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Holidays

Local consumers vow to avoid the holiday credit card pitfall

By David Connolly,
Enterprise staff writer
November 26, 2004
 

BROCKTON - Kelly McPherson of Whitman began her day Friday at KB Toys at Westgate Mall in Brockton and by noon she was entering the Wal-Mart in Abington, her fourth store of the day.

"I'm just about done," the 33-year-old stay-at-home mother said as she steered toward her car a carriage loaded with gifts for her husband, son and other family members and friends.

"I've got some family-to-family gifts, stuff for my (6-year-old son) and grab gifts, a little of everything in here," said McPherson.

Asked how much she spent on Friday, McPherson smiled wide and said, "A lot. I don't want to add up all my receipts."

Like many consumers out buying gifts on the biggest shopping day of the year, McPherson put all her purchases on a credit card.

"I'll be going to the credit union Monday to pay off today's disaster," she said. McPherson said she has saved all year in a credit union holiday account.

McPherson and several area shoppers on Friday said they plan to pay off their credit-card bills as soon as they come in the mail, echoing the sentiments of 70 percent of consumers who responded to a national survey released this week.

"It seems that consumers are getting wiser and not using credit as frivolously as in years past," said Howard Dvorkin, founder of Consolidated Credit Counseling Services, Inc.

Dvorkin's nonprofit Consolidated Credit annually surveys 1,400 consumers via the Internet and telephone interviews. While 70 percent of the respondents pledged to pay off their credit card debt immediately, approximately 30 percent of survey respondents are still paying off credit-card debt racked up during last year's holiday season.

But that's down from 54 percent the year before, according to the annual survey by the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based non-profit.

"People are wising up to the fact that credit-card companies are just out to take as much of the consumers hard-earned money as they can," said Dvorkin.

During the holidays, people face pressures to purchase gifts for friends and family, said retail expert and UMass-Dartmouth Professor Nora Ganim-Barnes.

"People almost really have no choice. They're expected to come up with gifts, and if they can't afford it, they charge it," she said. 

 

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