Bankruptcy & Foreclosures

The credit card companies are all too aware of the disturbing condition that takes place this time of year: Procrastination. Believe it or not surveys suggest that 1 in 5 men still hasn’t even started his Christmas shopping yet. While I’m not the exactly the poster child of motivation, I am pleased to report that I do not fall into that statistic.

Taking a look at the Nation Retail Federation’s (NRF) First Holiday Survey, US consumers plan to spend $816.69 on holiday related shopping.

Although disturbing in its own right, here’s something to consider. Paying the minimum payment on this balance (let’s say $15.82 per month) it would take 100 months or 8 and a half years to pay this back with a total $765.31 worth of interest charges.

Worse yet is that studies have proven that consumers are less cautious with their spending habits as the amount of time left to shop decreases. Considering that we are now five days away from Christmas, credit cards will certainly play a role in spontaneous (last minute) purchasing.

A final stat to leave you with is that 24% of holiday shoppers will not finish until December 23rd and 10% will push it right to Christmas Eve.