and settled our annual accounts on

This year, I’m swapping my debit card for a credit card. It’s not because I’m starting 2017 in the red. It’s to make sure I stay comfortably in the black. My New Year’s resolution is to make my money go further – and this is where my credit card comes in. I’ve taken inspiration from

I thought I’d be a pretty cheap date on holiday abroad this summer. I’ve abstained from all alcohol for the past eight months, including my beloved Siglo rioja, as I get ready to become a mum. So I expected the savings we’d make by only one of us drinking while on our road trip through

How I long for a detached house with a drive – and, more importantly, no neighbours. My current abode is a three-bed semi with no off-street parking. It’s a free parking street but before you think I’m boasting, it’s also close to three primary schools, has a corner shop and most of the residents seem

I recently returned home from a fortnight’s holiday only to fight to get my front door open. Not because the emptied bins had been left on the doorstep yet again, or because I’d left a key in the lock. No. Instead, a sea of junk mail had flooded my hall, jamming the door as I

I’m standing at the edge of a financial precipice. I’m a 32-year-old woman doing a job I love. I’ve been beavering away solidly for 10 years and I’ve been working hard to climb my way up the career ladder. After starting out in London surviving on a pitiful cub journo’s salary, I now earn enough

‘I’ve slept with people for money and I’ve been on dates with disgusting guys and put myself at risk just so I could have dinner and some leftovers for the next day.’ These are the harrowing words of a female first-year student describing the extraordinary lengths she went to in order to pay her way

The national obsession with the Bank of England base rate is beginning to make my blood boil. If low interest rates were the saviour of the Great British economy they’re heralded to be, why are house prices sky high? Why are young renters finding it more difficult than ever to buy one? Why are savers

With just a week or so to go before schools break up for the summer, are you one of the families trying to save money on your holiday by pulling the kids out of class early? If so, I salute you. And I’m a school governor. After all, they’re mostly watching films or larking about

How do you spot a good estate agent? No, I’m not about to tell a joke. It’s a serious question. With a baby on the way, the need for a double spare room for visiting first-time grandparents and more space to work from home, I’ve started to wonder how much longer our growing family will

It’s ten years since I graduated and I’ve just managed to clear my student loan, which isn’t a bad achievement on a journalist’s salary. The day I finished my politics and economics degree, my debt stood at £11,500. That covered the course and living costs for three years of study and a year spent in

It’s officially summer but not in New Malden. I got home at 7pm last night in near darkness and pouring rain. Normally, closing the front door behind me and casting off my rain gear is enough to bring some relief. But not this time. The rain followed me in. As I walked into my kitchen I

We’re failing our children with financial education by postcode lottery. The subject finally found its way into the curriculum for secondary schools in England two years ago but if anyone thinks the job’s done, they couldn’t be more wrong. It’s true that all English comprehensive schools now have to cover the subject within maths and

Your current account provider is probably rubbish value for money and you’d be better off switching banks. That’s the message the Competition and Markets Authority put out earlier this week. The watchdog reportedly spent £5 million on a lengthy report that took ages to write, £5 million to do what I just did in one sentence

This piece is from the new issue of Spectator Money, out on Thursday 19 May. The magazine will come free with your next copy of The Spectator, and will also be available to read online at spectator.com/money. We’re all getting older. We’ve just celebrated the Queen’s 90th as a very special occasion, yet by 2027 there

As your mourners assemble at the churchyard to say their final farewells, you want them to be thinking of you fondly – don’t you? The last thing you need is them cursing under their breath because they’ve forked out for the funeral or arguing about how to split your art collection because you failed to include it

It’s official. I’m a grown up. I have a baby on the way and my husband and I have just ordered a new family car. We checked it had the Isofix car seat fitting system, selected the window blind option for the rear seats and made sure that our travel system (which seems to be

‘That’s Asda price’ is a thing of the past. The slogan’s long gone and so, it appears, is the retailer’s commitment to offering customers value for money. The regulator has just singled it out by demanding a written pledge that it will change its ways when it comes to promotional deals, which have been criticised