The Office of Fair Trading has decided against recommending a cap on the interest rates charged by high-cost credit providers such as doorstep lenders and payday loan companies.

In other words, the watchdog has given them permission to carry on ripping you off. Why?

The Association of British Credit Unions (ABCUL) is backing proposals for a link up between credit unions and the Post Office 11,500 branch network, to bring credit union services within the grasp of many more people - and keep them out of the clutches of loan sharks.

The link up would allow Post Office customers to join a credit union and existing credit union members to get easier access to their accounts. As part of a range of credit union services, staff at Post Offices would be able give instant, pre-approved loans, giving people another trusted way to access more affordable credit.

The Office of Fair Trading is launching a major stock-take of the country's infrastructure - from ports, airports, trains and buses to utilities and car parks - to determine whether we are being ripped off by recent changes in ownership.

A slew of these assets have changed hands in the past decade and many have been snapped up by foreign companies. The OFT denies that the review will lead to further privatisations, even though the new government desperately needs funds to balance the books.

Royal Bank of Scotland has been fined £28.6m for breaking competition law on the pricing of loans, adding to concerns that the banking sector operates like a cosy club.

The Office of Fair Trading found evidence that Barclays had used information provided by RBS to set the pricing on its own loans before it blew the whistle in 2008.

The fine is the first the OFT has imposed on a bank in a competition investigation – after a series of fines levied on supermarkets and other companies – and one of the regulator's largest ever.

OFT boss John Fingleton has previously expressed concern about parts of British business where "shoddy, complacent, cosy, rotten practices" have been "going on for years".

A consumer group has brought a "super-complaint" against ISA providers, claiming that savers are losing out on up to £3 billion of interest every year because of the way banks operate.

Consumer Focus has called on the Office of Fair Trading to investigate the £158 billion market for cash ISAs. It is accusing ISA providers of using eye-catching rates to lure savers and slashing them after the first year in the hope that people won't notice.

In a blistering attack on the ISA industry, Consumer Focus said consumers face unfair hurdles when they try to transfer their account to another provider, due to "poor and bureaucratic processes".

We all like a good moan. And some of us now turn to sites like Facebook and Twitter to vent our anger about poor customer service rather than complain directly to the firms in question.

A new survey from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) found that a third of all customers use the internet to make their feelings known if they are unhappy about a company's service.

Bank customers could soon be able to opt out of using unauthorised overdrafts, says the Office of Fair Trading.

But this is scarce consolation for those stung by hefty penalties when they inadvertently slip into the red - in some cases £35 even if they go just a few pence over their agreed limit.

The watchdog has backed down on plans to impose a limit on the highly controversial overdraft charges.

Last year the Supreme Court ruled that the OFT didn't have the power to decide if the charges were unfair. But the regulator could have demanded new legislation. Instead, it left it up to the banks to improve their overdraft policy, saying "real progress is being made towards personal current accounts that work well for consumers".

Tesco is thought to be gearing up to launch a property website and Google could also enter the fray. This could shake up the landscape of Britain's housing market, which so far has been dominated by traditional estate agents.

Competition among estate agents is set to intensify after a report from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) suggested that legislation on buying and selling houses dating back to 1979 should be relaxed to allow more online estate agents into the market to give consumers a better deal.

So what will it mean?

A shake-up in how homes are sold, including updating legislation to allow new entrants into the market, could lead to a better deal for house buyers and sellers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said today.

The OFT's study into home buying and selling found that the housing market remains dominated by traditional estate agents with weak competition between them on price.

However, overall satisfaction with estate agents has improved in recent years and where there are problems with transactions, consumers generally do not think the estate agent was at fault.

So what does the OFT say needs to be done?

It's Scam Awareness Month and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is highlighting how scammers are targeting unsuspecting people using increasingly sophisticated and manipulative tactics.

This year's Scams Awareness Month is seeking to raise awareness of the scale of the problem with a nationwide 'Scamnesty' run in partnership with 129 local authority Trading Standards Services.

The campaign calls on consumers to drop scam mailings they have received into designated 'Scamnesty' bins or boxes at local libraries and public areas across the country. Consumers can also send scam emails direct to the OFT.

So what kind of scams should we be wary of?

Now 2009 is all behind us, it's a reasonable time to take stock, and look at just how bad things were (before dusting ourselves down and facing the future with a dash more optimism).

Any list of the worst in finance last year has got to be headed by the bank charges saga.

So, Number One: Just when we thought there might be a slight chance that the banks would be told it was unfair that they charge fees of up to £38 to customers going overdrawn or having direct debits returned, the Supreme Court turned round and said the Office of Fair Trading, which was leading the cavalry into battle, had no business in nosing into this area.

Then, as the OFT decided they'd had enough and were to throw the towel in, the banks, who had been fearing the worst after this epic had dragged on for four years or so, cheered as one and thumbed their noses at customers who had hoped for a refund on some of the extortionate charges they'd been hit with over a six-year period.

Well, the banks' victory in the great account charges scandal has not only seen off the Office of Fair Trading, it's weakened the consumer watchdog's standing in one other important case.

After the Supreme Court ruling that the OFT did not have the right to determine whether or not bank charges were unfair, estate agents Foxtons have decided to appeal against a High Court decision that millions of pounds in charges that they had levied against landlords were, as the OFT had determined, out of order.

The final nail in the coffin in the campaign for fairer bank charges came this morning when the Office of Fair Trading announced it would not take its investigation into bank overdraft charges any further.

This is a big blow for many people who could have got back thousands of pounds in unauthorised overdraft fees from their banks.

Those funny folk over in Brussels love a good list. Almost as much as they love making rules and regulations.

So when you want a list of business across Europe that are breaking rules and regulations then the EU is the place to go. The European Commission has just done a sweep of 369 websites across Europe that sell consumer electronics like cameras, computers, mobile phones, DVD players and games consoles and found that more than half – 53% – are breaking EU consumer rules.

Hoorah! That's definitely a worthwhile investigation. What isn't so good is that we have no idea what those UK websites are. Of the 14 involved in the EU sweep, six have been told they risk being fined or shut down unless they clean up misleading consumer information.

It's such a disappointing cliche.

According to the latest figures from the government's consumer complaints arm, the most moaned about purchases in the UK are second hand cars.

The OFT is still investigating the market, after the figures hit the heights last year, but so far the shiny suited second hand car salesman is still roaming the car lot, leaving us with a nasty taste in our mouths.

So what else is really annoying us, and what can we do about it?