At a time when money issues are commonly acknowledged as one of the most common causes of relationship breakdown, new research from Engage Mutual has found that 22% of Britons living with, or married to, their partner, have financial secrets which they aren't prepared to share with their loved one - credit card spending topping the poll as the number one red lie (36%).

Sainsbury's Bank has cut its personal loan rate. Effective immediately, online applications for loans of £7,000 or more (up to £25,000) will be cut to 6.5% APR typical from 6.9% APR typical. This is a limited offer. In addition, customers taking out a Sainsbury's Bank personal loan can now choose to make no repayments until around Easter (for the first three months). And they'll receive an instant decision and have their cheque delivered to their door within 24 hours.

With eleven days to go until Christmas Day, new research from online bank Egg finds that Britain's last minute Christmas shoppers could be looking at a £594 million overspend. This year nearly 4 million shoppers will leave all of their Christmas shopping until the week before Christmas and this last minute panic buying will result in them spending more than they intended to.

New rules regarding individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs) announced last week, together with the deteriorating economic backdrop, should push personal insolvencies up to record highs next year, according to economic consultants, Capital Economics. By the think tank's reckoning personal insolvencies have been falling since the end of last year and are now 12% below their peak - to some extent reflecting the fact that fewer people are struggling with their debt after the tightening in unsecured lending criteria that occurred back in 2005.

As many as four million people fear they have damaged their credit rating beyond repair after falling into financial difficulty. A poll by AXA on the effects of their money troubles found that while almost four million claim to have been blacklisted because they have not been able to keep on top of their finances, almost a quarter of these aren't even in financial difficulty. They have tried to help friends or family that are having money problems.

As demands on people's finances are increasingly pushed to their limits national charity Citizens Advice is urging everyone to avoid a debt hangover and become a smart shopper as Christmas approaches. To help people manage their money for a debt free Christmas, Citizens Advice has joined forces with Barclaycard to issue ten top tips to avoid a Christmas debt hangover:

Despite the housing market doom and gloom and general economic concerns, people on average are planning a bigger festive budget than last year, according to new research by American Express Platinum Credit Card. The research has found that shoppers are planning to spend on average £511 each this Christmas - £50 more than last year, with men planning to spend £60 more than women over the festive season. Indeed, it shows an anticipated average spend of £307 on presents. But that's dramatically lower than figures put out earlier this month by Verdict Research predicting spends of £1,300.

Updated figures from financial search engine, Moneyefacts.co.uk, show the unsecured loans market shrinking by a further 10% in November. Indeed, another two lenders have bitten the dust in the personal loan market this week, with the withdrawal of Hanley Economic BS and Northern Rock funded Eskimo Loans. They join GE Money, Leeds BS and LV= which withdrew earlier this month, marking an almost a 10% reduction in the number of unsecured loan providers.

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Latest housing market data from the Nationwide Building Society shows house prices falling by 0.8% in November, bringing the annual rate of increase down to 6.9%. That's the first monthly fall seen since February and is the largest monthly decline since June 1995. Meanwhile, the average price of a UK property slipped back to £184,099.