When used carefully, a payday loan can be the perfect short-term solution to all types of financial problems. Unexpected car repairs, overdue monthly bills, debt payments and groceries are just a few examples of expenses that can be covered quickly with payday loans. While lenders used to run brick-and-mortar businesses in the past, most have since taken their services online. Now that digital storefronts are becoming increasingly common, getting an advance is easier and more tempting than ever before. You no longer need to leave your home to find a lender in your area with business hours that fit your schedule. With a few clicks of your mouse, you can secure a loan from Northcash and have it deposited into your bank account overnight. All you need is proof of income and a working checking account.

The downside is that payday advances still come with high interest rates, and you can find yourself in serious financial trouble if you start to rely on them to pay off most of your household expenses. Following the five tips below can help you learn how to use payday loans efficiently and avoid getting caught in the dreaded borrowing cycle.

1. Don’t use a payday loan to cover any expenses that can wait until your next paycheck

Since advances carry high interest rates, using them to pay off late bills doesn’t always mean that you’ll be saving money in the long run. For example, paying for late fees can be cheaper than paying interest on a payday loan. If you’re specifically worried about overdue monthly bills, call to find out what late fees you’ll be charged and whether they can be forgiven if you pay off the balance relatively close to the deadline date.

2. Research borrowing rules and interest rates

Because taking out a payday loan on your computer only takes a few minutes, it’s easy to get lazy about reading the small print. To assess whether taking an advance really makes sense in your situation, you need to know exactly how much money you can expect to spend on the entire process after it’s done.

3. Have a plan for repaying your advance by its due date

There’s absolutely nothing dangerous about taking out payday advances if you already know that you can repay them on time. When you’re confronted with an expense that needs to be taken care of immediately, there’s sometimes a tendency not to think about the future. In fact, being pressured to make a payment now is one of the top reasons why people have bad experiences with using payday loans. To use an advance safely, you need to have a plan for how you’re going to repay the money you’ll owe before you even think about applying.

4. Use secure websites with a good reputation

Legitimate lenders have transparent backgrounds, testimonials from real people and active social media pages. They’re also upfront about their terms of service. If you come across any businesses that ask you to wire money before the process is over, it’s a sure sign that you’re dealing with a scammer. In general, always avoid deals that sound too good to be true.

5. Stick to one lender

Borrowing money from multiple lenders is how people get trapped in the cycle of renewing loans and taking out one advance to pay off another while their interest rates continue to grow. Unfortunately, most borrowers who juggle loans from multiple lenders don’t realize how much they owe until it’s too late. While renewing your loan once or twice won’t bankrupt you, going to the same lender can help you stay in control.

Nam is a finance expert writer who has a particular interest in covering topics on loans. He’s a regular contributor on PaydayLoansGuide.org.

People always talk about minimizing their expenses so that they can save more money, but not all of them are successful in doing so. This process can be a little tricky, difficult, and it requires effective strategies so it is achieved. Saving money is very important not only for the future but also for emergency purposes. It gives a sense of financial security. There are a lot of ways and tips that can absolutely help one in reducing his or her expenses so that one can save money. If followed efficiently, it can absolutely make a big difference.

• Record all expenses – Keep all receipts and make a list of all the items bought, all the expenses and check it at the end of each month. Check if all the items that they bought are really necessary, if some of them are not. Make sure not to buy the item again next month and save the money for more useful stuff.

• Limit the use of credit and debit card – If they think that they can buy a certain item before the end of the month in full, and then try to limit the use of a credit card to avoid interests, and for debit cards, minimize the spending as well for the money that they don’t have yet so that once they receive the exact amount, they would be able to budget it, and budgeting absolutely helps a lot in saving money.

• Keep the loose change – They can put their loose change into a coin purse to save them and they would be amazed on how big the amount that they saved over a year in saving as low as fifty cents per day.

• Discounted items – In shopping different stuff, it is always good to look for sale, discounts, or couponing where in one can surely get if not a free item, a very great deal, but always remember that it does not mean if an item is discounted and it looks great, they can just buy it and that would be a great deal, make sure its going to be useful and necessary. It’s very easy to find a bargain deal through a coupon website or you can also sign up stores emails for special promotions.

• Bring food – Bringing food at work can surely be a great help in reducing the expenses, instead of buying or eating lunch at a certain fast food or restaurant and spend more, try to prepare and bring food it will not only reduce the expenses, it will also give an assurance that they are eating a clean and healthy meal.

• Stick to the list – Preparing a list before going to the grocery is a must to reduce overspending. Once they made the list, stick to it, do not buy any additional unless it is necessary or they forget to include it.

Majority of people knew how to save money but they just don’t know how to effectively implement it, by following these tips together with self-discipline, they can absolutely reduce their spending to save more money in no time!

Let’s face it, everyone wants to save money but nobody wants to drastically alter the way they live. You get used to living in a certain amount of comfort and it can be a worry that you have to give this up in order to put some cash away. However, with these little hints and tips you can put away more money every month without having to alter your lifestyle.

Make a Budget

Talk to any financial advisor and the first bit of advice they’ll give you is to budget. Working out exactly what you’re spending every month will let you know how much you should set aside to cover vital expenses. By knowing this amount, you won’t have to scrape the barrel in order to pay off your mortgage every month. Budgets also let you see where trivial spending takes place and figure out where you can make cutbacks. [source]

Do Your Grocery Shopping Online

It is very easy for your weekly shop to be more expensive than you initially planned. You often throw things in the basket without looking at the price or buying them simply because they looked nice at the time. When you shop online you can see the cost adding up every time you put something in your basket and you won’t be tempted by on-the-shelf offers. All of this will cause you to buy only the essentials and ignore things you don’t really need.

Take a Packed Lunch

This arguably does change your lifestyle a bit, however if you’re saving £5 a day it is well worth it! If you get some of your work friends involved then you can make it just as social while everyone benefits from saving money. Instead of going out for lunch every day, make it a once a week occurrence. This will make it more of a treat and can save you £20 a week or even more.

Clear Your Debts

Before you can really start to save, you need to clear your debts. Start paying these off with as much as you can afford – this will reduce the build-up of interest and can save you hundreds or even thousands in the long run. If you have a high interest credit card to pay off, then it may be worth taking out a lower interest loan to cover it and provide you with more reasonable repayments.

Find the Best Deals

A quick phone call to your utility, insurance and phone/ TV providers can save you hundreds every year. Compare prices online and tell your existing providers that you can get it cheaper from their competitor – often they will lower the price even more, but if they don’t then you can always switch! You could be paying way more than you need to be for basic services and a five minute phone call is all it takes to lower this price.

None of these tips require you to change your everyday lifestyle, in fact just carrying out a few of these once-a-year tips like budgeting and finding the best deals can save you hundreds. This is a brilliant way to keep money in the bank while maintaining your comfortable lifestyle.

About the Author – Lend UK is a responsible provider of instalment loans, providing financial support to people in need with an easy repayment period. Lend also offers many money saving tips and tricks to help people avoid getting into debt. To find out more visit Lend UK online today.

If you are finding it difficult to keep on top of your debts and seem to be almost constantly juggling with your finances, it may be that consolidating what you owe into one easy-to-manage loan may well be a good solution.

Consolidating your borrowing can help you turn a number of different outgoings into one manageable payment so it is right for you?

Loan consolidation explained

The concept behind the idea of loan consolidation is very simple and it works by calculating how much you owe on different loans and credit cards and then comparing the cost of borrowing the sum of money required to clear these debts against the amount you pay individually on each loan.

It is not advisable to borrow any more than your need as you will end up paying back more in interest than you have to and most lenders who are prepared to offer loan consolidation tend to offer between a minimum of £2,000 and a maximum of £25,000 depending on your circumstances and credit history.

Secured loans

You can sometimes get a larger loan than £25,000 but that will often mean applying for a secured loan which means putting your property up as security. You will probably be offered a longer term to pay the money back with a secured loan but you need to counter the perceived advantage of a lower monthly repayment with the added interest charged for borrowing over a greater period and the risk that you can lose your home if you are unable to make the payments.

Benefits

There are some attractive personal loan offers around at the moment where you may well be able to find the lowest APR rate offered for some while, so you could possibly take advantage of this situation and apply for a loan to consolidate and tidy up your finances.

The benefits of consolidating are having one loan amount to pay rather than several bills to worry about and the fact that your new loan could save you money overall compared to the interest rate you are paying on your existing debts. Taking out a consolidated loan will certainly help you to manage your finances more easily and focus on making just one monthly payment rather than worrying about making numerous payments at different times of the month.

Check the details

As with any financial contract that you enter into it is important to check the details relating to the loan so that you are satisfied it is exactly what you want to do. Check that the interest rate being charged for the loan is the same as the one quoted, as it is possible that the rate quoted was a representative rate and the figure could have been adjusted to account for your credit history.

Also check whether there are any restrictions or penalties for settling the loan early, as you may want to clear the debt earlier and don’t want to incur additional charges for doing so.

Loan consolidation can be a good idea for many but you should certainly check all your options and work out how much you actually need before you go ahead.

Molly Perkins understands the complications and stresses of personal money management. She enjoys writing about the breakdown of improving financial health for the everyday person.

This awesome infographic from Luma dropped by my inbox today – and with me being a happy divorcee remarried it made me chuckle.

I wonder if I would ever have set up Moneysavingblog.org if it wasn’t for the ex 🙂

Take a look at the Infographic either by clicking here or over at Luma directly.