Financial Tips For Christmas Credit And Budgeting

The holiday season can be dangerous. It is really tempting to go crazy and buy your family what their hearts desire, on your credit cards. It's also easy to get drawn into sales promotions at the mall being offered free gifts and discounts in exchange for applying for credit or tempting no interest financing deals. You may be thinking "I can finally afford to buy my husband that 40" flat screen TV." 

Get a hold of yourself! 

Don't apply for credit in exchange for dollar store freebies and 15% discounts. If you use those cards you will face 20%-30% interest rates if you can't pay your balance in full. Don't shop with borrowed money! 

No interest finance offers are limited time offers and once the 3, 6 or 12 months have passed and you cannot pay the balance in full, you will face really high interest rates! These are particularly dangerous because no payment/no interest offers make it really easy to spend way more than you originally planned and in electronic store, this spending could get up into the thousands. You don't know what the future holds, don't shop with borrowed money. 

You may be thinking that this year has been tough and you are going to have to dip into credit to pull it together. If you absolutely have to shop with borrowed money, here is how you should do it. 

1. Use your lowest interest, major credit card. This will be better interest and because you are using your credit card, you can go to any store and have more buying/negotiating power.
2. Make a list of all the gifts you plan to buy.
3. Research the best bargains available.
4. Create a table and organize the gifts from lowest price to highest price.
5. Go down the list and highlight all the cheaper items that you can pay for in cash. When you go to the mall to buy these items bring your list, your cash, do not bring your credit card and do not stop and talk with sales people in the stores. You have one purpose and one purpose only to be there.
6. Now you have refined your list so that only the top 3-4 most expensive things will go on credit. Try to get them all in one place. If it's not possible, go directly to the stores, purchase only the listed items and leave. Do not pass go, do not collect I mean spend $200.   

If you don't have low interest credit you can obtain your True Assess Financial Report card to get a snap shot of your financial profile from the banks perspective and get prepared to apply for a low rate credit product. Remember, banks price their credit products to risk, the greater the risk you present to the bank the higher the interest you will pay. 

For more information about financial tips for Christmas credit and budgeting visit www.trueassess.com.