Interest Rates are already at rock bottom and they are expected to stay that way for years to come. Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, came out and said these low interest rates are with us until mid 2013. That means for both borrowers and savers you need a new strategy to get the best out of this opportunity. So how do you take advantage of this and these low interest rates and make them work for you? We have put together some tips for both borrowers and savers on how to do this.

Refinancing - If you can refinance you should defnitely do it now as there is news out of Washington that the HARP program (Home Affordable Refinancing Program) will be reinstated to make refinancing possible for people who have stuck. So keep your eyes and ears open on this topic. You can also refinance other loans aside from Mortgages such as your car loan. Car loans are not as big as mortgages but when we go out and shop for a car we get so excited about the car itself we often forget to negotiate on the financing and that's a really big deal.

So if you got a car loan that's 6 ,7, or 8% and you have a good credit score you could refi that down to 4 or 4.5%. This is a really easy transaction and it costs next to nothing and takes under an hour. For a $20,000 car loan over a 4 year term, taking down the rate from 8% to 4.5% you can save yourself around $1,600.

HELOC - Home equity lines of credit have become attractive because of low interest rates, you want to think about getting one of these as a back pocket emergency cushion. If you have equity in your home, because you need that it's a second mortgage, and if you have a decent credit score you can get a line of credit for about 4.5% which may protect you if you lose your job and you need cash. You can also use the line of credit to consolidate and refinance other debts, just be careful not to double down, don't payoff credit card bills to then again build up the debt by over shopping.

Balance Transfer - It's a really good time to do this, go to LowCards.com to get list of balance transfer offers. The teaser rates are very low and you can take advantage of this. You can also call your credit card company first and ask for a better rate and of you don't get help then try these balance transfers.

Savings - The picture is not as pretty if your a saver because one year CDs are paying under 1% on average, savings accounts are paying way under 1% on average. So you need some strategy and the first strategy to look at is an online bank, the rates aren't that great but they are better. if you go to BankRate.com you will find the best rates for savers. Also keep in mind that if and when rates go up these rates will go up also.

High Yield Checking Accounts - If you're a person who uses a debit card frequently you can earn 2 to 3% on your money, they just require that you make at least one online payment a month and you about 10 debit card transactions and they cap the amount of money you can put into the account, like $10,000 to $25,000.