How to Shop for the Holidays When You Have Bad Credit

How To Shop For The Holidays When You Have Bad Credit

The holiday season is coming up fast, which is usually a joyful time of year.

However, if you have a bad credit score, the holidays can be extremely stressful. It can seem like you are forced to choose between buying the gifts you want for others and fixing your bad credit.

With a little planning and some discipline, you can still achieve both these goals.

1. Determine your gift budget ahead of time.

Before you head to the malls, it is very important to decide on your total gift budget.

Once you start shopping, it is easy to get carried away and spend much more than you can afford. This will be a big setback for repairing your credit score.

Instead, look at the total amount you can afford to spend on all gifts and make a rule to only spend this amount.

It might help to leave your credit cards at home and go shopping only with cash so you make sure to stick to your budget.

2. Take time to find the best deals.

When you are shopping on a budget, you need to make every dollar count. Make sure to do plenty of research for deals so you do not spend any more than you have to on gifts.

Start planning early so you can try to coordinate with store sales. If you wait until the last minute, you will have no choice but to pay the full retail price.

“The Internet makes

it easy to compare prices.”

3. Coordinate with family members.

Times are tough for everyone and your close family members might also be struggling to pay for the holidays. If you work together, you can make life easier for everyone.

For gifts, consider setting a limit for the amount people can spend. This will help you all stick to a budget.

You may also consider assigning one gift to each person, rather than have everyone buy multiple gifts for every family member.

By working with your family members, you can all keep each other more disciplined with your spending and credit management.

4. Keep track of your card payments.

In the rush and excitement of the holidays, it is easy to forget about your monthly bills. While you might be on vacation, your lenders are not.

They are still going to expect the monthly payments on your credit cards to come in on time. Missing your monthly payments is one of the worst moves you can make for your credit score.

To keep your score from getting worse, make sure you are well aware of when these payments are due during the holidays, as this is a time of year when many people forget.

5. Avoid adding more debt.

Finally, while you are shopping for the holidays, avoid adding more debt. It is going to be very tempting to start adding purchases to your cards with the mindset that you can deal with them after the holidays.

Next year will arrive much sooner than you think, and then you will be in an even tougher financial position, especially since maxing out your cards hurts your credit score.

Keep your spending under control and you will be in a better financial position next year to spend more.

The holidays are a time to relax, except when it comes to credit management. Use these tips to keep your budget under control so you can still afford a pleasant holiday without damaging your finances.

Photo source: quickloans.com.

Advertiser Disclosure

BadCredit.org is a free online resource that offers valuable content and comparison services to users. To keep this resource 100% free for users, we receive advertising compensation from the financial products listed on this page. Along with key review factors, this compensation may impact how and where products appear on the page (including, for example, the order in which they appear). BadCredit.org does not include listings for all financial products.

Our Editorial Review Policy

Our site is committed to publishing independent, accurate content guided by strict editorial guidelines. Before articles and reviews are published on our site, they undergo a thorough review process performed by a team of independent editors and subject-matter experts to ensure the content’s accuracy, timeliness, and impartiality. Our editorial team is separate and independent of our site’s advertisers, and the opinions they express on our site are their own. To read more about our team members and their editorial backgrounds, please visit our site’s About page.