Get The Most From Your Credit Cards This Holiday Season

29 DECEMBER, 2021

The holiday season is a busy time in India, with all of us going all out and making good use of the festive season deals and offers. We save our credit cards for splurging on our favourite gadgets, home appliances, and clothes during holidays. Not only the holiday season is full of fabulous discounts and deals but also the perfect occasion to get spoilt with choice.

Indian culture and holidays are replete with the joy of celebrating, giving gifts, buying clothes and jewellery, and whatnot. While it’s easy to go overboard with the spending during holidays, it’s after the holiday season is over that you may feel your finances and monthly budget getting strained. To avoid being in a situation like that, intelligently using credit cards is essential.

When applying for a credit card, make sure you do your homework well. Pick those that match your areas of interest like shopping, travel, and more. This is a great way to save money during the holiday season and get discounts and exciting offers.

Keeping a smart balance between spending and savings is important to have an uneventful post-holiday season. To balance between the spending and savings, here are a few smart tips to consider:

Allocate a Budget to Your Holiday Spending

Remember that a long-term wealth amassment always starts with discretion in spending. You can enjoy the holiday season without splurging mindlessly on unwanted stuff. The drill begins with setting aside a budget for holiday shopping and sticking to it religiously.

Firstly, look around online deals and compare credit card offers to see which is cheaper – buying online or offline at merchant stores. During the holiday season, you’d find all retail and e-commerce stores coming out with amazing money-saving deals on credit cards covering most of their product range. You can use your credit card to buy your favourite product at a fantastic discount while staying within the budget.

Make a List of Products to Buy

If you know precisely the number of products you want to buy, make sure you draft a list of those items and write the approximate amount against each. This list will help you not derail from the plan and stick to your budget. As you keep shopping, keep striking off the items and mention the final amount paid against each to know the budget.

Compare Credit Card Offers

All e-commerce stores and offline outlets offer different deals on various credit cards. Once you’ve made an extensive list of things to shop for and the respective brand to go for, make sure you compare the online and offline credit card offers to see where you can get the best deal. This is an essential step that helps you save money while also exploring other offers like no-cost EMI and zero-interest EMI options.

Don’t Get Lured by Discounts

With almost all online stores offering massive discounts and irresistible deals, make sure you do a little math and see the amount of discount you’re getting during the holiday season and the actual price. Don’t always go by what’s displayed and compare well before finalizing. For instance, you’d see a flat 50% off on a particular product at one website, and the same one is available at 30% off + 25% off at another store. In a blind eye, you’d go for the latter one as you think 30 + 25 is equal to 55%, which is not the case.

If a product priced at 1000 is available at 500 from store 1, it would cost 525 from store 2. So, don’t get lured by the discounts blindly, and always do a little calculation in your head to decide which helps you save more.

Go for No-cost EMIs

EMI options are the best for spreading the impact of holiday shopping during the next few months. Most banks offer no-cost EMIs on their credit cards during the holiday season on expensive gadgets and other stuff to help buyers purchase the things without any hassle. This also allows the buyers to pay in broken-down EMIs over the next few months without having to take the hit of one-time payment in a single go. Make sure you opt for a mid-term for no-cost EMI options to save on the higher interest in a longer credit duration.

Spend Smartly & Pay on Time

Although the temptation to swipe your credit card is insane, exercising restraint is also necessary. Don’t give in to the lure of mindless and unwanted items just because they’re on discount. Always remember that it’s you who has to pay the credit card bills once the holiday season is over, and a huge bill will strain your monthly budget for the coming few months. Always spend wisely and make your credit card bill payments on time and in full.