Can you believe we are more than halfway to Christmas already? The six month mark is the perfect opportunity to start saving with Credit Unions of Wales and put a stop to your money worries during this year’s festive season.
People in Wales are the second highest Christmas spenders in the UK with the average Welsh household spending £596 on gifts each year. By setting aside £24 a week from this week on, you will be able to save your annual spend in time for Christmas. This way you will only pay as much as you spend, rather than having to pay back interest on top of a loan to help you cover the costs.
Many of the 21 credit unions in Wales offer special Christmas Saver accounts which ‘lock’ your monthly savings until November. This means you can only access your savings when it’s time for present shopping and you won’t be tempted to spend them on something else before Christmas arrives. Some even offer incentives such as a £10 bonus, so you can start saving straight away, or free entry into a Christmas prize draw.
Our table below shows how much you could save by putting a small sum into a Credit Unions Christmas Savers account each week:
| Weekly savings halfway to Christmas | Christmas present pot |
| £1 | £25 |
| £2 | £50 |
| £5 | £125 |
| £10 | £250 |
| £20 | £500 |
| £30 | £750 |
| £40 | £1,000 |
Many credit unions across Wales also offer low-interest Christmas loans which can be paid off within a year with small weekly payments. One example is Cardigan-based West Wales Credit Union which offers a £100 Christmas loan with weekly payments of £2.33 and a total repayment of £112.70.
Campaign spokesperson and General Manager of North Wales Credit Union, Barry Roberts, said: “Thousands of households across Wales struggle to balance their gift budgets with paying bills on time, but thankfully Christmas isn’t one of those unforeseen expenses such as a broken boiler or car repairs so you can prepare for it.
“We’d always recommend saving in advance for such occasions so that you’ve already covered the cost before you incur it and by starting now you’ll be well ahead.
“If you don’t manage to save everything you need in time, we also offer Christmas loans with much lower interest rates than payday lenders and we make sure you only borrow as much as you can afford.
“With all of the sales on over the summer, it’s even worth thinking about taking out a loan now so that you can get your gifts at a better price and pay off the cost before Christmas arrives.”
Credit Unions of Wales 