Money blog: Amazon Prime Day starts tomorrow - but are the deals what they seem? (2024)

Online grocer Ocado has launched a "digital aisle" stocked with products from female-founded businesses.

The Buy Women Built aisle launches today on Ocado's app and website.

It offers more than 1,000 products from 130 brands across food and drinks, health and beauty, home care and cleaning and children's ranges.

Ocado Retail chief executiveHannah Gibsontold The Sunday Times: "There are far fewer women entrepreneurs out there and we want to support that community."

Earlier this year, Money blog reporter Jess Sharp addressed the lack of support for female entrepreneursin a Women In Business series. Here are a few of her interviews...

Health authority budget cuts could expose Britain to fast-spreading disease as well as harm UK farmers, industry experts have warned.

The government announced last week it was investing £3.1m to Dover Port Health Authority for 2024-25 to help tackle illegal meat imports and "keep African swine fever (ASF) out of Great Britain".

However, the Port Health Authority chief has argued the amount represents a cut to its previous funding - hindering the border team's ability to conduct checks on illegal meat entering the country.

The budget cuts could open the doors to "catastrophic" disease amid growing cases of ASF across Europe, said Lucy Manzano, head of port health and public protection at the Dover Port Health Authority.

"Our response to the government's announcement on ASF checks is one of shock," Ms Manzano said.

Primark, Ikea, Tesco, Aldi and Costa are among 71 retailers calling for a 20% business rates cut in a letter to the chancellor ahead of this month's budget.

The open letter, organised by the British Retail Consortium, suggested the introduction of a Retail Rates Corrector, which would help level the playing field between store-based retailers, who have to pay rates, and those that operate solely online, which generally do not.

"We pay 7.4% of all business taxes, a share 1.5 times greater than our share of the overall economy, and retail's tax bill amounts to 55% of pre-tax profits, the highest proportion, along with hospitality, of all main business sectors," it reads.

It said the tax burden was causing store closures, job losses and investments to be held back.

Sainsbury's is hiring 20,000 people to work over the Christmas period.

The UK-wide roles include 18,000 at Sainsbury's and 2,000 at Argos - and applications are now open.

Shop workers, warehouse staff and delivery drivers will be employed on fixed-term contracts ranging from three weeks to three months, earning between £12 and £14.65 an hour depending on the location and the role.

Workers will also be offered free food during shifts and a 10% discount across stores, rising to 15% every Friday and Saturday.

Sainsbury's is the UK's second-largest supermarket, behind Tesco, with about 1,400 stores across the country.

While Black Friday is not until 29 November, bargain-hunters only have to wait until tomorrow to dive into discounts on products from the world's largest online retailer - Amazon.

The company's annual Prime Big Deal Days run tomorrow and Wednesday and offer Amazon Prime members a massive range of discounts and offers on their products, services and subscriptions.

You can click here and see some of the items Amazon has already discounted in its pre-sale - including Ring doorbell cameras, Oral-B toothbrushes and more.

From tomorrow, Amazon says it will have "deals from Sony, Bose, Shark, Tefal, and LG" and selected products from Ghd, Crocs, Oral-B, Philips/Hue, Bosch, Logitech, Braun, and Swarovski.

Some deals will last the whole two days, while others - dubbed "Lightning Deals" - will be launched as often as every five minutes and last for a limited time, usually between three and 12 hours, or until they run out of stock.

Meanwhile, business owners can get further discount on the already-reduced price service Amazon Business on more than one hundred million products.

A handy tip - if you want access to the event but aren't a Prime member - you can sign up for Amazon's free 30-day trial and you'll be eligible without paying a penny.

A word of warning

It's important during these major marketing events to remember what they are - an attempt to get you to part with cash when you wouldn't normally.

The key is to remember that a deal is only a deal if you were going to buy it anyway.

Many of the discounts will be good opportunities to make savings on bigger purchases or Christmas presents - but some are not so good.

For example, Money Saving Expert found a "Kindle Paperwhite" for £119.99 during a similar Prime Day in July, but it was £10 cheaper in May, and £20 cheaper during the previous year's Prime Day.

Make sure to dodge fraudsters

Marijus Briedis, a cybersecurity expert at VPN serviceNordVPN, warns that "cyber ghouls" will be "haunting the digital aisles" and looking to scam customers as they search for deals during the Prime Day event.

Scammers might create fake websites that appear to have come from Amazon, asking for personal information or hosting malicious software that is downloaded to devices by clicking on links, Mr Briedis says.

"Consumers should always be cautious of unfamiliar websites, even if they seem associated with Amazon or have the usual branding," he explains.

"For example, you may receive a phishing email from someone claiming to be Amazon offering you the latest iPhone for half the regular retail price. The discount is unrealistic for the latest Apple tech and should be an immediate warning sign.

"A common sign of fake or harmful sites is misspellings or slight irregularities in the website's URL."

By Daniel Binns, business reporter

The value of the pound has fallen to its lowest level in almost a month amid expectations the Bank of England will steadily cut interest rates this autumn and winter.

On the currency markets this morning £1 buys around $1.30, the lowest since early September. Sterling's value against the euro has also fallen, with £1 buying €1.19.

It comes after governor Andrew Bailey suggested last week that the Bank could be "a bit more aggressive" in its approach in future.

Financial markets have priced in a 96% chance of an interest rate cut in November, according to latest figures.

Investors believe there could be more cuts in December, February, March or May.

Lower interest rates tend to make a country less attractive to international investors, as they would expect to get less return, which in turn can impact the value of a nation's currency.

Expectations that the US Federal Reserve will not cut interest rates by as much as previously thought are also thought to be having an impact.

This follows strong jobs data in the US and ongoing market concern over the escalating violence in the Middle East.

Worries over the situation in the region are also contributing to a steady rise in the price of oil.

A barrel of the benchmark Brent crude has almost hit $80 (£61) this morning, a six-week high following last week's 9.1% gain.

Meanwhile, the FTSE 100 is up 0.38% and the FTSE 250 has risen 0.44%.

The top FTSE 100 gainer is NatWest, which is up more than 2%.

At the other end of the scale is Endeavour Mining, which has fallen more than 8%.

ByMegan Harwood-Baynes,cost of living specialist

When Jake Goodwin saw a house for sale for 85p, he had a feeling it was too good to be true.

"I was a bit sceptical, but I kept reading about it," the Oxford-based stone mason told Money.

Homes in the Italian town of Mussomeli (around 40 minutes from the Sicilian coast) were being offered under the country's one-euro housing scheme.

As young Italians migrate to the city, many remote villages are being abandoned, with houses left to fall to pieces. Elderly Italians find they have no one to leave their homes to, and for younger citizens, because having a second home means more taxes, selling these houses off cheaply can often make sense.

So, around 25 Italian municipalities are selling homes for the symbolic price of one euro. The idea is that having these homes improved and occupied is worth more to the towns than selling them off at full price.

After a few years of mulling it over, Jake took the plunge.

"Some of the homes in the area were £17-20k, but then they showed us the one euro ones. We stepped foot into my one and it had the most incredible views over the landscape," the 30-year-old said.

Walls of solid stone were crumbling, but Jake reckoned he could do plenty of the work himself.

He took the estate agent to one side and asked what he had to do to make it official and, as of 16 May 2024, the three-storey home was his.

But even though the overall costs were low - Jake spent a few thousand pounds once all the selling fees were included - it was not like buying a brand new home.

The house was filled with "junk" that had to be cleared - and it still needs a new roof, has plastering crumbling off, wiring that all needs replacing and no working bathroom or kitchen.

Jake estimates he will spend around £50,000 over the next few years turning it into his dream family holiday home (and that is with doing a lot of the work himself), for his wife and kids.

Under the rules of the scheme, he has three years to fix the facade, so he plans to return quarterly for three weeks at a time.

"By next year I want to have it completely watertight, with a new roof, new doors and new windows," he said.

He's also learning Italian to make it easier to deal with local contractors: "I bought a place in their town and I want to fully immerse myself in that."

"It's such a nice place, it's so safe and friendly and you get a real sense of community," he added.

'There's no running water, but there are marble stairs'

When George Laing realised a house deposit in his home city of London could set him back £50,000, he started to look for alternatives.

His one-euro home was the first one he stepped inside when touring the area with a local estate agent. The freehold cost a euro, while the agency fee was €500. A transfer of deeds was €2,500, and with fees for an energy certificate and floorplan, it ended up costing him around £4,500.

"That won't even get you a garage in London," the 31-year-old said.

And while it has no running water or electricity, it does have the original, ornate marble stairs.

The home he picked was filled with antiques - ideal for George who runs a jewellery auction. It had been owned by an elderly woman, who left to go care for her sister when she became sick and ended up never returning. Rather than pay the extra taxes, when she died her son donated the home to the scheme.

George has been sifting through the possessions left, selling whatever he can - so far he has found vintage jewellery, old wine bottles, clothes and religious portraits - to try and fund the renovations.

To save even more cash, he is doing much of the renovation work himself, watching YouTube videos and taking courses to teach himself plumbing. While others have spent tens of thousands on their renovations, George is looking smaller, aiming to refit the entire house for under £15,000.

For him, the biggest cost will be time: "It's going to take me hundreds of hours," he said.

For anyone thinking of taking the plunge for an 85p home, both George and Jake are emphatic that is worth the risk.

"It can seem daunting," Jake said. "But for £4,000 initial cost, people spend that on a cruise. And if it doesn't work out, you can always sell it on."

"If you are willing to put in a little hard graft and time, you can have a home in Italy for a fraction of what it costs in the UK," said George.

Olive oil prices could start to ease as Spain's sector is set to make a strong rebound.

The cost of olive oil has increased significantly over the last year, after Spain, one of the world's largest producers, recorded a 56.8% drop in production.

Prices jumped by 183% between December 2019 and August 2024, the country's CaixaBank found.

Now it says production has increased by 1.9% year-on-year in the first half of 2024 and there has been a "slight reduction" in costs, meaning prices could start to fall.

"For the next season we expect the balance between supply and demand will be better, so we hope that will be seen in the prices," Pedro Alvarez Ondina, an economist at CaixaBank research, told The Times.

Earlier this year, the Money team revealed olive oil prices had jumped 110% in the UK during the cost of living crisis, with the industry suffering a number of problems from criminal gangs to a bacteria disease.

Northern Ireland, Wales and the North West of England have seen the biggest house price growth over the last year, latest Halifax data shows.

Across the UK, house prices increased by 0.3% in September, matching the rise seen in August. It means that year-on-year prices are up +4.7% - though Halifax says this is mainly down to "the base impact of weaker prices a year ago".

One of the most interesting sections in the bank's latest House Price Index relates to first-time buyers.

The average amount they are paying has increased by 4.2% over the past year, which equates to an extra £9,409 in cash terms.

This brings the typical first-time buyer property price up to £232,769. However, this is still about £1,000 less than two years ago.

Across the entire market, the average cost of a new home is £293,399.

Northern Ireland continues to record the strongest annual house price growth in the UK - 9.7% year-on year, taking the average property price to £203,593.

House prices in Wales also recorded strong growth, up 4.4%, with a typical property costing£224,119.

In Scotland rises were more modest - up 2.1% on the year to £205,718,

The North West once again recorded the strongest house price growth of any region in England, up by 5.1% to sit at £234,355.

London continues to have the most expensive property prices in the UK, now averaging £539,238, up 2.6% compared with last year.

This is still some way below the capital's peak property price of
£552,592 set in August 2022.

"It's essential to view these recent gains in context," said Amanda Bryden, head of mortgages at Halifax.

"While the typical property value has risen by around £13,000 over the past year, this increase is largely a recovery of the ground lost over the previous 12 months.

"Looking back two years, prices have increased by just +0.4% (£1,202).

"While improved mortgage affordability should continue to support buyer activity – boosted by anticipated further cuts to interest rates – housing costs remain a challenge for many.

"As a result we expect property price growth over the rest of this year and into next to remain modest."

Every Monday we get an expert to answer your money problems or consumer disputes. Find out how to submit yours at the bottom of this post. Today's question is...

We sadly had to have our dog put down. We had spent thousands previously at the vet and several times they told us: "Just bring him in and we will put him to sleep." So when the time came we did. Two weeks later we got an invoice for £177. At no point did they suggest there was a bill. Is this legal?

Mark H

We asked Scott Dixon, fromThe Complaints Resolver, for his thoughts.

"First of all, I am really sorry to hear of your loss," Scott says.

"This is an interesting, sad and unusual question."

He adds: "Any trader carrying out a service (whether it's a mechanic or a vet) ought to be clear with costs before proceeding with any instructions, so this seems unfair."

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 protects consumers from unfair or misleading trading practices and bans acts and omissions which entice consumers into making a decision they would otherwise not have made, Scott says.

"I take the view that the veterinary practice has breached the regulations and cannot legally, ethically and morally enforce this invoice," says the consumer disputes expert.

"They have contravened the requirements of professional diligence and did not provide you with material information which you needed to take an informed transactional decision. This has caused detriment to you."

Scott suggests trying to resolve this informally.

"Say that you are shocked and upset to receive an invoice under such distressing circumstances, especially as you have been a loyal customer for years and spent thousands of pounds with the practice.

"No costs were mentioned at the time, nor were you directed to any prices.

"Say you don't wish to make a formal complaint with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons – www.rcvs.org.uk – for a breach of professional misconduct, hence why you would prefer to resolve this informally, with the invoice waived under the circumstances."

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) is the regulatory body for the veterinary profession in the UK.

If the vet is unwilling or unable to waive the invoice, say you have taken advice and believe they have breached the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, Scott advises.

You can refer your complaint to the Veterinary Client Mediation Service – www.vetmediation.co.uk – which is free and can help you resolve this before lodging a formal complaint with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

Scott cautions: "The veterinary practice may choose to pursue the outstanding debt via the small claims court, although they would risk adverse publicity in doing so.

"I would dispute it as being legally unenforceable under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and refuse to pay it."

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