As a third-generation pawnbroker, I have bought and sold gold for most of my life. For nearly two decades the price of gold has been on quite a volatile journey with sharp dips and staggering peaks which I find exhilarating. Since the early noughties the value of gold has increased exponentially. Here's how to tell what YOURS is worth - and whether you should sell it.

While solar panels alone can save the typical household some £310 each year, battery storage systems enable energy transferred from sunlight to be stored for use at night when solar panels aren't working.

The long-rumoured increase will see businesses pay more towards their employees' pensions, increasing from 13.8% to 15%. Labour repeatedly said it would not raise taxes on working people, but small businesses have already warned that the move could have detrimental effects.

Cash-strapped parents hit by Labour's VAT raid on private school fees plan to use credit cards, loans and even remortgage their homes or sell property to cover the extra cost, research has found. Nine in ten parents are currently able to fund their children's education through wages and income from investments. But, once 20% VAT is levied on fees by the Government in what has been dubbed an 'act of class war', as many as 27% of parents are likely to fall short and many are likely to take on extra debt, according to the research from specialist lender Pepper Money.

Financial experts say it is important not to panic, but there are a few simple tweaks you could still make to protect your cash from a tax grab. We look at what potential changes might be in store and some of the changes that you can make ahead of the Autumn Budget.

Leading high street retailers have been accused of excluding millions of customers from lower prices due to loyalty scheme restrictions. Supermarkets and other retailers have come under fire for introducing a two-tier price structure as customers without a loyalty card are likely to pay more at the checkout. An investigation by consumer website Which? found that a huge number of customers aren't even able to access those cheaper prices.

Sir Keir Starmer has laid the groundwork for an increase in taxes after warning the Autumn Budget on 30 October will be 'painful'. Increases to income tax, national insurance and VAT have already been ruled out, making it harder to balance Britain's books.

How do you improve customer service in the telecoms industry? Angharad Carrick visited Vodafone in Stoke to find out. Jon Shaw, Vodafone's commercial operations director at the firm, has already improved the company's complaints performance and he's now turning his attention to how artificial intelligence might improve service.

I ordered some gym wear from Aybl, spending about £150, and paid using Klarna. The parcel was never delivered, with the courier, Evri taking responsibility for not delivering it, and reporting that it had been lost. Neither Klarna or Aybl will give me a refund, what can I do?

In February this year we began legal proceedings via Money Claims Online against a tradesperson who had failed to complete a job for us, but had been paid in full. We have been told, by Portsmouth Courts that bailiffs attended his property in April, and that he paid straight away - but we have never received the money we had claimed.

The government uses the inflation figure from September to calculate how much benefits should increase by the following April. While good news for the Treasury, which will pay out far less in benefit payments, claimants are likely to see a much smaller rise next year. We look at what benefits and bills are linked to inflation and what it will mean for claimants.

Independent Age has found that 49% of older people in England who will lose their Winter Fuel Payment said they were planning to only heat and spend time in one room. A similar proportion (43%) think they will have to wear coats and hats indoors to keep warm.

The 'ban on acquisition tariffs' is a large part of the reason why energy bills remain high, and now it looks like this could last until at least 2026 under proposals by regulator Ofgem.

Energy firms use RTS to switch a meter between peak and off-peak rates, so customers can have energy deals that charge them less at certain times, normally overnight. The problem is that the BBC has wanted to shut down BBC 4 longwave for years, and has only kept it running in order to run RTS meters .

Barclays' consumer spend report, which analyses millions of customer transactions, reveals that overall spending increased 1.2 per cent year-on-year in September. The biggest increase came from 'non-essential' spending at 2.7 per cent, as discounts incentivised shoppers to splash the cash on clothing, health and beauty.

This week, new tipping legislation came into force. It means restaurants and the like must share out tips to workers in a fair and transparent way. But what is it with all of the new behavioural economics tricks trying to guilt-trip us loyal patrons into tipping with gimmicks.

The Ofgem price cap will rise to £1,717 on 1 October - but could then fall to £1,697 in January, and keep falling during much of 2025, according to analysis by Cornwall Insight, which has accurately predicted price cap movements for many years.

Pensioners continue to slam the Government for making changes to the Winter Fuel Payment in the face of rising energy bills. The annual tax-free payment of between £100 and £300 was introduced to help pensioners with the cost of heating their homes in winter.

Most retirees are missing out on Winter Fuel Payments worth £100 to £300 a year, but there are other ways of getting help with energy bills this winter, from Pension Credit to council grants.

Over 80,000 solar panels were installed on UK homes throughout the first seven months of 2024, a 19% reduction on the 106,000 installed during the same period of 2023. The dip in installations in 2024 could be due to the UK having the coolest summer since 2015, while 2023 was one of the warmest summers on record.

At the moment, switching broadband provider can be a complicated, time-consuming process that can leave households without internet access for the better part of two weeks in many instances. But the long-awaited one touch switching service aims to simplify and speed up the process.

Retailers are taking matters into their own hands as they introduce new, wide-ranging measures to crack down on organised criminals targeting their stores. With this has also come some outrage from shoppers who feel inconvenienced by the introduction of security tags on basic items, and the increased use of CCTV. We look at what measures the major supermarkets have taken to stop the scourge of shoplifting.

Heat pumps have clear benefits when it comes to producing greener electricity - but they do have some potential drawbacks, and one is noise. The perceived noise of heat pumps can be more of a nuisance, depending on where you are relative to the pump. However, there are some ways to reduce this.