Thursday, January 18, 2007
Category:
Consolidation
Recent news from Halifax revealed that 38% of New Year sale shoppers will spend at least £50 each in the January sales.
Two thirds of the UK population were set to head for the shops and browsing rather than shopping for specific items drives the majority of sales shoppers.
The biggest January sales spenders are those aged 35-44 – 31% of which spend more than £100 on average in comparison to only 18% of 18-24 year olds. A higher percentage of men usually spend £100 or more in the sales, 21% compared to 14% of women.
Impulse shopping is said to drive January sales with only 22% of shoppers having specific items in mind before they shop. The most popular items bought in the new year sales are clothing, footwear and accessories with 65% of sales shoppers saying these make up the bulk of their purchases. 13% of shoppers say that the majority of their purchases will be electrical goods.
Budgeting is often forgotten when the chance of getting a bargain comes up. The majority of new year shoppers (78%) don’t allocate a set amount before they hit the shops. For those that do set a budget, almost half will stick to it (48%) while just over half (51%) of shoppers who sometimes or always go over budget will exceed this by £50 or less. Debit and credit cards are both popular payment methods used for buying in the sales, and are used by 57% and 38% of shoppers respectively.
Peter Jackson, Head of Products, Halifax, comments: ‘After spending in the run up to Christmas, it can make a welcome change to buy something for ourselves in the January sales. But, we often buy in haste because an item has been reduced, or as a result of the pressure to find a bargain.’
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Shoppers who have used credit cards to pay for Christmas gifts and purchases in the January sales could consider consolidating these with a secured loan. One of many options, a secured loan will wrap multiple monthly repayments into one and will stop the need to juggle several bills. Secured loans can be repaid over 5 to 25 years, it is however important to remember that repaying borrowing over a longer term will increase overall interest charges.
