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Holiday Shoppers Running Up Debt

December 20, 2006

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Buy now, pay later. Much later, according to a new poll of holiday shoppers by Consumer Reports.

According to the survey, 23% of Americans will not pay off their holiday debt until March or later, equaling $14.6 billion in interest-accruing debt.

Over one-quarter of Americans (26%) use credit cards most often when holiday shopping, contributing to the $63.6 billion charged on credit cards throughout the shopping season.

"Credit cards can be hazardous to your holiday spending," said Tod Marks, senior editor, Consumer Reports. "With the average household saddled with $9,000 in credit debt already, anything that significantly adds to that impost could be potentially devastating. Cash forces you to be much more disciplined, purchasing only what you can afford."

The Consumer Reports Holiday Shopping Poll also finds:

• Among those using credit cards to pay for holiday gifts, 17% or more plan on accumulating $1,000 or more in holiday charges.

• With little more than two weeks to go until Christmas, re-gifting becomes an attractive option. A noteworthy proportion of consumers (13%) are planning on re-gifting. Men are more likely to re-gift (17%) than women (10%).

• After the holidays, 16% of consumers plan on returning some of the gifts they received. Men (21%) are more likely than women (12%) to return some of their gifts.

• Shoppers, on average, will buy about 15 gifts for the holidays-married women will buy the most (19); about 40% more than their husbands (13).

• As of December 10th, with only weeks left in the holiday shopping season, one-third of Americans had not even begun their holiday shopping.

• 30% or 62 million shoppers say that they won't finish their holiday shopping until December 23rd or later. More than 1 in 10 shoppers (11%) don't anticipate finishing their holiday shopping until the evening of December 24th.

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