Originally published February 7 2005
Holiday credit card bills come roaring in; Americans may have charged more than $100 billion in December
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Financial counselors are preparing for their annual surge of new clients as millions of American families begin seeing the consequences of their hearty holiday purchases. A website that keeps track of U.S. credit card use says Americans charged more than $100 billion on plastic between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And now, experts say, those bills are catching up with folks. The best advice, they say, is to just stop using credit cards.
The holidays are behind us, but there are many people waking up this month with splitting headaches.
According to CardWeb.com Inc., which tracks the credit card industry, Americans were going to charge more than $100 billion in retail purchases to their credit and debit cards between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Sixty-five percent of those sales were to be in credit cards.
And they may keep rolling in for months to come.
"The typical household, if you spend $1,150 on credit cards, to pay off this amount with 14 percent interest, the average family will spend $800 in interest and make 133 monthly payments if you only made the minimum payment," said Joan Reading, president of the Credit Counseling Center in Richboro.
"It's not just the gifts," agreed Maureen Keown, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Delaware Valley.
"It's the other expenses that add up over the holidays.
It's the decorations, the food, the clothes you need for the different festivities.
It's the stamps if you send Christmas cards.
"Put away your credit cards," said Reading.
Put them away where you can't get your hands on them.
The only way of reducing them is to stop using them."
While that may be a scary prospect, Keown and Reading agree it's a crucial step.
Write it all down and include the interest and any other fees.
"Remind yourself: It's only money, you'll pay it back," Reading said.
Don't just include fixed household expenses like mortgage and car payments and utilities.
Also include your cell phones, expected doctor's bills, car maintenance costs and the like.
Figure out what you need and what you can get rid of.
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