Save Money - Pay your Bills after the HolidaysWell the holiday season is pretty much over and the bills are starting to come in for all of those gifts you charged to your credit cards. It does not matter if it is Christmas, Valentines or just a big birthday party. If you do not pay these credit card bills right away, the interest is going to start and the credit card companies charge a lot!

Their interest rates can be as high as 29% for store based credit cards and 19 to 20% for bank based credit cards. Of course, the best way to avoid these expenses is to not buy them in the first place, however for most of us this is just not realistic. So Pay your Bills after the Holidays on time before the due date.

This site is about helping people save money and we usually do not talk about credit cards. It is more focused on do it yourself projects, and methods to reduce the operating costs for your home,  however given the time of year we thought it would be appropriate to introduce this subject. You might have worked all year long to save money on various projects, kept the heat low or turned the air conditioning off only to pay a lot of  interest on a credit card balance you really did not anticipate.

Credit Card High Interest Rates

Many bank credit cards will charge up to 19% interest on unpaid balances, while store credit cards sometimes charge as much as 29% on unpaid balances. That is a lot of interest and it can take a long time to repay even a small balance especially if you only make the minimum payment each month.

In keeping with the objective of the web site, we would like to encourage our readers to really make an effort to repay your credit card balances as quickly as possible to avoid losing all of that money in interest charges. You can reduce your heating cost, your air conditioning and your hydro usage only to lose all those savings in a few months to added interest charges. Even if you have to take out a small personal loan to repay your credit card balances, you will be ahead of the game since you will pay a much lower interest rate than what you will pay with your credit card. We cannot emphasize this enough.

Pay your Bills after the Holidays on Time

One last thing about paying your bills after the holidays.  Make sure you pay them by the due date or a few days before the due date to make sure you do not trigger interest charges as a result of missing the due date by one or more days. I have had this happen to me. I missed the due date by one day because the bank I deal with took 3 days to transfer the money. As a result I ended up paying an additional $30 in interest charges. Because they calculate the interest due on the full amount for the full time period since the item appeared on my credit card. If you get caught like I did, you can try to get the bank to refund this charge, however it did not work for me.

You might think that the bank was in error and they should have refunded the money to me. Well if you read the fine print, it says next business day for most transaction and a specified period to transfer funds to an external company from your bank. I always allow 3 business days now to transfer money to pay bills I have and this is the minimum.

If I am concerned that it might take longer due to holidays and increased business, I will send the money even sooner to pay my bills on time. Paying bills around Christmas time and other holiday periods mean that it takes longer to process payments. Always allow for this extra period when you are paying your bills to ensure you meet the due date and avoid any penalties or additional interest charges.

For more cost saving ideas to save money around the home, click here.

 

 

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