Lot of credit unions offer Christmas Club Accouts. If you struggle to pay off the credit card bills after the festive season then these Christmas Club Accounts are made just for you.

It is basically a savings account (with limited features) with withdrawal restrictions. Here is a list of what most of these accounts offer:

photo credit: Beau B

1. Interest is calculated daily 2. There is not a huge outlay of initial deposit…It is usually only between $1 and $10. 3. You can nominate an amount and a savings account and the specified amount will be deposited into your Christmas Club Accoutn from the specified savings account every month.

4. You can only withdraw between November 1st and January 31st…Some Credit Unions will not allow any withdrawals until about November 15th.

5. Once the withdrawal period sets in (sometime in November), most of the Credit Unions will automatically deposit the entire christmas club savings amount into your specified savings account (because these accounts usually don’t come with ATM or EFTPOS withdrawal facilities)

6. They will charge you an early withdrawal fee if you withdraw before the withdrawal period.

If you find it hard to find the extra cash required during Christmas, don’t go into debt..Consider opening a Christmas Club account - you earn a reasonable amount of interest plus you are investing in instalments and plus there is no huge temptation to spend it all before…

If you have a strong hold over the management of your finances then this account is probably not for you…You can always invest these periodic amounts into a mutual fund and earn a higher interest…

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