Best place to start ? With the biggest I guess.... the Loan

Got a Loan from my Bank (Bank A) last March for Eur 13400 over 5 years at 7.7%. This, in and of itself, is a very competitive rate on the Irish market.

The Loan was to pay off an old Loan of approx 4-5K and to purchase a 4 yr old car for €8,700 - along with my 11 yr old trade-in. To cut a long story short, my father had to liquidate his company - a consequence of which was he had to sell his car to pay debt... so my family - 2 parents and 2 brothers - had only my old car to travel about in... which was fine for short errands or for me personally... but really being a "family" car meant more trips and longer ones e.g. to the Airport and reliability/up-keep of an 11 yr old car became a factor... to be honest, I also didn't like my mother put-putting about in an old banger and wanted to get something decent & respectable to ferry her about in....so got a Honda Fit as they're known in the US... a super little car.

Anyway I have a current account with Bank A that charges a Eur 9 Fee every month. Most banks have free banking so decided to change. However if I close the Fee-paying account, the loan interest goes up. So, decided to move loan as well.

Got provisional approval for the cheapest loan on the market at 6.8% - €13,000 over 4 years - with no associated fees or charges.

Then discovered a Bank Account (Bank B) that pays 10% Credit Interest on money in your current account up to a maximum balance of Eur 2000. Bank A pays like 0.15% Credit Interest... so applied to Bank B for a current account and in the process of switching... however Bank B has no branch in my home town - nearest is 40 min drive away so will operate another Free Bank account in my town in case I actually need Bank Drafts/Foreign currency etc...

Have succeeded in paying off my CC (yeah !!) and at the moment am paying off two small overdrafts I have with Bank A. Since my Emergency Fund is so low and my current account is in Overdraft, I don't want to get rid of my CC in case of emergency... especially since my parents are worse off financially than me at the mo.... the plan is to have about Eur 1500-2000 saved up in my new Bank B current account (earning 10%) within the next 2-3 years and then close my CC - I reduced my CC limit to Eur 1500. My debit card will replace my CC at that point.

My current CC offers no rewards. In fact very few CCs do as the Irish market is still like a fat little puppy and is quite uncompetitive - very lucrative for the banks... however I applied for the following today:

Bank B's CC - gives once-off Eur 100 spending money when make first purchase.

Tesco CC - earn clubcard points with every purchase... these points are then converted into vouchers to spend in-store or on affiliated companies.

Sony CC - earn points with every purchase that be exchanged for certain Sony products.

Ideally, I will get Bank B's CC, spend the Eur 100 they give me...on flights for holiday with my mother in September - flights cost 170 so I'll get them for 70 :-) Then close Bank B's CC and get Tesco's CC so I can start earning Vouchers....

wow... what a proper little frugalist I am becoming...lol .... on a related note, my mindset has totally shifted into "how can I make best use of these financial companies and make them work for me". I used to afford them too much respect and feel happy when they accepted my applications.... my eyes have been opened to the almost "war" that's going on between these companies and me- and we're both fighting over who says where my paychecks go.....

Nite All