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22 December 2005
Debt charities are getting ready for an onslaught of customer calls after Christmas, when reality bites in the form of credit card bills and exceeded overdraft limits.
Organisations such as the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) and the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) will be waiting expectantly by their phones come January 3rd, but are unlikely to have much breathing space as they brace themselves for an inundation of festive regrets.
The CCCS alone expects to receive 20,000 such calls in January, seeking advice about how to remedy a horrific Christmas overspend, and accepts that December is effectively the calm before the storm.
A spokeswoman told This is Money: "The calls get a little depressed in December because people are spending, but they go through the roof in the New Year. We think it will be as busy as last year, if not even busier."
This tallies with recent figures from Grant Thornton, which suggested that 6,500 personal insolvencies in the first three months of 2006 will come directly because of Christmas recklessness.
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