Christmas to put half of people in debt

THE cost of Christmas will drive more than half of us into debt this year and one-in-four will see financial woes dilute our enjoyment of the festivities, a new survey has found.

What’s more, almost a third of us will resort to borrowing on credit cards to cover the cost and then face an uphill struggle to get back on track — it will take a quarter of us three to six months to recover financially from the festive outlay.

The survey, carried out by IREACH Market Research on behalf of the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU), shows the temptation is to borrow beyond our means from sources that charge very high interest, building up future debt.