Money: 'I never want to see it on a menu': Chef on an overrated steak, an underused fish and classic he'll never order in a pub (2025)

A remote island in the Pacific Ocean might be 58 years late to the trend but it has finally installed its first ATMs.

Tuvalu, which has a population of around 10,000, made the giant leap into the digital age by introducing five machines to one of its villages.

Feleti Teo, the prime minister, unveiled the ATM at the headquarters of the National Bank of Tuvalu, with MPs and local leaders in the audience to watch the reveal.

"This is a great achievement not just by the launching of the new banking service but a transformative switch era in Tuvalu that will open doors for economic empowerment of the people," he said.

The machines currently only work with prepaid cards that residents must collect from the bank first, according to The Guardian.

But debit cards are expected to come next, with long-term plans looking an introducing Visa usage for international transactions and online shopping.

There aren't many purchases we make in life that can be as important as buying a car, so it really pays to make sure you've made the right choice.

Used cars make up the bulk of car sales in the UK every year, with an estimated 7.6 million used cars changing hands during 2024 compared to around 1.9 million new cars joining the road.

A car's value starts to depreciate as soon as it pulls out of the showroom, so even buying a year-old model could save you hundreds or even thousands of pounds.

Regardless of your budget, used cars often make a lot of financial sense. In many cases, new cars lose the majority of their value within a few years of being registered, while there are also plenty of low-mileage bargains out there. Dino Buratti, Which? cars expert

With this in mind, we're breaking down the various steps it takes to buy a second-hand car and looking at how to make sure you get the best deal.

Where to start looking

You don't need to trawl through the classified ads any more - you can buy used cars from a trader (a business that sells cars), at an auction or privately - but each comes with its own risks.

If buying from a trader, look for an established firm with a good reputation. Having a trade association sign (like the Retail Motor Industry Federation) is helpful.

Auctions are riskier, and you probably won't have the legal protection that you have if you buy from a trader, like the right to a return or refund. Make sure you read the auction house's terms and conditions of business carefully before making a bid.

Buying online is also common - eBay is one of the most popular places to buy a car. But remember, if you pay using PayPal, its purchase protection doesn't apply to cars - and neither does eBay's own buyer protection, so you can't turn to either if things go wrong.

On the price of the car, if it sounds too good to be true, it likely is, so be wary.

If the price is below what similar models are generally going for, it could be a sign that it's a scam or the car has an underlying issue.

You've found the car, now what?

Once you think you've found the car of your dreams, it's time to do some online checks. Doing simple checks will reduce your chances of buying a car that's being sold illegally or has had major repairs not reported by the seller.

Use the DVLA's free online vehicle information checker to make sure everything the seller is telling you matches the online records.

You should be checking the registration numbers match, as well as the MOT test numbers, mileage on the car and its make and model.

It's important you check the MOT and service history too, otherwise the vehicle might not be roadworthy. There's a free government service that allows you to check the MOT history of a car. Make sure you ask the seller about any gaps in a vehicle's MOT record.

Once you've reached this stage, it's time to get up close and personal. You should look at the car itself and inspect:

• The bodywork and chassis for dents and scratches
• Wheels and tyres for tread depth and scuffs
• Oil level
• Interior and electrics
• Windows for cracks and chips

Taking the car for a thorough test drive is important too - is it a bumpy ride? Does the clutch slip? Does the car pull in one direction?

How do I negotiate a better price?

Haggling isn't just for the Sunday markets, and buying a second-hand car from a dealer it's virtually expected of you to bargain a little.

You should start low and let the seller work the price up, and remember to only pay what you can afford.

Look for things that could throw up costs in the near future - such as a short MOT or worn tyres - and use them as bargaining tools.

You might also consider seeing if a discount is available for paying in cash.

Ways to pay

You can buy the vehicle on finance, though it can be more expensive this way, and you'll need to make sure you can afford the monthly payments.

If you pay cash, you can sometimes receive a discount, but remember if something goes wrong with the car you won't have the same protection some credit arrangements offer.

If you use a credit card, you'll get protection for goods between £100 and £30,000, even if you only paid for a small part of the cost on the card.

If paying a larger sum, remember that interest rates on credit cards are often much higher than a finance agreement.

What documents should I receive?

You must inform the DVLA of the change in a car's registered keeper. The traditional way of doing this is for both parties to sign the car's V5 logbook and post it to the DVLA or go online.

You also need an MOT certificate, without which the vehicle cannot be legally driven on the road. Always check the certificate has the same vehicle registration and chassis number as the car you're viewing.

You should also ensure you've got all the manuals and the servicing booklet in case things go wrong.

Finally, it's worth asking the seller to provide a signed receipt that specifies the price and date, as well as the make, model, engine size and registration of the vehicle.

Other things to remember

You should check how much road tax you'll have to pay, and if you can afford the insurance costs on your new car.

Remember, you need to have car insurance before you take ownership of the car - even if you're not driving it just yet.

What are my rights if things go wrong?

If there's a problem with your used car after you buy it, you have legal rights.

You might be entitled to a repair, the cost of a repair, or some or all of your money back if the vehicle is damaged, doesn't work, or doesn't match the advert or description you were given.

Youwon'tbe entitled to anything if:

• you were told about the fault when you bought the car;
• you inspected the car and should have spotted the problem - for example, a dent;
• you caused the fault;
• the fault is normal for how much the car has been used (known as fair wear and tear).

Every Thursday, our Money blog team interviews chefs from around the UK, hearing about their cheap food hacks and more.This week, we chat to Isaac Ball, chef at Nancarrow Farm, Cornwall.

For a cheap meal I go to...Institute in St Agnes. The most amazing freshly prepared sandwiches in a really surprising little café.

My go-to cheap eat at home...is a frittata. I always have the ingredients in the fridge and it always hits the spot.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup kale, stems removed and roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup spinach
• 1/2 cup roughly sliced boiled potato (optional)
• 2 tbsp butter
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• A dash of smoked paprika if you fancy
• Optional cheese for topping

Method:

• Heat half the butter in an oven-safe pan over a medium heat
• Add the kale and cook for about two minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the spinach and potatoes and cook for another two minutes until both greens have wilted slightly.
• Season with salt, pepper and smoked paprika
• Meanwhile, crack the eggs and whisk them together. Add the remaining butter to the pan and allow to melt through the greens
• Pour the beaten eggs over the greens and give the pan a little shake so the eggs mix in well
• Let it cook over a low heat for about 2-3 minutes until the edges start to set, then sprinkle with any cheese you have lying around in the fridge (cheddar or feta is best)
• Transfer the pan to a preheated oven (180C) and bake for around eight minutes, or until the eggs are fully set
• Let the frittata cool slightly, then slice and serve

Food is as much about textures and temperatures as it is taste and seasoning...Adding variation to dishes can make the food more exciting and have you going back for more.

Luxury ingredients don't always mean better...More affordable and humble ingredients are often slept on and they can make some amazing dishes if treated correctly. Fillet steak, for example, while incredibly good in a beef wellington, can sometimes fall short in comparison to other cuts of steak such as bavette that provide more of an eating experience regarding flavour and texture.

The humble mackerel is sometimes overlooked...despite being extremely versatile, affordable and sustainable. Mackerel can be used in so many different ways to create a whole catalogue of dishes.

I never want to see fish and chips on a menu...Many pubs fall flat when it comes to fish and chips. I'm not saying I haven't had good plates of it in some pubs - I have. But the consistency isn't there, maybe down to it not being their sole focus or the lack of the dedicated equipment. Maybe it's missing the experience of the paper or cardboard box from a chippy.

I always use star anise while braising meat and add it to pickling liquor...It adds a lovely subtle aniseed savoury sweetness. It enhances the flavours of a simple pickled onion or shallot and works especially well with pickled beetroot.

Customers sharing meals might be frustrating for a business but...you're investing in future diners so I don't see it as a bad thing. If a couple arrive and decide to share a plate of food and have minimal drinks but have a great experience doing so, they can then share their experience with friends and family. And having someone spend their hard-earned money, of which they may not have surplus, at your establishment is a privilege, especially if they decide to return.

My favourite substitute...is lamb neck. Often cheaper bought with the bone in, it is equally versatile and flavoursome as the leg or shoulder. It has a great level of fat running through that breaks down when slow-cooked, giving the most tender and moreish texture. If you splash out a little more, you can have the neck fillets off the bone, which are also fantastic cooked pink. A touch more effort put in by brining the meat before pan frying, or even better barbecuing, can give you a great cut of meat that I think surpasses most others.

Read more in this series here...

Santander has become the latest lender to announce a wave of mortgage rate cuts, dropping some to less than 4%.

Home movers with a 40% deposit are being offered a two-year fixed deal at 3.97% or a three-year fix at 3.99%

Both of those deals come with a £999 fee.

For first-time buyers, the bank has lowered rates by up to 0.21%, while those looking to remortgage will benefit from cuts of up to 0.18%.

Mortgage experts have welcomed the move but called for more to be done to help those with smaller deposits.

We'll have more on the current state of the mortgage market in our Mortgage Guide on Friday.

We have been discussing how to find the best mobile deal - but what if you pick your provider and the worst happens: your signal is terrible.

What are your rights?

Scott Dixon, AKAthe Complaints Resolver, says you should give your provider an opportunity to resolve your complaint and follow the complaints procedure in the first instance.

"Your provider has eight weeks to resolve your dispute. This is to give them enough time to assess the situation and the evidence to find an appropriate resolution," he says.

"Check with your provider and see if this is a known issue that can be remedied or if others are having similar problems."

You can also use the free complaints toolResolverto help you write, manage and escalate your complaint.

He also advises looking at a coverage checker to see if you are in a known black spot when you are unable to get a signal indoors and outdoors.

The UK's telecommunications regulator Ofcom has a mobile and broadband checker for indoor and outdoor coverage - you can use it here.

"Although this is meant to be a guide, it can also be relied on as evidence that you are not getting the service you have paid for under the Consumer Rights Act 2015," says Dixon.

You can cancel your mobile contract up to 14 days after you sign up if you are unhappy with your coverage.

Providers are expected to deal with customers who have signal issues because of mobile network problems fairly and sympathetically.

In circumstances where there is a network issue, eg a mast is switched off, customers should be offered compensation or be allowed to leave the contract early without penalty.

Can you break your contract?

If you're unable to resolve your complaint, Dixon says you can break it, as it is a clear breach of contract under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

"Your provider may say they will charge an early cancellation fee for doing so in their terms and conditions," he says.

But he says he would push back, citing a breach of contract under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the fact that "you should not be penalised for their failure to honour the contract you have entered into in good faith".

If all of this fails, Scott says a last resort is to take your complaint to an ombudsman.

A first quarter dip in inflation, confirmed by March's better-than-forecast fall in CPI to 2.6%, is likely to offer only temporary respite to both consumers and the chancellor, ahead of a year of rising prices and soaring uncertainty.

The decline in March was driven by falling oil prices and the cost of recreation and culture. Forecourt fuel prices were down more than 7p a litre year-on-year, while food prices were flat.

Together they helped drag the primary measure of prices almost half a percentage point lower than the start of the year, and there were encouraging, if small, declines in both the rate of underlying core and services inflation.

This is likely to prove the low point, however, as international trade turmoil compounds domestic price pressures.

When April's figures are released in a month's time they are likely to reflect increases in consumer bills, from water to energy, as well as the first impact of rising employment taxes and a more than 6% bump to the national living wage.

All of these are forecast to push CPI above 3% in April and stay there, peaking at 3.5% or higher in the autumn.

If those domestic pressures are baked in and relatively straightforward to predict, the impact of Donald Trump's trade war is less clear.

As tariffs are taxes paid by the importer, the immediate impact of global blanket tariffs will be felt by American consumers, but the UK is far from immune from the consequences, both good and bad.

A weakening dollar could make US imports cheaper (the reverse is also true) and, should exporters priced out of the US choose to "dump" goods in tariff-free territories such as the UK, prices could initially fall.

Given dumping would disadvantage domestic suppliers that would likely draw a protectionist response from the government, in the form of tariffs or non-tariff barriers, pushing up prices and demonstrating the corrosive impact of tit-for-tat trade conflict.

Fears of weakening demand have already pushed down oil and gas prices which eventually pass through to consumers too, but given they reflect expectations of a global recession there will be little to celebrate.

Reflecting fears of a downturn, markets now expect the Bank of England to cut interest rates four more times this year, starting next month.

UK industry and business, meanwhile, still has no idea if the 10% blanket tariff applied to the UK will last, and specific industries are deeply troubled, including car manufacturers who know they face a 25% tax, and the pharmaceutical industry, which fears it might.

Any prolonged impact on these two cornerstones of UK exports, expertise and employment, would be traumatic for the economy.

In the video below, I explain what falling inflation means for you...

By Mickey Carroll, science and technology reporter

A legal case against Apple that could see 23.8 million UK iPhone users compensated will continue, a court has ruled.

The tech giant is accused of costing iPhone users more than £853m by making iOS updates that degraded iPhone batteries and performance.

This, the case alleges, led users to buy new devices without ever being made aware of what the updates were doing.

Today, a court ruled in favour of Justin Gutmann, who brought the case more than two years ago on behalf of Apple customers.

The ruling was over a technicality around the funding arrangement of the case, but had Apple won, the legal challenge may not have been able to continue.

Instead, the Court of Appeal ruled unanimously in favour of Gutmann.

"I began this action in 2022 to hold Apple to account for misleading millions of iPhone users by issuing software updates that avoided addressing their underlying battery issues, choosing instead to curb iPhone performance," Gutmann said.

"Apple has attempted to overturn every major decision of the Tribunal, delay proceedings and increase the costs of litigation.

"I am delighted that the Court of Appeal has issued a strong, unanimous verdict showing them that their tactics will not work."

Sky News has contacted Apple for comment.

Richer households could face higher bills than others to shoulder the costs of upgrading the grid and transitioning to cleaner energy, Ofgem has said.

Plans to be considered this summer would see higher earners pay a more expensive standing charge to fund upgrading the UK's energy cables and pipes as it moves away from fossil fuels.

The regulator's chief executive, Jonathan Brearley, said a wide-ranging review was needed to stop higher fixed costs in Britain's energy system exacerbating inequalities.

"Over the next few years, we do expect variable costs to come down, but the proportion of costs that are fixed will rise, which, if unchecked, could exacerbate inequalities that we see today."

Fixed industry costs like maintaining wires and cables are built into the standing charge - a flat fee for all households regardless of how much energy they use, meaning lower-income households pay proportionally more of their earnings to fund the grid.

Consumer expert Martin Lewis has called the standing charge a "moral hazard" forcing people to pay more than £300 a year just to be connected to the grid.

"So, in the summer, we are launching a wide-ranging examination of how we best allocate costs within the energy system from first principles," Brearley said.

"What [the review] will mean is looking at the bill and saying, are there ways in which we can attach the price customers pay for fixed costs to income."

He stressed any decisions were some way off and that doing "something related to income" would involve challenges.

"We want to at least ask the question — whether or not we can allocate costs more progressively."

For this week's guide, Anna Bowes, savings expert fromThe Private Office,looks at the best easy access savings accounts - and the industry tricks to watch out for...

Although the Bank of England base rate was cut by 0.25% two months ago, the top easy access savings rates have held up remarkably well.

At the start of February, the best available rate was 4.85% and the average of the top five was 4.75%. Today, the leading rates are still paying 4.75%, with the average at 4.65% - that's higher than the base rate, 4.5%.

But savers can't afford to be complacent.

Short-term bonuses

It's important to regularly review the interest you are earning and switch if you are no longer getting a competitive rate.

This is particularly important if you've chosen an account that includes a short-term boosted rate.

If you don't switch once the bonus ends, your rate will drop significantly.

Take Chase Bank, for example. Its Chase Saver account advertises a boosted rate of 4.75% AER, but that includes a 1.75% bonus for only six months.

After that, the rate falls to 3%, meaning the actual Annual Equivalent Rate is 3.88%.

Similarly, Chip's Instant Access account promotes a rate of 4.76% AER, but that includes a 1.26% bonus for only three months, after which the rate drops to 3.50%.

As a result, the true AER is 3.82%.

For this reason, these accounts do not make it on to my best buy table.

Short-term bonuses are not all you need to watch out for - some top-paying accounts come with restricted access.

If you have one of these, it's crucial to understand what impact additional withdrawals will have.

In most cases, exceeding the allowed number of penalty-free withdrawals will simply cause your rate to drop for the rest of the year.

But you should check whether you can still access your funds at all - some accounts won't let you withdraw beyond the limit.

Other terms and conditions to watch out for include Atom Bank's Instant Saver Reward, which pays 4.75% AER, but only in months when no withdrawals are made.

If you take money out, the rate drops to 3% AER for that month.

There are plenty of straightforward, no-fuss easy access accounts available.

Charter Savings Bank's Easy Access Issue 58, for example, is paying 4.56% AER, with no short-term bonuses or withdrawal restrictions. You can deposit as little as £1 and earn the full rate.

By Sarah Taaffe-Maguire, business and economics reporter

A big reason for the inflation rate fall last month was lower fuel costs.

The price we pay at the pump is, in large part, determined by the market-determined price of oil.

It seems strange to talk about the reduced cost of oil in March after we saw such steep drops this month, as Trump's tariff announcement sparked fears of a recession in the world's biggest economy.

Nevertheless,there were definite declines last month as a barrel of Brent crude oil (the benchmark) at points fell below $70 for the first time in 18 months.

That fall came as there was a brief halt to Russia and Ukraine attacking energy infrastructure.

Around the same time, the OPEC group of oil-producing states confirmed they were expanding production, which also helped bring down costs.

Demand for oil has also dropped, reflected in the International Energy Agency downgrading its 2025 demand forecast.