Consumer rights

It's Christmas week. If you're off work (or bored at it), stuffed with turkey, and desperate to avoid the relatives...

You'll soon have 30 days to return faulty goods for a full refund, as part of major changes to consumers' rights which come into effect on Thursday (1 October). MoneySavingExpert.com explains what the new Consumer Rights Act means for you.

If you're calling a financial service firm's customer service helplines to ask for assistance or to complain, you soon won't have to use a costly premium rate number under a crackdown by the regulator.

About 41,000 Northern Rock mortgage customers with unsecured loans of between £25,000 and £30,000 have been dealt a massive blow this morning, as the Court of Appeal has ruled they're not due redress for historic paperwork blunders.

Shoppers can now get legally binding decisions on complaints from Ombudsman Services if they get nowhere with the retailer itself, although they'll only be able to complain about members of the voluntary scheme.

Consumers rights are changing from 1 October when the new Consumer Rights Act, which has been given Royal Assent by the Queen today, comes into force.

Shoppers tempted by 'free trials' of miracle youth cream and weight loss pills are being warned by the Royal Bank of Scotland to read ts&cs carefully after the bank reported its customers lost a combined £3 million in just six months after signing up to such schemes.

Some customers of the bank have received a post-Christmas surprise worth thousands of pounds after it started paying out compensation over a mistake it made in the information included in annual statements.