This holiday season families everywhere are starting to shop for the presents that they will give their loved ones this Christmas. However this is the second Christmas that is occurring during the current recession and many families are feeling the pinch in their finances. This means that when a parent does holiday shopping, they have to shop smart. One of the most important ways of doing just that is to pay attention to the way you pay for items this holiday season. The financial collapse that occurred in 2008 further confirmed just how dangerous it can be to blindly rely on the products provided by financial institutions. If they don’t drive you into bankruptcy they can still ruin your credit history and limit your ability to make other important purchases later during the rest of the year. So it becomes absolutely important to know what to avoid when making your holiday purchases.
One of the first things you need to make sure to do is to pay cash at every opportunity. Cash does not have any hidden fees or payments attached to it. You just have the straight forward transaction of buying the item you want. So if you were fortunate to save some money for holiday shopping, use this first. Also in the end it is just financially responsible to avoid using any payment method that involves buy now, pay later. Also the most interesting thing is that a month is still a decent amount of time to save and put aside money for buying your kids’ toys. Just look at what they want to get and see if there is a reasonable saving plan that can be developed.
Something that many consumer protections sites and guides are saying this holiday season is to be care about using debit cards. While they have proven most of the time to be a reasonable alternative to using credit cards, banks that are now looking to make up lost income are thinking about attaching new fees to debit card transactions. Also there is the glaring problem of the one hidden fee that most debit users overlook. That is the overdraft fee. Simply by going over by just a couple cents can have you paying fees of $35 or more per transaction done beyond your account balance. This is especially dangerous when purchasing items for the Christmas. Since you will likely have a long list of things to buy the chance of incurring an overdraft is much higher unless you are paying very close attention to your account balance. So if you are going to use your debit card be aware of these pitfalls and keep a personal tally of what you have and what you spend.
Credit cards are something everyone is getting more wary of using these days. Since bad credit can ruin the chances of consumers getting large loans for homes and school many families are now trying to pay down debt and avoid making purchases that will imperil credit if resources are restricted more than normal. So if you are using a credit card try to have a least 50% of what you plan set aside for immediate payment in cash. This will drastically lower your principal and minimum payments. Also budget for paying off the remaining balance as soon as possible and only use it for major purchases where it makes sense to do so.
Something you can do for your children this Christmas that cost little is to give them a letter from Santa Clause. You can make one yourself or even order one online and have it customized for authenticity. It will be sure to make Christmas all the more magical
Create magic in your child’s eyes with our Santa Letters and Santa Calls . EZSantaLetters.com offers fully personalized Santa letters and 15 pre-written ones. All letters are postmarked from the North Pole and will definitely put a smile on your child’s face.
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