£3 billion is a fair old amount of money isn't it?

But while a few of us are occasionally stash away money for emergencies (because the unexpected always happens when you least want it to) many more of us are burning money unnecessarily by carrying credit-card debt at the same time.

Take a look at these numbers:

• On average we carry over £1,137 on our credit cards every month

• Typically we have £869 sitting idle in our current accounts every month

• The average size of a rainy day fund is £2,526

A study by those wise finance folks at Fool.co.uk shows that many of us who owe money on our credit cards are also saving money for a rainy day.

Around 1 in 6 of us who regularly carry over £400 to £500 of debt on our credit cards, has £3,000 stashed away for emergencies.

(If you are one of those people, do feel free to share some of it with us under paid MoneyHospital staff!)

In the UK, the average person has 2 or 3 credit cards, and around 20% of cardholders regularly roll over balances on their interest-bearing cards.

The study by Fool.co.uk reveals that many of us carry over £1,100 on our cards monthly, and 1 in 5 of us leave as much as £3,000 unpaid; ouch!

Apparently, the average person amongst us manages to save around £300 each month, and we have £870 sitting idle in our current accounts.

Additionally, we have put away £2,526 for emergencies, and 10% of us have between £500 and £3,000 stashed away.

So what does this all mean then, we hear you cry?

Well, it seems that many of us are prepared to pay interest on outstanding balances even though we have the means to clear our credit-card debts from existing savings.

On average, we credit card holders pay £165 interest a year on the outstanding balance of £1,100 at 15%, but receive interest of just £66 on the same amount in a high-interest savings account at 6%.

In short this means that Britain's 31 million credit cardholders squander £3 billion a year on unnecessary interest payments.

That strikes us as being a wee bit daft...how about you?

Those of us aged between 34 and 41 are the most likely to have savings and credit card debts simultaneously; we have about £1,000 of credit card debts, but also have around £750 in savings.

David Kuo, Head of Personal Finance at Fool.co.uk, commented on their findings:

"We are often told to put aside money for a rainy day because having a ready source of funds for emergencies is a sensible thing to do - and it is. "But it makes little sense to have a stash of money earning interest at 6% a year when a pile of debt is burning a hole in our finances at 15% annually.

"Saving money before you have paid off your debts is like trying to fill a bath without putting the plug in first. It's a pointless exercise that results in a waste of water, an empty bath and hefty water bills."

Are you one of the many that is wasting £3 billion on credit cards?

Are you saving money at a rubbish rate when you could be paying off your extortionate credit card debt?

Why not let us know how you are getting on?

© www.fool.co.uk

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