Your wedding is the most special moment in your life. You have dreamed about what it would be like for years and now the time has come to actually start planning it all out. As you begin to walk through the planning phase of picking out the dress, tuxedos, cake designs, floral arrangements, and a lot of other things, you will notice that the cost rises quickly.
A small typical wedding can cost thousands and thousands of dollars. Most people just do not have that kind of money in their accounts. Should you finance your wedding with a loan or credit card?
Before choosing how you are going to pay for the wedding, here are some things that you may want to consider before using loans for wedding expenses or simply using your credit cards.
Finance Your Wedding with a Loan or Credit Card
Personal loans are a quick and easy way of getting money fast. There are some things that you will want to think through before borrowing the money for your wedding.
What You Need to Know
- Interest rates matter. There is a lot you can do to improve the interest rate that you are quoted before borrowing money through a personal loan. Take six months and make on time payments with all your other accounts, try to get your debt to under 40 percent of your income, and shop around. These three simple things can help you get a low interest rate.
- Most personal loans are done over the internet. These really makes it easy when taking out a loan for a wedding. You will want to research the lender before applying for a loan. There are some that charge fees and other that do not. Remember you are looking for ways to save money for your wedding.
- A personal loan has a quick payback time period. You can actually choose the time frame to payback the loan. Most options range from three to six years depending on the lender you choose.
Using the Credit Cards
Credit cards have a way of helping the user or hurting them. It all comes down to how they are used.
Using Your Credit Cards to Fund the Wedding
- Credit cards have very high interest rates. This means that you could end up paying a tremendous amount more for the wedding over a long period. If you have a plan to pay the off quickly, then this might be a good option for you regarding wedding finance.
- Try using credit cards that have reward points. A wedding is a costly moment that will never come again, but you can certainly earn points on your cards for flyer miles and even cash back options. Find the right card and make it work in your favor for a future vacation or date night out.
- Beware of the credit score. Opening a new credit card will hurt your credit score in the short term. If you are looking to buy a house soon, then it might be beneficial to use an existing card that is already active.
- A credit card can actually help you track your expenses. At the end of each month you are provided a statement with a detailed list of what you have spent. This gives you the ease of tracking how much you have spent of the wedding. It will help in keeping a budget for the wedding.
In Conclusion
There are a number of ways that you can use to pay for a wedding. The question is which option is right for you. You can both finance your wedding with a loan or credit cards. Both have benefits to using them, and they have a downside.
Take the time and think through each option and choose which works for you. You might even find that a combination of both would work better than simply using one option or the other.