The rate means someone borrowing £7,500 over 36 months will repay £217.32 a month and end up paying a total of £7,823.52.

Excluding mortgages, personal debts hit a record total of £428billion in the third quarter of 2018 - which is 33 per cent higher than in 2008 just before the financial crisis.

For some people, it is not just overspending at Christmas that will leave them feeling short and there will be a number of debts that they will be looking to clear.

When Danny Cheetham took out his first payday loan ten years ago he only wanted £100 for a night out. He was a student and paying back £128 after 22 days didn't sound like a bad deal.

Nationwide is scrapping a scheme allowing credit and debit cardholders to earn cashback on their spending after the building society admitted it wasn't worth the time and resources.

UK credit cardholders paid the price for withdrawing money using their credit cards last year, being stung with £219million in fees and charges.

Those thinking of putting money on the 5.15 at Aintree on Saturday could be making a mistake far costlier than backing the wrong horse - using a credit card to bet.

Swedish fintech Klarna attracted 25,000 new UK users each week in the last three months of last year, as it celebrated a bumper 2018 that saw global revenue increase 31% to £445m.

If you believe you had loans or credit agreements such as an account with a catalogue company or a long-forgotten credit card – you could be eligible to make a claim for mis-sold PPI.

If used smartly, credit cards can still be an effective spending tool and even earn you money. Shoppers now have around 166 different deals to choose from.

'Buy now, pay later' firms will be banned from charging backdated interest on already repaid amounts of money from November, under new rules announced by the financial regulator

Mike Weaver, 61, took out several payment protection insurance policies when he set up his radio hiring business in 1991. He recalls being told that he had to buy PPI to get the loans he needed.

Periods of free borrowing on best-buy balance transfer cards have shortened by nearly 20 per cent in a year, according to figures compiled by data company Moneyfacts.

Average card rates have surged since the financial crisis, climbing from 16 per cent in 2006. But at the same time, typical savings rates dropped sharply to all-time lows and barely recovered since.

Data from Moneyfacts found that in September the average credit card purchase APR rose to 24.7 per cent, an all-time high since its records began in June 2006.

Shoppers now pay an average of 25.1 per cent on credit card purchase. It means that a customer who borrowed £3,000 and paid off £100 a month would pay £1,463 in interest overall.

An app-based card provider which allowed users to pay with gold has been rescued from administration, having fought off a hostile takeover bid from one of its own creditors.

Buy now, pay later juggernaut Klarna announced it has signed up over 60,000 retailers so far in 2019, including Microsoft and travel agent Expedia, as it prepares for a bumper Black Friday.

Britons looking to borrow to fund a new car, home improvements or a big life event like a wedding will now find taking out a substantial sum is the cheapest it's ever been.

Asking for too many balance transfer cards can damage your credit rating. Experian has launched a service that lets people enter their details online, including how much debt they want to transfer.

With nursery costs reaching as much as £12,000 parents are finding it difficult cope. But now a new provider enables employers to give interest-free loans to parents for childcare

Britain's debt binge has deepened - with figures last month showing credit card borrowing had surged by 40 per cent and the average family now owes £12,800 on credit cards, loans and car finance.

Mature student Tamara Gray, 29, (pictured) got into financial difficulties after spending several thousand pounds on the websites Very and Shop Direct on a buy-now, pay-in-12-months basis.

I have £40,000 of unsecured debts - £20,000 on two credit card defaults - but having never missed a mortgage payment in 12 years, is it possible to obtain a mortgage?

118 118 Money has launched a new credit card with a difference, instead of fees, interest and charges you pay a monthly subscription. But it could end up costing you far more – here’s why.

Households are increasingly saving less and getting into more debt and a payday loan crackdown hasn't solved the problem. This is Money rounds up some of the start-ups trying to help

As many as one in three people who hold subprime credit cards with interest rates as high as 70% are in problem debt, according to a new report released by the debt charity StepChange.

A long-standing Virgin credit cardholder has accused Virgin Money of 'purposely misleading people for financial gain' after it refused to refund interest charges he incurred on his account.

While it sounds like something out of Blade Runner, a survey found some would take drastic steps to reduce the time it took to pay for their coffee.

The Royal Mint announced it has teamed up with card providers Mastercard and Accomplish Financial to create 'Raris', aimed at high net worth individuals after something exclusive.

Households have £45bn more debt on credit cards, personal loans and overdrafts compared to the start of 2010 - growth of 25% in 10 years, Bank of England data shows.

Britons paid back more on their credit cards than they borrowed in November - the first time this has happened in more than six years, according to official figures.

Tandem Bank is scrapping its existing, popular, cashback credit card for a membership deal offering a 1.5 per cent savings rate and a credit card that charges no interest, ever. Is it any good?

I have triggered a 10,000 point bonus for spending £15,000 on the card - but it says I can't get them until August 2020 and only if I renew. However, I don't want to pay the £140 annual fee for renewing.

Visa's scheme marks the first time all the UK's banks will pay small stores to offer cashback. Beccy Soper (pictured), of Beccy's Greengrocers in Stockbridge, Hampshire, said: 'It's a win-win'.

In an unusual case, four decades of sticking with Lloyds Bank was the main reason behind a Hertfordshire man obtaining a £12,000 mis-sold PPI payout.

A shopper who used buy now, pay later service Klarna to pay for a £199 vacuum cleaner in three 'interest-free' instalments was left confused after he was charged an extra 4.5%.

The white plastic-looking 'K ring' (pictured) - which also comes in black costs £99.99. It is both waterproof and scratch-resistant and can be used to make contactless purchases.

Payment providers across the UK have upped their contactless payment limits from £30 to £45 in an effort to help customers cut down on cash usage. 

Neil Seagrave, 35, from Dorset, tried to transfer his credit card balance to HSBC at the start of March before his zero-interest term with Sainsbury's Bank expired, but this was not resolved until April.

Households paid back a whopping £3.8bn more than they borrowed in March, the biggest figure on record, as households shunned their credit cards in the face of the coronavirus crisis.

Arguably, the best thing that could happen over the next decade would be for homes to get less expensive, preferably through house prices stagnating and wages rising.

House prices have only ever been as expensive as they are now compared to wages twice in the past 120 years, but surprisingly before that they were considerably more costly, a deep dive shows.

The FTSE 100 has gone nowhere in 20 years, so why are investors told to think long-term? That is the question those of us who advocate investing deserve to face.

Whenever I see such rates I feel compelled to ask: 'Why if you have money that you don't need for seven years would you not invest it for a better return?'

Hannah Gadsby became a global sensation after the release of her 2018 Netflix comedy special Nanette.

The three friends recreated an Australian version of the popular song from Netflix docoseries Tiger King.

Viewers still can't get enough of the bizarre underworld of big cat breeding in Tiger King, along with supernatural thriller Code 8 and feel-good comedy Love Wedding Repeat.

US cyber security company BrandShield says it has discovered more than 600 fake web domains containing the word 'Netflix' that try to scam users by taking their payment details.

Internet usage has skyrocketed in America over the last decade, with the average home consuming more than 38 times the amount of data that it used in 2010, going from 9GB to 344GB.