Laura Foulger

While mere mortals sleep, the MSE Forum goes on spawning debate, guidance, support and humour around the clock. Here are a few of this week's highlights.

Like a city that never sleeps, the MSE Forum goes on generating debate, guidance, support and humour at all hours. Here are a few of this week's highlights.

More versatile than the Easter bunny and more consistent than Santa, the coupon fairy is the everyday hero you've probably never heard of. If you've ever received a voucher from a stranger in the checkout queue, or found one tucked on a supermarket shelf beside the corresponding item, you've encountered a coupon fairy. Or maybe you're one yourself? If that's the case, we're about to lift the lid on your secret.

A grandfather of two, who was tricked out of £25,000 by fraudsters purporting to offer NHS Covid passes, has got his life savings back after MoneySavingExpert.com intervened. He's now warning others about the scam to make sure they don't get caught out.   

It's that time when we pick through the remnants of the chocolate selection box and gaze back wistfully on another year in the MSE Forum. Reminisce with us over the funniest, wisest and most popular discussions of 2021.

Board games are an integral Christmas Day activity for many, as well as a good idea for a gift with plenty of mileage, so we've rounded up the best deals on some of the most popular titles. As some of us may not be able to physically play board games together still this year, we've also suggested how you can adapt a few of the most popular games to play virtually. 

Ryanair has barred some passengers who received 'chargeback' refunds for Covid-disrupted flights from travelling with the low-cost airline, unless they return the money. MoneySavingExpert.com can reveal some holidaymakers who booked trips for this year were later told they could only fly if they gave back the refunds, in one case just days before travel. 

I've been digging about in pots of dirt for a few years, and I want to share with you my 'greenprint' in the form of top MoneySaving tips to grow your indoor garden from one plant into a hundred. With this as inspiration, plus sun, water and a bit of your own trial and error, your ceiling's the limit.

Travel rules are hugely complicated, with restrictions for UK citizens, Foreign Office warnings about other countries, quarantine requirements and a long list of other issues to worry about. To help, this guide cuts through the confusion and summarises the rules for the top 15+ travel destinations.

Update 29 July 2021: Since publishing this story McDonald’s has confirmed that, as of 1 July, completed physical loyalty cards can no longer be redeemed, and its terms and conditions have been updated to reflect this. However, we’ve heard some instances of branches continuing to accept stickers at the server’s discretion, so it’s worth a try. McDonald’s is to scrap a long-running loyalty scheme which lets you collect stickers from cups and claim a free hot drink after purchasing six. The separate 'My McDonald's' app-based loyalty scheme, which gives a free hot drink after you've bought five, will continue - but crucially the change means from this summer you'll no longer be able to stack both schemes and earn TWO stickers per drink purchased. 

The Government's 'Eat Out to Help Out' scheme – which gave diners 50% discounts up to £10 per person on sit-down meals out from Monday to Wednesday – ended on 31 August. But scores of restaurants, pubs and cafés are continuing to offer a similar discount at their own expense.

Travellers returning to England and Northern Ireland from Portugal (though not including the Azores and Madeira), Hungary, French Polynesia and Réunion will need to self-isolate for 14 days if they return after 4am on Saturday. In addition, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is now advising against all but essential travel to all four destinations.

The Government's 'Eat Out to Help Out' scheme is running throughout August, giving 50% discounts up to £10 per person on sit-down meals out from Monday to Wednesday – and over 35 million discounted meals were claimed in the first two weeks alone. It works at over 85,000 restaurants, cafés and pubs – including independents, many big chains such as McDonald's, Nando's and The Ivy Collection, and Michelin star restaurants such as The Angel at Hetton and Aquavit London.

Local authorities in England and Wales can once again use bailiffs to collect outstanding debts from today, after a five-month suspension because of coronavirus. 

Airport parking website Holiday Extras has reversed its decision to issue vouchers rather than refunds to those who were forced to cancel their bookings as a result of travel disruption caused by coronavirus. It now says anyone with a 'flexible' booking – plus some with 'non-flexible' bookings – CAN cancel and opt for a refund if they want one, minus a cancellation fee. 

Iceland is urgently overhauling its online payments system after customers had multiple sums ring-fenced on their account for the same order, MoneySavingExpert.com can reveal. In some cases, shoppers have been unexpectedly pushed into their overdraft as a result – but the supermarket says it WON'T refund any overdraft charges incurred. We've seen scores of reports from Iceland customers about this issue in recent weeks. In most cases, shoppers say they've been hit with additional charges which show up as 'pending' on their account after an online grocery order has been amended – either by the customer, or by Iceland itself to account for out-of-stock items. While sums ring-fenced in this way are usually returned automatically by banks, this can take several days – and  in some cases shoppers say they haven't had the money back for weeks or have had to chase a refund. What's more, while an amount is ring-fenced it cannot be spent or used to cover other debits from an account, which means some have then been pushed into their overdraft when other payments have come out of their account.  One Iceland customer said he'd been charged £20 by his bank after being pushed into his overdraft, while another told us they had three additional payments reserved as pending after amending their order three times. Iceland insists no one has actually had extra money taken out of their account as a result of this problem, but it admits the situation is "not acceptable", and says it's working to "completely overhaul" its payment system to resolve the issue. But it says it won't refund any overdraft charges run up by affected customers.  For full help on grocery MoneySaving, see our 30 Supermarket Shopping Tips.