About... Self Help Options

Some people do not need any new financial products to restructure their finances. In some instances, improving your finances focuses on a few fundamentals. On this page we focus on two of them - Proper budgeting & planning and Increasing your income.

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1. Proper budgeting and planning.

This is more than simply guessing at the amounts needed for personal expenditure. It involves getting the lowest cost provider for a product or service so you are not unknowingly 'ripped off'. The sites below may help you in reducing your outgoings.

Money Saving Expert                                                      Channel 4 Money                                                      BBC Family Matters

You could also take advantage of some of the online quotations on this site to see if you could save money on your:

Gas, Electricity and other Utilities  (Courtesy of uSwitch)     Life & Critical Illness Cover

Permanent Health Insurance                                               Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance

Home Insurance.

If you are able to manage your current level of monthly payments and are just looking for a way to get rid of your debts, another way to plan the repayment of your debts more effectively may be through the use of a system called 'snowballing'. Snowballing is all about paying your debts in the correct order. Generally speaking you should attempt to pay off the debts with the highest interest rate first.

Use a Snowballing Calculator such as this one to help to illustrate the benefit of this system rather than taking out a consolidation loan.

This may be easier to do than you think. Whilst it may not be possible to get more from your employer it is possibly the case that you are not getting all the benefits you are entitled to. By checking with the Benefits Agency it may be that you are eligible for but not benefiting from:

Property related benefits ­ Council Tax Benefit, Housing Benefit

Employment related benefits ­ Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit, Tax code

Means tested benefits - Income support, Disability living allowances, Incapacity benefit

Pension benefits ­ Pension credits, Additional State pension

Away from the benefits available it may also be possible to get money from clearing out your unused and unwanted goods. For a simple way to benefit from your unwanted or now redundant goods selling through eBay can raise lump sums which could clear some outstanding debts.

Child Tax Credit is available to anyone looking after children and whose income is less than £58,000 per annum. In calculating benefits the gross household income together with the number of children and child care costs are taken into account. The benefits available for households with less than £20,000 and a couple of children can run to over a few thousand pounds per year.

Working Tax Credits are available to anyone over 16 who are paid for more than 16 hours per week who also has responsibility for either a child or someone who is disabled. Use this Inland Revenue Calculator to get an idea of how much you my be entitled to.

Your Tax Code will define how much income you are able to earn before you start paying tax. Small errors in your tax code can cost you £00's per year in needlessly over paid tax.

Get it right!
As the information held by credit reference agencies is used to determine what credit you can obtain, it is important those details are right. Click here for a free 30-day trial and a free copy of your credit report