Taking out a secured loan which covers all of your outstanding debts and allows you to make one monthly payment rather than multiple payments to creditors might help with the post Christmas financial struggle. However additional borrowing in order to pay off existing debt is not the way out of debt.

Christmas is a time when people are more likely to take on too much debt, January is probably one of the best times to reassess your financial situation and get help from a debt management company rather than trying to borrow your way out of debt, because it usually never works. Something like 60 per cent of people who get a debt consolidation loan go on to borrow more money, sinking further into debt.

At Christmas people often struggle to keep up with financing the additional gifts and food purchases and so, more often than not, run up further debts on credit cards or overdrafts.

Credit card and loan companies also pile on the pressure with targeted advertising campaigns aimed at reducing the ‘stress’ of Christmas by offering low or 0 per cent interest rates for a few months that then revert to APR’s, sometimes, well over 10 per cent.

The worst thing to do is bury your head in the sand and ignore the credit card bill or bank statement when it lands on your doorstep. People who are struggling or know that come the end of January might be struggling to repay the debts they have run up over Christmas should seek professional advice from a debt management company.