Christmas shoppers 'still paying last year's bills'

13 April 2012

It could be a lean Christmas for more than 4.2 million credit card users who are still paying off their bill from last year's festivities, new research found today.

Price comparisons website MoneyExpert.com said that nearly one in eight card users said they still had debts on their plastic which had been racked up last Christmas.

More here:

• Today's the day we'll spend £183m

• Shops facing worst-ever Christmas run-up

Experts suggested that around £11.4 billion would be put on cards over this festive season. MoneyExpert.com found that last year, the average consumer took 2.6 months to pay off their Christmas bills.

Scots were the quickest to pay off their bills, taking an average of 2.14 months, whilst people in the Midlands and Wales took more than three months to clear their debt.

But MoneyExpert.com warned that substantial numbers across the UK were still feeling the effects of a Christmas hangover - and would continue to do so well into the spring and summer of next year.

Sean Gardner, chief executive of MoneyExpert.com, said: "Christmas is a time for giving and it looks like we are definitely giving our credit cards a battering over the festive season.

"It is tempting to put spending on your plastic when it comes to Christmas and the bills are mounting up.

"Of course everybody intends to clear the debt as soon as possible, but it is evident that millions of us don't."

MoneyExpert.com pointed out that someone putting £1,000 of gifts on plastic would pay around £170 over a year in interest, based on an APR of 16.9 per cent.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in