One of the great things about modern technology is that so many of us are rarely more than a few clicks away from accessing the information we need.
Finding some help & advice with your finances is just one area where this can be very useful. Here are 3 handy tools that could help you to stay out – or keep on top – of debt.
Budget planner
Budgeting carefully can be one of the most successful ways of keeping your finances in check – and avoiding the potential pitfalls of debt. Knowing exactly how you spend your money every month could help you to make any necessary cutbacks and get out of any bad spending habits that could be damaging your financial ‘health’.
All you have to do is input everything you earn and spend every month (not forgetting any income from savings & investments) and the calculator will give you a picture of your overall finances – and hopefully give you a clearer idea of how you could maintain or improve them.
You can find the budget planner here.
Debt consolidation calculator
Do you have several unsecured debts that you’re thinking of consolidating with a loan? This easy-to-use calculator can help you to work out the potential monthly cost of repaying a debt consolidation loan in just a few simple steps:
- Choose the size of the loan you’re thinking of taking out. For example, if you have two credit card debts worth £4,000 each and a £2,000 personal loan, you’d need to take out a debt consolidation loan of £10,000 to pay off your existing debts.
- Decide how long you wish to take to repay the loan. This calculator gives you the option of any time between one and fifteen years. However, it’s important to select a timeframe that’s long enough to ensure you can comfortably make your monthly repayments – but short enough to avoid paying more interest than necessary.
- Use the interest rate ‘slider’ to see how much your repayments would cost you with a specific interest rate. Remember this is only an example: the actual interest rate you would get depends on your circumstances, including your credit rating.
You can find the debt calculator here.
Student budget calculator
You’ve probably read quite a few stories in the news recently about the rising cost of student debt. However, if you’re heading to university, there are ways you could manage your finances more effectively to help reduce the impact of student debt: starting with a carefully planned budget.
As a student, you’ll have various costs to keep on top of – some of which, if you’re living away from home for the first time, you may have not had to think about before – and planning a good budget can help you to keep track of all your income and how it’s spent every month.
This calculator could help you to prioritise all your essential costs, while budgeting for the fun stuff too:
You can find the student budget calculator here.