According to the Consumers' Association, the banks have all sorts of tricks up their sleeves so that a card with lower interest could cost you more depending on how the interest is applied.

According to the association's magazine, Consumer Choice: "How much you are charged depends not just on the APR of the card but also when providers start and stop charging interest.

"For instance, with Bank of Ireland, if you do not pay your bill in full, interest will be charged from the date that you buy something, right up until the date that they receive payment from you. National Irish Bank, by contrast, is fairer. Even if you don't pay your outstanding bill in full, interest will only be charged on purchases from the start of your next statement period, rather than from the dates purchases were made."

Consumer Choice tips Bank of Scotland's Plastic card as its choice buy if you are always in the red, because of its low interest rate of 9.5%.

Ulster Bank gets the thumbs-up for switching because it offers 0% interest for up to nine months.

Meanwhile, people who always clear their balances on time should check out American Express's Blue card, which gives 1% cash back on all your purchases.

BANKS RELAX RULES FOR BUY-TO-LET INVESTORS WITH interest rates still on the way up, banks are relaxing their lending rules to allow more buy-to-let investors remain in the property game.

Following the lead of Bank of Scotland, Permanent TSB changed its rules last week so experienced landlords can borrow to buy more property if the rent they expect will be over 1.2 times the monthly repayment on an interest-only mortgage.

The previous limit was 1.4 times the mortgage.

However, there are strings attached: you must have at least two existing buy-to-let properties under your belt to qualify; and you cannot borrow more than 75% of the value of your properties.

Apart from rising rates, the rule changes are a reaction to the huge equity that many investors have now accumulated in property according to Mark Suter, managing director of Bright Finance, a mortgage broker. This should mean cheaper mortgages for investors who refinance their properties.

"A lot of investors have never reviewed their mortgages since they bought their property, " says Suter.

"So they are probably paying margins of up to 1.5% over the prime rate of interest. We could easily halve that margin to 0.75% over prime through refinancing. You can save massive amounts of money by keeping your mortgages under constant review."

NEW TRACKERS OFFER A SAFE WAY IN TO PROPERTY THE lure of stock market returns without the risks ensured that tracker bonds were a big hit with savers who want a better return than bank deposits.

And the banks have stumbled onto another winner with the latest generation of tracker bonds.

Instead of being linked to the stock market, they track the fortunes of an asset much closer to the hearts of Irish investors . . . property.

National Irish Bank got the ball rolling with a threeyear tracker investment linked to the UK housing market. Now Anglo Irish Bank is offering the chance to track UK commercial property with the promise that, whatever happens, you will get back your investment at maturity in just under four years.

There is a price to be paid for all this security, however, and investors will get only 80% of the growth in property prices during the investment period.

According to Derek Keogh, head of retail sales at Anglo, investors are willing to accept this upside limit to protect their capital.

"According to ongoing feedback from customers, there is strong demand for capital protection and exposure to propertyrelated returns without downside risk to the client's funds, " he said.

Anglo's Capital Plus Account is open to people with at least 20,000 to invest before the end of the month.