Money blog: The popular household appliance causing tens of thousands of pounds of damage; your parking disputes resolved by expert (2025)

Pets at Home has been forced to stop selling guinea pigs due to some of them carrying an infection.

The retailer said it had identified a small percentage of cases of guinea pigs carrying streptococcus, which is more commonly known as Strep.

The bacteria can cause dangerous infections in animals, including life-threatening pneumonia.

The company said a "small number" of stores had been affected, but the exact figure is unclear.

"Pet welfare is always our top priority and as a precautionary measure we have taken swift and immediate action to temporarily pause the sale or adoption of guinea pigs," a Pets at Home spokesperson said.

"We will be contacting customers directly who have purchased a guinea pig from us recently with detailed advice and guidance. However, if you have immediate concerns, please contact your local Pets at Home or veterinary provider for further advice."

British Gas has extended an initiative which means £10m is available to help customers struggling with their energy bills.

The You Pay: We Pay scheme has supported thousands at risk of fuel poverty since it launched in June last year.

It works by matching 100% of energy payments made by customers in need .

If you are eligible, British Gas matches payments made by those who can afford to pay something for six months.

For example: A customer who can afford £100 a month will pay £600 over six months and British Gas will add an extra £600 credit to their accounts.

It is hoped the extra cash will help clear an outstanding balance built up over the winter months.

British Gas is contacting more than 600,000 customers who could be eligible for the support.

You can read the full details of the scheme here.

We love having a look at all your comments, and this week's What It's Really Like To Be A... Teacher has really caught your attention.

The series runs every Monday, lifting the lid on different professions - you can read the latest instalment below...

Some of you said teachers should "stop whingeing" and going on strike...

Seriously wish teachers and other professions would stop moaning about money. You trained to do the job. You knew the industry you were moving into. You knew the wage! If you're not happy, find another job.

John

Teachers have very secure jobs and extensive holidays...they have a much better deal than when I was young in the 1960s...stop whingeing

Andy

They work a 35-hour week and 22 hrs in the classroom also work 195 days per year meaning they have 169 days off per year. My son in the tech industry regularly works weekends and often still working at 8pm at night so I think a lot of people have stressful jobs not just teachers whose free time more than makes up for it.

Irene

Try being a teaching assistant! We do more work than the teachers, often in our own time, we are paid a lot less, we have to reduce our monthly payments to pay for the holidays. Teachers have it easy compared to the assistants and teachers are well paid!

James

Others were more sympathetic...

My partner is a teacher. In work for 7:30am; often not finishing (at work) until 6pm. Then almost always working late into the night prepping for the next day's lessons, with 50% of the weekends. It is a burnout job.

DutchJimbo

Thames Water has been given a lifeline after a £3bn loan was approved by the High Court.

It will receive an initial tranche of £1.5bn to fund it until September 2025.

The loan gives the UK's biggest water provider time to sort out its finances and could ward off nationalisation.

Court approval had been needed for the rescue plan centred on an emergency £3bn loan.

The business is provisionally attempting to borrow its way out of its financial problems as it struggled with £16bn in debt.

It had said it would run out of money by 24 March.

Motor insurers paid out a record £11.7bn in car insurance claims last year, data from the Association of British Insurers showed.

The body said rising theft and repair costs were impacting premiums, with the average cost of cover paid by drivers rising by £78 annually to £622.

But there have been signs of insurance costs for drivers edging down in recent months.

The average price paid by motorists for cover in the final quarter of last year was 2%, or £14, lower than at the start of the year.

The typical cost paid for cover in the final quarter of last year was £621, down from £635 in the first quarter of 2024.

Shoe company Crocs has reported a "record year" thanks to its highest ever sales.

The brand saw its revenues rise by 3.5% to £3.2bn by the end of 2024, with direct to consumer sales up 7.2%.

Crocs have surged in popularity in recent years as they became popular with Gen Z shoppers.

CEO Andrew Rees said: "We delivered another record year for Crocs highlighted by revenue growth of 4% to $4.1bn (£3.2bn) and adjusted earnings-per-share growth of 9%.

"For 2025, we are expecting another year of revenue growth, led by mid-single digit growth in the Crocs brand."

Lidl has claimed to be the first supermarket to sell products through TikTok Shop with the launch of a gym lovers' special.

The budget supermarket has entered the social media marketplace with a deal on a bundle of high protein products.

Worth more than £30, the bundle comes with protein bars, powders and flapjacks, along with resistance bands and a microfibre towel.

It's offering 3,000 packages for £5, with all proceeds donated to the children's charity NSPCC.

"With the number of TikTok shoppers growing rapidly, we're proud to be the first supermarket meeting our customers directly on the platform with our unique offering, creating these exclusive bundles to showcase our new exciting products," said Joanna Gomer, marketing director of Lidl.

The offer will be available on TikTok Shop from 20 February.

Lloyds Bank has launched a current account switching deal that promises to pay customers £175 within three days of joining.

New and existing customers can enjoy the free cash by switching from another bank to a Club Lloyds account before 1 April.

The deal also allows customers to pick from a range of benefits, including:

• A 12 months Disney + subscription
• Choice of six Vue or Odeon cinema tickets
• A magazine subscription
• A digital Coffee Club membership
• A Gourmet Society membership

Once set up, the account offers cashback at several retailers, access to a 6.25% savings account on up to £400 a month, a 0.2% discount off an initial agreed Lloyds mortgage rate.

Club Lloyds Platinum and Club Lloyds Silver customers will be able to use their debit card to make purchases and withdraw cash from anywhere in the world for free from 14 April.

To qualify for the deal, you need to use the Current Account Switch Service to transfer all the active credit and debits from your bank account to one of the three qualifying accounts:

• A Club Lloyds Account, which comes with a monthly fee of up to £5;
• A Club Lloyds Platinum account, which comes with a £22.50 monthly fee;
• A Club Lloyds Silver account, which comes with an £11.50 monthly fee.

Your switch must include the transfer of a minimum of three active direct debits from your old account.

Direct debits set up after your switch has been started and other types of automated payments, such as standing orders and recurring card payments, will not count towards the offer.

You will not be eligible for the offer if you have already received a switching incentive from Lloyds, Halifax or the Bank of Scotland since 2020.

Read more about the deal here.

Every Tuesday we get an expert to answer your Money Problems - but today we are doing things a little different.

After consumer expert Scott Dixon, aka theComplaints Resolver, tackled a reader'sparking disputelast month, we were inundated with other questions about parking fines.

So, we decided to ask him to tackle five problems in one day, starting with two this morning and these three this afternoon...

My doctor's car park has a system where you have to put your registration plate in. I had an appointment. Was there 33 minutes. They're trying to charge me £170. Threatening with debt collectors. I've given them the proof of my appointment. But still they're saying I need to pay.

Dawson

Mr Dixon's first piece of advice is to speak to the practice manager, who might be able to cancel it.

"Ask for proof in writing that they will cancel it so you can advise theparkingoperator to cease and desist harassing you," he says.

"Hopefully this will resolve it, as I'm sure they do this for staff members and other visitors who have been accidentally caught out."

He adds that third party debt collectors issue demands for £170 after the first and second stage appeals have either been ignored or have failed.

"You can safely ignore any debt collector letters before a court hearing. These debt collectors are 'strangers to the debt' and don't own the debt or have any powers to enforce it," he says.

"Watch out for a 'letter before claim' or 'letter before action', which is the last stop before a case goes to court. This will need a response.Parkingoperators rely on motorists ignoring this so they can get a County Court Judgement (CCJ) rubber-stamped in court.

"If this goes to court, you will need to provide sufficient evidence to dispel their case, although all is not lost if you don't have this."

We also had this question...

I have had a recent parking charge for parking in a private car park in which I didn't manage to park and purchase my ticket within 20 mins of entering the car park - but once I managed to park, I did purchase a parking ticket for my car for longer than the duration I stayed for, but unfortunately I believe the parking company is wanting to charge me regardless. I don't believe any clear sign was in place for saying I could only be there without a ticket for a limited amount of time?
Anonymous

Mr Dixon first asks if there is a reason it took so long to park.

"If you can prove why it took you longer than 20 minutes to buy a ticket when you entered the car park, this will be good evidence to prove that the contract was 'frustrated by impossibility' due to an unforeseen event through no fault of your own," he says.

Unclear signs are the most common reason for appeals on unfairparkingcharge notices.

Mr Dixon says: "If that's the case, it can be said you were unable to read the signs and terms and conditions, meaning the contract was frustrated through no fault of your own."

He adds that a two-pronged approach could be helpful in dealing with this issue.

First, look on Google Reviews to see what others say about this car park.

"You may find a common theme from what other users say, which can reinforce your points and case on appeal," he says.

"Second, go to the retailer with proof of purchase and ask them to cancel it for you and get proof in writing. Supermarkets are particularly good with this, so speak nicely to customer services if that's the case."

Our last parking question of the day comes from Bigmac74, who simply asks..

Can Euro Car Parks enforce a parking charge?

It's a common myth thatparkingcharge notices can be ignored, is Mr Dixon's first bit of advice.

"You do so at your peril, as you risk it being pursued and a County Court Judgement being made against you. This will severely impact on your ability to get any form of credit for years to come," he says.

When you park in a car park space managed by a privateparkingoperator, you are entering into a contract based on the terms and conditions stated on signs in the car park, which is private property.

"Euro Car Parks will have written authority to manage and enforce the terms and conditions ofparkingby the landowner for the car park," Mr Dixon says.

"If you break these terms which are displayed on signs around the car park, such as not paying or overstaying, theparkingoperator can issue aparkingcharge notice for an alleged breach of contract."

Millionaires are four times less charitable than the average person in the UK, a study has suggested.

The Charity Aid Foundation (CAF) found the country's wealthiest people donated the equivalent of 0.4% of their combined investable assets - £7.96bn.

Meanwhile, the UK public donated the equivalent of 1.6% of their income - £13.9bn.

CAF found that if each of the country's 536,673 millionaires were to donate 1% of their investible assets, they could give the charity sector a £12bn boost.

The most popular charities supported by the country's wealthiest were in education, with six in 10 high-net-worth individuals supporting this sector.

Only 4% of the rest of the population donated to education, compared with 28% who gave money to animal welfare charities.

"Donors, particularly among the next generation, are increasingly considering their giving as part of the spectrum of capital they can invest within the broader impact economy," said head of private clients at CAF Edward Garrett.

"The government can take steps to harness this and renew Britain's culture of giving to strengthen civil society for the future, with high-net-worth individuals and professional advisers playing a leading role."

State workers in Scotland have been given bigger pay rises than employees in any another public sector in the UK.

Since 2019, people employed by the government have seen their wages rise by 5% above inflation, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found.

It said state workers across the rest of the UK had not seen any change to their salary when adjusting for inflation.

In Scotland, a newly qualified teacher earns £33,594 a year compared with £31,650 across most of England.

A nurse in Scotland is paid £31,892, while in England they earn 6.4% less, at £29,970.

Around 590,000 people are employed in the public sector, representing 22% of the Scottish workforce.

But, the IFS said, this meant the Scottish government had an "increasing financial challenge" and needed to find money to pay for wage increases from its own spending pot.

Jonathan Cribb, an associate director at IFS, said: "Scotland has not only increased the number of public sector workers more quickly than other parts of the UK, it has also increased their pay more quickly.

While these are reasonable priorities for Scotland, it adds to the Scottish government's fiscal challenges, given that funding from the UK government will not reflect these Scotland-specific decisions."

Some of the most significant home insurance claims have related to one particular household item - an air fryer, an insurance giant has warned.

Claims for damage relating to the cooking devices have run into tens of thousands of pounds over the last four years, according to Aviva, with claimants' home suffering from considerable fire and smoke damage.

Some claims have run as high as £80,000, it said.

In 2024, the average claim relating to air fryer incidents hit £29,555.

Some people described seeing flames erupting and melting air fryers, destroying kitchen surfaces. In one case, the appliance set an entire room ablaze.

Hannah Davidson, senior underwriting manager at Aviva, said a survey by the firm showed nearly one in five UK residents had encountered fire-related issues with air fryers.

"Simple practices such as not leaving air fryers unattended, avoiding excessive amounts of oil when cooking, placing air fryers on non-flammable surfaces, and ensuring proper ventilation during use can significantly reduce fire risks," she said.

"Keeping a fire blanket and a small fire extinguisher in the kitchen is also good practice.

"In the unfortunate event of an air fryer fire, never throw water on an electrical fire. Instead, use a fire blanket or a fire extinguisher rated for electrical fires, and call the fire brigade if necessary."