Store card are ‘debt traps’

Alliance & Leicester states that such use can create an excess £1,500 of credit card debt, yet nearly a quarter of shoppers have used store cards for purchases.

“Christmas costs can really add up and some of the offers pushed at us by sales assistants in connection with their store cards can seem really tempting. The real costs of these ‘discounts’, however, may be with you for a long time as interest payments stack up,” warned Richard Al-Dabbagh, senior personal loans manager at Alliance & Leicester.

He urged proper debt management to allow shoppers to financially survive the season, even going as far as suggesting a low-cost loan as an alternative to using a store card.

Debt advice can help decide what is the best option, but it is worth looking at any purchases made on plastic, as many APRs are as high as 30 per cent.