Top tips for Christmas shopping

The Finance & Leasing Association and Credit Action have listed their top tips for Christmas shopping to help consumers to spend responsibly with in-store credit, store and credit cards.

Five top tips pre-Christmas:

Plan your spending and stick to it. Work out how many presents you need to get, and how much you can afford to spend.

Remember that presents are only the starting point; food, drink, travel, sending cards, and attending Christmas parties all cost too. Budgeting for Christmas is made easier at creditaction.org.uk

Many people get paid early in December. This can help with the cost of Christmas, but make sure you have budgeted enough to get you to next pay day.

Pay for as much of Christmas as you can using debit cards or cash, so the impact in January is less.

If you do need to use credit, shop around for it, just as you would for presents. Make sure you're getting the best deal by visiting price comparison sites.

And after Christmas:

Don't forget that a lot of bills will come through in January - and not just credit bills, depending how you pay, energy bills can be higher than at other times of the year. Make sure you keep some money back to pay them.

If you took advantage of buy now, pay later offers, organise your finances so that you can make the repayments when they start.

Talk to your lender at the earliest opportunity if you think that you might miss making a repayment and remember to seek free and independent advice from a charity like the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) if you are worried about debt.

Try and pay off as much of your cards as you can each month. Aim to have cleared Christmas spending by March.

Plan for next Christmas. If your planning worked this time around, do it again. If it didn't, what went wrong? If you can, start saving now - shopping in December will be worry free.

The FLA's Fiona Hoyle said: "We all like to take advantage of pre-Christmas offers, but it's easy to spend more than you planned.  Our top tips will help you to manage your finances to avoid any shocks when the festivities are over.  If you do find you're not going to be able to make your repayments, talk to your lender as soon as possible"

Joanna Parsley, Associate Director at Credit Action, said: "At Credit Action we know how expensive Christmas can be. If you do need to borrow to get through this festive season following these simple tips will help you to stay on top of your finances, and will help you to start the New Year without a Christmas debt hangover."

For more information, visit creditaction.org.uk or fla.org.uk.