Zero per cent credit cards and balance transfers are helping people to pay off their Christmas debts quickly and easily, one expert believes.
Donald MacLeod, head of credit cards at Sainsbury's Bank, said: "What [people] are doing is taking advantage of credit cards with zero per cent balance transfers or zero per cent purchase rates for x number of months and using that to manage their Christmas spend."
He added that he expected two-thirds of people to have cleared all of their debt by the end of January added that "everybody's got it pretty much under control".
A survey carried out by the bank estimated that 18 per cent of Christmas spending had been placed on credit cards.
The same study revealed that 61 per cent of people expected to have cleared their debts after one month.
A further 15 per cent thought it would take them two to three months, three per cent anticipate it will take them up to a year and only one per cent said they thought it would take longer than this to clear their debts.
Research by Credit Action suggests the total UK debt currently stands at around 1,400 billion.
News Side
Credit cards help manage Christmas debt, says expert
Wed, 23 Jan 2008
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