Research conducted by UK financial comparison service MoneyExpert has found that more than 4.2 million people are still paying back Christmas credit card debt from 2005.
UK payments association Apacs has estimated that GBP11.4 billion will be put on plastic this Christmas.
MoneyExpert shows that it took an average of 2.6 months to clear Christmas credit card debt from 2005, but a substantial number still felt the financial effects of last Christmas throughout the year. Indeed, nearly one in eight credit card holders admit to still being indebted by the 2005 Christmas spending spree.
Sean Gardner, chief executive of MoneyExpert.com, said: With more than four million of us still paying for last Christmas it is clear that there is a need for many of us to change our financial habits. Getting into debt is fine as long as you have the means to get out of it.
The investigation indicated that people aged between 30 and 50 took the longest to pay off credit card debt from last Christmas – an average of 3.3 months, in comparison with the over-50s, who took less than two months.
Across the country, those in the Midlands and Wales were found to take the longest in clearing the debts, with an average of 3.18 months, while the Scots only took 2.14 months.