Category Archives: finance

Should I Get a Credit Card? | How Credit Cards Can Help*

22nd August 2019

Credit cards; everyone seems to have a different opinion on whether or not you should get one. Stories of extreme debt and money-loss can often come to mind when thinking of a credit card, which can scare people off. The truth is though, that credit cards can actually be extremely helpful when used well.

When used efficiently credit cards can be a powerful tool that can help you in the financial world. It can help you to build your credit score, spread the cost of purchases, and also budget well. I’ve teamed up with cashasap.co.uk, experts in short term loans to teach you how to use a credit card well. Read this guide to help you decide if a credit card is right for you.

How to Use a Credit Card Well

Build Credit History

Having a credit card can help you build your credit history. A good credit history is important to have as it is what helps you to secure loans in the future, including securing a mortgage. Although not needing to borrow any money is great, it does mean that you won’t have any credit history for lenders to decide if you are a reliable borrower. For this reason it is important that you build up a credit history in advance of needing it, so when you need some form of a loan lenders will be able to approve you. 

If you want to use a credit card to improve your rating, you should use it little and often. This means only purchase lower price items often that you will be able to pay off at the end of the month. This is better for your credit rating than using it for big purchases you will not be able to pay off for a few months. Credit reference agencies also recommend keeping below a certain percentage of your credit limit to ensure you have the best impact upon your credit rating.

You should aim to pay back your credit in full each month to avoid interest. To make things easier, you can even set up a direct debit payment that will automatically pay off the full amount every month. It takes time to build up credit history, so the sooner you start the better.

Buy Securely

Using a credit card can help you to protect any important purchases you make. If you buy something online, for example, and it either doesn’t arrive or arrives damaged, then your credit company is also responsible for getting the money back, depending on the price of the purchase. This means that if something goes wrong in your purchase, you can let your credit provider know and they are responsible for getting the money back.

Anything between the price of £20-30,000 bought on your credit card is covered by the law. This means you can charge higher ticket items to your credit card and then paying it back once the item or service is delivered.

There are many in which having a credit card can be extremely beneficial. It is important to remember if you do get one to use it wisely and ensure you don’t end up in any financial strain! It can improve your credit history if used well, but can also harm it if not. Evidently you just have to look at the facts and decide if you think a credit card is right for you.


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Why Can’t You Seem To Escape Your Financial Nightmare? *

14th June 2019

Very few things in this life cause stress and worry quite like financial problems. Tragically, millions of people are caught in the vicious cycle of paying off one creditor only to fall behind with another. If you are one of them, now is the time to finally regain control of the situation. To do this successfully, though, you must first learn to appreciate the reasons why you’re facing these issues in the first place.

Here are five of the most common reasons why you’re struggling to escape those nightmares, hopefully this will help you feel able to begin to tackle the problem sooner rather than later.

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash


1| Hidden Fees

Organising your finances in relation to what you think you’re spending is a good starting point. However, analysing the full picture is essential if you want to plot your escape from debt. These hidden costs are draining your finances while several of them are avoidable. Reorganising yourself to ensure that you prevent those needless costs will make an immediate impact. Moreover, the improvements will follow you for many years to come.

2| Not Knowing Your Worth

Even if you adore your job, you should realise that the main motivation for working revolves around money. Unfortunately, bosses aren’t going to increase wages unless they need to, which is why millions are getting underpaid. Visit https://www.adzuna.co.uk/jobs/value-my-cv to gain a deeper insight into what you should be getting paid. Use this data to negotiate a pay rise. Or if that fails, don’t be afraid to start looking for a new job at another company.

3| Living In An Excessively Large House

Most people dream of living in the huge family home. Whether you’re a homeowner or a tenant, though, it’s important to be realistic about your needs. A big house costs more to heat, insure, and furnish. While it’s crucial to have enough space to live, downsizing to a more appropriate size can work wonders. As long as you learn to maximise the storage space, you should find that you will be just as happy. Besides, having more money will allow you to enjoy the home with greater results.

House, Keys, Key, The Door, Castle, The Background

Source Downsizing could be the key to happiness

4| Poor Consumer Decisions

It’s important to focus on maximising your revenue and organising your bills. Nonetheless, it’s equally crucial to make your money work harder when making big consumer decisions. Buying a car is a great example where looking at used cars and considering finance agreements can pay dividends. Visit CH Render to learn more. You could save thousands overall. Meanwhile, renting an outfit you’ll only wear once can save cash too.

5| Allowing Others To Hold You Back

We all want to help our loved ones on a financial front. This is all well and good when your finances are in good health, but you should never put yourself at financial danger to aid someone else. The harsh reality is that we all have our issues and responsibilities. If a friend cannot accept that you’re not in a position to help, perhaps they weren’t as close as you thought. It’s OK to put your needs first, especially when dealing with finances. Do not forget it.  



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Getting Your Money Back Under Your Own Control*

13th November 2018
Feeling as if your personal finances are spiralling out of your control can be very scary, whilst some costs are unavoidable and other costs might be entirely unexpected, you’re always in control of your own money. If, however, you don’t feel that way then it might be time to make some big changes to your financial strategy. Money management skills are essential to your financial stability in the present and the future; here’s how to get your money back under your own control.

Photo by Kat Yukawa on Unsplash

Follow a strict budget.
One of the best ways to get your money back under your own control is to follow a strict budget every single month. If you don’t trust yourself when it comes to spending your hard-earned cash then you can set yourself restrictions-
budgeting helps you to track your expenses and figure out how much money you can set aside for certain costs. The goal of budgeting isn’t just to cut down on non-essential spending, you need to take a look at your necessary expenditures. Even with a strict monthly budget you might find that there’s little room for luxury expenditures once all essential costs have been taken into account- you might want to rethink some of your basic costs to see if you can free up more cash.Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to cut back on food or stop using water in your house. You could reduce your essential expenses by using discount codes when you shop online (there are plenty of free vouchers and coupons to be found if you browse Google). And if you’re wondering how to get a lower interest rate on your credit card then you should do some research. We all have to borrow money at times, but you could save money when paying it back. The main purpose of a budget is to figure out how you’re spending your money and find smarter ways of doing so.

Learn about investments.A lot of people shy away from investing their money because they perceive it as a risky financial move, and if you’re not comfortable in your current financial situation then it’s probably the last thing on your mind. However, if done responsibly, investing can be a smart way to massively increase your wealth. You might be limited by the earning potential of your job, but investing gives you the opportunity to bring in new sources of income. Investing in low-risk shares could produce returns that gradually boost your wealth over time. You could slowly invest in bigger things with larger potential returns as you become more comfortable with your financial situation. Likewise, if you have the spare cash, you could also invest in cryptocurrency using a discount broker. Again, you could start slow and invest in just one coin before expanding your investments with multiple different coins that are performing well.

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Do some savings account research.
Getting your money back under your own control also requires a good plan for the future. Making ends meet doesn’t necessarily equate to financial security. Having a savings account is an important step towards building up substantial wealth for your future, but you should keep doing your research. Different banks offer different interest rates, and you could be getting more out of your money by switching to a better savings account with another provider. You might not think much of the tiniest difference between savings deals. It might not matter in the short-term, but your savings account is going to help you build up your wealth over years or decades. Choosing an account that’s only slightly better could massively improve your financial situation in the long-term.

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4 Money Lessons You Wish You’d Learned At School*

08th November 2018
Maths teachers across the country are probably fed up with students asking them what the point of learning all of this stuff is, but they might have a point; most people never learned anything about money when they were at school, which means a lot of people don’t have a clue what they’re doing when they reach adulthood. You can get advice from friends and family members but when you’re trying to deal with complicated loan agreements or handle your tax affairs, it would be a big help if somebody had given you some lessons in the basics. These are some of the essential money lessons that they should have taught you at school.
What Taxes You Need To Pay

Getting your first payslip might come as a shock if you don’t really know what taxes you need to pay. You open it, only to realise that a big chunk of your money has disappeared before you get your hands on it. Most people aren’t expecting this because they don’t really have a good idea of how much tax they should be paying. This is also a big problem because if you don’t know what you should be paying- you won’t be able to tell if there is a mistake and you’re paying too much or not paying enough. Everybody has a tax code which tells your employer what tax contributions you should be paying. The percentage of your wages that you pay in tax depends on how much you earn, but a lot of people misunderstand it. If you earn £11,850 or less, you don’t get taxed on that money. Anything up to £46,350 is taxed at 20 percent; up to £150,000 is taxed at 40 percent and anything over £150,000 is taxed at 45 percent. However, people get a bit confused about what this really means. For example, if you earn £30,000, that doesn’t mean you pay 20 percent on the whole sum. You still don’t have to pay any tax on the first £11,850, you just have to pay 20 percent of the remaining £18,150. Most people tend to think that you would just have to pay 20 percent of the whole £30,000 so they’re expecting to pay more than they actually owe. This misconception can cause problems because if your tax code is wrong and you’re paying more than you need to, you might not realise.

Things get even more complicated if you’re self employed and this is something that people still don’t really know about. When you’re working for a company, the contributions are taken automatically but if you’re self employed you need to fill out a tax return every year and then you’ll get a bill that you have to pay. If you’re late or you make any mistakes on the tax return you could end up being subject to UK Tax Investigations. Any mistakes could be misconstrued as an attempt to avoid tax and that will land you in a lot of trouble.

How To Budget

This is probably the most important financial skill that you need but most people never learned a thing about it at school. If you don’t know how to manage your money properly, you’re really going to struggle in later life. Basic things like putting money into savings each month or paying off bills as soon as you get your wages through are second nature to some people, but others just don’t know what they’re doing. Being sensible with your money from an early age will put you in a good position later on when you’re trying to save for a house and put aside money for retirement etc.

How To Avoid Debt

When credit card companies send you letters in the post they make it all sound very attractive. Have some free money with no interest for a year, what could go wrong? If you haven’t been taught about the dangers of debt and how to avoid it you might think it’s a great idea to go for it. We live in a culture of debt so it’s been normalised to some extent and that leads to a lot of younger people with limited financial knowledge thinking that building up credit card debt is just something that you do. In reality, getting into a spiral of debt can be incredibly damaging both financially as well as mentally. It’s true that you probably will have to use credit cards at some point in your life but they should be considered an emergency resource, not an unlimited supply of free money.

Payday loans are especially dangerous and their advertising campaigns specifically target people that might not understand just how high the interest rates are and how easy it is to get into a cycle of debt. Always avoid payday loans at all costs, there’s always a better way. You need to live within your means and only spend what you can actually afford to. Knowing how to budget is a real help here.

What a Credit Score is

You’ve probably heard the term credit score being thrown around but chances are nobody ever taught you what it actually is, or what a good one looks like. Your credit score is basically a record of your financial history. If you’ve got a lot of debts and you’ve been missing payments on bills etc. you’re going to have a bad credit score. When you apply for loans or a mortgage in later life, they’ll look at your score to determine how likely you are to pay the money back. That’s why having a good credit score is so important. If you start running up debts now, you’re going to struggle later in life. You can check your credit score for free online but that might not help you that much if you don’t know what you’re looking at. A score higher than 700 is considered good and anything over 800 is excellent. Anything below 580 is a bad credit score and it’ll cause you trouble.

The curriculum has been changed to include these sorts of things a lot more but there are still plenty of people that missed out on important money lessons.

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Savvy Tips When It Comes To Your Shopping*

22nd August 2018
When it comes to what we need to spend on a day to day basis we can often become distracted by some of the things we need to pay out for. We can get consumed by what appears to be a good deal, blinded by that must have item and trend, or simply feeling the urge to buy something new. There is everyday spending that you would consider essential, and there is the not so essential spending that we like to do for one reason or another. However, you can be a lot more savvy when it comes to any type of shopping and I wanted to share with you what you could consider doing.

(Photo by Alexandre Godreau on Unsplash)

Plan ahead

When it comes to shopping one of the best things that you can do is plan ahead; this applies to anything from those essential things like food right down to christmas presents. Planning ahead can help you understand what you might need to spend. You can do this with your food shopping, planning meals ahead of time and only buying what you need. You can also look at upcoming birthdays and shop around for the best deals on gifts. It may seem like you have to invest a bit of time in to the planning element, but it can be so worth it when you get the best deal on your shopping and have more spare cash for life’s little luxuries.

Be savvy with your finances

When it comes to your finances you may want to take the time to be savvy with them. This means investing your time into your current financial situation and making sure you haven’t spent more than is planned or necessary. A quick example can be things like debt- it can take up big chunk of your money each month, so placing some of your attention on the situation can have you paying it back in no time at all. From considering help from programs where reading up on National Debt Relief reviews could enlighten you, to considering consolidating and getting just one monthly payment to resolve your issues once and for all. If none of those options work out then focusing on paying off the one that costs you the most might be beneficial. Only paying out what is needed and, the lowest amount leaves you with more disposable income for other things.

Bring down the cost of everyday and essential spending

There are purchases in life that you have no choice but to make, but you can try and pay the least amount possible. Things like vouchers, discount codes and cashback sites are great way to reduce your total spend. This works on food shopping, meals out and online shopping essentially- but if you look hard enough you may also find savings to be made on all sorts of things.

Look out for bargains online

Finally, do you shop around? The truth is you possibly don’t. A lot of us buy things flippantly but if we were to take time to look at other providers, platforms like eBay, or seek out places where you may get it cheaper you could bag yourself a bargain. Don’t always go for the first option.

I hope that these tips help you when it comes to saving money on your shopping.

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