Feb 28 2009

Two Simple Cost Cutting Ideas

If you are urgently looking for some quick and easy ways to save some cash this year, then here are a few tips of money saving pointers that you might like to consider.

Review Your Credit Card
How much balance do you currently have outstanding on your credit cards? Are you paying the balance off each month or is there a balance rolling over each month to the next month? If the latter, then you are paying interest on your balance and this could be costing you a fortune.

Of course, the most efficient response to change this would be to pay the card off in full and to be incurring no monthly interest at all. But what if this is not possible with your finances? Well the next step is to review your card. Are you already on a low promotional balance, or are you paying standard credit card rates? Whichever, unless you are paying no interest at all then maybe it is time to review your credit card and see if you can move the balance over to a cheaper credit card.

Speak to your bank and see what cards they have on offer and what the monthly cost would be if you transferred your balance over, not forgetting the cost of any add on balance transfer fees. Many credit cards are offering 0% balance transfers for 12 months or so at the moment. Even just moving the current balance over and paying the monthly minimum fee might be an answer, whilst you keep using your existing card and paying that off in full to prevent more interest accruing. Remember that some credit cards will allocate payments to balance transfers before purchases, so be careful if you start spending on the card. Whilst you might not be paying interest on the balance transfer, you might be paying on purchases.

Review Your Borrowing
Have you reviewed how much have you currently got borrowed in your mortgage and what it’s costing you and with the recent collapse in mortgage interest rates is your mortgage serving you as best it can? Have a word with a local mortgage broker who can understand and review your financial circumstances and ask them to compare mortgage rates for you. Is the deal you are on the best available to you and what would it cost to move to something cheaper? It may be cheaper to stay put if you have high exit penalty charges, but if there aren’t penalty fee or they aren’t too great, then you might find you can save yourself a tidy sum by moving. When your mortgage advisor compares mortgage rates for you, they should also be able to look at your current mortgage to tell you how much it will cost to move to a cheaper mortgage.

That’s just two simple ideas to save you potentially hundreds per year. But if you want to save some easy money in the short term, then you can start saving straight away with these tips.

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