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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
As told to Laura Potter

Questions to ask yourself ... to sort out your finances

Illustration of a question mark with pound signs on it, against green background

Is loyalty or laziness costing me?

People who don’t put in the legwork get charged more. Savings accounts often give a better interest rate for the first year, then it drops dramatically, because they want you to just sign up and forget about it. With mobile phones you pay off the handset within a couple of years, but keep paying a higher fee because you haven’t shopped around. Put a note in your calendar for when subscriptions and contracts will end, because you always pay more when they automatically roll on. Lots of people opened a bank account for the free student railcard, and 30 years later they still have it. But there is a switching service – it may feel like an annoying piece of admin, but you could save a lot of money.

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