This allows you to keep as much money as possible on your loan at all times. Leaving extra money in your loan for just a few days each month can have a substantial effect on the interest you pay and the overall term of your loan.

A Standard Variable Rate Home Loan comes with the option of a 100% Home Loan Offset Facility - a feature of the *Everyday Options Account. This facility enables you to use your income and savings to reduce your loan interest. A Mortgage Offset Fee applies to set up the 100% Home Loan Offset Facility charged to the Loan Account to be linked. You can have up to three Everyday Options sub-accounts with the combined account balances used to offset the loan balance.

Extra repayments at any time help reduce the time and cost of a loan. But for maximum time and cost savings, you should make extra repayments earlier, rather than later - thanks to the powerful effect of compounding interest over time.

Most people concentrate on the interest rate when they're trying to save money and time on their home loan. Ultimately, it's the way you attack your repayments that has the biggest effect on the overall term and cost of your loan. Although a lower interest rate certainly helps along the way, rates will inevitably move up and down a lot over 25 years.

Credit and debit card spending increased to £91.5 billion, an increase of £4.9 million in the 3 months to last September as a growing number of borrowers used their cards to pay household expenses.

John McFall, the chairman of the treasury select committee, has announced that banks may be cancelling the credit cards of good paying customers and giving them to riskier ones in a bid to boost profits.

Christmas credit card spending was down again for the second consecutive year, according to payments association, APACS.

With credit companies charging approximately £12 each time a consumer misses a payment, it is anticipated they have made roughly £61million.

What if I've had credit problems

The best student loans around are really not that hard to find. In fact, with so much competition for the student loan market, there are even some pretty good private student loan deals floating around. Even so, the best student loans available continue to be the loan programs offered by the federal government. They are created with students (rather than profits) in mind, have generous application and repayment terms and have undergone a lot of public scrutiny.