Last minute Christmas spending to add to debt woe?

People who are already struggling with their finances and have left their Christmas shopping until the very last minute could find overspending today (December 24th) causes their debt concerns to worsen.

New research carried out by Sainsbury’s Finance revealed £555 million will be spent by consumers on Christmas Eve, as people rush to get all of their gifts sorted before tomorrow.

But having to pick up presents in a rush could result in overspending as desperate shoppers pay over the odds for items.

The study noted up to 20 million adults in the UK will be purchasing gifts today, meaning 42 per cent of the grown-up population expect to be hitting the shops within the next 24 hours.

It means individuals will be shelling out at least £23 million an hour – or £385,000 per minute.

As an average, just over eight per cent of people’s festive spending is to take place on Christmas Eve, while 1.4 million intend to do more than half of their buying on this date and nearly 600,000 are to carry out in excess of 80 per cent of their purchasing at this time.

Head of Sainsbury’s Credit Cards Stuart McKeggie said: “The extreme weather conditions this December have wreaked havoc with people’s shopping plans which means that some of us will be dashing around the shops later than perhaps hoped.”

It comes after recent research compiled by Allianz warned parties this Christmas could result in hefty costs if household good are damaged during the celebrations.

Posted by Joe White