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Immediate Money-Saving Options When You Lose Your Job

Losing a job for any reason will create anxiety and disruption in your life. Use the steps below to make immediate money-saving personal finance decisions that can help restore your peace of mind after a job loss.

Discontinue automatic withdrawals from your checking account to pay monthly bills. Many people who lose their jobs find themselves paying bounced check fees or insufficient funds fees because they forget to discontinue automatic bill-pay options.

Speak to your checking account representatives and find out whether you will be charged a checking account fee if you no longer have direct deposit. See whether there is another way you can maintain free checking, or shop around for a free checking account. Never shut down your current checking account until your checks have cleared, you have stopped all automatic bill-pay withdrawals and you have received your last check from your former employer via direct deposit.

If you receive severance, determine whether you will receive installments or whether it will be paid as a lump sum. As soon as you know how your severance will be paid, call your state’s office for unemployment benefits and ask whether you should file for unemployment now or after your severance runs out. Do not apply without asking, because you don’t want to be denied unemployment benefits and then have to participate in an appeal process.

Determine on what date your health benefits will terminate if they are provided through your employer. While you will be notified by Human Resources about COBRA within 30 days of termination, try to find out how much your benefits will cost with COBRA as soon as possible to decide whether you should shop around for health insurance. Schedule doctor, dental and vision appointments that were covered under your employee insurance plan before the plan terminates, if possible.

If you get severance money, use that money before using money from other savings or money accounts you have. Think of your severance in terms of your salary, and use it to pay living expenses moving forward.

If you booked an expensive vacation and also purchased trip insurance for this vacation, then you should be able to cancel your vacation with minimal costs. If you did not get trip insurance, find out what options are available to you for canceling an expensive vacation. It might still be worth canceling your plans in order to save the expensive additional expenses of traveling such as food.

Consider any changes you can make to your current Internet and mobile device services without terminating your accounts. You might get rid of premium channels on cable or get rid of a data plan for a Smartphone to reduce your phone bill. Find out what you can save by speaking with providers and seeing whether they will charge you fees for terminating more expensive features of your accounts, and how much you can save by changing your services.

Contact your car insurance company and find out whether you can reduce your insurance rates because you will not be commuting to your job.

Taking some easy first steps to regaining control of your personal finances after a job loss will likely benefit your state of mind and your wallet. Use the steps above to take charge of your finances after a job loss.

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