Shopping habits 'changed' for this Christmas, report shows

15/12/2008

Customers are becoming more conservative in their spending this Christmas, thanks to the credit crunch.

This is the main finding of a new report from Halifax, released this weekend.

The study showed that 21 per cent have changed their Christmas shopping habits - with 75 per cent of this total "more likely" this year to take advantage of discount sales.

Around a third also said that they started their shopping earlier this year.

Regional variations were also uncovered by the research.

The firm found that Scots were least likely to make festive spending cuts - with 86 per cent saying that they would not be changing their spending habits.

However, this figure went down to 74 per cent for Yorkshire and Humberside residents.

Mike Regnier, Halifax head of banking, said: "It's encouraging to see that more consumers are becoming prudent with their finances this year by choosing to use their savings, monthly income and cash to pay for their Christmas purchases, rather than opting for costly store cards which could see them paying out more in the long run."

Halifax surveyed 1,001 adults with fellow financial firm GfK NOP over the course of its research.

Tags; Budgeting Advice, Young Family Finances,

Regional Debt Advice; Debt Help Yorkshire,

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