Nationwide has been voted the UK's 'most trusted' financial services company, followed by the Co-operative Bank and Barclays. At the other end of the scale Northern Rock and Admiral came out bottom of the survey.

However, the survey found that financial service companies struggle to gain consumers' trust and that retailers are more trusted.

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Pop star Madonna could be risks a fine of £5,000 the next time she disturbs her neighbours with noisy parties.

The Queen of Pop was issued with an official warning by Westminster council after a party was held by staff at her Marylebone home last month. So what can you do about noisy neighbours?

We've all had dating disasters but Brenda's Parke's experience of online dating left her £60,000 worse off when she was conned by a confidence trickster who persuaded her to part with her life's savings to help his supposedly sick daughter.

The 60-year-old divorcee was befriended by the con man on dating website match.com and fell for his sob story only realising too late that she'd been spun a web of lies. Shockingly, she never even met him in person. So how can people avoid "romance fraud"?

Fancying saving money on buying wine in restaurants? If so, a new wine club could be the answer.

Bringing your own booze used to be the preserve of cheap unlicensed restaurants or dodgy curry houses but the BYO Wine Club has partnered with many of London's best restaurants to offer wine lovers the privilege of bringing their own special bottles to accompany their meals for no or reasonable corkage fees.

Smokers who kicked the habit three years ago when the smoking ban first came into effect could have saved £9,150 by now, according to new research.

Price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com says reformed smokers could have saved £4,190 on the cost of cigarettes and £4,950 on critical illness cover premiums over the past three years.

Loyalty doesn't pay, according to experts who looked at the cost of remaining loyal to your bank or building society.

Price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com says consumers who remain loyal to their bank could be paying around £2,814 more over a year compared to those who shop around for the best deals. So why do existing customers get such a bad deal?

Traditionally third party car insurance policies have been the cheap option compared to comprehensive cover, but research has shown that in many cases this is no longer true. In fact in some cases third party car insurance can be twice the cost of fully comp.

So how come third party cover costs more?

The differences between the sexes have finally been explained – well, as far as the kind of car accidents they have anyway.

Insurer Diamond has found there are certain types of accidents women are more likely than men to be involved in. So how did the genders differ when it comes to bumps and prangs?

VAT looks sure to be increased in today's emergency Budget. But what is VAT and how does it work?

VAT stands for "value added tax" and it's a tax you have to pay when you buy certain goods and services. The current rate is 17.5%, one of the lowest in Europe, but Chancellor George Osborne could raise the rate to up to 20% in his first Budget this week. If he raised the tax 1% to 18.5% it would generate about £4.65billion in tax revenues which would go some way to tackle the deficit.