Are you a Christmas credit card tart?

Over 63% of the £53 billion pounds spent by consumers over Christmas and New Year will be charged to their plastic cards, increasing their Christmas debt.

Figures from APACS (the UK trade payments association) suggest that Christmas spending will increase on last year. With this in mind, it’s highly possible that many consumers are buying Christmas presents, food shopping and even their mortgage payments (See ‘Are you using Credit Cards to Pay Your Mortgage) with credit in the hope of ‘tarting’ their credit cards in the New Year to a 0% balance transfer.

Credit Crunch Time

However, the recent credit crunch and rising base interest rates has contributed to the demise of these deals, and many Christmas shoppers could have trouble meeting their minimum monthly payments in the New Year, let alone paying larger amounts of their Christmas debts back .

Those that budget over December and January will fair better, but if you feel you’re going to be over-stretching your balance-sheet during the festive season, or, if you are already struggling, then remember to seek advice as soon as possible.

For immediate, confidential and free debt help and budgeting advice, call Payplan on freephone 0800 280 2816 or submit details of your financial situation online to an experienced and sympathetic adviser using the Payplan debt assessment.

Written by on November 16th, 2007

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