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"Get rid of your higher interest Christmas credit card debt"

By admin | January 6th, 2008 | Featured

With Christmas now over and the New Year around the corner many of us are looking forward to a fresh new year, the implementation of good intentions, and more exciting times ahead. However, many more of us also have something to dread – the credit card bill being pushed through the letterbox as 2008 comes around. Many of us tend to overspend when Christmas comes around, and for most it is all too easy to stick everything on the credit card and worry about it when Christmas is over.

Although we think that Christmas will never be over when the excitement and magic is upon us it does finally come to an end, and this is when we have to face up to the consequences of our frivolous spending. As the New Year dawns the postman is busy posting credit card bills through the doors of many a depressed spender, and many will be casting some very nervous glances at their doormats over the next few weeks, wondering whether their credit card bill has arrived.

In fact, a survey was recently carried out by the Financial Services Authority, and this showed that around a quarter of those aged 16-44 were worried about their credit card bills coming through. Around a quarter of consumers had used their credit cards or some form of finance to fund Christmas, and around 60% of respondents stated that they had spent far more than they had budgeted or had lost track of how much they had spent altogether.

Worryingly, despite the concerns that many people have expressed over their forthcoming credit card bills, over 50% of those that responded to the survey still planned to lose weight or book a holiday before dealing with finances.

However, an official from the FSA stated that sorting out finances had to be a priority, stating: “Sorting out your budget isn’t the most interesting thing you will do after Christmas, but it could be the most important. If you don’t make payments on time it can affect your credit history and at worst put your home and even relationships under pressure.”

Many of those that have put Christmas on the plastic will have done so using their existing high interest credit cards, and for those wanting to spread repayments on their balance this will mean paying a small fortune in interest. Therefore, now is the perfect time to start sorting out your finances and get hold of a generous deal on a 0% balance transfer credit card. With these cards you will still be able to spread the balance from your Christmas spending, but you won’t have to pay interest on the balance for the privilege of doing so.

What you do need to bear in mind, however, is that the last think you want is to still be repaying your spending from this Christmas when next Christmas comes around. You should therefore make sure that you pay off your balance in full by around October of next year (ensuring that you are still within the interest free period). This will then enable you to shop for next Christmas with a clean slate.

Tags: credit card debt, christmas

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