Last Minute UK Christmas Spending Boom

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 04, 2006

It looks like UK shoppers weren’t able to resist a last minute spending spree during Christmas 2005. Worries about surging credit card debt and overdraft levels seem to have been set-aside in the run up to Christmas, contradicting previous reports discussed in this Debtsolver blog, which suggested a gloomy outlook for high street retailers.

Final figures have yet to be released, but according to a pre-Christmas survey for Sainsbury’s bank, UK shoppers looked likely to spend the best part of £ 10 billion in the period before Christmas, representing an increase of £ 2 billion over this time last year.

Worryingly though, an estimated 9 million UK shoppers were reportedly preparing to spend 20% of this money using credit cards. This during a year in which two million people were still trying to pay off debt incurred from the previous holiday.

Over a million people were expected to spend over £ 1000 in the week before Christmas, and nearly 3 million of us were expected to spend between £ 500 and £ 1000.

Perhaps many will not be surprised to hear that men will make up the higher proportion of last minute shoppers, spending £ 280 compared with £ 196 for women, in the week before Christmas day.

Initial figures do appear to confirm a last minute rush, but unfortunately for retailers, the recent January cold snap has apparently put a dampener on the New Year sales. The “Armageddon Christmas” some had predicted seems to have been avoided at the expense of further increases in personal debt, and unsecured borrowing. When the final Christmas sales figures are released this month, we’ll summarise them for you here.

Also, in a later Debtsolver blog, we’ll be giving some tips and advice on ways to reduce your personal debt after Christmas.