People who wait until the last week before Christmas to do their shopping tend to overspend, according to research by one financial services firm.
Egg reports that approximately four million shoppers leave their gift buying until the week before Christmas, with the average last-minute shopper spending 39 per cent more than they intended to.
Alison Wright, chief marketing officer at Egg, said that although people have plenty of time to prepare for Christmas, many still find themselves "panic buying".
"Consumers need to try to find ways to drive down the overall cost of Christmas - one way seems to be by avoiding those last minute shopping sprees, when lack of choice and panic buying are rife," she remarked.
In related news, uSwitch.com recently reported that using store cards for Christmas shopping will cost consumers approximately £2.8 billion in interest over the course of the next year.
This, the firm noted, said that this would be £892 million more in interest than for those using credit cards .
News Side
Warning over Christmas "panic buying"
Fri, 14 Dec 2007
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