The holidays can be a time of family, love, and joy, but they are also often a source of major stress — financial stress to be exact.

Have you considered consolidating your debt to manage that stress?

More than half of Canadians say that they go over their budget during the holiday season. A CIBC poll found that the average Canadian spends $643 on holiday gifts and $300 on décor and entertaining. And those figures only keep going up.

Moneris found that after the 2017 holiday season, Canadians spent an average of 4.26% more during the last three months of 2017 than they did during the same period in 2016.

A 2017 Angus Reid poll of 1,512 Canadians found that three-quarters of respondents wish they could save more money during the holidays and about 52% end up spending more than they liked.

In order to avoid any long-term damage to your credit score, it’s important that you pay your bills on time each month and (preferably) in full. Making the minimum payment every month is not enough to ensure good credit.

Plus, most credit cards come with high interest rates, so that $1,000 of debt can quickly add up to even more. If it took you five months (the average timeframe) to pay $1,000 at an interest rate of 18% you would have to make a payment of $209.09 per month and by the end of the five months would have paid $1,045.45, including interest.

That might be okay if it is your only debt and you are not accumulating any more, but for most people that is not the case.

While a certain amount of spending is likely expected during the holiday season, it can be particularly stressful if you are already carrying debt.

For instance, say that you have:

• $10,000 of debt on one credit card at 19% interest.
• $5,000 of debt on another at 21% interest.
• And now $1,000 on a new credit card at 18% interest.

And you are hoping to pay it off by the next holiday season — in 12 months.

You would then have to make monthly payments of $1,477.03. By the end of the year, you would have spent an additional $1,724 in interest. And that’s assuming you don’t accumulate any more debt or miss any payments. This also assumes you have the ability and tools to calculate the combined monthly payments of all these debts, which most people struggle with.

It can be stressful trying to pay off holiday debt, but it helps to have a plan. That’s where consolidating your debt can come in.

With debt consolidation, you can put all of your outstanding debts together in one monthly payment. If you choose a consolidation loan with a fixed interest rate you will only have one bill to pay each month and you will always know the amount you have to pay, so you can budget for your payments.

This can allow you to enjoy your holidays without worrying about how you will pay for them.

At DebtCare Canada, we can review your options and help arrange the debt consolidation that’s right for you. You’ll be able to enter the holiday season feeling relaxed and stress-free.

Contact us today for a free consultation. Call 1-888-890-0888 or visit www.debtcare.ca.