best-credit-card-offers.co.uk

I first came across this site while surfing the 'net for the best deals on credit cards. On reaching the site, not only did it contain reviews on credit cards, but all things financial, under the headings of:

Bank Accounts
Credit Cards
Insurance
Loans
Saving Accounts
Cheap Utilities
Debt Challenge

At the bottom of each page is a little navigation bar, which is not financially ...
...free-sweets.co.uk). There is also a link to the sitemap, which lists all the reviews under the above mentioned sub-titles.

The pages of this site have the same format through-out; navigation bar at the top, drop-down menu on the left, Google supported ads on the right and the main body in the centre. It sounds a little cluttered, but it works surprisingly well. The drop-down menu contains links to the reviews, with the recommended ... more

I first came across this site while surfing the 'net for the best deals on credit cards. On reaching the site, not only did it contain reviews on credit cards, but all things financial, under the headings of:

Bank Accounts
Credit Cards
Insurance
Loans
Saving Accounts
Cheap Utilities
Debt Challenge

At the bottom of each page is a little navigation bar, which is not financially related, but contains quite nice, quite useful links (like to free-sweets.co.uk). There is also a link to the sitemap, which lists all the reviews under the above mentioned sub-titles.

The pages of this site have the same format through-out; navigation bar at the top, drop-down menu on the left, Google supported ads on the right and the main body in the centre. It sounds a little cluttered, but it works surprisingly well. The drop-down menu contains links to the reviews, with the recommended one high-lighted in red; the reviews themselves are not as informative as they could be. Most are very sparse indeed and require quite a lot of further research, but they contain links to relevant sites for application.

Bank Accounts:
This page contains information on the different types of bank accounts and why it is important to find one which suits you. It tells you a little about the pros and cons of services offered by banks, which is very helpful, and it also contains a little table with a selection of a few available bank accounts for quick comparisons.
The drop-down menu in this particular section is sparse, containing only 8 banks, none of which are the 3 biggest ones (Barclays, HSBC, NatWest). This is a little disappointing, and one feels that google would definitely provide a better selection. The reviews tell you about the perks of opening an account, but don't tell you about interest rates.

Credit Cards:
This section is similar to the Bank Accounts page, giving information about the services that credit cards supply us with and the different incentives which credit card companies provide to entice your custom. Again, it provide you with a table containing several card and their specifications for a quick comparison.
I must say that the drop-down menu in this section is much better, listing 25 credit card companies. This is a much more complete list of the available options. Reviews from this section are much to be desired, telling only whether or not the cards have a 0% interest introductory 'thing' and not the long-term interest rates. They do however tell you about the additional services provided.

Insurance:
The information and arguments on why one should have insurance on this page would convince anyone without insurance to get some. This, I feel, is the most comprehensive page of the whole site. It tells you about all the different types of insurance that you can get (motor, home, life, pet and travel) and why each is important.
The drop-down menu is equally pleasing, with 16 motor insurance companies listed and an average of 7 for all the other catagories. The reviews are varied in this section. Some are very useful, and provide you with almost all you need to know, while others tell you hardly anything at all. While I understand that there is a limit to what a review can tell you, as the nature of insurance deals with property of differing values, I think that it is fair to expect an example or two.

Loans:
You can find out all you need to know about diferent loans and what they offer. They also attempt to simplify the 'jibber-jabber' that mere mortals like you and I may not necessarily understand. Again, there is a quick comparison chart containing a handful of lending companies.
The drop-down menu in this case is very good, containing the names of 21 lenders. The reviews generally tell you about how much you can borrow and how long you might expect to be paying it back for, but again, nothing of interest rates!

Savings Accounts:
This section introduces the different types of savings accounts and explains why and how a particular type might be suitable for your needs. It doesn't really tell you about all the options available, for example, it doesn't mention ISA's at all. Again, the quick referance table is provided, this time containing all four of the companies provided in the drop-down menu.
Rather disappointing; another one for Google. The reviews are equally disappointing, not mentioning anything about interest rates or even the different types of saving accounts that each company provides.

Cheap Utilities:
Everyone has utilities suppliers, so at least this is relevant to everyone. This page offers information about suppliers and why and how you can change.
The drop-down menu is divided into sections; electricity, gas, internet, phone, tv and water. Providers of these services are not as numerous as of the above mentioned categories, and I think they've done a pretty good job here, providing 2 companies for tv and water, and between 6-9 for the other sub-categories. The reviews, I think are just about as helpful as they can be without contacting the supplier themselves and asking for a quote.

Debt Challenge:
This is a rather nice little ending to the site, giving 8 suggestions to how you can reduce your monthly out-goings and make the most of your money. Not exactly revolutionary ideas, but things that you know, but may have forgotten or not thought about using.

This site is ok for checking out what's out there, but you definitely need to do a bit of extra home work. Especially when you might be used to using Ciao (which always provides comprehensive reviews on everything!). I think it's a sie that makes a good starting point, but that's about it. 

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