Friday, February 5, 2010
Category:
Personal Finance Tips
According to Nationwide, there was a dip in personal savings during the lead up to Christmas.
It was found that consumers no longer regarded saving money as being as important as they did in previous months. Nationwide believes that possible reasons for this change of heart are likely to include Christmas shopping, and the fact that the VAT increase was imminent at the time.
It has been reported that just 45 percent of consumers are making regular savings, which is 4 percent less that the previous month. Furthermore, findings show that 25 percent of consumers are failing to save any money at all, which is 1 percent more than the month before.
Head of savings at Nationwide, Andy Hutchinson, commented: "December is clearly a busier month for retailers, so there is no surprise that the importance of saving decreased in the run-up to Christmas. It is possible that this was also exacerbated by the fact that December 2009 was the last month before VAT increased back up to 17.5% from 15%, encouraging some customers to make those bigger purchases before the New Year."
"Discouragingly, the number of those who are saving regularly is at its lowest point since the Index began in May 2008. On the other hand, this could be because of seasonal fluctuations - as mentioned earlier - and we mustn't forget that the Base Rate is lower now than it was 12 months ago. Nevertheless, it's still worrying that a quarter of us are not saving any money at all."
"We know that December can be an expensive month for families, so I would encourage them to get back into a savings habit as quickly as possible in January 2010."
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Homeowners who may have had to rely on credit cards to fund the festive period could consider tying these debts up with a
secured loan. One of many finance options available, a secured loan for debt consolidation could allow the borrower to reduce multiple monthly repayments down to just one. What’s more, the new single monthly repayment could even be lower than the sum of current outgoings. This money could potentially be set aside in a savings account for future use. However, when taking out a secured loan for debt consolidation, it must be remembered that consolidating your debt may increase the amount you pay back overall and extend the repayment periods of your debts.
