Here are some tips that you could use to pay up your bills:

• Set deadlines for clearing your holiday dues as soon as possible. How about the end of March? The sooner you clear, the better it is for you in terms of interest rates and credit score. Don’t pile up your debts over long periods of time. Long credit payment might look convenient as the monthly installment turns out to be a very low amount but this is not always advisable as the interest rates are generally going to be very high so that the final amount that you pay turns out to be a huge amount. Getting off debt quickly is always recommended to prolonged payment periods.
• Set a finite period of payment. Set a start date and an end date for clearing off your dues and strictly stick to it.
• Don’t use your credit card for making further purchases till you pay off your holiday dues. How can you ever get over paying up your debts if you keep piling them up?  When you go shopping for a few days now, just leave out your credit card at home. The best thing that could happen to you during this period is to forget your credit card at home. Making cash payments is recommended. You not only have no dues, but also get attractive discounts from retail outlets on cash purchases.
• People who pay with cash tend to spend lesser than those who use cards. Isn’t it hard for you to shell out cash when shopping in comparison to using a credit card?
• Make a plan to clear your dues. The plan will give you a clear idea of your present monetary status, the status after you pay up your dues and if at all there is enough money with you to pay up your debts in the time period specified.
• Strictly keep an account of all your expenditure including the amount you’ve spent on a cup of coffee from the vending machine for the next one month or so.
• Be more frugal, review your credit card for excess unjustified charges, and try to reduce your taxes.

Earlier the credit card machines might have been a reason for the taxi drivers to be unhappy about the payments that they have to make while taking customer charges, but now these machines seem to be the very reason for the taxi drivers earning more than they previously did. In other cities the cab industry might be still badly affected by the recession blow, but if you take the reports of New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, the revenues this year, have increased by 13 %. Taxi drivers receiving tips seems to have increased by 22 % when the transaction is taking place on the credit card. Under the cash payment system, the tips seem to have increased by only 10 % in comparison to credit payment.

This shows that the cabbies were totally wrong about their notion regarding credit card payment transactions. They were fully biased against accepting credit card payments without being mindful of the long term benefits. They were all for cash payments. They were also not aware of the advantage they could take of the biases that passengers had develop towards such payments.

The drivers were prejudiced against paying up that extra fee of 5 % for credit card transactions. True, initially that does appear to be an overhead for the taxi drivers who are used to receiving cash without making any fee payments. But what they failed to see was that the credit card transaction system has won them more passengers than ever. Studies have shown that people tend to spend more when they have to make credit card payments than when they have to make cash payments. So a credit card payment mode for taxi fares attracted more passengers than the cash payment mode. As a result, the number of persons taking a cab ride increased with the credit card payment system in New York in the last couple of years. The profits that the cab drivers got due to increased passenger percentage far outweighed the fee that they had to pay up for the services.

Another advantage that the taxi drivers failed to perceive with the credit card payment system was the default tip system which was set at 20 %, 25 % and 50 %. Here too they could earn a lot. But their initial short sightedness made them concentrate only on the amount of money that they would lose as a part of fee payment for electronic transactions and not see the larger benefits.

0 % Interest Rate

The 0 % interest rate strikes us like Cupid! We are flat for this when any company mentions it. Now stop blundering! Don’t get lured by this seemingly harmless proposition that entices you to buy things as big as very expensive household furniture etc. If you ever think of opting for one, be clear about the discount that the store is offering along with how much they are going to charge for a late payment. Even a single late payment might hike up the interest rate to 20 %. Moreover, when you apply for a new card, your credit score will be lowered due to the enquiry.

Sky Rocketing Interest Rates

The interest rates of many credit cards this is year as high as 20 %. With the Credit Card Act of 2009 trimming off predatory and abusive lending practices, credit card companies are facing a lot of stringency in general. The interest rates are randomly fluctuating with the availability of credit at higher rates of interest. Go through the fine print to see about what the company has to say about interest rates.

Return Policies

Your credit card company might offer to accept any purchased item that you might want to return to the store within a pre-specified period of time. This is advantageous to you if the store does not accept the returned goods. Generally stores have a return acceptance period of 15-30 days of purchase whereas the credit card company accepts the goods to be returned for a period of 90 days from the date of purchase.

Post Holiday Purchase Price Adjustments

Many credit cards offer to adjust prices on whatever you buy for a period of two months. So, if a retail store does not give any concession during the holiday season but chooses to give after that, even then you are benefited because your credit card can still be used to adjust the difference in prices.

Credit Card Amount Tracking

Always keep track of the amount of money you have spent on your holiday shopping and if you have enough of money in your bank account to pay up your credit card bills. For this, you can go online and find out how much you have in your checking account and from that you just need subtract the amount of money you spent on your holiday goodies. You’ll come to know if your bank account carries enough funds to make your credit card payments in time.

A bad credit score will only make the cellphone companies do some tough pedaling with you. For example, they are going to hike your monthly fee or ask you make some security deposit. If your score is very unimpressive they might even refuse to offer you any services at all. I wonder how AT&T users are paying up a security fee of $800 as a penalty for bad credit score. Well, it is pretty understandable. Your credit score reveals your credibility and if it’s not good, people will not trust you because of which they’ll obviously ask for a higher security fee.

Good credit might be required for cellphone perks, but a cellphone can be the very reason for you to have bad credit score. When a service provider enquires about your credit score, it will lower your credit score a bit. The more the number of service providers you are attached with the more the inquiries and the lower your credit score will be.

When you evade your cellphone bills, you might think the worst that might happen to you is that your cellphone will get switched off. But these days, cellphone providers do much more than that to appease their anger against you. Along with severing your connections, they are going to report about your non-payment to credit bureaus. Also they might hand over your case to a collections agency which is going to hound you like wild dogs for your dues. Your bad credit score is going to remain on your reports for about 7 years no matter whatever your payment pattern later on. So before you stop paying your bills, just give this a thought. Also ask your cellphone provider to tell you about their credit bureau reporting policy so that you are well aware of their course of action in case you default in payment.

If you are already having a bad credit score and yet in need of a cellphone, you are left with no option but to opt for the more expensive schemes as they don’t really need any credit check. You can always work upon your credit score later to improve it and then opt for the more affordable wireless service schemes. Try to maintain a good payment record with the service provider and you’ll be considered for some good schemes from them. Pay up your dues in time.

Though cellphone service providers might seem to be taking a tough stand on their customers, the rules seem quite fair for me. After all one cannot really move forward in the commercial world without a good credit score.