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How not to financially procrastinate

Published on November 27th, 2020
  Written by 
Bill Tsouvalas
Bill Tsouvalas is the managing director and a key company spokesperson at Savvy. As a personal finance expert, he often shares his insights on a range of topics, being featured on leading news outlets including News Corp publications such as the Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun, Fairfax Media publications such as the Australian Financial Review, the Seven Network and more. Bill has over 15 years of experience working in the finance industry and founded Savvy in 2010 with a vision to provide affordable and accessible finance options to all Australians. He has built Savvy from a small asset finance brokerage into a financial comparison website which now attracts close to 2 million Aussies per year and was included in the BRW’s Fast 100 in 2015 as one of the fastest-growing companies in the country. He’s passionate about helping Australians make financially savvy decisions and reviews content across the brand to ensure its accuracy. You can follow Bill on LinkedIn.
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Contrary to popular beliefs it takes 66 days to form a habit. When it comes to procrastinating, we all do it now and again. However, what happens when the small times we spend procrastinating affect our finances?

Putting off small payments can accumulate into large amounts that increase how much you pay on your credit card repayments. This will then result in late payments or even defaulting on your credit report. 32% of the Australian population, which is 6.2 million people, have missed out on a credit card payment. By putting off paying off your credit card bill can have negative effects on future lending. Here are five things you should stop procrastinating on.

Keep track of your finances to better manage your credit card

Going through your bank statement to look at every transaction might make you want to stare at the wall opposite you and think of conspiracy theories to pass the time. This is where you need to redirect your thoughts and find a place that will help you focus with no distractions.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 87.4% of Australians enjoy spending their time watching TV. When going through your statement it will be best to switch off to focus on the numbers before you to see where do you keep losing funds.

Check your credit report

You can get free access to your credit report to view any accounts or loans that you still owe payment on. To make this task that might be considered not so fun, you can create a vision board of how much you would like to save towards paying off these bills. 40% of Australians fear a bad credit score. Your credit score can affect your future lending process. Try not to put this off as it might result in increasing mistakes that can leave a bad mark on your credit report.

Procrastinating can cost you

You get a call from a relative asking you if you have booked that hotel room yet, only to feel your stomach drop because it was supposed to be done four weeks ago and now they are arriving in two days’ time.

The immediate response is to whip out your credit card and surf the web frantically for something that matches your set budget, but its public holiday time meaning you will pay double the amount. If you procrastinate to the last minute you could end up running up your credit card bill, and realise that you are short on making it for the repayment date.

Automated payments pave’s the way

Our lives are becoming extremely busy and sometimes things can slip your mind such as paying off your credit card bill. To smoothen out the process when it comes to managing your payments it’s best to get an automated payment from your bank that will immediately reserve the money that needs to be paid towards your credit card. If you are not a fan of machines doing the work for you, then you can immediately remove the money you owe from your salary before you spend.

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