Poor credit score will probably cost you an extra £693 a year

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What to read right now…

Still haven’t wrapped your head around the Autumn Budget? This is a helpful explainer.

Here are all the ways the higher interest rates these days can affect you.

If you have a poor credit score you’ll probably end up paying an extra £693 a year in interest payments.

So you’ll probably want to read this post on the importance of building up a credit history and this one on how you can build up your credit score without borrowing.

The housing market has kind of gone into reversal – house prices are low but rents are high.

Academic excellence doesn’t quite translate into higher pay if you’re not white according to a new study.

The deal that’s a steal…

If you’re a coffee pod person, specifically Tassimo rather than Nespresso, then let me put this new coffee machine on your radar.

The Bosch Tassimo Finesse* has pretty much just been released and they’re doing a ridiculous deal on it.

Until the end of the year, it costs just £39.99; the RRP is £119.99 so you’re saving £80. At this point, it’s actually one of the cheapest coffee machines on the market, even with the Black Friday sale on. 

The deal is available in a few places – you can get it directly from Tassimo* for example – but AO.com* has it at £35 for Black Friday.

Obviously you’ll be a slave to the pod forever more, but at least there’s plenty of choice there, including teas and hot chocolate.

And an actual freebie…

Amex users, it’s time to head to the app and load your latest Shop Small offer. 

The promotion is returning for the 10th year, and will be running between 3 December and 12 December.

There’s nothing else to do once you’ve loaded the offer onto your card – you just shop as normal.

And then when your in-person purchase (rather than online) comes to more than £15 at a participating “small retailer” – which can be a shop, restaurant or other business – you’ll get £5 cashback.

You can only get the cashback once per retailer, up to a maximum of five times – so £25 for £75 spend, which isn’t bad at all.

In the past I got cashback for my Christmas cheese, dinners out with friends and even the odd cocktail.

Amex has a Shop Small map* too if you want to have a browse.

If you only do one thing…

Speaking of cashback, lots of banks have their own cashback offers so do check if yours does.

I’ll do a fuller round up of the options at a later date but usually you just need to apply the offer to your debit card and then shop as normal – sometimes you may have to use a dedicated link.

It’s well worth doing if you’re buying things anyway.

If you do have to use their link, make sure you check on TopCashback* or Quidco* first to see whether you can get a better deal there.

And for a bigger purchase, consider using a credit card for Section 75 protection.