Credit cards often have an interest rate of 20% or more and the do offer some great convenience and flexibility, but for many people this credit contract can be a problem and the high interest rate doesn’t help. So is there a way to cut that interest rate in half?

The short answer is ‘yes’, within consumer credit there are different types of contract, ‘credit’ can take the form of credit cards, overdrafts or even hire purchase agreements.

So here’s what to do, most people have a debit card with a current account, what a credit card does is give you a time where you pay no interest and can spend money you may or may not have.

If you get an overdraft (say for €5,000 which is a common credit limit on a credit card) instead and just use a debit card with it then you can access that €5,000 in the same way a card might do. If you have money obviously your balance will go to zero before you hit the overdraft so if you always pay off your balance then you’ll be better off anyway because you won’t have the €40 card stamp duty to pay!

And the kicker? You’re rate will be more like 11-12% rather than 20% or more. That’s just a simple financial life hack that a lot of people don’t think about.