{"id":464371,"date":"2026-03-08T14:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T14:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/464371\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T14:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T14:40:11","slug":"money-expert-says-dont-wait-for-reeves-and-save-4000-now-personal-finance-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/464371\/","title":{"rendered":"Money expert says &#8216;don&#8217;t wait for Reeves&#8217; and save \u00a34,000 now | Personal Finance | Finance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During Tuesday&#8217;s spring statement, Chancellor <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/finance\/personalfinance\/2177711\/reeves-lambasted-missed-opportunity-petrol-diesel-could-shoot-up-20p-per-litre\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rachel Reeves<\/a> informed the Commons: &#8220;By the next election, after accounting for inflation, people are forecast to be \u00a31,000 a year better off per year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.totallymoney.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">TotallyMoney<\/a> CEO Alastair Douglas is encouraging people to take control of their own finances by implementing a few straightforward adjustments to their money management.<\/p>\n<p>Financial expert&#8217;s tips to save \u00a34,000Save \u00a31,931 by transferring your credit card balance<\/p>\n<p>Mr Douglas used what he described as a typical scenario to demonstrate his initial point regarding credit cards.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;Half of people are currently paying interest on their monthly credit card balance and could save hundreds, if not thousands, by using a balance transfer. You can currently get up to 38 months interest-free, and on the average balance of \u00a33,002 that&#8217;s a saving of \u00a31,931.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This illustration was calculated using the average TotallyMoney customer&#8217;s interest-bearing balance of \u00a33,002 transferred to the market-leading TSB 38-month offer with a 3.49% fee; 47.8% of credit card balances bear interest, according to <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ukfinance.org.uk\/system\/files\/2026-02\/Card%20Spending%20Update%20-%20November%202025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">UK Finance<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Switch energy providers and save \u00a3917 Mr Douglas said: &#8220;Switching energy providers is easy and you could save up to \u00a3917. Use a comparison site and consider smaller or newer providers as they may offer better deals. Most take place within five working days, all your plugs and pipes stay the same, and nobody needs to visit your home to make the switch \u2013 so it might be easier than you think.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Move banks and receive up to \u00a3500<\/p>\n<p>Mr Douglas advised: &#8220;Eight banks will pay you to <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.moneysavingexpert.com\/banking\/compare-best-bank-accounts\/\" target=\"_blank\">switch current accounts<\/a>, and you can get up to \u00a3200 for moving your money, or \u00a3500 if you&#8217;re a high earner. You&#8217;ll usually need to jump through a few hoops to secure the cash \u2013 and these often include moving Direct Debits, depositing cash, and logging into the banking app. Using the Current Account Switch Service means your balance, regular payments and income will be automatically transferred.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Transfer your savings to earn an additional \u00a3651<\/p>\n<p>Mr Douglas suggested: &#8220;The Big Five high street banks pay little more than 1% on their easy access savings accounts, meaning you&#8217;re not only earning very little in interest, but that your spending power is weakening with inflation at 3.00%. With some banks paying more than 4.00%, you could earn an extra \u00a3651 in the first year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This was calculated using an average savings balance of <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.finder.com\/uk\/savings-accounts\/saving-statistics\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\">\u00a319,214<\/a> using the Bank of England <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bankofengland.co.uk\/education\/education-resources\/savings-calculator\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\">savings calculator<\/a> with a rate of 1.20% (\u00a3232) vs 4.50% (\u00a3883) for a \u00a3651 per year difference.<\/p>\n<p>Ensure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Click here to activate<\/a> or add us as your Preferred Source in your Google search settings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During Tuesday&#8217;s spring statement, Chancellor Rachel Reeves informed the Commons: &#8220;By the next election, after accounting for inflation,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[166561,84,166562,1294,23172,4547,1445,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-464371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-alastair-douglas","tag-business","tag-cost-saving-strategies","tag-economy","tag-financial-advice","tag-money-saving","tag-rachel-reeves","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}