Budget Watch: Things To Watch For In December/January
As 2008 comes to an end, I wanted to give you a heads up about some things that may directly affect you and your wedding budget in the coming weeks.
With the economy on shaky ground companies big and small are looking for ways to reduce their potential losses for their next quarter or fiscal year. Translation: look for a reduction in services & perks and a rise in fees.
Here’s what to watch out for:
Credit Cards
- Pay attention to every single word on your monthly credit card statement and all of the little extras they send with your bill each month. The terms of your credit card agreement may very well change in the new year. Special attention needs to be given to the annual fee, interest rate, and late fee terms. Check every month for any changes in those rates!
- The U.S. credit card industry is expected to lower credit limits to new and existing customers in the next year as a risk aversion strategy. This means that your once $5000 credit limit, for example, may be cut by hundreds or even thousands of dollars leaving you with less credit to use.
- Citigroup recently announced a 3% hike in their rates for many of its credit card holders. Expect other banks to follow with higher interest rates.
- Qualifying for new credit cards will be tougher – especially if your credit isn’t perfect. Don’t count on getting another card to help fund your wedding if you’ve maxed out another one.
Air Travel
If you’re planning on using frequent flyer miles or points to pay for your honeymoon or wedding flights, there’s good news and bad news here.
First, the bad news: United Airlines is raising prices on their FF rewards. This means you’ll need more points to pay for a ticket in 2009. Delta rumored to be changing their SkyMiles card loyalty program to reduce the amount of points gained when using the AmEx SkyMiles card.
The good news is that there are other ways to rack up miles and lots of FF deals to be found. Airlines are struggling to get those seats filled and are offering, often in conjunction with credit card companies and/or their own loyalty programs, deals to entice you to fly. I love Tim Winship’s blog over at SmarterTravel.com for alerts and resources for finding FF mile deals and info.
Check your mail (and the airlines’ websites) for changes in your Frequent Flyer rewards or airline loyalty programs!
Worthy of note: Airlines are also positioning to reduce the number of available seats per flight to help raise prices (and increase their profits). Some airlines are still imposing extra baggage fees plus surcharges for fuel and gawd-knows-what-else. Don’t forget to include those costs into your travel budget.
Jewelry/Diamonds
As the holidays are upon us, and the economic gloom looms over, start checking out small indies and chain jewelry retailers for deals on engagement/wedding rings. The price of gold is dropping a little and retailers are desperate for sales. Christmas and New Years are big engagement events so there are good sales going on right now. Do beware of going of out business sales. There are some larger chains that are closing for good. If you buy from one of these retailers, all sales are final and you’ll have zero recourse if there’s a problem with your ring.
Slightly cringe-worthy but a good resource if you’re not superstitious: pawn shops are doing well right now and many have an increased inventory of wedding and engagement rings at low, low prices.
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