Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Busiest Shopping Season Of Year Arrives

The end-of-the-year holidays bring on the busiest shopping season of the year. Many people now use plastic instead of paying for purchases with cash or checks. If you use plastic Judith Urich, family resource management specialist, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas, has some words of wisdom for you.

If you use a credit card hold on to it. There are people active in the malls who prey on shoppers and would not hesitate to use a card that you have misplaced.

If you lose a credit card act fast. Report the loss as soon as you can to people in the store or in the shopping mall. The law says you are responsible for the first $50 of unauthorized charges. The $50 loss is often waived if you contact the issuer within two days after you discover the loss. If you wait then you are responsible for the first $500. And if you continue to put off reporting your loss for 60 days after receiving your statement showing the loss you will forfeit all the money in your account up to the amount of the bogus charges  including any overdraft line of credit.

In practice Master Card and Visa voluntarily adopted a policy for debit cards limiting losses to $50 and some banks waive that. However, what is voluntarily given can be later voluntarily taken away. Bottom line: guard your debit card and the wallet or purse that holds the card. And if you lose your card act fast to minimize any special charges.

Here is another thought for people who use credit for their holiday buying. Persons with large monthly balances on a credit card, who routinely make minimum payments, are using a "forever" card, because it will take forever to pay off the debt. Why? Most credit card issuers require a minimum monthly payment of just 2.5% of the balance.

If your credit card balance is $2,000 and the annual percentage rate (APR) is 21%, your monthly payment will be $50. If you stop charging items to your credit card and continue to make $50 monthly payments, it will take "forever"  five years and ten monthsto make the 70 required payments!

If you cut up your credit card and increase monthly payments to $75 your balance will disappear in three years and one month. If you must use a credit card try to pay off the balance each month to minimize paying interest charges. If this is not possible pay as much as you can over the minimum required to make your debt disappear.

If you carry plastic when you do your holiday shopping consider it as valuable as cash and guard it carefully. If you lose it report the loss as soon as possible.

For more information on wise money management contact the Clark County office of the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas, 501 Clay Street in Arkadelphia. Call (870) 246-2281, fax (870) 246-8573 or e-mail clark@uaex.edu for more information.