Listen: how to avoid going into debt this Christmas

We are being warned to think carefully about whether a spending splurge this Christmas is something we can really afford with so many families struggling to make ends meet as the cost of living bites.

While splashing the cash might help us to bring our loved ones joy on 25^th December, many risk financial pain by racking up debts that will take months to clear – only about 14% plan to repay everything inside the next two months.

Indeed, on average we expect that it will take a little more than four months to be clear of the excesses of the festive season, with a fifth of us set to stick our spending on our credit cards and one in ten using the increasingly commonplace ‘buy now pay later’ methods available to pay for presents.

Aston spoke to personal finance expert and co-founder of Raisin Kevin Mountford.

Photo by Colin Watts on Unsplash