Britons ‘not putting money away’ for festive season

Britons are falling short when it comes to saving for Christmas, new research has said.

A Barclaycard study has found 44 per cent of Britons do not put any money away ahead of their pre-Christmas spending sprees and Citizens Advice (CAB) noted this can cause consumers problems.

A particular issue it saw as significant is that fact that 54 per cent of consumers plan to spend as much this year as last and seven per cent intend to increase their outlay, despite 31 per cent admitting they could not pay all their bills in January.

Joining forces to warn about the potential debt consequences of such actions, the two bodies issued suggestions to consumers to budget better over the holiday period.

Barclaycard's head of public and community affairs Alan Ainsworth said: "It is essential to plan and budget in advance to make sure you aren't caught short when it comes to paying for bills and other expenses."

And CAB chief executive Gillian Guy said each January sees "a spike in enquiries from people who are struggling to keep on top of bills and debts due to overspending throughout the festive period", which wise spending and budgeting can help to prevent.

Issuing advice last week to those who do get into post Christmas-debt, the Finance and Leading Association said consumers who are in difficulty with their debt repayments should contact those they owe money to as soon as possible to find a way to re-schedule them.

It advised against taking on further credit as a means of postponing the problem.

Posted by Paul Thacker