Guide to Effective Holiday Credit Repair
If the holiday season feels like the worst possibletime to for you to be thinking about tackling your credit repair, thats actually a pretty good sign it needs to be on your radar. If not, youre more likely to overspend and maneuver your way into a worse financial position than youre currently in. Give yourself some holiday guidelines that move you closer to a better credit future instead of further away.
Heres some holiday-specific, credit-protecting tips from ASAP Credit Repair:
- Limit yourself to a cash budget.
Yes, we said what we said. Skip the credit card spending this holiday season. It might be difficult, but its not impossible. Go through your budget for the next few weeks and see where you can cut spending to move more money to your holiday budget. That includes how much you have to spend on gifts, entertainment, food, and travel this holiday season. It could mean making some gifts this year, doing gift exchanges instead, canceling your annual party, or staying in town instead of traveling long-distance. You decide where to cut spending so you can meet the requirements of your holiday budget. This means youll be saving money that you can put toward debts instead of dragging down your credit score by charging them to your credit cards. Cash money, baby.
- If you do end up using credit cards, only charge what you can pay back by the end of the year.
Understandably, you may not have the cash on hand to make the move to a cash-only budget, or maybe youre waiting on a different factor, such as a holiday bonus, to cover the cost of holiday spending. If thats the case, you might want to go ahead and use your credit cards to get the shopping out of the way before that bonus comes through. If this is the route you're taking, DO THE MATH and only charge what you can pay back by the end of the year. This will keep your financial position stable and you wont have to worry about it getting into even worse shape.
- Add credit repair to your calendar for the New Year.
Set the intention of repairing your credit for the new year. Adding it to the calendar, or even making it the focus of your New Years resolution, will help you understand the importance of the task. If you arent sure of where to begin, or just don't have the time to devote to the credit repair process, reach out to ASAP Credit Repair. We can get you started and move you through the credit repair process with ease.