Food and drink makers will no longer be able to make health claims such as "low in fat" or "good for bones" without scientific evidence.

Trying to wave down a stampede of elephants can be a thankless and possibly dangerous task, but someone's got to try to do it.

New Zealanders who do not have time to shop around are being left out of pocket by retailers' discounting strategies, experts say.

Susan Edmunds answers your consumer questions.

Elderly people are being caught out by funeral insurance plans that they do not understand, the Insurance and Savings Ombudsman says.

Scammers are back to their old tricks, according to reports.

Health-conscious shoppers are being duped into buying products labelled "organic" without knowing what it means or if the product is what the label says it is, experts warn.

The number of New Zealanders shopping online has tripled in less than a decade, with entertainment and leisure products the favourite internet purchases.

Easter egg manufacturers are likely making more of a profit this year than in Easters past, an analyst says.

Wendyl Nissen discovers that there is more sugar in this 'super juice' per 250ml than there is in Coke.

Outlet malls often have great bargains. If you're lucky, you can find branded goods for 50 to 70% off the normal retail price.

Consumers are putting their homes at risk by trusting unqualified solar power installers and substandard equipment, industry experts say.

Labour and the Greens are right. Our banks are too big to fail and we should be honest about that by creating a deposit insurance scheme for deposits of less than $250,000.

The boom in Auckland house prices is great for the half a million homeowners in the city. They are sitting on tax-free capital gains. Some are following Bernard Hickey's example and cashing up.

Susan Edmunds answers your questions.

How much would your house cost to build? If you don't know and don't want to rely on your CV or an insurer's online calculator, you may be facing a $500 bill from a valuer when a major change to the way insurance policies work kicks in.

Each week, Wendyl Nissen takes a packaged food item and decodes what the label tells you about its contents

A consumer watchdog has called Air New Zealand credit card surcharges draconian - but how much you pay depends on where you book your tickets.

Trade Me is New Zealand's biggest "retailer". And a staggering 40 per cent of all items sold are new.

A couple who took out a Master Builders guarantee and paid more than $500,000 in progress payments on their new home are in danger of getting nothing back after their builder went under - because they paid too much in advance.

Having cysts removed from above my eyebrows cost me $800, which I paid the same time as the visit. I sent my account to Sovereign for a refund and was told that I couldn't claim because it wasn't for $1,200.

People signing to build a house are being warned that hiring a Master Builder doesn't mean automatically getting a guarantee.

A scammer has targeted people with items listed for sale online this week.

Aucklanders in some of the city's most expensive suburbs don't just pay a lot more in house prices for the privilege - it even costs them more to buy groceries.

One of the great successes of modern marketing has been the mass engagement of the population in rewards programmes, says Damien Grant. The most prevalent are Fly Buys. They are awful.

Taxi companies are imposing some of the country's highest credit card surcharges.

A retired man with a track record of taking big-name Kiwis through the courts is lining up some of our biggest corporates with a service he says will get justice for ripped-off customers.

Scams weren't just appearing in email inboxes this past week. They were mailed to people around the country - all promising financial windfall, for a price.