Debt concern as Christmas spending set to hit €3bn
The average household will spend €1,270 during the festive period.
The average European household plans to spend just €725.
A survey by leading consultants Deloitte shows Irish consumers will spend 20% more than they did last year and nearly double the European average in the coming weeks.
The Deloitte survey also highlights a worrying sign, almost one in three people are considering taking out a loan or getting a new credit card to pay for their purchases.
Earlier this year the Central Bank said it was concerned about rising personal debt levels, which have swollen in recent years to €18,000 for every person in the country.
Post-Christmas credit card debt amounted to €1.7bn last year.
The Irish spending figure is more than the French and Italians combined and only Americans spend more money. Consumer Association of Ireland chief executive Dermott Jewell warned against overspending and running up debt.
“For the vast majority of the population, money is tight, there are bills to be paid at the end of every month and they don’t go away at Christmas.
“People can get carried away too easily at Christmas. It’s a time of goodwill and people throw caution to the wind and say ‘It’s Christmas, we’ll worry about it next year’. The problem is, next year is only a few weeks away.
“People need to fix their budget and stick to it.
“It’s too easy to go over the limit with a credit card.
“If you can’t pay it back within the short timeframe, it’s going to cost a lot more in the end, especially if it’s not paid back for a few months and you have interest on interest,” he said.
Michael Culloty of the Money, Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) also warned consumers: “The difficulties we see are post-Christmas, especially for people on low income or social welfare who can’t afford to save for Christmas and feel they have to borrow, often at high interest.
“When the ESB, gas and phone bills come in January, on top of the loan repayments, that’s when the difficulties arise. The busiest time in our year is around February/March and our figures are going up year by year,” he said.
St Vincent de Paul spokesperson John Monaghan warned the 250,000 people it deals with on an annual basis not to deal with moneylenders.
“Our main concern for those people is that they would not get involved with moneylenders.
“Once the toy ads come on, there is a real temptation to go out and borrow money.
“But as soon as Christmas is over, people start coming to us in trouble with debt.”
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