Holiday Bill Payoff Tips

As much as you might try to avoid it, sometimes you just can't escape the holiday season without a little bit of debt attaching itself to you. And once you're stuck with it, you must try to figure out a way to get out from under these excess holiday bills. In order to assist you in developing a holiday bill payoff plan that keeps your debt burden as light as possible and be rid of it expeditiously, here are a few tips that you might find helpful.

Limiting Credit Cards

When you're out racking up holiday debt, consider trying to keep as many of your purchases as possible on just one or two credit cards. Of course sometimes this is easier said than done since some stores might offer discounts for using their particular store credit card. However, choosing the best of your credit cards (the one with the lowest interest rate and/or best rewards program) could make your spending damages easier to easier track and deal with after the fact. Spreading purchases over a multitude of cards on the other hand can have numerous bills pouring in after the holidays are over and leave you feeling overwhelmed.

Dealing with Debt ASAP

Typically, the sooner you can deal with your holiday bills, the better. Leaving these debts to stagnate can increase the amount of interest that accumulates upon them, allow additional purchases pile up, and could increase the amount of frustration you feel as your debt balance grows. Getting your holiday debt out of the way early can save you money as well as possibly provide much needed peace of mind.

Utilizing Return Credits

When taking a gift or purchase back to the store, if you can get cash, consider restraining yourself from making another purchase with it. You could instead utilize this money to pay down your holiday bills. If you can't get cash, but instead get a store credit, consider utilizing that for a future gift purchase for a friend or family member, and again putting the cash you would have spent upon that gift toward your holiday debt.

Put Those Gift Cards to Use

The other day as I helped my in-laws clean their house, I found close to $300 in gift cards from last Christmas stashed in a desk drawer. I could not believe these cards had not been used since most of them they were for stores that were nearby and that my in-laws visit, if not on a regular basis at least several times a year.

I have a feeling that this is a fairly common situation and that many people don't take advantage of the gift cards they are given. However, many people fail to consider that they could utilize these cards rather than paying cash or credit for purchases they make, and in turn put the money they would have spent upon those items toward paying off their holiday bills. For example, if you had a $100 gift card to an area grocery store (i.e. my mother sometimes gives us gift cards to a nearby Trader Joe's), you could use that for your weekly groceries, putting the $100 in cash that you would have spent otherwise, toward your holiday debt.

Pick the Right Bills

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try to get a grip on your holiday expenses, you just can't manage to pay them off in a timely manner. This means that you might have to pick an order in which to pay certain bills. Some bills might have to suffer while you work to pay off others.

Picking the right way in which to tackle your holiday bills can make a difference in how much these bills cost over time as well as the length of time it takes you to pay them off. By choosing the bills that have higher interest rates, you may be able to get the debt that will cost you more over time out of the way first.

Disclaimer: The author is not a licensed financial professional. The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. For financial advice, readers should consult a licensed financial advisor. Any action taken by the reader due to the information provided in this article is solely at the reader's discretion.