With the New Year upon us we’re all at the beginning of our best intended New Years resolutions. We’re all joining the gym, eating healthier, giving up alcohol and so on, but perhaps now is the time to start at least thinking about a financial overhaul. By personal finance I mean products like credit cards, personal loans, perhaps an overdraft, or any other form of finance that essentially means you’re in debt. It could be as simple as a matter of hours to check that you’re using the most competitive loan and credit cards available.

Are your personal finances in good shape but you just haven’t looked at the best products to suit your needs? Or are you now starting to loose out because you’ve not the best credit card or personal loan deal? Or have you been spending beyond your means and built up debt this Christmas? You could also already be struggling with debt, and burying your head in the sand isn’t the way to sort out your finances.

Whatever your answers to the questions above it wouldn’t hurt to re-assess your finances by checking you have the cheapest loan and credit card rates available in the market. If you have a credit card or loan balance, or even an overdraft then consider transferring them to a 0 per cent balance transfer credit card.

However, paying off a few credit card bills an overdraft and/or loan bills is very tricky and it can become a struggle to keep all your payments up to date. If you’re in this situation and you know you can afford your debts but a simple, single monthly payment would make you life easier then maybe you should consider a personal loan to clear the credit card and loan and overdraft? If you spread the loan term over a longer period of time then the monthly payments may also work out lower than you’re currently paying. You should be aware that by doing this you’ll pay more interest over a longer loan term. The long term solution is that you make one monthly payment.