You’d have had to have been living in a soundproofed cave with a lead bucket over your head for the last five years for you not to notice the rise of digital TV in the UK. The old analogue broadcast signal is being progressively shut down region by region, allowing for the airwaves to be cleared for the arrival of the TV of the future.

Digital TV offers a whole range of benefits, chief among these being a sharper picture and audio quality and clearer reception. As well as this, viewers can get access to a whole host of extra channels such as Film Four, BBC Three and Five US, in addition to the traditional five analogue channels.

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Whether you’ve been travelling on the tube, train, bus or commute in by car, bike, on foot or on segway, you can’t have failed to notice the rather shrill tones of the Maestro campaign declaring the death of cash: “Plastic is the new Cash”, “There’s a reason machines spit out coins”, “R.I.50p” etc.

As convenient and wallet-space efficient putting all your purchases on plastic is, it turns out that more and more of us are digging into our jars of shrapnel when we go shopping; the use of cards has dropped some 2% since last year.

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Yesterday it was announced that the price of a barrel of oil soared to an all time high of $135 – double the amount of what it cost a year ago. Unleaded petrol is now 18% more expensive than it was a year ago, and the price of diesel has shot up by a massive 30%, making the average price of a litre of unleaded £1.14, with a litre of diesel costing about £126.4 pence per litre.

The AA have said that another $5 leap in the oil price corresponds to a further 2.5p to the price at the pump, and many analysts estimate that UK drives will collectively spend over £100 million on fuel this Bank Holiday weekend – 75% of which will go to the government in the form of fuel duty. The government are urging drivers not to panic buy in bulk, as this is likely to exacerbate the situation.

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BT, the UK’s incumbent provider of fixed line calls and broadband internet services have relaunched their BT Credit Card. The BT card, issued by MBNA, is unique in that unlike some cards which allow you to save points towards petrol, air miles, holiday vouchers and other freebies, every time you shop with the BT card, you instantly knock money off of your monthly phone bill.

Unlike other points reward schemes, the monetary value of the point is automatically deducted from your BT bill, meaning that you don’t have to go through any lengthy claims procedures in order for you to get your hard-earned bonuses – the discount is applied the second you spend, and will be reflected in your BT statement.

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A report from Moneyexpert.com says that rates on personal loans are set to increase despite the Bank of England cutting interest rates 3 times in the last 6 months. The report indicates that unsecured loans of £5,000 and £7,500 have increased by up to 1 per cent in the past 6 months, regardless of the three rate cuts.

Sean Gardner, Founder of MoneyExpert.com said that “The Bank of England has a battle on its hands to restore confidence in the credit markets when lenders react to three rate cuts totalling 0.75 per cent by actually increasing rates,” and suggested that unsecured loans could go down the same route as mortgages in terms of general availability; “The unsecured loans market is almost mirroring the mortgage market where the issue is not so much rates but availability – whether or not lenders will let you have the cash.”

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Understandably in these times of credit crunches and sub-prime subsidence, many customers would balk at the idea of using a credit card for anything for fear of being sucked into a vortex of spiralling interest rates and crippling repayments.

Despite this, credit agencies are throwing crazy deals at customers left right and centre; now more than ever. Weird as though it may sound, there’s never been a better time to make money by spending on your credit card.

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