As the cost-of-living tightens wallets around Australia, Christmas can be an especially daunting time to splash the cash.
But with so many ways to spend and save out there, Tristan Dakin from Wise has unwrapped his best Christmas shopping hacks to make the festive season special without breaking the bank.
“Aussie banks are making record breaking profits this financial year as interest rates go up and banks are charging a lot more,” he said.
“So try and avoid loading up your credit card as much as possible.
“When I try and save it’s an out of sight out of mind process. If you can automate or find a way of depositing some income into a savings account and keeping it separate you’ll be better prepared.”
Mr Dakin said besides the good-old fashioned budget, shoppers should consider spending overseas this holidays to get the most out of exchange rates.
“Don’t pull the trigger at the first thing you see, make sure you have a shop around and take advantage of favourable exchange rates, purchase something abroad,” he said.
“A third of Australians are born overseas and we have so many diasporas here, so a lot of people are also looking to send money back overseas to family as well.
“There are a lot of ways to save money on those remittances, including a debit card multi-currency account. When you pay through the banks, you are getting charged about 5-6 per cent in exchange rate mark-ups plus international fees.
“With a multi-currency card Aussies can spend without the worry of exchange fees or international transaction costs.”
Mia Goreng, a marketing freelancer and content creator from Melbourne said a multi-currency card was especially helpful when buying presents for family abroad.
“I have to buy a lot of presents for family that live overseas so using the wise card is great because there are no transaction fees,” she said.
“I’ll buy from a retailer overseas and they will deliver locally without the high delivery fees (if it were to come from Australia).
“For everything that I buy here I also use the Shopback app. Every time you spend something you get cash back.
“You can book flights, hotels, retail items, everything I bought on Black Friday I got through Shopback.
“Cashback and Shopback are also similar and I’ll see which one has the better deal,” Ms Goreng said.
With Christmas right around the corner and the countdown well and truly on, there are many options out there to make the most of your money and shop smart this holidays.