With the UK in recession and many households in the UK struggling to balance the books here are 5 easy ways and quick ways to see in you can gain a bit of extra cash.
1/ Savings
With UK interest rates at only 0.5% a lot of savings accounts are paying a miniscule interest rate. But it is still possible to get savings rates as high as 3.15% on instant access savings accounts and 5.00% on fixed term bonds. So dig out your savings account details and check what interest rates you are getting as banks and building societies rely on customer apathy to get away with poor interest rates for savers. If you are not getting near the rates mentioned above look to move your savings accounts elsewhere and enjoy the extra £1's of interest you will achieve.
source http://www.carpetbagging.co.uk
2/ Energy
Have you done a comparison check lately on your gas and energy suppliers charges against the competition? the difference between the cheapest and most expensive energy suppliers can be as much as £425 for the average household so by spending 10 minutes online on one of the energy comparison sites you could find yourself £100's better off.
3/ Credit Cards
It is estimated that 78% of UK households do not pay off their credit card balances in full each month and with typical interest rate charges of 19.9% the interest UK households are forking out to their credit card companies is scary. If you are in this category consider "stoozing" this is transferring your outstanding balances to one of the credit card companies that offers an introductory interest free period. The best credit card deals are currently offering as long as 16 month interest free. You will normally get charged a balance transfer fee of about 2.98% but if you are currently paying 19.9% you will be better off even after this fee of £214 over the period for each £1,000 you transfer.
source http://www.carpetbagging.co.uk/compare_credit_cards.html
4/ Insurance
Over recent years the price comparison companies have made major inroads into insurance sales and they do a great job.....but each time you use them to take out insurance they get paid a fee by the supplier which can be as much £80 for say car insurance. The trick is to use them for quotes and then check on the actual suppliers website to see what extra offers they have as often they will have deals that are not available via the comparison websites. An example is a car insurance policy i recently sorted out for a colleague. She got a £40 gift voucher and the suppliers website shows " Offer not available on price comparison websites" So by going direct she has actually got an extra £40 saving over the comparison websites price.
5/ Foreign Currency and Travellers Cheques
A new addition in the UK market is the prepaid foreign currency cards and these have a number of unique advantages. They tend to offer better exchange rates, you won't get charged the typical ATM charge of £2.50 while abroad or the foreign currency loading charges and of course you also have the security of not carrying a wad of cash around with you. So next time you are going abroad take a look at them before you order your currency or travellers cheques as they can result in savings as of much as 10%.
savings accounts
