Credit cards and savings 'pay for holidays and eating out'

Category: Credit cards
Date: 9/29/2008 6:08:22 PM

An increasing number of people are turning to their credit cards to pay for luxuries as rising prices continue to impact on their disposable income, according to a personal finance expert.

A recent study conducted for the Daily Telegraph found that around a third of people have scrapped their holiday plans for his year and more than half have cut back on leisure spending such as eating out and going to the cinema.

Michelle Slade of independent personal finance website Moneyfacts.co.uk said other consumers were simply finding different ways to fund their usual spending habits, such as raiding their savings.

"It's either that or credit cards - people resorting to maybe putting more on their credit cards than they normally would have done," she explained.

Some of those will be benefiting by using a cash-back reward credit card, but Ms Slade added that many people now relying more on their plastic were doing so "just to get by".