If December is the time to be Merry; is January the time to be sorry?

How great is Christmas and all the associated holidays? The lucky ones among us have had a couple of weeks off to spend with family & friends and had a great time.  Now we’re into January and so the hangover begins as the credit card bills come in.

What can you do? Pay close to 20% interest and tough it out, hoping to be able to pay the card down as soon as you can, or pay the minimum each month and on it goes on, and on, and on……the important thing now is to not bury your head in the sand or to be embarrassed to find a solution.

The alternative is to try to consolidate your debts – home loan, car loan, personal loan, credit cards, as much as possible all into one loan at the cheapest rate that you can access. Just as important when you are doing this is to set yourself a budget that you will stick to so January 2020 doesn’t cause as much pain as the current one.

If you want to spend the average of $3,800 (apparently that is what we all spend on average at Christmas on food, drinks, and gifts) the answer is to start now – pay $300 a month extra off your home loan – you can afford it now that you have consolidated your loans – so by the end of the year you have a kitty of $3,600 ready and waiting for you.  Yes, the discipline is hard to start with, but it gets easier as the months pass.

Even if you don’t have a home loan you may be able to restructure your loans to get a much better deal.

What do you need to do now? Get all your loan and card statements together, call Debbie on 1800 734 346 and Debbie will connect you to your local Lending Specialist.

And finally. Please do yourself a favour and cancel those cards once they are paid out. You will never look back once you are card free.