Unpaid Christmas

BRITAIN: Are you worried about getting all your shopping done before Christmas? If so, you’re not alone — many people find this time of year stressful. With less than two months to go till Christmas, one group is finding Christmas 2008 more stressful than usual. That’s because they haven’t finished paying off their debts from Christmas 2007.

According to a survey from the personal finance website Savebuckets.com , 24 per cent of British consumers are still in debt from Christmas 2007. This is a 7 per cent rise from this time last year, when 17 per cent said they were still paying off debts from the previous Christmas.

Almost 25 per cent of British consumers are still in debt from Christmas 2007.

Savebuckets spokesman James Wenger told The Daily Telegraph: “With a rising number of Brits still paying for last Christmas, it raises alarm bells over how the pattern will continue next year into 2009 as the economic turmoil continues.”

Meanwhile, the Bank of England says credit-card debt has reached record levels. Financial experts say one reason is that some homeowners are using credit cards to pay their mortgages.

“It is clearly a concern if consumers are living beyond their means,” comments Richard Thompson of PricewaterhouseCoopers . “We call it the credit waterfall effect, which is when people who are faced with rising mortgage costs and lower incomes resort to short-term credit to maintain their standard of living.”