subject: Three Ways To A Money Makeover [print this page] It's not quite spring anymore but you've still got time for a clear out. What should you do when your financial situation needs a spring clean?
You could dust and spray down all your passbooks, credit cards and statements then laminate your least pricey months and stick them to your wall. Or you could do something that'll actually help your finances in the future.
Here are three ways that you may not know that could help you to give your finances a push in the right direction.
The first concerns a financial product that you may have even forgotten that you own: your savings account.
Taking the time to compare savings accounts using a reputable price comparison site (or even more than one) can make you money on money that you already have with a minimum amount of effort on your part.
The best interest rates on savings accounts tend to expire within a year so although loyalty might be an attractive quality in other situations when it comes to savings it isn't necessarily.
Most banks now also offer a switching service which means that you won't need to go to the trouble of changing any direct debits associated with the account.
The second concerns a less common but still popular financial product: a credit card.
If you have a credit card and you're currently carrying a balance and spending money on interest payments then you could save a lot by moving the balance to another credit card which only charges 0% on the amount.
Moving an amount to balance transfer credit cards in this way doesn't take a lot of time and many of these credit cards have an instant application which means that it doesn't take as much time as usual to receive the card and start saving money.
However, you should be aware that there's a fee on balances that are moved from one place to another to compensate your new credit card provider.
For this reason bear in mind that you can't move a balance from a credit card with one issuer to another card with the same issuer.
The third tip is simple: make a budget.
A budget of your outgoings for the month doesn't need to take a lot of time, especially if you can go through your statements and then you can identify the areas where you need to make savings.
It's estimated that a lot of consumers have direct debits coming out of the their accounts that they don't even know about or are otherwise overpaying for services which they could spend less on.
by: Julia Cook
welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net)
