Along with paying off Christmas and New Year’s bills an estimated 36% of credit card consumers will be using their cards to purchase everyday goods such as food, utility bills and even paying the rent or mortgage according to the latest Post Office Consumer Credit Report published this month.

It seems that twelve million people will be using their credit cards to make purchases of essentials, forty two percent % of them will be using them to pay for food and even their rents and mortgages.

Approximately one in ten of British people will be using their cards to pay housing bills like mortgages and rent as well as taking out short term payday loans, bank loans, and overdrafts. A third of the population are planning to use credit to hit the shops in the January sales, as will people already planning their holidays later on in the year.

If people are able to clear their credit cards purchases on time this is a great way to ease the cost of Christmas, the New Year and their family holiday throughout the year. But unfortunately many people will be using their cards to pay for things which they aren’t actually afford, having overstretched their finances already and not having enough cash to meet their needs.

How To Improve Your Credit Rating

If you have cards which are currently in default or earning interest it is often a good idea to look in to the possibility of changing your provider to one who offers free balance transfers and zero percent on purchases. If a credit consumer has a few cards that they are paying off and they’re worried about getting into bad credit it’s often a good idea to put all these different debts onto one card making it easier to pay them off by reducing the amount of interest being paid.

With a credit card it’s easy to overspend and then find that you’ve over-reached your income and you can’t afford to pay the outstanding balance. Spending funds which you don’t have using your credit card means that you end up borrowing large sums of money, often without even realising until the bills arrive. When you’re buying with a credit card it’s important you be aware of how much you have available on your limit and how much you are spending. If you don’t keep an eye out you can easily find that you can’t afford to pay the balance on the due date meaning that you start to attract interest and fees which are compound.

If you think that there might be a problem the sooner you start to deal with it the better. Unlike Christmas, if you ignore it, it won’t go away, it will just get worse. Talk to your credit card provider or, alternatively, the Citizens Advice Bureaux offer free financial advice.