There’s post Christmas debt anxiety according to latest research from leading Online Market Research agency, Opinion Compare with over a quarter (26%) of the New Zealand population spending more on Christmas than they planned to. A national survey of n=523 New Zealanders found the average spend on Christmas was $769 with a variety of methods used to finance the festive season, including savings and buy now, pay later services
Table: Methods Used to Help Pay For Christmas
| 1 | Use money from a savings account | 31% |
| 2 | Use an ‘after-pay’ service when making purchases (e.g. AfterPay, Zip, MyLayBuy, etc.) | 24% |
| 3 | Taking out a new credit card | 15% |
| 4 | Applying for a personal loan | 10% |
| 5 | Using a traditional store ‘lay-by’ service when making purchases | 6% |
| 6 | Borrowing money from family / friends | 5% |
The Christmas accumulation of debt affected 1 in 5 Kiwis when asked about the level of debt Christmas caused, with this portion of the Kiwi population estimating their debt was on average $552. Of more concern is the level of anxiety this debt is causing with 57% of people who feel like they are in debt, stating it’s causing them anxiety.
Despite this anxiety, there’s plans to pay off the debt with half nominating better budgeting as their option.
Table: Plans to Pay Off Debt
| 1 | Build a budget | 50% |
| 2 | Snowball method (paying off small debts first) | 28% |
| 3 | Pick up additional work | 19% |
| 4 | Sell assets | 9% |
| 5 | Receive financial help from family/friends | 4% |
| 6 | Investing funds | 3% |
Gavin Male, Managing Director, said “We’ve seen in similar research that Christmas can be a stressful time of the year and the repercussions are evident in this research with anxiety about post Christmas debt. The good news is that there’s determination to get rid of the debt by being more frugal throughout the year via building budgets or taking systematic financial approaches to recover their debt.”