Here comes the last minute spend

By Laura Carpenter

As the final countdown for Christmas gets underway I've started to think (once again) about how I'm going to get through this tricky financial period.

Taking advantage of supermarket bargains, department store discounts and even shopping online for the best mortgage products and cheapest credit card deals seems like it hasn't been enough.

Despite feeling completely prepared for December 25th, I know that Christmas Eve could turn into one of the most expensive days of my life.

But, apparently, I won’t be the only one whipping out the credit card at the last moment to tide the family over for the festive season. In fact, according to research from Sainsbury's, we last minute Brits are going to spend a collective £1.5 million a minute on the day before Christmas.

Post-work drinks, a box of mince pies for the girls in the office and those almost-forgotten presents will see credit cards working out to a total tune of £380.9 million. In fact, £2.14 billion will be spent in all on December 24th.

Even those shoppers who have attempted to be organised can get caught short at the last moment end up trapped in a sea of sweaty shoppers all vying for the last turkey or must-have Christmas present.

Like missing mortgage payments every now and again, such things are not against the law and are just one of life's great inevitabilities. I know right now that I'll be dashing down to the supermarket to buy crackers after work - which won't be as bad as last year when we didn't have a Turkey until December 23rd.

Character building I think they call it. Though these things seem to try us, there are solutions to the financial impact such unaccounted expenses can have.

According to those people at Sainsbury's, taking on a credit card with a zero per cent balance transfer fee after Christmas can help to beat the festive bill.

Similar advice came from James Falla of debt counselling firm Thomas Charles, who said that using balance transfers is the first step consumers can take to sort out Christmas credit card debt. However, he added that if borrowers find themselves with sky-high bills on several cards, debt consolidation loans can provide a way out.

"The second step," to get rid of Christmas debt, "is to think about whether you need to be consolidating those credit cards with a loan", Mr Falla commented.

However, he did warn that if balance transfers or consolidation loans fail to make a dent in the credit card bills, shoppers need to sit down and consider their own spending patterns.