If you’ve accessed your Experian Credit Report lately (they’re offering a 30-day free trial at the moment, but do it via QuidCo and get paid £8.50 to check said free report!), you’ll see they are keen to sell you your ‘Credit Score’ for £5.95 a go, as well as give you free access to your credit file. A good deal, right? After all, knowing your credit score is very important.

Wrong. Please don’t fall for it. The number they will give you in return for your hard-earned cash is all but irrelevant. The mythical number they generate is not given to any financial institution that checks your file, and has absolutely zero bearing on whether you get future credit or not. Instead, each institution creates their own internal ‘score’ from their own highly complex, highly secret algorithms that take into account their own circumstances at the time, yours, and possibly the time of day and whether it is a full moon or not. A score from one lender will likely differ wildly from the next.

Why are they trying to sell you a useless 3 digit number? Because you’d likely buy it if you didn’t know.

Save your money. Your credit score is 791, and it’s just as valid (or perhaps more accurately, invalid) as any other. If you’re checking your credit files in general, CallCredit will give you one along with your 3 month access subscription.

It’s no more valid than the one Experian generates, but at least you are not paying extra for it.

A few weeks ago I decided to start looking into savings accounts properly. For the first time in 5 years, I will soon – I hope – actually have money to save after seriously paying down debt. If I’m totally honest, I was completely at a loss where to turn for advice, so I engaged myself on a rate finding mission. The credit crunch has brought the Bank of England base interest rate to its lowest since records began – yet there are still good products out there if you don’t mind rate chasing after the introductory offers run out. I’m not adverse to doing this, as it’s a small amount of effort for potentially, hundreds of pounds of profit a year.

After weeks of research, I’ve concluded and personally recommend the following:

Instant Access Savings - ING Direct are by far the best provider right now in terms of rates and flexibility. They are offering 3.2% AER (3.16%) on their standard savings account with no limits on access. After the initial 12 month period, the rate drops to an appalling 0.5% which effectively makes it a BoE base rate tracker. However for those initial 12 months, you’ll be doing well with ample time to reassess nearer the end of the introductory offer. Their online interface is amazing, and it makes it nice and simple to sub-divide your ‘account’ into pots for specific things.

One word of caution however: Don’t be fooled by their claim you can have an account open “in about 10 minutes”! It might take 10 minutes to fill in the online paperwork, but it takes many weeks to get it activated and ready for use! Believe it or not, this includes snail-mailing a bank cheque (cheques? I had to order a new cheque book just for this! How antiquated… but worth the effort).

If you’re not keen on ING, or want a better raw rate, consider Egg: They’re offering 3.25% again fixed for the first 12 months but with slightly less ‘zing’ in their interface. Egg are part of the Citigroup of companies.

Regular Savings Account – This is basically a product that gives you an incentive to save every month, usually from £25 to £500 a month. If you don’t make a deposit, then you get penalised for that month. If you’re able to keep it up for the year though, they can pay really well. Right now Halifax are offering 5% and win hands down against the competition.

Cash Mini ISAs – Finally, no savings roundup would be complete without mentioning ISAs. If you don’t have one this year, there is still plenty of time. It’s a tax-free way of saving, and at the moment the best rate seems to be the Barclays Golden ISA, paying 2.58% AER. If you’re new to saving like me, then fill your cash ISA first! It’s tax free and a great way to ensure the government doesn’t start pinching your hard earned pennies. Each ISA can hold £3,600 of cold hard cash, and you get a new one each year.

Most banks are paying around much the same rate at the moment, so to keep things simple check your own bank before moving elsewhere. For the sake of a few percentage points, it’s probably not worth the hassle of transferring any you have right now.

Found better rates? Tell the world in the comments!

Just a very quick call to all British vehicle drivers – this is your last opportunity to fill up before the 2p tax increase hits on Midnight Tuesday September 1st. If you’ve got room in your tank and money in the bank then find your nearest cheapest petrol station and go fill up. Depending on how much you buy, you could save a few pounds in one go. (source)