Managing Money
You'll know what your current income is (i.e. income from work, tax credits and benefits, and income from other sources), but how much do you spend and what you spend it on? Are you earning more than you are spending? Are you managing to put money aside for your retirement and have you got any savings to cover for the occasional "rainy day"?
Do you feel you are in control of your finances - are you managing your money well or does it control you and what you feel able to do?
Getting Control of your Money
Until recently credit (loans, credit cards, store cards, etc) has been easy to find. Such has been the ease of getting finance that in the UK people owe on average in excess of £10,000 (exc. mortgages) each. At some point this debt will have to be repaid - and in the meantime interest on this debt must be paid.
If you count yourself as being in this position then you need to improve your money management - we have some simple suggestions that could help you:
- STEP1: Set a budget and stick to it - Your target should be to reduce your expenditure to be less than your income - that way your surplus income can be used to gradually pay off any debt you have. Once your debt is cleared you can start to save for your future (and to put money aside for emergencies).
- STEP 2: Replace expensive debt with lower cost debt - look at paying off your expensive debt (e.g. credit cards) by using a lower cost debt consolidation loan (this is what our no-credit-check loans are often used for - note: because there aren't any penalties for early repayment you can pay the loan off as fast as you like to reduce your total interest costs)
- STEP 3: If your debt is large compared to your monthly surplus income then simply cutting your spending to reduce your debt may be too difficult and you will need some specialist debt advice. We have some useful debt solution information available.
- STEP 4: If you have a cash emergency and you don't have any savings then you could consider a cash advance (up to £1000) against your next pay check (a payday loan cash advance) - this is likely to be cheaper than using your credit card or going overdrawn.
Responsible lending
There is a set of general lending criteria that you need to satisfy before you can obtain credit. This is because we work with responsible lenders who can only lend if they believe you can afford it. For them to assess your particular circumstances please complete the application form.
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