This is the time of year when plans and expenses can get a bit wild. During the end of the year, there are all sorts of events, festivals and of course New Year celebrations. Christmas is a big time of the year for expenses in many countries, and often preparing for all of these celebrations can tople the most stable of budgets.
Everyone wants to enjoy this time, have dinners with friends and family, or a few too many drinks at staff dos and parties. However, when the budget gets tight, that nagging feeling can take away some of the fun. This is when it is time to look at considering spreading the cost of these couple of months over a longer period.Â
By spreading the cost, you can take the pressure off and allow yourself room to breath and to enjoy the holidays. It may also allow you to give the gifts that you wanted to, instead of what you could buy with your current finances. This is not to say that we are encouraging debt, simply that spreading the cost of December celebrations can help reduce stress and make things more manageable, so long as you repay within a reasonable period.
How to Spread Seasonal Expenses
- If you have a good history with your bank, you could try to get an arranged overdraft on your account. This is an arrangement that allows you to go into the red on your normal bank account without penalties. It is very flexible, but often the interest rate is quite high, so normally this should only be considered for short-term borrowing. You may also check for offers such as Chase Promotions.
- Credit cards can also help to spread costs. However, what you can get may be determined by your credit history. Some cards come with initial promotions, but be careful to check the fees and interest, as often the cost jumps up later.
- Bank loans can help those with good credit, but normally require that the repayments are spread across at least 12 months, sometimes longer. While often providing reasonable rates, they will sometimes include penalties for early repayment, missed payments, and sometimes want repayment insurance to be purchased with the loan.
- If you own a vehicle, you could likely get an easy loan in the form of a vehicle secured loan. This type of loan uses the vehicle you own as security, allowing you to raise funds in an affordable and secure manor. So long as repayments are made, a title loan can be a fast and easy way to raise funds.
- Another option that some use is peer-to-peer lending. In these types of situations, you will often need to have a good credit rating, as those peer-to-peer lenders that do lend to bad credit borrows charge much higher rates. The other aspect to consider is that in this situation you are borrowing from one or many real people. This is not lent by a company and insured, but normal people that want more interest on their savings. If you don’t repay, they often lose their money and the company or borrows will also usually apply a debt recovery quickly.
However you choose to spread the costs, we hope that one of these approaches will help remove the financial stress and allow you to enjoy the holidays fully. Whatever you end up doing, have a great time and be safe.
