{"id":354257,"date":"2015-12-17T08:00:34","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T15:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.creditrepair.com\/blog\/?p=354257"},"modified":"2017-11-15T14:19:52","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T21:19:52","slug":"the-800-credit-score-guide-to-holiday-shopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.creditrepair.com\/blog\/credit-score\/the-800-credit-score-guide-to-holiday-shopping\/","title":{"rendered":"The 800+ Credit Score Guide to Holiday Shopping"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Most of us plan to spend extra money this season on gifts, food, decorations and other holiday-inspired expenses. The average American will spend $830<\/a>, and 30% of us will drop more than $1,000.\u00a0Unfortunately, many people will be blindsided later, in 2016, by the consequences of poorly planned holiday spending. If you want to protect your credit score<\/strong> during this time of conspicuous consumption, approach your spending with a credit mindset. Here are a few tips from folks with credit scores over 800.<\/p>\n

Never, ever make a late payment<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Payment behavior makes up a huge chunk of your credit score. The bad news is that late payments remain on your credit report for seven years. The good news is that payments are pretty easy to control.<\/p>\n

Credit score notwithstanding, creditors give us plenty of other reasons to pay on time, not least of which are massive fees and interest charges. Your account could convert to a very high penalty interest rate (typically around 30%) after just one late payment.<\/p>\n

Another gotcha: some zero-percent offers are actually deferred-interest offers. That means if you pay as agreed for the specified time period, no interest is charged. But make a single late payment<\/em> and the creditor has the right to charge interest on the entire<\/em> original balance, all the way back to the transaction date.<\/p>\n

The last kicker: some creditors will slap a penalty rate on all<\/em> of your accounts if they find out that you\u2019ve made a late payment on any <\/em>account!<\/p>\n

What to do:<\/strong><\/h3>\n