You’re probably wondering what ‘Renting a Room’ has to do with being a money saving tip. My view is that when times are tight and uncertain as they are currently. We all need to consider the different opportunities available to us. Looking at how much we are spending and saving is important. Taking full advantage of our resources in order to make an income from any asset that we own is worthy of consideration. So if you have a bedroom that is empty and not occupied and you are struggling to pay your mortgage or your bills. Then by renting out a bedroom for an income can help relieve your finance and possibly keep you out of debt.

Taking in a lodger is inconvenient but compared with being in debt and possibly losing your home because you cannot pay the mortgage is tragic. There is a tax break for renting a bedroom out to a lodger. This tax-free break means that you can rent a furnished room in your home to a lodger for £81.73 per week or £4,250 per year without paying tax on the income.

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Yesterdays announcement by the Bank of England delivered an unexpected statement that they were cutting their base rate by 1½% from 4.5% to 3%. It has been done to kick start our stalling economy and to try and prevent a deepening recession. Everyone was expecting a ½%; but, we all hoped for a full 1% interest rate cut, so this announcement was a real surprise. This interest rate cut is the largest ever percentage cut in British history; the lowest interest rate cut in 53 years and the last time we saw a full 1% interest rate cut was back in 1981.

So the question we should all be asking now is. “What does the Bank of England know that needed such drastic action?” They are normally such a cautious institute that has a history of ¼% cuts and increases. We know that millions of families are struggling, unemployment is rising and will soon reach 2 million, the manufacturing industry is on its knees with the lowest sales, companies are implementing a three day week and Christmas spending is looking like a wash out. I believe they saw an economy on its knees and close to slipping into a deep recession.

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In the wake of last weeks shock announcement by Bank of England of a 1½% interest rate drop from 4.5% down to 3%. This was not before time! Around 40 mortgage lenders withdrew their trackers rate products from the market and said they would be reviewing and relaunching their tracker products later this week. By last Friday afternoon the London Interbank Offered Libor (Rate) which shows the interest rate at which the banks are willing to lend money to each other finally fell to 4.49% from 5.56%.

The main indicator and key driver when it comes to lenders pricing their new interest rate products is not the base rate but the three-month Libor rate. The Libor rate is still stubbornly high at 1.49% higher than the Bank of England Base rate. If mortgage rates are to regain any similarity with the base rate then the gap between the base rate and the three-month Libor rate needs to narrow. All we can do is wait and watch!

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The current growth of UK debt is £1million every 8 minutes and we all contribute a Stonking £263 million in interest a day. There is currently 27.4million credit cards transactions made a day with a total value of £1.56billion. The total credit card debt in the UK for September 2008 was £55.7 billion and the average adult in the UK has approximately 4 credit cards, store cards and debit cards.

It is little wonder that we are all looking for the ‘secrets to paying off our credit card debts.’ We make our monthly payment and then find that we paid more in interest than the amount that was reduced off our outstanding balance. Frightening isn’t it!

When you look closely at your credit card statement you will see that the interest rates are somewhere between 0% and 27% per year depending on the provider. The average card is generally around the 17% +/-mark.

The secrets to paying off your credit card debts are:-

1. Credit card consolidation is the solution of last resort unless it is the only option available to you due to the lack of your disposable income.

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