Consumers Warned Over ‘Holiday Debt’

Holidaymakers who are tempted to go into debt to fund their holidays have been advised to make sure they repay any money borrowed for their summer of fun as soon as they return to the UK, in order to avoid interest building up or the need for something like a debt consolidation loan to solve the problem of indebtedness.

The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) has also urged people to consider in detail the costs associated with their holiday - and to budget each day to make sure they are not spending more than they can afford. Those already in debt, it is suggested, should look for cheaper ways to go on holiday if they must go at all.

“If you really can’t afford to go on holiday you have to accept that and not go on holiday - or look around for ways of making it a very cheap holiday. You could go camping, or perhaps you could do a house swap or think of ways of doing it economically,” said Frances Walker, spokesperson for the CCCS. She added: “If you are going abroad you need to think about what the living costs are there … you need to think about what spending money you are going to need and try to give yourself a budget per day.”

Once this has been done and the trip funded - through savings or a personal loan - it is important for consumers to remember not to overspend when they arrive at their destination and that any money they spend via their credit cards should be repaid as soon as possible when they return to the UK, to avoid mounting debts that could leave them in need of debt consolidation.

“You just need to plan to repay your credit cards back and not go on using them,” Ms Walker said. “Obviously the sensible advice to give … would be to save for your holidays … but often people don’t do that. It would be better to have a budget and to think what exactly you are going to spend and can you afford it?”

By repaying the credit card debt upon your return, Ms Walker added that consumers should be able to avoid “getting into any serious debt” which could ultimately affect their credit rating.

The advice from the CCCS follows news in July this year that saw that one in six Britons are not coping with the debt they are in, something that the CCCS warning hopes to help avoid. According to research last month from R3 - the Association of Business Recovery Professionals - the reasons for debt problems were not as simple as having spent more than consumers could manage, with issues such as illness and redundancies cited by a combined total of 54 per cent of those that had encountered debt problems.

According to the organisation’s website, the CCCS was started in 1993 as a pilot in Leeds before centres were opened in Nottingham, Cardiff and Birmingham three years later. It is based on a concept from the United States.

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