Saving for an upcoming trip?

A friend once told me how travel has been a big motivation for her to increase her savings. “I love to travel. I save (part of my earnings) to travel.” She also told me that one of her reasons for having studied on a scholarship grant in the UK is because of her love for travel. As a well-traveled person, I bet my friend would want to visit other countries if given the chance (plus of course the financial resources). Who wouldn’t?

With my trip to Prague scheduled next month, the more I realized that I needed to increase my savings and cut back on unnecessary spending these days. As my big sis told me, “It’s no fun going on a trip when you lack extra funds and have limited pocket money.” I couldn’t agree more. Travel entails a lot of expenses, and especially if there are unexpected hitches as what happened to me recently having to change my schedule and thus affecting all other requirements and their corresponding costs.

With the current financial crisis a lot of travel bugs are experiencing nowadays, most would rely on their credit cards or apply for loans to help them with vacation expenses. This is where online financial comparison services such as money.co.uk come in handy. For instance, you can compare up to three credit cards by their details such as age and income criteria, introductory rates, fees and charges. The list of credit cards can be sorted according to the most popular, 0% balance transfers, cashback and rewards, bad credit and other features. Travel bugs can browse over their car insurance and travel insurance comparison tables. Details of travel insurance quotes from the different insurance companies are sorted according to single trip, annual, worldwide, wintersport, backpacker, gap year, over 65 and student categories.

Aside from personal finance products such as loans, credit cards, mortgages and insurance, savings accounts, current accounts and share dealings, the money.co.uk site also features utilities services comparison such as gas, electricity, phone and broadband providers. Their articles provide useful tips and information on personal finance, insurance, utilities, travel and other money-related topics. Readers can subscribe to each article category via RSS feeds or through their emails with their free Money Savings Tips newsletter. Reading up on personal finance tips such as these truly helps keep things in focus and encourages me to prioritize on saving for more travel fun in the future.