Eight financial resolutions you can stick to
JANUARY is the perfect time to make some financial resolutions. My aim is to show you things you can do now, that should have impact over the year or longer. It could save you thousands.
This year I resolve to...
1 Check if I’m due up to
£1,188 via the marriage tax allowance: If you’re married or in a civil partnership, and one of you doesn’t earn enough to pay income tax, and the other does, at the basic 20% rate, this is a heads up.
The marriage tax allowance lets the non-taxpayer apply at gov.uk/marriage-allowance to transfer 10% of their personal allowance (the amount you can earn tax-free/tax yr) to their spouse.
This year that’s £1,250, meaning a gain of £250, but as you can back claim to 2016/2017 if eligible it could mean you’re due a further £938.
2. Check if I’m pouring money down the drain: You can’t switch supplier to save on your water bills, but some may be better off with a meter.
If you have the same or more number of bedrooms in your house than people then it’s worth checking on ccwater.org. uk – some save £100s.
3. Check if I can slash £1,000s off the year’s mortgage repayments: For those with decent equity in their house, the historically low UK base rate means lower LTV (loan to value) mortgages are supercheap right now. So check if you’re on the best deal. Use mse.me/mortgagebestbuy or head over to Moneyfacts.co.uk to see if you can save.
4. Check if you can cut credit card interest by £100s: If you can’t afford to clear your credit cards in full, you can’t afford not to check whether you can do a 0% balance transfer. This is where you get a new card(s) that repays debts on existing cards for you, so you owe it instead, but at a far lower cost, for a small fee. See most top cards via comparison tools, such as the one on my site at mse.me/balancetransfer.
5. Save £200/year on energy bills: It only takes five minutes to put your details into a comparison site and find your best combination of price and service. My mse.me/ Cheapenergyclub also gives cashback you don’t get going direct, and you can use the Pick Me A Tariff tool, if you find choosing confusing. Or use any Ofgem.com approved site.
6. Check my savings rate:
Rates have dived over the last year. Many now pay at most 0.1%. While the best buys are pretty dismal too, you can earn up to 1% in a fix. So, check what you’re getting and ditch and switch, full best buys in mse. me/topsavings.
7. Call up a debt counsellor and make the change if you’re struggling: There’s free, one-on-one help from citizensadvice.org.uk, nationaldebtline.org, and stepchange.org, which also runs an online full debt advice service that operates 24/7.
8. Watch the Martin Lewis Money Show LIVE, Thursdays, ITV, 8.30pm. You can’t afford to miss it.
Martin Lewis is the founder and chair of Moneysavingexpert.com. Get his free Money Tips weekly email at moneysavingexpert.com/latesttip