Money blog: Morrisons trialling new way of paying that makes theft almost impossible (2025)

By Jess Sharp, Money live reporter

It was a week when we learned what happens when you try to stand up to Trump's trade war (Canada, EU), and when an alternative, passive approach was put into action (UK).

The US president's 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports took effect, impacting UK products worth hundreds of millions of pounds.

Sir Keir Starmer said he was "disappointed" but did not announce any retaliatory measures.

It became clear the UK is hoping its approach will help persuade Trump to offer wider exemptions and move towards a US-UK trade deal.

The European Union took a different approach, threatening to impose tariffs of its own affecting €26bn (£21.9bn) of US goods from the start of next month.

It said the charges would apply to American steel, aluminium, textiles, home appliances, agricultural goods and whiskey.

The Trump administration, playing the playground bully, shot back with a threat of a 200% tariff on EU alcohol.

A similar story played out with Canada, which was told to expect 50% tariffs (instead of the 25% that came in on Wednesday) after the province of Ontario whacked a 25% charge on electricity being sent to northern US states. Neither threat materialised.

While Trump is aiming to protect US manufacturing, bolster jobs and make foreign-made products less attractive, economists believe his tariffs will raise costs in the US, push up inflation and keep interest rates higher for longer.

Even Tesla, the electric car company owned by Trump's biggest cheerleader Elon Musk, wrote to the government warning that the trade issues could hurt American companies.

Our business presenter Ian King had a look at the hammering Tesla has suffered in the piece below...

Investor concerns, mostly linked to the tariff war, have reduced Tesla's market value by around £800bn - Trump ended up buying one of the cars in a bizarre, televised show of support for the business and Musk.

Stock markets felt the worst of the tariff effects as consumer and investor confidence slumped, but they started to pick up slightly by the end of the week.

Our deputy political editor Sam Coates explored what all of this means for the UK and whether we'll be seeing higher prices creeping in...

The UK's chancellor was dealt a blow on Friday when January's GDP figures showed that despite her calls for growth, the economy had contracted by 0.1%.

The fall was mainly driven by a decline in the production sector, with output dropping 0.9%.

It's worse than economists had expected, with many predicting 0.1% growth.

Rachel Reeves said the country was "feeling the consequences" of a changing world as she came under pressure to use her spring statement in less than two weeks time to change course.

She is due to deliver the statement on 26 March, which is widely expected to include controversial cuts to the welfare budget.

At the same time, the Office for Budget Responsibility is widely expected to downgrade its forecasts for UK growth.

Our business correspondent Paul Kelso explains here why the economy isn't listening to Reeves...

The story that most captured our readers' attention this week (we have analytics for this stuff) concerned Grammy-nominated singer Dawn Robinson.

The '90s R&B singer from the girl group En Vogue revealed she has been living in her car for the last three years...

You also enjoyed the success our cost of living specialist Megan Harwood-Baynes had fixing this week's Money Problem.

She helped our reader Isla get a £500 refund from Turkish Airlines after she was kicked off a plane for having a nut allergy.

You can read how she did it here...

We're signing off for the week now - but don't forget to check out our long read from 8am tomorrow morning.

This week, we take a look at how childcare costs and job demands are driving mothers out of the workforce.

We've spoken to some mums who say going back to work and paying for childcare means they'll still end up in the red each month, and the changes they think the system needs.

Donatella Versace has stepped down from her role as head of Versace after almost three decades.

The 69-year-old took over the Italian firm in 1997 after its founder and her brother Gianni was murdered.

Since then, she has become a fashion icon, shaping the brand's modern identity and creating looks for the likes of Madonna, Beyonce and Lady Gaga.

Some of her most famous creations were a green jungle dress for Jennifer Lopez in 2000 and Michelle Obama's final state dinner dress in 2016.

She isn't leaving the company entirely, instead stepping into the role of chief brand ambassador.

She will be replaced by Miu Miu former design director Dario Vitale.

The change comes amid speculation that Prada Group is in discussions to buy Versace from Capri Holdings, which paid €2bn for the fashion house in 2018.

Dodgy injuries and photoshopped receipts were among the schemes used by fraudsters last year who tried to claim nearly £100m from a UK insurer, new data shows.

Zurich UK's fraud prevention team uncovered the equivalent of nearly £260,000-worth of bogus claims every day last year, totalling £94.7m across 2024.

In one claim detected by Zurich, a customer submitted photos of items allegedly in the boot of a car during an accident, but it emerged the photos had been sourced from the internet.

Another saw a student submit a claim for frozen food following a power cut, but Zurich said the receipt had been digitally amended.

The most fraudulent claims were for fake casualty incidents, totalling 1,996 claims (65%) worth £61.14m.

Preston has been announced as the headquarters for a proposed new regional bank.

NW Mutual will only provide services to individuals and small and medium-sized businesses based in the North West and plans to begin opening the first of its expected 60 branches by the end of 2026.

The bank - which describes itself as an "ethical" bank - was launched in response to the closure of more than 50% of traditional bank branches in the region (according to a spokesperson).

Dave Burke, a senior executive at NW Mutual, said the bank plans to recycle more than £900m back into the North West region.

Preston City Council's recent budget meeting heard that the NW Mutual would open its main office base in Preston along with its very first branch.

You may remember our hard-hitting campaign here in Money last year to bring back eight classic sweets and treats to shop shelves.

Well, this morning fans of one discontinued favourite are celebrating as a comeback was announced.

Walkers Worcester Sauce wasn't one of our featured eight, but many of you had submitted it as one you'd like to return...

And now it's back! After a hiatus from stores, the iconic flavour was given alimited edition run in its home town, Worcester, last week, with Walkers teasing its return to supermarkets afterwards.

Sharing the news of the relaunch, the crisp makers said: "On reflection, maybe we shouldn't have just limited the sale of Walkers Worcester Sauce flavoured crisps to only one store in Worcester."

Gold prices have passed the landmark price of $3,000 an ounce for the first time EVER.

Driven by a central bank buying spree, global economic fragility and Donald Trump's trade wars, gold climbed as much as 0.4% to $3,001.20 an ounce today.

The new record drives home gold's centuries-old role as a safe haven asset through turbulent times.

Jumps in its price typically track to broader economic and political stress. Gold passed the $1,000 an ounce mark in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, and passed $2,000 during COVID.

In the past 25 years, its price has risen 10-fold, outperforming even the S&P 500, the benchmark for US stocks, which has quadrupled over the same period.

More than half of young adults still rely on their parents for transport, new data shows.

Research by Auto Trader found that 53% of parents with children over 18 are still regularly providing lifts, with mums and dads making an average of 177 trips a year—equivalent to more than 1,250 miles.

The study highlighted cost as a key reason why young adults remain dependent on parents for transport.

For parents, the extra trips come with some frustrations, with traffic (22%) among the most common complaints, with late-night collections from social events (19%) and rising fuel costs (16%) also common gripes.

Despite this, the majority seem happy to help. Four in five parents said the extra driving had little to no impact on their daily lives, with many valuing the time spent together.

A quarter enjoyed catching up on their child's day, while 27% said they appreciated having meaningful conversations on the road.

Morrisonsis trialling new technology enabling shoppers to select nicotine-quitting products via a touchscreen and collect them from a vending machine when they exit the store.

The "Select, Pay, Collect" scheme is being trialled at Dukinfield in Greater Manchester.

Shoppers select from a range of the products at a screen before receiving a printed ticket which can be scanned and paid for at checkout.

Upon purchase, the shopper receives another printed ticket, which is scanned at a vending machine near the exit doors of the store.Once scanned, the machine dispenses the chosen product.

Thetechnologybehind the vending machine is already used in more than 2,500 stores across Europe. In those markets, it commonly secures items like medications, razor blades,tobaccoand phone cards.

StrongPoint said its system "virtually eliminates the possibility of theft".

Asda has confirmed it's cutting the cost of diesel and petrol across all of its forecourts.

The change will see the price of both fuels drop by 4p per litre at all Asda and Asda Express branded petrol forecourts.

The cuts mean that the average price at the supermarket's forecourts today is 131.96p per litre on unleaded and 137.63p per litre on diesel.

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said it's "great to see Asda leading the way once again" with a serious price cut on its forecourts.

"This should spark others into action and help bring down costs for drivers right across the country," he added.

Luke Bosdet, the AA's spokesman on pump prices, also welcomed the news but argued that pump prices "should have shown signs of falling a long time ago".

"We suspect that the retailers, knowing that there was room to lower prices, were watching each other locally to see who would budge first. This is the 'cosy' relationship that has plagued drivers for years."

By Connor Gillies, Scotland correspondent

The last thing I was expecting to discover on the doorstep of a Falkirk house was a 70-year-old woman crying at the near 16% council tax rise she and tens of thousands of others face next month.

Falkirk is bracing for the UK's biggest hike in bills as the local authority faces a crisis of costs. One councillor responsible for the increases has called in the police after receiving beheading taunts and threats of violence.

The area is facing its most difficult period in its 30-year history, while residents feel fragile and fobbed off.

Councils oversee the running of schools and social care, maintaining roads and collecting bins. They take charge of housing, swimming pools and libraries. The list is endless.

But Britain's local authorities are cash-strapped and there are questions about how they should be funded in the long term.

Sky News went to one Falkirk street to get a snapshot of the mood - and it was bleak...