Martin Lewis has warned people about a potential danger of using their debit cards which could end up costing them a lot of money.
Considering how much people are struggling with the cost of living the Money Saving Expert has been putting in plenty of work to identify financial pitfalls which people might fall foul of.
One of these dangers he's spotted is on something which people use to pay for things every day, the debit card.
On the face of it debit cards are pretty simple, you use the card to pay for something with money from your bank account instead of using cash.
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They're different to credit cards where you pay for things with money borrowed from your bank and you have to pay off the debt built up on a regular basis.
Credit cards usually tend to offer people more rewards for using them, but you can get into serious trouble if you can't pay off the charges accumulated on them.
However, if you spend more money than you have while using a debit card then you can go into an overdraft and this is where a danger has been spotted.
The Money Saving Expert explained that interest rates on most overdrafts in the UK now stand at around 40 percent, around double that of the average high street credit card, which tend to have an interest rate of around 19 percent APR.
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Martin said: "Most consumer overdrafts are now 40 percent, double a high street credit card, which means debit cards are now danger cards if you're overdrawn."
He explained it could be worth asking your bank whether there was the possibility of a zero percent overdraft, if not, there is also the option of getting a zero percent credit card.
"Now the first thing if you're overdrawn is to check your eligibility for a zero percent overdraft and to what amount," he said.
"People also ask me, can I shift my overdraft onto a 0 percent card? The answer is yes, but only a few specialist cards. It's called a money transfer.
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"With a money transfer card you apply for a new card and it pays the money into the bank account for you so you can get rid of your overdraft, you now owe the card.
"It's best for large overdrafts, you need a decent credit history."
Martin said that the best way of using an overdraft, if you have to, is to set up direct debits just before payday in order to reduce the amount of time that you're overdrawn.
He also added that if you've got multiple debts, it's important to get them in order of interest rate amounts, prioritising the largest.
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"Then you take all the spare cash you possibly have and you pay the highest interest rate ignoring the others," Martin said.
"When this one goes, you then focus on clearing the next-highest interest rate.
"Once that goes, you clear the next and the next and so on.
"It's known as snowballing and it means you get rid of your debts more quickly."
His Money Saving Expert site has identified nine things you can do to tackle your overdraft if it's getting unmanageable.
Topics: Martin Lewis, Money, UK News
Joe Harker