Story Archive Index Plastic Fantastic: Making the most of your credit card During these tough times you may instinctively avoid using your credit card, but this piece of plastic is still your friend if used effectively. Credit cards offer the flexibility to manage your purchases in line with your income and provide additional security and benefits that you don't usually find with other payment methods. This security is especially helpful when buying from companies that you don't know - online firms in particular.  Using a credit card effectively is a sensible way of managing your finances and protecting your personal financial security. Here are some of the ways to use your card: Read Full Article Investments for those aged 50 or over Turning 50 is a time when many of us reassess our financial situation and take stock of our investment goals.  Reaching your fifth and sixth decade should spell a time of life when you feel financially secure, and when it comes to ensuring a comfortable retirement, choosing the right savings, pensions and investments vehicles for your needs is vital. The question is, how can you achieve this? If you're hoping to retire in the next 5 -10 years, it pays to consider the various investments available, such as topping up your pension or putting money into Individual Savings Account (ISAs). Read Full Article Sainsbury's Bank Life Insurance Life Insurance: Who needs it? With so many bills to pay, small wonder that most of us are looking at our long list of standing orders for utilities and financial services and wondering which, if any, we could safely live without and scrub off the list. While deciding not to pay an added insurance cover for your new washing machine or home entertainment system has relatively minimal come back should they breakdown, foregoing life insurance cover is a risky business. Read Full Article Flying the nest: guide to independent living The growing reluctance of Britain's twenty- and thirty-somethings to fly the parental nest is straining family life – and finances –  to breaking point, researchers have warned. In fact, according to the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) newly released annual report on the latest social trends, almost a third of men and a fifth of women aged between 20 and 34 live at home with their parents. Read Full Article Using a loan to reduce your monthly outgoings– it can be done Cutting back on fripperies and keeping a beady eye on the household budget has become a major preoccupation for many UK consumers seeking to ride out the recession without incurring additional debt and financial hardship. Yet, no matter how canny you are at budgeting for the now, for those with high levels of previous credit and store card debt, the interest rates  on cards can make reducing the balance a tall order. This is because with old debt, a high proportion of monthly repayments goes to paying off the interest and not the actual borrowed capital.  Read Full Article New Rewards Account The new Reward Current Account from Halifax Thinking of changing your bank account? If you are, you're one of a very select group of people. According to a BBC report in July 2008 just 6% of people change their current account in a typical year. Members of our parents' generation often knew their bank manager personally and stayed with the same bank for their whole lives - but these days switching bank accounts is actually easier than you think - so why do so few people bother? Read Full Article