Check your APR's. Are you paying too much for convenience?
If you have a number of store cards they could be wasting a lot of money
Store cards are often a very high interest rate. You could save a lot of money by using another cheaper credit card to pay them off. You may even get an interest-free period.
Credit is big business in the UK and credit-card companies compete with each other for that business.
They offer many incentives including free gifts, vouchers and low or zero interest for an introductory period but make sure you know what you are getting into and how to get out of it.
Debt Management:
Getting out of debt: - For those that are comfortably well off there is not much incentive to take any risk and they are likely to continue with the status quo rather than rock the boat. These people are unlikely to be looking at this web site.
It follows then that if you are here then you may be in debt as a growing number of Britons are these days. That makes debt management a priority.
Debt Consolidation:
The simplest place to start is to replace a number of high-interest debts with a single lower interest-rate one. Some loans may be for an extended period and add up to a lot of money. Don't just look at the monthly repayments.
It may be better to use a credit card rather than a loan. Loans are usually over a fixed period of time and have penalty clauses for early repayment. A credit card at least offers more flexibility in that it can be paid off whenever you have the funds.
Also with a credit card, the debt can be transferred to another credit card with a lower interest rate (often 0% for an introductory period). There is usually a charge of typically about 2% for the balance transfer but it can help.
One thing worth trying if you are considering doing this is to phone the company you are planning to move from. If you explain the situation they often come up with a 'special offer' that can reduce your interest - if you don't ask you don't get!
Re-mortgaging is sometimes worth considering. If your house is worth more than the outstanding mortgage, then the difference (the equity) or part of it could be released by re-mortgaging.
Remember though that if you have an endowment policy intended to pay off the original mortgage amount when you retire then this will need to be adjusted or augmented in some way to avoid a shortfall.
Watch out for loan sharks, always read the smallprint.
Think carefully - YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON A MORTGAGE OR ANY OTHER DEBT SECURED ON IT.
Wise spending:
It is easy to get into bad spending habits or to continue to do things the way you have always done because you do not realize there are cheaper and/or better ways.
Home catalogues are a typical example, they may have a certain convenience-factor but they have a very high interest rate built into the prices, you cannot really judge the quality, feel and fit of a product from a picture and returns can be a nightmare.
Saving may sound like a good idea, but if at the same time you have debts, you may be borrowing at say 10% to 'invest' at 4% in which case your money may be better spent paying off some of the debt!
Shopping-around can be time-consuming but can save money not on just the current purchase but from learning where to go next time. You could also benefit from the exercise and social interaction
Shopping on the internet can save a lot of money but there are Dangers although many of these dangers are still present with high-street shopping.
Give up Smoking:
If you do smoke, then apart from the benefits to your health and the changing social attitudes towards smoking, This can save you a whole lot of money!
See Self-Improvement for ways of doing this.
Switch Energy Provider:
With increasing fuel prices this is becoming a hot topic. There can be quite a difference in the charges from different providers and they offer incentives for you to get both gas and electricity (and in some cases your phone-line) from the same provider.
There is a surprising amount of money that can be saved by switching energy providers and this can be easy to do. Compare prices in your area.
Telephone:
Mobile phones can be very addictive but also useful and in some cases necessary.
If you use one make sure you are not getting ripped off, get a deal appropriate for your use and avoid getting locked-into a contract that you later regret.
Similarly your land-line phone may be costing you a lot more than it needs to.
If you are likely to be making many international calls then some ways of doing this can be cheap and some horrendously expensive
Have a look at some of the advertisers here - you could save a lot of money!
