And don't get me started on what insurance companies and the utilities do at the end of your contract. It just doesn't seem right that these companies bank on your loyalty to then increase their charges to you!

We're fortunate these days that holidays have become almost a necessity rather than a luxury. But what about when you book hotels and flights. With some of the budget operators, for example Ryanair and Travelodge, it's cheaper to book direct. However for many companies the reverse is true, book direct and you're likely to pay a higher price than if you go through an intermediary, whether that's a travel agent or an aggregator website such as Trivago or Kayak. It seems counter intuitive that going through a middleman actually lowers the price to me!!

Then once you've got to whenever you're going, you now find you've got the option to pay for your bar bill in the local currency or in pounds. Here's a top for you: always choose pounds, the other option is, as far as I can see, a sneaky way to relive you of a few pennies on every transaction you make. The unfavourable exchange rate favours no-one but the company that's processing the credit card transaction. I'm not sure how this "service", if that's what you want to call it, was ever allowed to happen. It may be of use somewhere experiencing massive inflation where the price of your beer is going up quicker than it's going down your throat, but who's going to Venezuela in a hurry!!

Now here's the thing, with Stewart Finance Home Credit, the costs and pricing are very simple and they're very clear. There are no hidden charges for setting up a loan, missing the odd payment or making an early settlement. In fact if you pay a loan up early you will be entitled to a rebate.

You can easily compare our service against our competitors at lenderscompared.co.uk. We pride ourselves on being very transparent and very fair. we'll leave all the jiggery pokery to others!!