Credit Card Debt - Managing your expenses in the holiday seasons

Business people usually cash in on the holiday seasons to maximize their sales and profits. It will be high season for them. They will stock up, price up and smile all the way to the bank. They know that people will be less restrained in their suspending than at any other time. It possible that you may be among the many who have suffered post-holiday season financial stress, and want to make sure it does not happen again. Your success in this will be determined by how well you control three critical factors: your increased rate of spending, the manner in which you finance that spending, and the heavy financial demands that follow in the subsequent month.

With summer holidays, Christmas and the New Year seeming to come round too quickly, people often find they have not saved up enough for their celebrations. Moreover, budgeting is an alien concept during this and spending can spiral out of control. To cover the inevitable shortfall in resources, the credit card is an obvious attraction. There are advantages to using the card to finance your expenditure:

i) It gives you free access to about a month's credit.

ii) It gives you the temporary ability to spend beyond your current means.

iii) It allows you to track your expenditure.

iv) You do not have to carry lots of cash around with you.

Use of credit card, how ever, does carry with it significant dangers if it is not carefully controlled. Research indicates that spending could increase by up to 35% when using a credit card compared with using cash. Here are some key principles to help you guard against running into credit card debt trouble.

1. Budgeting

Budgeting is an important tool for debt management. Budgeting includes calculating your monthly disposable income. Budgeting plays an important role in avoiding credit card debt. What is your exact budget for an entire month? Budget a certain amount of each month's earnings to go into an emergency savings account. Then decide what little you can budget for occasional entertaining and clothing expenses. Budgeting helps you to avoid overspending and increases savings or free money to pay off debt.

2. Discipline

Cut every unrequired expenses. Theatre, cable, new clothes every week, restaurants etc. Cut up the credit cards and start to depend on cold, hard, cash. There is no better way to spend.

Credit card debt reduction is fundamental to alleviating financial difficulties for the average U.S. Personal debt can be reduced naturally with a debt consolidation loan or a balance transfer. Credit card debt is destroying many Americans' financial lives. Credit card sharks continue devouring us with outlandish interest rates of up to 24%. Credit card debt is a plague that has stricken countless families. Paying off the excessive debt can stress your monthly cash flow but having too much debt can keep you from getting a good rate on a home mortgage or car loan.