Great loans and credit cards

Whether the warm weather has inspired you to make home improvements or you're organising a trip away - an unsecured personal loan or credit card could help make your plans more affordable. However, being on a bad deal could send your repayments through the roof so in such a competitive market it's important to find the cheapest provider to borrow from.

Asda has recently stormed into the personal loan market offering very competitive rates. It currently offers the best deal for borrowing £10,000 over five years, with an APR of 5.9% and monthly repayments of £192.16 without insurance. If you want to clear the debt quicker Masterloan also charges 5.9% on £10,000 with monthly repayments of £303.07 without insurance over three years. Asda also charges just 5.9% on a £5,000 loan over three years, with monthly repayments of £151.64 without insurance.

Credit cards

Barclaycard is currently topping the tables in the credit card market. Its Platinum Special card offers 0% on balance transfers for 13 months and 0% on purchases for three months, before reverting to a typical APR of 14.9%. While the Barclaycard Purchase card offers 0% on purchases for 10 months but 5.9% on balance transfers.

Barclaycard is also top for the lowest standard rate which is useful if you don't want to keep switching cards to take advantage of 0% rates; its Simplicity card has an APR of 6.8% on purchases for the life of the card with 56 day interest free period.

The best credit card for use overseas is the Post Office Classic card, which charges 14.9% on purchases; 16.81% on cash withdrawals with 2% withdrawal fee, and no foreign usage loading.