Christmas Shopping and Credit Cards

The fact that people all over the UK use their credit cards to fund their spending for Christmas; it comes every year on the same day but once you have done it the pattern is hard to break. You pay for Christmas on the plastic and then spend the next twelve months trying to break down the balance to use it all over again when summer ends. Presents for for everyone, parties, decorations and the festive food all pile up and most of the time often consumers hit their credit balance and keep on going!

Many New Years resolutions are vows to pay off credit cards and overdrafts by the end of January but the huge accumulated debt can be a real burden when the unexpected things crop up; the burst pipe, the pillock who drives into you and you have to find the excess, it can all add up.

A perhaps amazing fact is that a huge amount of people tend to take out a personal loan to pay it off the Christmas excess on their cards and overdrafts. This will obviously make the time they are in debt much longer; interest rates can go through the roof and much lower monthly payments all add up to a loan that takes years to pay off. So what happens next year when Christmas mysteriously turns up again apparently unannounced? What will they use for money then?

It seems that the need to give a gift is the main reason for getting into debt so whilst the temptation is there the opportunity for companies to make money they will.