Martin Lewis has recommended two financial products that may be worth a look for shoppers. Taking questions on his BBC podcast, Mr Lewis shared a range of tips, such as getting the best interest rate and when it’s best to close any unused current accounts.

One question came in from a listener who was looking to buy a new phone as well as TV this year. They said they were planning to go for a mid-range iPhone and didn’t want to spend more than £400 on this, while they had their eye on a particular TV set, which would cost around £1,500.

To cover the bill, the person said they were planning to use their savings. However, they believed it may look better on their credit score in the long run, if they went for a Buy Now, Pay Later scheme, or a zero percent credit card.

They were also tempted by the option to access cash through these borrowing options, as their emergency fund of savings was running a bit low after having to fork out for some boiler repairs recently.

The person asked Mr Lewis to weigh up the pros and cons of these schemes. Replying to the question, Mr Lewis set out a key principle to bear in mind.

He said: “Saving up in advance is always generally the best way to go with the exception of people who are trying to play the system. You always want to to save in advance because it is far better to save in advance and have interest paid to you by the bank, than to borrow and to have to pay back, and pay the bank interest afterwards.”

Looking at the listener’s best options, Mr Lewis told the person they need to be “very controlled” with their finances if they go for a debt form of finance to pay for the purchases. He said the person needed to ensure they have the funds available in their savings to pay off the debt if they needed to.

He said: “I would probably get myself, if your credit score is decent enough, a zero percent for spending credit card. I would probably go for one like M&S Bank or Tesco Bank, because they give your rewards on spending.

“So if you were to use them, you’d actually get some Tesco points or M&S points on top of whatever these items cost you.” Tesco Bank offers credit cards with zero percent interest on purchases guaranteed for 21 months.

You can also get extra Clubcard points when making purchases. You can get one point for every £4 you spend at Tesco, and for Tesco fuel, you can get one point for every £4 you spend plus one point for every two litres you buy.

Over at M&S Bank, you can get zero percent interest on your purchases up to 12 months, depending on which card you go for. With the M&S Rewards Credit Card, you can get one point for £1 you spend at M&S, plus one point for each £5 you spend elsewhere.

You can also get 4,000 bonus points if you spend £1,000 anywhere across two or more transactions in your first three months. Mr Lewis said “you get three benefits” in using these credit cards.

The first benefit is that by paying by credit card, you get Section 75 protections on your purchase. Mr Lewis recommends paying for at least some of a big purchase on a credit card to get these protections.

The second perk is the rewards you can get from the provider, such as with Tesco Bank or M&S Bank. A third benefit is the funds that you are not using to buy the items can go into a high-paying savings account.

This technique is known as ‘stoozing’, where you use a zero percent credit card for your regular or other purchases, while keeping the cash you would otherwise use for these purchases in savings account earning interest.

You can get rates of over 4.5 percent with some savings accounts at the moment. Reflecting on this tactic, Mr Lewis said: “That is the perfect technique, but I hope everybody listening can understand the risk of it.

“The risk is if you don’t do it right, you don’t follow the recipe, something happens, you have an emergency, it can go wrong.” He added a reminder if you go for a credit card, to make sure you make the minimum payment and pay off the card in full.

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