Christmas pushes 23m Brits into the red
Tuesday, 28 November 2006 12:00
The majority of Britons are set to become financially stretched this Christmas, new figures reveal.
Data from shopping search engine Kelkoo shows 56 per cent of women and 43 per cent of men say poor financial planning at Christmas has seen them get into debt.
This means some 23 million people could be pushed into the red over the holiday season.
"Debt related enquiries always increase after Christmas," said Frances Walker of the Consumer Credit Counselling Service.
"Our advice to people is to budget and plan carefully and pay off credit cards within two months of Christmas, but for those who do run into financial difficulties, help is at hand and we can offer advice to help out however bad it seems."
Kelkoo's data shows Christmas overspending is worst among students and school leavers, where 67 per cent go into debt for Christmas.
People earning between £25,000 and £30,000 a year also fare badly, with 60 per cent going into the red in the festive season.
And as costs rise, increasing numbers of Britons are turning to the internet to try and save money and get their research done away from the crush.
More than two Britons in five (41 per cent) are planning to spend more than five hours a week shopping online in the run-up to Christmas, far more than are planning to spend the same amount of time on the high street (26 per cent).
"Shoppers continue to shop on the high street for certain purchases, but they are using the internet to cut down on time spent on the crowded high streets by spending more time researching their purchases online before hitting the shops," said Bill Rowley, Kelkoo's head of shopping.
"With shoppers allocating a greater portion of their Christmas shopping time to online shopping, we hope that more people will benefit from the tools that online shopping search and comparison sites . . . offer to help stave off post-Christmas debt."
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