Thank God Father Christmas makes all those toys for free. Imagine how expensive Christmas would be if we had to buy them.
But if Christmas, and the Nintendo Wii, the entire range of High School Musical paraphernalia and the new telly and the car, oh and that holiday still have to be paid for, right now is when you have to start paying. And if it's on your credit card(s) you could have a problem.
The second must-do, don't-put-it-off task in our eight-point plan to get your finances in order is: pay off your credit cards.
One of the golden rules of financial planning is to clear your most expensive debts first, in other words your plastic. Credit cards may offer a convenient way to pay for goods and services but that's about it. If you have a £5,000 balance on an average card (APR: 16.7%) and pay £100 a month it will take you more than SEVEN years to clear debt.
If you owe £30,000 and pay, say, a whopping £420 a month it will take you... wait for it... more than THIRTY years to clear. Do you really want to be a financial slave to a credit card company for the rest of your life?
A low-cost loan with regular repayments and an end date in site may be the answer.
But remember
Money is getting expensive. Check the rates and the catches carefully. Don't borrow more than you need and think very hard before taking a 'secured' loan - if you can't pay it back you could lose your home. And please, if you have run up debts on the plastic don't fall for the con that you can beat the system by transferring your balance from one card to another to another and another. You're already a victim don't make it worse.
Links
>> Search for a loan
>> Calculator: Credit card reality check
>> Sort your finances part one: Make a will
Sort our your finances
Part 1 - the will
Part 2 - the credit card debt
Part 3 - the life insurance
Part 4 - the company pension
Part 5 - the house
Part 6 - the emergency savings
Part 7 - the get rich slow plan
Part 8 - the fee-based adviser
This is Not Work is where parents who work can get quick daily money tips and is brought to by the multi-award-winning This is Money team.
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