Using Credit Cards for Holiday Travel and Shopping

Just One

When you are making a hotel reservation, you are usually required to make a deposit or provide your credit card information to hold your room reservation. Once you arrive at the hotel, you will have to pay the remainder of your balance. Consumers at that point sometimes provide an additional credit card to pay for the remaining balance. There have been situations where mistakes are made and both credit cards get charged for the full amount. This can lead to an inconvenience that can take some time to resolve. You should always provide the same credit card once you arrive at the hotel that you did when you made your initial reservation. This eliminates confusion and the potential for getting charged twice. It also reduces your risk of identity theft.

Double Billing Headaches

Keep in mind the above advice against using two credit cards in any situation where you are required to make a deposit with a merchant such as if you getting some items tailor made or altered. It can save you the inconvenience, and sometimes headache, of having to later resolve being doubly billed. When you are inadvertently billed twice, it can sometimes take a few billing cycles for the matter to be resolved.

Make Tracking Easier

When you do any Christmas shopping it is best to stick to using just one or two credit cards, especially when you are making multiple transactions online. It is much more difficult to track purchases made on several credit cards. Retain all your receipts for a few months until you make sure that there are no errors on your credit card statements. The holiday season is hectic enough, and you don't want your credit cards to be a source of trouble when you are using them for their convenience.