Ok, now you might have to bear with me here, but trust me, this is going somewhere. Stop anything else you’re doing and just consider this for a second…

Most of the people who started the big UK banks back in the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries were Quakers. Now early quakers of this sort followed particular practice which included opposition to the following;

• Betting and gambling (now that’s hard to believe with banker’s of today, isn’t it? )
• Capital punishment
• Slavery
• Oaths
• Times and Seasons

and testimony that promoted;

• Integrity (again, quite hard to believe that this is how bankers started out!)
• Peace
• Plain language (need I say it again?)
• Simplicity (where did it all go wrong!?)
• Sunday observance
• Sustainability (Didn’t see much of that leading up to the recent banking crash)
• Moderation and temperance!

Clearly Quakers led a reserved lifestyle (in a fairly extreme sense), it probably won’t do much good to replicate that yourself, however….Ok, you may say, that’s all interesting, but the point here is that the main people who succeeded back then were the people who weren’t out drinking, gambling, etc late into the night, instead they were the people who actually opposed wealth and what it stood for and generally lead a lifestyle where going to bed early was almost a requirement. So, why should that be any different in today’s society?… It’s not.

You might think this is a tenuous link between sleep and financial improvement, but research has shown that it can play a vital part in improving your lifestyle, including how you manage work and your finances;

Getting an early night means (amongst other things);

• You can get up earlier – think about what you could do with the extra time in the morning. Not only will you save yourself having to rush about (and increase your heart rate & stress), but you could do something positive like manage your online banking before the day has even started. This would help make sure there are no payments you’ve missed or charges you might incur unnecessarily.
• You can have a better breakfast – more time at the start of the day means you can make yourself a more nutritious and healthy breakfast. Eating better at breakfast has shown in numerous studies that it can improve your concentration throughout the day, leading to better decisions, a more positive work outlook (perhaps helping with a promotion or at least keeping your job in today’s economy) and better attitude.
• You might make it to work on time! – If, like me, you sometimes arrive late, then getting an early night could change this around and help you hold onto your career or even climb the ladder.
• You could take a different commuting option – Perhaps you normally drive and always miss an earlier bus. Now you could take the bus and use the time productively. Perhaps plotting out a new business venture or just catching up on the day’s news so you’re better informed.
• Set yourself a new goal – Mornings are a great time for setting a goal for the day or a week. Think of something you want to accomplish and focus on it for the day or week.
• You can exercise! – Do you want to lead a healthier lifestyle but never get time to exercise? The morning is the perfect time to do it. There’s no one around, it’s quiet and it really sets your energy levels up for the day ahead.
• You could sell your unwanted clutter bit by bit each morning.
• If you’ve got kids… swap your quiet time in the evening for quiet time in the morning. That way you get one up on them by being up first and it’ll probably mean you’re less grumpy with them (it does for me!)

There are plenty of other positives that can be brought about by an early night and early start. Putting it into practice could be just the thing that helps you on your path to improving your finances.

If you’ve got any experiences relating to this or any first class ideas for getting finances in order, please drop us a line.

Extreme sports, extreme ironing, extreme… couponing?

You can’t read an article on money saving these days without seeing the word ‘couponing’ but what exactly is it and how does it become ‘extreme’?

What is extreme couponing?

As you can probably imagine, the phrase started in America Most of us will use coupons if we have them and we need the item on offer. Extreme couponing fans go a little bit further and buy as much as they can with the coupons they have, whether they need it or not. If they can combine a coupon / voucher with an offer (say, buy one get one free) even better.

Fans of extreme couponing will save coupons religiously, watching out for the best time to use them, and then go on an almighty shopping spree, buying as much shampoo / tinned food / toiletries / whatever is on offer as they can afford, stockpiling it for a rainy day. In some cases, using the right coupons and the right offers, they can acquire items for free!

They will also brand hop and use different shops to get the best deal, as well as spend time going through every offer leaflet and insert that they can get their hands on.

And then there’s the internet…

The internet has given a whole new lease of life to couponing, with sites dedicated to telling you about the latest offers, where is best to get something the cheapest, and the offers you just can’t miss.

It sounds time consuming

Well, to be honest, it can be. BUT, with a lot of the work taken out of it by the aforementioned websites (see the end of this blog for a list of useful sites) and a little organisation, it doesn’t have to take up as much time as you would imagine, and the savings you make can be quite impressive.

Any tips on extreme couponing?

We’ve pulled a few tips from different sites that may help you:

1. Don’t buy something just because it’s on offer and you have a coupon for it – if you don’t eat corned beef then there’s no point buying it just because it works out at 20p a can, right?
2. Shop around – you may be a dedicated Waitrose shopper, but by shopping around you can save a lot of money. By shopping wisely you can find the best offers to combine with the coupons and make the time spent looking and travelling well worthwhile.
3. Store your coupons in date of expiry order – imagine how angry you’ll be if you get to the checkout with your trolley of goods, hand over your coupons and they’ve expired! A simple folder will allow you to store them in order.
4. Give up your brand loyalty – of course we’re not saying only buy own brand coffee if your favourite doesn’t have a coupon, but if you can be a little flexible on brands, then the savings is worth it.
5. Be prepared to wait – Extreme couponers will hold on to their vouchers until they can be combined with another offer; buy one get one free, buy one get one half price, 50% off, etc. That way they get the best bang for their buck.
6. Be focused – The reason that shops and supermarkets have offers on certain goods is to draw you into buying other goods that are full price. Don’t be suckered! You’re there to use your coupons to best effect, not to spend the savings you make on other items (unless that’s what you want to do of course!)

OK, I’m convinced – where do I get the coupons?

There are a multitude of places to find coupons:

• newspapers
• magazines
• flyers from supermarkets
• online coupon sites
• online forums
• coupon booklets in supermarkets
• eBay – yes, eBay; coupons change hands on there all the time – THAT’S how extreme this is!

Can you really get things for free?

If you use the right combination of coupons and offers, yes. UK Extreme Couponer Judith Wenban gives an example of how it works in an article in The Telegraph:

“Recently, there was an offer on bottles of flavoured water. Each one carried a code that you could text to win a money-off voucher for another bottle. So I bought one bottle, which are something silly like £1.20 each, and kept sending off the codes for the voucher. We ended up with about 60 of these bottles.”

But here comes the ingenious and, some would say, morally dubious bit. “A lot of supermarkets had an offer on the water at the time,” says Judith, “so they were two for £2. So – and it´s a bit, confusing, this – if you got two bottles, it would normally come to £2.40. At the till, I´d give them two freebie vouchers, and they take off the individual price of each bottle, two lots of £1.20, which basically meant the supermarket was giving me 40p for the drinks. I do that as much as I can.”

Extreme Couponing Websites of Interest

We’ve compiled a a link package on bit.ly, packed with a load of useful links related to Extreme Couponing. We’ll update the list as and when we find more useful links.

If you’re interested, give it a go – if you’re doing it already, get in touch and let us know your experiences.

Loans and credit are common-place today, traditionally you would apply for a loan by your self and a lender would determine whether to lend you the money based on your previous credit experiences and how you managed them (along with other relevant factors). A loan involving a guarantor differs from this because your credit experience isn’t the main factor used when deciding whether you can borrow the money or not, this is what makes it a great solution for people who can’t get a standard unsecured loan either through poor credit history or adverse circumstances in their lives (e.g. employment history or residential status).

Loans With a Guarantor Requirement

These are the main types of loan offered by Guarantor Loans Company (although we do standard loans as well) and they have a number of advantages for many people. Instead of relying on computer generated credit scoring measures, you will be asked to provide a friend (or family member) to support your application. If someone is happy to support your application and trusts you can repay the money, then that can ultimately mean more to us than a “meaningless” credit score would when deciding whether to accept your application.

Best Suited For

• If you’ve been turned down elsewhere
• If you’ve never held any credit in the past
• If you’ve managed credit commitments poorly in the past or missed some payments
• You’re looking for a competitive product that is far cheaper than short term alternatives
• You want fixed repayments over up to 5 years
• You know someone who will be happy to be your guarantor (also called a guaranty)

Loans Without a Guarantor Requirement

This is the type of loan which has been around since the dawn of credit and how most types of loan operate (i.e. unsecured loans, short term loans, hire purchase). Loans are available with fixed repayments are are usually payable over (up to) 5 year terms. Without a guarantor being involved in the loan, the decision to lend you the money will be based entirely on your credit record and current financial situation. If you’ve managed your credit poorly in the past (or have never held credit), whether through fault of your own or not, your chances of being accepted will generally be lower than if you applied for a guarantor based loan. Likewise, if you’re currently facing financial difficulties or your current situation is viewed unfavourably by a lender, you may also encounter difficulties.

Best Suited For

• If you have a perfect credit record
• If you’ve held credit in the past and have managed it well
• You have a solid financial situation with secure income
• You want fixed repayments over up to 5 years
• You don’t know anyone who would be willing to support your loan application

Summary

If you are in a situation where you can apply for a standard loan and you have found a cheaper rate than what you may find with a guarantor product then you may wish to consider applying for a standard loan first. If you find yourself being turned down for these loans, then you may wish to consider a guarantor option.

If your circumstances fit more in line with a guarantor based loan and you’re happy with the terms and competitive repayments on offer, then you may be best to apply for this first (as every application you make for credit leaves a “negative” mark on your credit record). Once you’ve applied, full terms and details will be given to you before loan completion and you are welcome to change your guarantor at any stage before the loan is paid out.

You can apply for both loans with a guarantor requirement and loans without using our secure online application. Just specify whether or not you have a guarantor to determine which type of loan you are applying for! Simple.

Section #1. Money Saving Cooking Tips
Section #2. Save money on cleaning products – go green and natural!

Money Saving Cooking Tips

After your mortgage / rent, bills and travel costs, food and cooking are probably your next biggest expense. Here are some of our top money saving cooking tips to help your weekly budget go a little further.

Plan Ahead

It’s an oldie but a goodie – taking time to plan your week’s menus really does save you money. By looking through your freezer and storecupboard, seeing what is on offer at the shops and supermarkets, and planning a list of meals for the week you can avoid waste, double up on cooking where possible and save time AND money.

For example, making a ragu type sauce one night with that mince that is on special offer. Make double, and you have a lovely spaghetti bolognese for tonight, and the base for a chilli for later in the week; simply pop it in the freezer until you need it!

Cook From Scratch

I know, I know; you come home from work and all you want to do is stick a ready meal in the microwave, pour a glass of vino and settle down in front of the TV. But in the time it’s taken to unwrap the meal, put it in the microwave, take it out, put it back in again because it’s still cold in the middle, open the wine, pour a glass and finally rescue your now overcooked microwave meal, you could have made a quick salad or pasta dish from scratch!

Cooking from scratch means you can use ingredients that are in season (and therefore usually cheaper), your food will taste better, and you can cook double, so having a ‘ready’ meal available for later in the week.

Don’t Be Proud

Only Heinz baked beans for you? Hellman’s mayonnaise a must? Can’t live without Prince’s tomatoes? It’s worth thinking again as some of the cheaper brands are just as good, especially if you’re using them as an ingredient in a recipe rather than part of a meal.

Let’s be honest, if you’re making a curry and add a tin of value tomatoes to it, is anyone really going to taste it and complain they’re not a name brand?

That shepherds pie is going to taste just as good with own brand peas as it is with any of the big brands, and the kidney beans in your chilli don’t have to be the most expensive as they’re just a small part of the recipe.

Put snobbery aside and give the cheaper brands a go – you could be pleasantly surprised!

Buy Cheaper, Cook Longer

When it comes to meat, some of the tougher cuts such as brisket, shin and chuck (beef) are just as nice as sirloin, as long as they’re cooked properly. The tougher the joint of meat, the longer and slower it should be cooked.

Consider investing in a slow cooker – they’re only about £20 now, and you can pop your meal in before work, then come home to the lovely aroma of dinner; all you have to do is serve up! Slow cookers are ideal for cheaper cuts of meat, and for stews and soups – low cost ingredients cn make a truly gorgeous meal.

Shop Around

It’s easy to pop to that one supermarket because it’s on your way home from work, but when was the last time you checked out the prices in other supermarkets and shops?

It’s well worth checking the local papers for any offers, and looking at www.mysupermarket.com to find out where the great offers are, and seeing whether it’s worth your while going a little out of your way to grab some bargains.

Stock Up That Store Cupboard

It’s amazing what you can produce in the kitchen as long as you have stocked up on the staples in your store cupboard.

Make sure you have a supply of the essentials; pasta, tinned tomatoes, stock, spices, noodles, flour etc, and you can pretty much throw a meal together in seconds. (I’d add eggs into that list too, but guidelines now say they’re a fridge item not a store cupboard item, but you know what I mean!)

Cook in Bulk

I’ve mentioned it already, but cooking more than one portion of something is a great way to save money. Cooking double usually takes less than twice the time and energy, and saves you time as well as money later in the week.

You could cook double of a family favourite, or cook a base meal that could become something else later in the week. If you’re really adventurous you could cook for the whole month in just one day!

Keep Those Leftovers

Often we’re left with bits of meals that just end up in the bin, or ingredients we just don’t get around to using up once we’ve bought them for a special recipe.

Become the leftover King or Queen and get the most out of everything you buy.

Keep a tupperware tub in the freezer and throw in leftover or small amounts of vegetables that are of no use anywhere else. At the end of the week, throw in some stock, heat it up, put in a food processor or liquidiser and make soup!

It’s worth taking a look at the cooking with leftovers at cheapcooking.com – get some inspiration and see what you can come up with!

Grow Your Own

It’s a great time of year to start growing your own vegetables; not only will you save money, but the produce you end up with will taste better than any supermarket bought items. Tomatoes, courgettes, peas and beans are all easy to grow. Salad leaves and herbs can be grown in pots on a windowsill, and of course let’s not forget strawberries, raspberries and blackberries if you have the room.

There’s nothing better than gathering the ingredients from your garden to make a meal; you’ll be saving money and eating healthily too!

Save money on cleaning products – go green and natural!

While we all love a sparkling clean and fresh smelling home, the massive array of cleaning products out there these days can see us spending a fortune every month.

One cleaner for the kitchen, one for the bathroom, another for the oven, then one for the windows, polish for the furniture, a different polish for the floor; the list is endless and you do have to worry how our grandparents managed without this plethora of products!

Apart from the amount of space this lot takes up, what about the cost?

Well there is one way you can save money on cleaning products – go natural!

The following 3 ‘recipes’ will clean most areas of your house without the expense, without taking up much room and without costing a fortune. Even better, they contain none of the nasty chemicals found in brand name cleaners so they won’t cost the Earth either!

Natural Green Glass Cleaner

I don’t know about you, but I really hate the chemical smell of some of the brand name window and glass cleaners out there – and who decided that they had to be blue? Plus, most of the time they leave streaks no matter what you do and a chemical film on the glass.

This natural glass cleaner is streak free and the smell disappears almost instantly.

You will need:

• A quarter of a cup of natural white vinegar
• 1 litre warm water
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Mix everything together in a jug until the cornstarch has disappeared. Decant the liquid into spray bottles and use to clean glass and windows.

To be sure of a streak free finish, give the windows a quick rub with some crumpled newspaper afterwards – trust me, it really does work!

Natural Green Furniture Polish

The adverts make it seem so easy, a quick spray, a swipe of a cloth and your furniture is dust free and sparkly good. Which is great, but you’re still left with that ‘polishy’ smell, and some of them just seem to push the dust around.

This natural furniture polish will smell a whole lot better, and cost a whole lot less!

You will need:

• 1 cup of lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Mix together until combined, then wipe onto the furniture with a soft cloth. Leave for a minute or two then wipe off with a different dry cloth.

Natural Green Drain Cleaner

We’ve all had it happen to us – grease and food parts build up in the sink pipes and before we know it, it’s blocked. You could buy a bottle of caustic drain unblocker, but I’m pretty wary of anything that says ventilate a room well and don’t get on your skin!

This natural drain cleaner has no harmful chemicals and is easy to pull together with store cupboard items, which means it’s always to hand.

You will need:

• 2 cups of baking soda
• 1 cup of white vinegar
• 3-4 cups of boiling water

Empty the sink as best you can with a jug or cup so that there’s as little water as possible in there, then pour 1 cup of baking soda down the plughole.

Follow this with 2-3 cups of boiling water and leave for about ten minutes for it to start dissolving the grease and gunk. Be patient!

Pour another cup of baking soda and follow with a cup of white vinegar. You’ll hear it start fizzing – don’t be alarmed! Put the plug in.

Once the fizzing noise has stopped, pour another cup of boiling water down the plughole.

In most cases, this will clear the blockage – if not, repeat the process. If it still doesn’t clear, a plunger should help, as the steps above will have loosened and dissolved most of the blockage and it just needs a little help.

These are just 3 natural green cleaning products that can help around the home – you can find lots more by searching on Google.

Payday loans (or Short Term loans) often get bad press and it’s often with good reason. Some lenders are simply unethical, don’t follow responsible lending practices and have even been known to target and poach vunerable people into borrowing their money. Not what you want from what should be a responsible industry. Combine that with the fact that humans usually favour short term advantage over long term gain, and you can get a recipe for disaster. However an official study by the OFT in 2010 concluded that they provided a legitimate, useful, service that helped cover a gap in the market. Payday loans clearly have their uses, but should be used as they are intended and are only a short term solution.

When Payday Loans Go Wrong

Media outlets often run stories on these products which frequently highlight when things have gone wrong for borrowers, usually when loans are mis-used to boost an individuals income. Usually, the outcome of this is that the borrower ends up in a debt and interest spiral, taking out more and more payday loans to cover their existing payments until they can no longer manage the re-payments. This often leads to bankruptcy, although there are debt solutions which can help people in these situations.

Although many payday loan compaines run a less than ethical practice and unfortunately don´t help people stay out of debts they can´t manage, there are times when a payday loan might be a suitable solution. The times when these products are useful are hardly ever portrayed in the media, and a lot of people don’t realise that there can also be a good side to short term lending.

What Should a Short Term Loan be Used for?

As long as a payday loan is used as it is intended; for short term emergency finance (not a long term solution), they can be useful for people who find themselves needing a bit of extra cash. If you need to sort out an emergency, such as a broken down car so you can get to work, but don’t have the spare cash this month, then borrowing until your next payday may make sense. Often if you go over your overdraft limit, a payday loan gives you a cheaper way of covering yourself compared to any unauthorised bank charges you may have to pay. The point is, emergencies are really the only things they should be used for, otherwise situations can arise where people rely on them month on month to get by and end up paying unnecessary interest just to keep their heads above water.  These loans are intended purely for a cash boost until your next payday – no longer.

It´s obvious that some loan companies could do far more to improve their service, lending practices and to ensure that borrowers understand the risk. The potential risks should be highlighted and the fact that these loans are intended for emergency use should be empathised. Warnings should be in place alerting customers that `if they don´t repay the loan on time then they could end up with more charges than they´d hoped for.

It´s also clear that there are some well run companies offering these loans who DO check whether the customer can afford repayments, who DO provide clear terms and conditions (which people more often than not, simply don´t read) and who DO offer a handy, convenient and sometimes money saving service (such as when bank charges are involved) for people who happen to be short on cash for a given month. These companies often don’t receive the good press that the bad companies do, after all, there’s no news like bad news.

Putting High Interest Rates into Perspective

The high APRs are usually a bit of a sticking point, but it´s worth bearing in mind that an APR is designed for products repayable over terms of 1+ years; hence the reason it´s called an `Annual Percentage Rate´. When you apply the same calculations to a loan term of 1 month or less, things start looking a bit askew. As an example; say you lent your friend a tenner down the pub and he said he´d repay you next week and buy you a pint as a gesture (seems completely reasonable), this would equate to a repayment of about £13.50 for your friend (depending on which pub or bar you go to!). If you calculated this out as an APR, you would in fact be charging your friend 1824.99%! So it´s easy to see how things can get out of perspective. An opinion held by many, and which makes perfect sense is that there should be different regulation covering short term loans so that these things are made clearer.

Conclusion

Press coverage on bad practices is very important as it helps people to understand the risks and be wary of going into an agreement. The stories of misfortune need to be told and addressed so that regulation can move forward to better serve consumers – in today’s society people clearly shouldn’t be able to get into mountains of unmanageable debt. Ultimately though, there are times when payday loans make sense and people benefit from them. If you’re looking for a short term cash boost and it’s for an emergency situation (where you can repay the debt on your next payday), then it may be a good solution for you, and may be cheaper than alternatives such as overdrafts or credit card withdrawals.

Here’s our simple ‘cut out and keep’ guide of when to use a payday loan and when not to use one (If you’re prone to taking out short term loans on a whim, print it, cut it out and stick it to your monitor or the back of your hand);

3 Ways to Improve Your Chances of Being Accepted

1. Explain Why You Get Turned Down For Credit
2. Give 3 Simple Ways to Improve Your Chances
3. List Credit Products which May be More Suitable or Have Higher Levels of Acceptance

Why is it Harder to Get Credit Nowdays?

It’s a fact that loans are harder to be approved for today than they were several years ago. Before 2008, lending was a lot looser, criteria wasn’t as tight and lenders were more willing to take risks. However, the credit crunch changed this and forced lenders to tighten criteria and raise prices to shield themselves from any bad debt losses – essentially as the economy declined, so did the number of loan approvals. Still, the reasons for being turned down remain exactly the same… it’s just the rules behind these reasons are stricter.

Reasons For Being Turned Down

Whenever you apply for finance such as a loan or credit card, the lender will profile you to determine whether you are a risk or not. This is usually done by performing a credit check, an electoral roll check and also taking into consideration the information you have provided about your current employment and situation. These checks vary from lender to lender, as to the conclusions they draw from them. Most lenders will perform these checks automatically and a computer will generate a credit score for you based on it. If your score is above the level the lender has set for an approval, then you’ll be accepted, if not then you’ll be declined. Luckily there are now loan and credit products which skip or reduce the amount of credit checking done.

What is the Score Based On?

Lenders will create their own unique score based on the information they have about you. Your credit history (or credit record) holds the details of all previous credit you have taken out, how much you’ve repaid, whether you’ve missed any payments, and so on. Most of your score will be based on how you’ve managed your previous credit, but other factors are also taken into consideration.

Your Credit History

Your credit history is exactly as it sounds; a history of your credit. All the credit you have possessed is reported to and logged by credit reference agencies (the main ones being Experian and Equifax). When you apply for a loan, lenders request this information from the agencies to help form a decision on your application.

Below is a list of the main factors from your credit history which may lead you to being declined;

Electoral Roll

Another search carried out by lenders is to check your local electoral roll to see if you are registered at your current address. If you’re not, then lenders will highlight you as a big risk. The reason for this is that many fraudulent loan applications are made by people who don’t actually live at the addresses they’re applying from, or if they do live there, they don’t intend to stay there, so aren’t on the electoral roll. However, if you’ve recently moved and haven’t registered yet, chances are you won’t be on it – so make sure you are before applying for any credit! Usually it takes a couple of months to appear on the register after submitting the form.

Contact Details

This is not one to be underestimated. If you apply for a loan, but only provide one contact number, you will stand less chance of being accepted as you would if you supplied 2 or 3. The reason for this is quite simple; the more numbers you give, the more chances a lender has of getting in contact with you should you miss any repayments. Therefore you are given a higher trust score.

Supplying a land line number is the most important. Lenders consider people who have landlines to be more secure and unlikely to move away. This may be a little archaic now days, but it’s a formula many lenders still use.

Current Situation

There are a number of important factors taken into consideration based on your current and historical living and working situations. We’ll go through them below;

How Do I Get Accepted?

If you keep getting declined for credit, it ultimately boils down to three reasons;

1) Your credit score is too low
2) You’re applying for the wrong type of or too much credit
3) You haven’t supplied the right information

Luckily, you can fix all the problems above.

1. Improving your credit score is the most time consuming, but should eventually give you access to more credit products and lower interest rates.

2. Changing the type of credit you’re applying for is the quickest solution and could actually help you to start improving your credit history at the same time!

3. Supplying the right information is a factor you need to consider when applying for any loan. Make sure you supply all your available contact numbers (especially a land line number). Don’t lie about any of your details, but ensure they are accurate. For example when asked how much credit you have outstanding, sit down and work it out; remember, the lender can find this out anyway, so be honest. Also don’t apply for more than you can afford; if you apply for a loan with repayments of £300 a month, but you only have £200 spare cash each month, then it’s unrealistic and you’ll be declined. Instead think about what you need the loan for and how much you need to accomplish it… don’t go crazy and apply for too much.

What Should I Be Applying For?

Loans

If you have been declined elsewhere and are looking for a fixed term loan of up to £5,000 with competitive rates, a guarantor loan could be the solution for you. The concept behind a guarantor loan is simple; you provide a friend or family member to vouch for your loan (this person is the guarantor), their trust for you is then taken on board rather than relying on an automated credit scoring process (which is usually the reason why most people are declined for a normal loan). If you’re interested in finding out more or applying, you can do so here. This is a good option if you’re looking to pay down existing debt or perhaps make a larger one off purchase (e.g. home improvements).

Credit Cards

If you’re looking for a credit card, then there are several “credit re-builder” cards on the market offered by companies such as Capital One and Vanquish. These cards are aimed at people will poor credit records and if you maintain re-payments could also help you improve your credit record. If you’re looking for flexible finance to make purchases then this may be a good option for you.

Other Debt Solutions

If you’re in a lot of debt and are just looking for a loan to consolidate it, you may be better looking at other debt solutions. The government backs a solution called an IVA, which is aimed at people with over £15,000 of debt; it allows the debtor to repay their debts within 5 years by making an arrangement with the lenders to pay a fixed amount back within that time. You can’t take out any more credit whilst you are in an IVA and it will leave a mark on your credit record afterwards, however it could be a good solution.

You could also look at debt management solutions. This is where you or a company (acting on your behalf) makes an arrangement with your lenders to freeze your interest (where possible) and pay back a specific amount of money each month. This usually means you end up with lower repayments, although your debts can take longer to repay. If you use a debt management company for this, they will usually take one monthly payment from you and make payments to your creditors. This is usually a much simpler method than paying each creditor individually, but it’s worth bearing in mind that debt management companies will take a fee for this (usually a monthly percentage of your repayments).

If you’re struggling with debt, take a look at our help centre for further resources and organisations you can contact to get help and advice. You can also find out about other types of credit.

PS. If you apply for one of the solutions above, make sure that you supply the most accurate and honest information you can. Don’t forget those contact details!

Payday Loans are designed to be emergency short term cash solutions which you can repay (in full) on your next payday. This idea is all well and good in theory, but what happens if for some reason or another you can’t afford to repay the loan when payday comes around? Usually the payday loan provider will allow you to just pay the interest on the loan, perhaps with an additional fee added on; you can then carry the balance over to your next payday and then hopefully make the full repayment then.

The problem with doing this is, you can easily get stuck in this cycle of repaying the interest on your payday loan each month. Because payday loans are designed to be repaid within a month, if you start paying the interest out over the year it can quickly end up being quite a bit of money. If you have several payday loans at the same time, the problem can be even worse and you may end up with not enough money to ever be able to repay the loan – you just keep paying the interest and losing money every single month.

A solution

If you find yourself in this situation or teetering on the edge of this predicament then one of our guarantor loans could provide you with the solution.

A loan from Guarantor Loans Company can enable to you repay all your payday loans and then simply pay 1 monthly affordable repayment at a much lower rate of interest than your payday loans were costing. This could save you a bundle of cash in no time at all and what’s better is that you’ll be paying off your loan balance each month so you know that at the end of the repayments you’ll be debt free once again. What’s even better is that a loan from Guarantor Loans Company can actually help improve your credit rating and open up a wealth of cheaper credit options down the road – no more excessive interest rates! We will consider anyone with existing bad credit or if you’re currently facing adverse circumstances in your life.

So, if you or someone you know is in a spiral of debts and interest, consider making an application using our quick and secure online form today. Perhaps you could save yourself a lot of money and aggravation.

The table below gives you a quick comparison between our representative rate compared to a typical rate found with other loan products;

These examples are all representative APR rates taken from a range of websites during May 2012.

Today we’re proud to announce the launch of our brand new website.

Offering customers a faster and more streamlined process, applying for a loan with Guarantor Loans Company is now easier than ever. Our site now features;

• 100% Online Application Process
• 100% Secure Application Form
• A comprehensive range of loan plans to suit all needs, even if you don’t have a guarantor
• Faster online experience
• Fast loan approval – loans can complete within 24 hours

If you were a regular visitor to our Money Saving Blog, you may be wondering what’s happened to it? Well, we’ve listened to feedback and made some changes. Ultimately, we didn’t feel the blog effectively dealt with our goal of helping our customers with their finances and didn’t provide visitors with the experience or help we were hoping for. Instead we’re very excited to announce, the launch our brand new Fix Your Finances help section; read more below.

Fix Your Finances

Fix Your Finances is our brand new help centre dedicated to helping people fix their existing finance problems. Striving to exceed expectations in our responsible lending and treating customers fairly commitments, this section is dedicated to providing our visitors with knowledge to understand their financial situation and help improve it. This includes topics such as managing your money more effectively and cleaning up your credit history.

The aim is not only to help our customers understand whether a loan is the best option for them but also to make every financial aspect of their lives easier to manage.

We’re also concentrating on bringing useful resources to our customers from around the web in our financial help centre.

We’ll be adding new content regularly, but in the mean time, we’ve transferred some of our best articles over from the old blog. Take a look or find out more about the team.

Thankfully, there’s some great techniques to help you rein in your spending. Here’s our favourite tips to help you cut back;

Work out the cost of something in hours

This is something that is quick to calculate and can really help you work out whether something is essential or just a nice to have. If you get paid £10 per hour and you want to buy something that costs £100, that’s over a day’s work, before taxes!

Do food shopping online

It’s all to easy to overspend at a supermarket, however, if you shop online, not only do you get a running total of the cost, but you can review your list before checking out and take off anything that you don’t really need. You could also set a routine of shopping once a week and nothing more; stick to this and you’ll be on your way!

Leave the plastic at home

If you don’t take out the means to buy something, then you can’t buy it! If you really want something you can always find it online at a later date, where it’ll probably be cheaper!

Only buy new things after selling old

This is one of our favourite ideas. Instead of going out and buying things willy nilly, sell things and then only allow yourself to buy new things with the money made from selling old things! It’s simple, means you don’t actually spend any ‘real money’ and it stops your house from getting cluttered.

Lists!

Use a shopping list whenever you go out to the shops and stick to it!

Rethink Your Debts

People tend to think that the money on their credit card is their money. It’s not! By thinking of your credit card as a debt card, it could change the way you use it dramatically.

Pay Yourself a ‘Spending Wage’

As soon as you get paid, arrange for your bank to sweep a set amount of money to a separate account with a separate debit card (You can open new accounts at your bank normally very easily). Allow yourself to then only spend money from this new account and keep your main account for bills and other expenditure. If you allow enough cash to remain in your main account so that there’s still some left after the bills have been paid, you’ll be amazed at how quickly this adds up. You could then use this cash to pay down some debts.

Have Budget Nights

It can actually be quite fun to challenge yourself and set a low budget for a night or event. For example, if you’re going down the pub, only take say £10 (and no cards!) and see if you can make it last the evening!

Packed Lunches

Cheap and healthy!.. Lunches down the pub or in the local cafe can soon become expensive. Save them for a treat perhaps once a week. Even shop bought sandwiches can soon add up – you might be surprised how much you can save by making your own.

Set a Daily Budget

You could set yourself a budget per day that you have to stick to. If you manage to spend less than your budget in a given day, then you can carry it over and have more to spend the next day or at the end of the week. This is another form of challenging yourself that can actually make you want to save more rather than spend, spend, spend!

Sleep on it Before Buying

Before buying anything of significant value that isn’t absolutely essential, go to bed and sleep on it. You may find you have a completely different outlook the next day… Or you’ll find you still want it, in which case, you can buy it

Waste Less

Did you know that in the US, they throw away a third of the food they buy? Think about that for a second; that’s like throwing away an entire weekly shop (and an extra basket load) each month…. Mental! Not only is that a huge, huge waste of money, but it’s also incredibly bad for the environment, not to mention the guilt they should feel by tossing away so much food when people in other parts of the world have nothing. It gets my goat, that’s for sure. Before you get smug about these US figures, bear in mind that in the UK we’re hardly any better, in fact we throw away about a quarter of the food we buy (Source: WRAP). So here’s some easy ways to reduce all that senseless waste;

• Only cook what you will eat – if you find it hard to gauge portion sizes then once the meal is cooked, only serve a smaller amount on each plate. If you still want more, then go back to the pan/pot/whatever and grab some more. Otherwise you can freeze the remaining and have it for another meal. Less waste and less time scraping plates into the bin!
• Only buy what you will eat – if you find that you are constantly throwing food away that you have bought, then make a note of what you are throwing away and down scale your next shop. If you find you’re throwing away the same things each week, stop buying those things! If you’re throwing away different food then buy less or buy frozen versions (which take longer to perish than fresh).
• Freeze, Freeze, Freeze- if you see something in the fridge or cupboard that is about to go out of date, stuff it in the freezer. Ignore all that “freeze on the day of purchase” stuff, as long as it’s in date  then it’s fine to freeze. You may be surprised to find that you can freeze all sorts (I was), it’s best to defrost food slowly and make sure you re-heat meals well:
  • Doughnuts, cookies and bakery goods (just defrost and eat)
  • Bananas (You can defrost and use in smoothies or on desserts)
  • Fresh goods, such as pizza, pasta and fridge meals (Just follow the “cook from frozen” instructions when you want to use them)
  • Milk (Yep that’s right, although the fat will freeze separately so it may change colour. Don’t worry, it will re-mix once thawed)
  • Cheese
  • Most other things – There’s a good list here. Anything which isn’t freezable should say so on the packet.
• Know the difference between “Use By” and “Best Before” – Anything that stipulates a “Use By” date must be eaten by the date indicated. Anything that has a “Best Before” date can safely be eaten after the date indicated. So stop throwing away things you can still eat!

Use Less Electricity

Here’s another really easy one to fix. We all waste electricity in one way or another, whether it’s leaving lights on in vacant rooms to leaving items on standby. What is the point in having light rill a room that no one can see or leaving a DVD whirring around when the TV is off?! No point what-so-ever. It costs you money and it burns fossil fuels (whether you are on a so-called “green” energy plan or not). So put these suggestions into practice and you’ll soon notice the cost saving and hopefully feel smug that you’re minimising your damage on the planet;

• Turn lights off in rooms you are not using – In counties like Russia this is almost standard practice. How difficult is it really to press a switch on the wall as you leave and then press it again when you enter?
• Turn off Standby – In many appliances (such as TVs) standby uses almost the same amount of energy as having it on, this is because the appliance is just waiting for you to re-activate it, so most of its functions are powered on in anticipation. Do you really need to leave your DVD player on all the time when you probably use it a few times a month? Turn it off. Same goes for anything else. At the very least, it’s worth turning things off at the wall at night when no one will be using them.
• Install an energy monitor – These cost about £30, but the cost saving you will make will be many times that. They are easy to set up and you’ll soon realise how much energy you are wasting. It’s easier to get a feel for what a difference turning a light off makes when you can see the difference with your eyes. Most will also tell you how much you are spending so you get a real idea (Owl do a good range)
• Buy Energy Saving Bulbs – When you next buy lightbulbs, try to make sure they are energy-efficient ones (most are now days). You can still buy the extremely inefficient filament bulbs – these eat significantly more energy and have a much shorter lifespan than energy-efficient bulbs.

Drive Less/Walk More

It’s all to easy to leap into your car even when you need to go a short distance, however it’s also an expensive, unhealthy and carbon rich way to travel. If you often use your car to travel to the shops which are only a mile down the road then why not try walking instead? I guarantee you that walking is not as bad as it may sound; it’s often a relaxing and de-stressing way to get about, plus it’ll keep you in shape a lot better than sitting in a seat and moving your hands around a wheel will ever do. Try the following to help;

• Use a pedometer – We’re often better at sticking to something if we are aiming for a target. Why not set yourself a target for the amount of steps you do in a day? First wear the pedometer on a normal day and see how many steps you do, then perhaps say try to achieve twice that number of steps the next day by driving less.
• Consider alternative transport – Buses and Trains aren’t always practical, but when they are, use one! You don’t even need to be awake to travel in a bus or train – isn’t that a better way to travel than by getting stressed out driving amongst a sea of differing ability drivers?
• Make a conscious effort – You may use the car so often, that it’s a habit to use it. Try and make a conscious effort to walk places for the next 30 days. The reason I specify 30 days is because that’s roughly how long it takes for a habit to take hold. Once the walking habit has taken hold, you’ll use your car less as a matter of course.

Recycle

You might be the sort of person who recycles religiously (in which case, well done). However, I know that there are many people out there who will throw cardboard into the standard rubbish bin willy nilly!! – stop that right now. If you find that your recycling bin is often barely full and your waste bin is overflowing before collection time, then start sorting your rubbish out properly;

• Keep another bin next to your waste bin for recyclables – Instead of throwing everything into one bin, make sure it’s easy to recycle by keeping a recycling bin next to the waste bin. Again, make a conscious effort to separate rubbish into the right bin for 30 days and get into a habit.
• Take bottles to a bottle bank - If your council, like mine, doesn’t collect glass, then find your nearest glass recycling bin. They’re usually scattered around parks, supermarkets or near pubs. Once you know where it is (I bet it’s not far), walk your jars and bottles down their on a regular basis to keep on top of any build up.
• Know what you can recycle - Different councils collect different things for recycling. If you aren’t sure what can be recycled in your area, then check out your Council’s website for further details. If it helps, ask them to send you a leaflet (or print one out) and stick it above your bins, so you know what needs to go in the recycling bin and what doesn’t.

If you think doing any of these things are hard, then I suggest you start being grateful for what you’ve got and imagine living in a third world county, in poverty and see what you think of that.

I apologise if I’ve gone on a bit of a rant in this post, but I certainly hope this article helps you lead a greener lifestyle whilst saving a lot of money. There are plenty of more things that you can do around the house to save, so please be sure to subscribe to the blog to keep updated with future ideas and posts.