Guaranteed approval Visa Card
Filed under: Personal Finance, Prepay cards, UK Credit cards
- FREE Direct Deposit
- FREE Signature Transaction Fees
- FREE Online Statements Accessible 24/7
- FREE Email and Text Message Alerts
- FREE Automated Customer Service
Argos Easy shop card
Cash-strapped consumers are being warned to avoid a new card from Argos in association with the notorious lender, Provident Personal Credit.
The ‘Easy Shop’ card can only be used in Argos stores and can be used for loans of between £100 and £500 that are then paid off weekly as doorstep collections by the lender’s agents.
However, if you borrow £100 on the Easy Shop Card and repay it over 27 weeks at £5 per week, you’ll pay back a total of £135, which is an APR of more than 222%!
The gift vouchers sold by the company for use in Argos, Woolworths, Topshop, Debenhams and HMV also have an extortionate APR of up to 222.7%.
The price comparison site, Moneysupermarket.com, shows that the majority of the big name cards have an interest rate of around 16.9% but many are still offering new customers 0% on purchases so before you take out an Easy Shop card, check moneysupermarket’s site to see if you could get a cheaper card.
Some of the 0% deals include Halifax’s All In One credit card, which offers 0% on purchases for the first 10 months, after which the interest rate jumps to 15.9% but if you can pay off the balance before the grace period is over, you won’t have incurred any interest at all.
Radical changes to give you more money
Filed under: Money savings, Money troubles, Personal Finance
We’re all cutting back, cutting down and cutting out right now but what do you do if all those measures still leave you short at the end of every month?
Well, we’ve come up five ideas to help you create some more income:
1. Consider taking in a lodger. It may seem somewhat extreme but if you have a spare room in your house, why not put it to work for you? You can charge around £50 a week in most areas for a room – more if it’s a large room with independent access – and as long as you protect you and your tenant by having a properly drawn up lease, you could find that this extra income helps out a lot.
2. If you’re single or a couple, you could consider moving back in with parents and renting out your whole home. This is a better option than losing it!
3. Give thought to giving up your car. You could probably commute just as easily by train or bus. Many of us have two cars in our households so consider getting rid of one and just arranging to share the remaining car. When you add up what a car costs to run, you’ll see that you’ll be saving a small fortune – even with fares taken into account.
4. Take a look at what you pay out every month and cut out everything you don’t absolutely have to have. For instance, do you really need Sky+ and do you really need a contract mobile? If you can’t live without Sky, just go back to a basic package and if you need a mobile, buy a pay-as-you-go for a tenner and only use what you can afford.
5. Finally, always apply the four day rule to everything you want to buy! That is, for any purchase over say, £15, don’t just impulse buy it; give yourself four days to consider the purchase. If after four days, you still want it and can afford to pay for it, go ahead. If you don’t, don’t!
Branded vs Supermarkets own - Saving money on your shopping
We all know that the big expenses of life, such as mortgages and cars, are often necessities that we simply can’t cut down on, but what about those little things we auto-buy every week or every day? Can we cut down on those?
In a word, yes, we can, and all it takes is a little alteration in the way you think…
For many of us, buying branded goods in the supermarket is simply habit but it’s a habit that is costing us far more than we need to be paying. For example, toilet paper is literally flushed down the toilet – along with the money it cost you to buy a branded pack – so why not buy a supermarket’s own brand instead?
For example, at Tesco right now, Andrex 4 roll, plain white, bog standard – pun intended – loo paper is £2.25 but Tesco’s value loo roll 4 pack is 43p!
The same goes for dozens of items that we persistently keep using because we daren’t try the alternatives. Just try it for one week; instead of buying your usual brands, make a point of getting generic or own brands. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how much you save and how little difference you notice.
If you want to con your family to do your own little market research on the subject, put the store’s own branded goods into the branded container and see if anyone notices it’s any different. For instance, buy the supermarket’s own cola and put it in a Coca Cola bottle or put store’s own cornflakes in a Kellogg’s box. I’ve done it and nobody noticed!
Beware Credit and Store cards
Filed under: Credit, Debt, Finance news, Money troubles, Personal Finance, UK Credit cards
Recent
reports have revealed that many UK banks have increased interest rates
on millions of debit and credit cards, despite the fact that the cost
of borrowing has fallen to a fifty-year low.
The
average APR for credit cards has gone up from 17.2 to 17.6% since May
of this year which means that financial institutions have not passed on
cuts in interest rates to their customers, even though the Bank of
England has dropped its base rate from 5 to 3% during the same period.
Store cards have been reported to be the worst offenders and some are now charging an enormous 25% interest.
High
Street retailers such as Principles, Karen Millen and Oasis have been
spotlighted by the banking research company Defaqto’s report for
raising their charges to 28.9%.
The
study also revealed that between May and November of this year, the
average APR on 240 credit cards showed an increase of 0.4 per cent.
Sean
Gardner, director of MoneyExpert.com, told the Daily Mail, ‘When it
comes to borrowing, [store cards] are a complete rip-off.
‘But
with other forms of credit running dry, desperate customers [may] be
tempted into expensive deals as a last resort for Christmas.’
Nat
West raised its interest rates on its credit card from 13.9 to 16.9%
while HSBC and Virgin Money’s cards both went up by 1% during the same
period.
In
excess of £200 billion is owed by UK consumers in unsecured borrowing
which includes personal loans, overdrafts, credit and store cards. It
accounts for almost a fifth of total lending in Britain.
A safe savings account
Filed under: Finance news, Money savings, Money troubles
UK Business Secretary Peter Mandelson has today said the credit crunch offers an opportunity for the post office to strengthen its place in the highstreet with the financial products it offers, until recently the post office’s financial products weren’t that attractive compared to the highstreet banks but this credit crunch has seen all that change with many savers attracted by the security of by the post offices savings products.
Not only is the post office established as a national brand, many if not all their financial products are backed by the bank of england.
Click here to sign up for their Instant Saver Account
Post office credit card
The Post Office is one of the most trusted and established brands on the UK Highstreet.
The post office credit card offers
0% On all purchase for 3 Months
0% Commision overseas purchases
0% On balance transfers for the first 12 Months.
Money saving tips
With the credit crunch and global recession getting worse by the day you might be looking for ways to cut your expenditure and sure up your finances, if not you should be. Heres some quick money saving tips to make your income go further
Stop Buying Lunch
How much do you spend on your lunch everyday? Unless you eat like a hamster you don’t get much change from a fiver these days do you? That means your spending approximately One thousand pounds a year on sandwiches, would you do with an extra Grand?
Making sandwiches at home is much cheaper than buying them from the shop as is cutting down on the trips to starbucks.
Credit Card Debt
If like most of the UK you have credit card balances you should consider trying to clear them, credit card debt is one of the biggest drains on your personal finance because of the way credit card interest is calculated it takes forever to clear. One popular solution is to find credit card that offers 0% on balance transfers. Depending on your credit rating 0% deals are not always available in these days of the credit crunch, you can check your credit rating for free.
If your really struggling with debt you should consider looking for some proffessional help.
Another option if you have savings in the bank is to use them to clear your credit card balances, bank savings are most likely only earning you 5% a month max where as the average credit card interest rates is around 18% a month, I am sure you can see where that money would be better used.
Change Gas and Electric providers
See how much you could save by switching home energy provides using this new service from leading consumer magazine Which. Make gas and electricity savings
Subscribe to the feed for more money saving tips.
HBOS Credit Card
The HBOS Credit card gives you.
0% Interest on Balance Transfers for 10 Months
0% Interest on Purchases for 10 Months
15.9% Apr Variable
Consumers scrapping insurance to reduce costs
As the credit crisis continues to bite, recent reports claim that consumers in the UK are sacrificing insurance and pension products in order to reduce expenditure.
Research carried out by uSwitch.com shows that 42% of people questioned reduced their spending on such products, which potentially puts them at risk of struggling financially in their retirement as well as risking their homes or possessions if they aren’t covered by insurances.
Of those 42%, around 15% said they’d axed private medical and dental insurance policies, and 13% of respondents had ditched their life insurance policies.
Ashton Berkhauer, insurance expert at uSwitch.com, said, “There`s a big difference between cutting down on luxuries … and cutting out … life insurance or pension savings. The potential impact on you or your family finances if you get it wrong could be huge and long lasting.”
Finance journalist Edmund Tirbutt confirmed these findings and added that cutting back on items such as pensions and life insurances this could be a “dangerous fault” to make.
Other research, carried out by the protection specialist company Bright Grey, revealed that 25% of people said they would rely on friends and family to help them cope financially if they became unable to work due to illness, while 30% said they would turn to state benefits if needs be.