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Tips to Manage Your Holiday Spending
The holiday season is upon us, bringing images of gatherings with friends and family, pumpkin pie, decorated trees, gifts—and debt? Avoid owing more money by learning to better manage your holiday spending.
It can be easy to go overboard on holiday shopping, but with a little bit of planning and budgeting, it is possible to celebrate without spending a fortune. Here are some tips:
7 Tips to Manage Your Holiday Spending
Give yourself a set amount to spend. Your budget is your buddy if you want to keep holiday spending under control. Determine how much to spend and give yourself a hard limit to ensure you stay under budget. Track your expenses so you know what
you’re spending and can stay on track.
Set budgets for everyone on your shopping list. From your nearest and dearest to your thoughtful neighbor, provide a dollar figure for each person you are gifting. Setting individual spending amounts can help pace your purchases.
Remember Non-Gift Spending, Too
Make sure your budget covers all holiday expenses—not just gifts. Gift-buying is a major expense in any holiday shopping budget, but shouldn’t be the only expense you consider. Planning to buy any new holiday decorations or hosting a holiday dinner? What about traveling? Manage your holiday spending to ensure your budget covers all expenses.
Shop early to hunt for deals. When it comes to holiday deal-hunting, the early bird may still get the worm. Pay attention to ads and promotions such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and see if you can get more bang for your buck.
Focus on crafts, homemade gifts or experiences. Consider alternative types of gifts that are easier on your budget and often more meaningful. You can make a homemade candle or wreath, bake a holiday dish or offer to clean a loved one’s home. These can be more appreciated and memorable than a store-bought gift.
Begin at the Beginning of the Year
Save year-round. The costs of holiday spending can be overwhelming for a one- or two-month budget. Save yourself this financial burden by setting aside monthly savings to spend throughout the holidays. It may be too late to take advantage of this budgeting tip for the coming holiday season so make a plan for 2023, such as a Savers Club account.
Skip a Payment. Free up your cash by taking advantage of this Mid Oregon service and enjoy a little breathing room during the holiday season. If you don’t have your loans with Mid Oregon, ask your financial institution what they can do.
It is worth it to manage your holiday spending and avoid the credit card debt hangover. Even if you can avoid the extra debt, you might have to sacrifice in other ways. Whether you struggle with holiday spending or you’re just looking for ways to better manage your money, using these budgeting tips can help you become a smarter shopper and spare you the stress of overspending.
Cheers!
Effectively Manage your Credit Card Debt
What does credit card management mean?
Credit card management is an important skill to develop to ensure your long-term financial health. Having smart strategies for spending, making payments on time, monitoring usage, and more might seem daunting, but can have a big impact on your credit score—and stress level.
Studies have shown that most American adults have at least one (or more) credit cards. Many of the things we love about them—convenience, safety, tracking, rewards—are the same qualities that can tempt us into overuse.
We then find ourselves at the end of the billing cycle and confronted by our credit card debt, as well as the interest rate associated with any carryover balances. These unpaid balances can accumulate over time and seem impossible to get under control.
Save time, money and headaches down the road by remembering these simple tips.
Why Is Credit Card Management Important?
Credit cards are a helpful tool for many different situations, whether that’s financing a large purchase or just online shopping. However, it’s also critical that credit card users actively manage their open accounts. Poorly managed credit cards can lead to bad financial outcomes, like credit card debt and dings on your credit score. If you have a habit of badly managing your credit card, it can make it much harder to get new credit cards in the future, as well as other types of loans.
Tips for How to Manage a Credit Card
There’s no doubt that managing your credit card is important. But you might not know what the most important steps are. Here are a few tips that you can follow to keep yourself on track and responsible, no matter what you use your credit card to purchase.
- Always pay by the due date. Credit cards charge interest. That means if you don’t pay off your full balance, the remaining amount will increase at a certain rate (that’s your interest rate). Paying off your full balance, not just the minimum, is the only way to avoid paying interest.
- Read the Terms and Conditions. When you get your credit card, it will come with documentation outlining the terms and conditions of your account. Are you being charged an annual fee? what is your annual percentage rate? What is your credit limit? When is your payment date, and is there a grace period? While you don’t have to read the small print in one sitting, it’s crucial to go over it as soon as you get the card in your hands. Break it down by section so you know exactly what you have access to and what your credit card company expects.
- Practice responsible spending. Will you only use this card in an emergency? Expenses for travel? What about auto repairs? Shopping excursions for groceries? Gas fill-ups? Before you start using it on a daily basis, figure out what your own boundaries are. It’s possible to wing it, but you don’t want to start doing so without any guidelines or personal boundaries. Begin with increasing modest expenditures such as gas or groceries while familiarizing yourself with how everything works. You want to make minor purchases that you can pay off quickly before each payment cycle ends.
- Monitor your activity. Take the time to examine your credit card bills and charges. Not only are you ensuring that each transaction is legitimate, but it also allows you to see precisely where and how your card is being used. If something doesn’t appear to be correct, call your lender right away to get it corrected.
- Manage debt responsibility. Using a credit card is basically taking a short-term loan each time you use a credit card. The loan’s terms state that it must be repaid at the end of each month. When you don’t pay off your credit card bill each month, debt builds up. Even if you make the smallest payment—usually a fraction of the total amount, such as $25 or $50—interest will begin to build on the remaining balance. Credit card debt may have a serious impact on your finances over time. If you find yourself with mounting credit card debt, it’s critical that you have a plan for dealing with it.
- Shop around before applying. You are wise to shop around for the best sustainable rate on a credit card or loan and work with a trusted provider. Mid Oregon Credit Union offers a variety of options. Check out our rates and apply online or call today at 541-382-1795.
Credit card management is essential to financial health. Credit cards make modern living quick, efficient, and easy—plus many credit cards come with perks and rewards. However, reaping those benefits requires you to always keep a careful eye on the way that you use your credit cards.
Fraud Prevention—The Latest Airline Rebooking Scams
Do you have a ticket to nowhere?
It’s October and the time when most of us begin planning our holiday travel. Sadly, scammers are planning their latest nefarious schemes as well.
By now we’ve seen news clips showing the chaos at airports all over the country. Over-booked flights and airline staff shortages are leading to massive flight cancellations and hours long wait times to board a plane. This may well be a sign of the times, but that won’t help you feel any better when you learn your flight was cancelled. Airline travelers need to be aware scammers are exploiting this bizarre time to enrich themselves with your money.
According to the Better Business Bureau, their Scam Tracker “has received multiple reports of scammers creating fake airline ticket booking sites or customer service numbers to charge travelers for rescheduling fake flights.” It’s an abysmal scenario for travelers, but a great one for scammers.
However, beating the airline scams may be as simple as following some basic tips when booking your next airline ticket.
Rebooking Scam: How it’s Done
These criminals are known to use variations on the scams, but all ultimately separate travelers from their money. They send texts, emails or phone calls saying your flight was cancelled. But lucky for you, they can help find another flight for an additional booking fee. Travelers, especially those already at the airport, gladly believe it and pay-up with their card and PII (personally identifiable information). The phone number given isn’t for the airline, but instead is for the scammer who answers, pretending that they are from the airline.
And at a point that’s always too late, you learn the phone calls, texts, and emails were all fake, and the scammer now has your payment card, money, and PII. Even worse, you find your rebooked flight never existed, and your original flight was never cancelled to begin with.
Beating the Airline Scams
Below are a few tips to keep in mind when booking your next airline ticket:
- Do your research. If you come across a company you haven’t dealt with before, research it before making any purchases. Check BBB.org for reviews and feedback from previous customers.
- Double-check flight details before calling support. Scammers are sending fake airline cancellation emails and text messages that can easily be mistaken for the real deal. Confirm the information in the message, such as the flight and reservation numbers, is correct before calling customer support.
- Be wary of third-party websites. Some websites appear to offer a legitimate service, but are only fronts for a scam. Be suspicious of websites with no working customer service number or physical address. Typos and grammatical errors can be indications of a scammer’s handiwork.
- Confirm the URL before entering personal and payment information. It can be easy to click on a sponsored ad or impostor website. Before entering sensitive information, double-check that you are on the right website and that the link is secure (secure links start with “HTTPS//” and include a lock icon on the purchase page).
- Make online purchases as credit rather than debit. Fraudulent charges on a credit card can usually be disputed. That might not be the case with other payment methods. Unfortunately, there is no way to get back the personal information you may have shared.
Following these tips can help avoid losing time and money to airline scammers. Happy trails!
Want to know more? Read additional Mid Oregon blog articles about online security and fraud protection.
Content based on an article by Stickley on Security