Save toward your home insurance, cut up your store cards

Christmas store cards will cost users £2.8 billion in interest payments next year – and will cost £892 million more than if the same shoppers had used credit cards. This divides up to a saving of £55 each shopper to spend on rising home insurance premiums or other utilities costs.

Discounts at the point of sale, sold by financially untrained till staff, tempt purchasers into accepting store cards without reading the small print or making a comparison, but if users do not pay off the balance, they soon find that their interest charges are an average of 26 per cent.

Mike Naylor, personal finance expert at uSwitch.com, advises: "People tend to get carried away with Christmas spending; we just hope they seriously look at how much more store cards will cost them and ensure they use the best deals available. Ultimately, these cards are generally an extremely expensive form of credit and consumers should consider the long term costs carefully before using them."

December 11^th 2007

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• Why going green could make bill-payers mean
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• The two-four-six of cheque usage
• For the latest money saving tip ask grandparents
• Ask the computer
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• Christmas may cause a bleak midwinter
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• Families bailing each other out
• Brits to spend at Christmas
• Listed buildings 'can go green'
• Listed buildings 'can go green'