The usage of credit cards to buy presents is popular as you only have to think of paying much later. Of course, most businesses hope for consumers to purchase from them and really do not care how you pay so long as you pay. Christmas is without a doubt the most profitable time of the year for a lot of small businesses and ironically also for credit card providers. A recent survey suggest, consumers are spending more and more on presents for their loved ones and without a doubt this is set to increase. Credit card spending has also increased year on year by an average of 1.73%. This does not include those purchasing on club or store cards. In spite of this, some people, on the other hand have made the effort to save throughout the year for the Holiday season and thus looking forward to a very "Happy" one.
Loyal clients of the British-based company, Farepak Hampers have not been lucky as the "trusted" company with which they have diligently deposited their money in the hope of using it on presents for their loved ones and families this Holiday season has spectarculary collapsed. The state of affairs means that these customers are left with nothing and will have to find other ways of obtaining money to purchase their presents. With company bosses having pulled out of an expensive insurance scheme earlier to this collapse, there is likely to be no compensation of any sort for these forlorn customers.
Company bosses from the failed company say their bank HBOS, has severely let them down whereas the bank has issued a long statement stating that the company bosses are to blame since they refused to use their own money as a guarantee a loan. Hence they were forced to pull the plug on them. Worse still the former CEO, William Rollason, cancelled their membership with the Direct Selling Association as he did not wish to pay expensive insurance that covered customers saving for the Christmas season.
For these unlucky customers of this beleagured company, a fund has been set up for them with contributors such as HBOS. So far only £3 milion has been raised, which nothing compared to the £40,000,000 required. Thus some of the savers interviewed have said they will have to fall on their credit card to make the shortfall. This is not the ideal, as credit card means debt in the future and some may not be able to pay the whole bill in full and the end of January leading to all sorts of unnecessary hardships.
To avoid a huge credit card debt and the headache that comes with it, it may be better to avoid using a credit card altogether. Although, we would all like to shell out some presents on our loved ones, it is best to do so within our budget. Using your credit card for purchasing presents can mean spending the rest of the following year just clearing those debts. The cumulative consequences can even land you with a low credit score and in need of credit repair.
Nevertheless, many of us are likely to use our credit cards. If so it's important to do some budgeting in advance.
