The Right Way to Use Credit Cards

• Credit cards have several benefits:
• They help you increase your credit rating
• They provide purchase protection. For example, I bought 12 months gym membership on my credit card but my gym went bust and closed without giving me a refund! Luckily, because I paid with credit card, I got a refund from the credit card company rather than gym.
• They can give you “cashback” or vouchers/rewards.
• Credit cards will also kick your ass if you do anything wrong such as:
• Go over your spending limit.
• Withdraw cash from your credit card,
• Pay your monthly bill late
• Pay off only some of your monthly bill
• So when using a credit card, remember to:
• Set-up a direct debit to pay the full amount of your monthly bill automatically. 
• Ensure you always have enough money available to pay your direct debit (e.g. you could set your direct debit to be paid soon after pay day).
• Do not go over your credit card limit! Find out how to setup text message alerts if you are getting close to your limit otherwise the bank will not tell you when you go over, they will just charge you.
• Do not get lazy and do not get into debt with your credit card.
• If you make a mistake and get charged, phone the credit card company and they will hopefully cancel the charge. They usually are quite lenient if it is your first mistake. They will be less forgiving for a second mistake, so you may want to switch credit cards once you have made a mistake.
• Which credit card should you go for?
• For most people, a credit card from your favourite supermarket is ideal. This way you will earn “points” when you spend there and elsewhere, which they will convert into money-off vouchers!
• Or if you frequently fly with a particular airline, you could get a credit card that gives you airmiles to spend on flights. 
• Alternatively, American Express give lots of rewards but are less convenient as not all shops will accept them.
• If you are making a big purchase, e.g. a car, you may want to get a credit card with an introductory offer of 0% on purchases for 12 months (for example). This means you could slowly pay off the cost of the car over 12 months rather than all at once, without being charged any interest - basically an interest free loan! But remember these rules:
• Although you do not have to pay off the full amount in the first month, you must still make the “minimum payment” each month to avoid any fees. This is usually very small and it is not a fee, it is a small payment towards your balance. Set up a direct debit to pay this automatically each month then you can forget about it!
• You may not be reminded when your 0% introductory offer expires, so remember to put a reminder on your calendar when you first sign up!
• You can pay the balance back slowly over the 12 months (by manually transferring money to your credit card) or all at once on the 12th month. Either way, make sure you have paid the entire balance when the 0% ends, otherwise you will be charged lots of interest.
• As always, never go over your credit card limit! This would be a huge mistake as they will cancel the 0% offer and charge you lots of fees! If you are near the limit, pay some off or stop using your credit card. The bank will not tell you if you go over so keep an eye on it!

How to Save Money on Your Mobile Phone and Tarrif

Let’s face it, Apple and Android are very similar when it comes to mobile phones. No matter which you get, you can still browse Facebook or Snapchat your friends in exactly the same way. The big difference is price. Apple iPhones are very overpriced for very little benefit! You are paying extra for the “cool” brand, but who cares about a logo! And even if can afford and iPhone you’ll soon be tied-in to buying more Apple products like dongles, adaptors, headphones, iTunes, etc because Apple refuse to be compatible with any standard technology! Unless you have money to burn, get an Android phone.

• Phones are all very similar these days, there is really no need to keep getting a new one every year! Love the one you have and take care of it. You would soon get bored of a new phone again anyway!
• Instead of buying a new one, upgrade the one you have by deleting old apps, reorganising your homepage, or adding a new case/wallpaper!
• You can get very capable, powerful and stylish Android phones for as little as £99 - and you will not be tied into a contract or particular carrier. As an example, take a look at the phones on http://www.wileyfox.com/. 
• Once you have a SIM-free phone, you are free to choose whichever carrier and tariff that you like. I would recommend the 321 tariff from Three. It is just 1p per megabyte of data, 2p per text and 3p per minute of phone calls. Yes it is pay-as-you-go but don’t let that put you off! It is so easy to top-up just by going to the website on your phone (even if you have no credit it will still let you). And because you only pay for what you use, it is easy to save money! Like this:
• Always switch to WiFi when at home - then you do not pay for data!
• At a friends house or pub, etc? Ask for the WiFi password!
• Even if WiFi isn’t an option you can still save data on your phone by using the Opera web browser. It is very similar to Google Chrome but compresses the data so that you pay less! Enable data savings in the settings, you can even turn image quality down to low and won’t notice a difference! Just lots of data savings (70% in my case!). 
• Save even more data on your Android phone with Opera Max! 
• Remember to cache (or download) any music you want to listen to before leaving the house. That way you can use WiFi instead of mobile data.
• Avoid text messaging, use a messaging app instead (such as Google Hangouts, Allo, Whatsapp, Facebook messenger)- it is much cheaper!
• When calling people, it is cheaper to phone-over-internet (using WiFi) using an app like Skype or Google Hangouts rather than calling normally. 

How to Save Money on Food

You don’t have to starve yourself to save money on food and you don’t have to give up occasional luxuries. Here are a few simple tips to help keep both your wallet and your tummy full!

• Save takeaways for special occasions only. If you’re short of time or want a treat, get something posh and easy from a supermarket. A premium ready-made pizza/curry/lasagna is still much cheaper (and healthier) from a supermarket! 
• Be flexible at the supermarket. They change what is on offer every week, so take advantage of the current deals. Instead of going to buy a particular meal, have a few meals in mind and buy whichever is on offer. Another example is breakfast cereal - buy a different one depending on what is on offer, or just stock-up when your favourite one is finally on offer!
• Give no-name brands a chance! E.g. Supermarket own-brand tomato ketchup is just as good as the real thing but much cheaper! Another example is supermarket “value” tortilla chips in the plain packaging - just as good as the expensive ones!
• Make your own sandwiches for work. You may be surprised at how much you are currently spending on lunch per month if you add it up!
• Rather than buying an expensive afternoon snack at work each day, bring in packets of food to keep you going! Things like cereal bars, fruit, protein bars, sausage rolls, biscuits - they’re much cheaper from a supermarket!

Hopefully these tips will have the added bonus of helping you discover tastier, healthier foods as well. So enjoy and have fun!

How To Save Money On Your Electrics

Electricity! We use it every day and we pay for it every month, but with a few simple changes we can shrink our bill! Don’t forget it will take some time before you notice cheaper bills once you have made these changes. But keep at it and you will notice the benefits!

• Look at which light bulbs you use the most and swap them to LED bulbs. Your kitchen is usually a great place to do this as there are usually multiple bulbs in a fitting. For example you may have 4 x 50 watt bulbs in your kitchen light, so switching these to 5 watt bulbs saves 90% electricity!
• If you’re at work all day and sleep all night, that leaves only about 4 hours when you need your WiFi, TV, DVD player, Tivo, microwave, games console, wireless speakers, toothbrush charger, etc. They still use power when on standby so why leave them on 24 hours a day? Switch them off instead.
• Automation: If you can’t stand flicking appliances on/off every day then automation could help. 
• You could use a timer plug to turn your WiFi off at night.
• You can use wireless remote control plugs to switch on your TV and speakers.
• You could get a motion detection light bulb in your hallway that turns off automatically.