During the holiday season many families will turn to credit cards to finance Christmas expenses. This makes it less stressful to make ends meet, especially during the holidays. Sometimes we don't even realize how much damage is done until the credit card bills start to arrive in January.
Credit cards are very convenient but have their pitfalls. Credit cards bear very high interest rates, often more than 20% interest and in the case of department store cards up to 30%. Interest is calculated monthly so if you get caught up in a pattern of only making minimum monthly payments, they can take years to pay off. Credit cards that have balances more than 75% of their limits will damage your credit rating/credit score.
The last thing you want to do is go into the next holiday season with credit cards that have balances from the spending you did the past holiday season. The best thing to do if you have accumulated balances on credit cards from holiday spending is to consolidate maxed out credit cards using your home.
There are many reasons why it is a great idea to consolidate maxed out credit cards using your home. Here are just a few:
1. Using your home to consolidate maxed out credit cards will enable you to start the New Year on a fresh foot and with a single monthly payment.
2. Using your home to consolidate maxed out credit cards will increase cash flow because a home equity loan or line of credit will bear a much lesser payment than what you are paying to your credit cards on a monthly basis.
3. Using your home to consolidate maxed out credit cards will reduce the overall interest that you are paying to loans and credit cards. Home equity loan and home equity line of credit interest rates are much less than what you are paying to your individual credit cards.
4. Using your home to consolidate debt will improve your credit because all of your credit card balances will be reduced to zero and the less debt reporting to your credit report, the higher your credit score will be. Also, as we mentioned when credit card balances exceed 75% of your limits, it reduces your credit score and will trigger a message to appear on your credit report that indicates that your credit card balances are too high in proportion to your credit limits.
It is important that if you consolidate your maxed out credit cards using your home equity that you don't continue to use your credit cards. Put them away and only use a single card and make sure to use the card in denominations that you can afford to pay off in full each month. This will ensure that you don't find yourself in the future with a new payment on a consolidation loan and paying credit card balances.
Start your New Year off with your finances in order and without the stress of having to pay a windfall of credit bills.
Showing posts with label Spending. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spending. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Quit Spending On Credit Cards
Credit card borrowers have a few watershed moments on the path to significant credit card debt. The first sign of impending trouble is the month when you don't pay one of your balances in full. Then comes the month when you can't make any payments in full. Finally, the month arrives when you quit trying to pay extra and just resign yourself to making minimums.
The impact on your finances can be dramatic. We're often told to consider the real cost of buying on credit and shown how much interest you'll pay on that purchase. But the assumption that you eventually pay off the credit card debt is too simplistic for people with chronic credit card debt. Because you never pay off the debt and keep revolving it, the cost is essentially infinite.
In this situation, continuing down a path of credit card spending when you have debt is flirting with danger. You can't use credit cards as a way out of the problem if credit card debt is your problem. To use an old clich: if you want to get out of the credit card pit, quit digging.
Would you play a game if you knew the cards were stacked against you? Probably not. But in the credit game, the cards are definitely stacked against you. Here are a few examples:
You pay more for items when you buy with credit. Studies by Dunn & Bradstreet, MIT, and USA Technologies show people will spend 15-100% more for an item with credit.
You buy more per shopping event. McDonalds found that the average order increased by 55% when they started accepting credit.
By splitting the purchasing and payment events, credit card companies and merchants have stacked the cards against you in ways that are nearly impossible to control. They know you'll buy more because you don't have the same visual cues that you have when you pay with cash or debit. The only way you can win is not to play.
So how can you stop? Here are a few tried-and-true techniques that have worked for others:
Destroy all of your cards but the lowest APR card. The safest way to not use them is to simply destroy them. Cut them up or burn them. Use your creativity and vent your frustration on plastic.
Put your lowest-APR card in a safe place for use in emergencies:
o Put it on ice! Freeze your card in a bowl of ice and leave them in the freezer.
o Put it in a safe deposit box. Out of sight, out of mind.
o Put it in a plastic bag or a can and bury it in the ground.
o Give it to someone a family member or friend for safekeeping. Chances are the undesirable experience of explaining to them why you want your cards back will overrule your urge to spend.
o Wrap it in duct tape to make it hard to use in a store.
QuickStart Action:
Come to terms with the real cost of spending and recognize that the costs of relying on credit cards outweighs the convenience, rewards, or any other argument in favor.
Set up a separate checking or prepaid account with a debit card for spending. Fund this from your paycheck or primary checking account or limit your discretionary spending to this account.
Destroy all your cards but one
Put one card away for emergencies
Define what an emergency is for you. Deciding, in advance, what is an emergency and what is not can keep you from reaching for the plastic when the time comes.
The impact on your finances can be dramatic. We're often told to consider the real cost of buying on credit and shown how much interest you'll pay on that purchase. But the assumption that you eventually pay off the credit card debt is too simplistic for people with chronic credit card debt. Because you never pay off the debt and keep revolving it, the cost is essentially infinite.
In this situation, continuing down a path of credit card spending when you have debt is flirting with danger. You can't use credit cards as a way out of the problem if credit card debt is your problem. To use an old clich: if you want to get out of the credit card pit, quit digging.
Would you play a game if you knew the cards were stacked against you? Probably not. But in the credit game, the cards are definitely stacked against you. Here are a few examples:
You pay more for items when you buy with credit. Studies by Dunn & Bradstreet, MIT, and USA Technologies show people will spend 15-100% more for an item with credit.
You buy more per shopping event. McDonalds found that the average order increased by 55% when they started accepting credit.
By splitting the purchasing and payment events, credit card companies and merchants have stacked the cards against you in ways that are nearly impossible to control. They know you'll buy more because you don't have the same visual cues that you have when you pay with cash or debit. The only way you can win is not to play.
So how can you stop? Here are a few tried-and-true techniques that have worked for others:
Destroy all of your cards but the lowest APR card. The safest way to not use them is to simply destroy them. Cut them up or burn them. Use your creativity and vent your frustration on plastic.
Put your lowest-APR card in a safe place for use in emergencies:
o Put it on ice! Freeze your card in a bowl of ice and leave them in the freezer.
o Put it in a safe deposit box. Out of sight, out of mind.
o Put it in a plastic bag or a can and bury it in the ground.
o Give it to someone a family member or friend for safekeeping. Chances are the undesirable experience of explaining to them why you want your cards back will overrule your urge to spend.
o Wrap it in duct tape to make it hard to use in a store.
QuickStart Action:
Come to terms with the real cost of spending and recognize that the costs of relying on credit cards outweighs the convenience, rewards, or any other argument in favor.
Set up a separate checking or prepaid account with a debit card for spending. Fund this from your paycheck or primary checking account or limit your discretionary spending to this account.
Destroy all your cards but one
Put one card away for emergencies
Define what an emergency is for you. Deciding, in advance, what is an emergency and what is not can keep you from reaching for the plastic when the time comes.
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