Make these new (tax) year resolutions!

Did your New Year's resolutions fall a bit flat? Here's the chance to redeem yourself!

Last Monday marked the start of the new tax year. It brought with it several changes to rates and benefits, including a rise in the basic state pension (from £90.70 a week to £95.25) and a rise in child tax credit from £2,085 to £2,235.

To find out about the other tax and benefit changes that might affect you, have a look at this useful article.

But what about the financial changes you can make yourself?

Your new (tax) year resolutions

If your January resolutions didn't go quite according to plan, here's a second chance to knock your finances into shape. Start the new financial year as you mean to go on - with a brisk spring clean of your finances.

Target the following four trouble spots and you really could be thousands of pounds richer by April 2010. It's all about stashing, slashing, switching and... errr... remortgaging.

Stash those savings

If you don't have any savings, you're hugely vulnerable. If anything goes wrong (like you lose your job) you could be on the road to financial disaster.

The good news is, there's still time to take the turning that's signposted 'recovery'. But you need to start saving right now - as much as you can possibly afford every month.

This article should be able to point first-time savers in the right direction.

If you can afford to lock at least £1,000 away into a bond, the HiSAVE Two Year Fixed Rate Account from ICICI is offering a very juicy rate of 4.1% AER (the ICICI one year bond pays out 3.9% AER).

However, if you think you might need to get your hands on your cash in emergency, you might be better off with an instant access account.

ING Direct's Savings Account is currently offering a rate of 3% AER. Just remember that this rate is variable, and includes a 12 month, fixed bonus rate of 1.97%.

Slash your interest payments

If you're in debt at the moment, your priorities should be slightly different. Saving while in debt is generally speaking a bad idea, because it will take you longer to pay back what you owe and the interest charges will mount up.

So - you need to concentrate on clearing your debt as quickly as possible. First, try to ease the burden by slashing the amount of interest you're paying.

One of the most effective ways of doing this is to shift your debt onto a credit card offering 0% on balance transfers. My favourite is the Virgin Money card, which offers 0% interest for 15 months.

It also allows you to make money transfers to your current account (as part of the same 0% offer) so you can turn overdrafts and personal loans into interest-free debts too.

Just remember that there's no such thing as a free lunch. You'll be charged a transfer fee of 2.98% - and you'll be walloped with a high rate of interest if you haven't cleared your balance after 15 months.

If you can't get a 0% card, this article should help you work out what to do next.  

Swap gas and electric providers

My colleague Rachel Robson recently swapped her gas and electricity tariff and reckons she's cut her bill by £205 a year.

Your sums may not be quite that dramatic - but if you haven't switched in the last twelve months, the chances are you'll be able to make a big saving.

Neil Faulkner (another one of the lovemoney.com team) recently analysed the latest energy price reductions made by the major suppliers. He did find what he considered to be an extremely cheap fixed-energy tariff, which you can read about in this article.

It's always a good idea to do your own research too. You can look at the whole energy market - and make the change - using lovemoney.com's gas and electricity comparison service.

Remortgage

If you're a homeowner, your mortgage is probably the biggest regular bill you have to pay.

Your lender's Standard Variable Rate (SVR) is the rate you'll end up on when you come to the end of your original fixed rate, discount or tracker deal.

If this is where you are now, hunt down a good remortgage deal straight away! Yes, SVRs have fallen in recent months - but generally speaking, they still aren't the best value option.

Many mortgage interest rates are lower than they've ever been. To find out about the best fixed and variable rate deals currently on the market, read this article.

And you can compare all the options using lovemoney.com's mortgage service.

I'm a bit behind you homeowners... my new (tax) year resolution is to save for a deposit. I'll keep you posted!

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