Holidays can be a very taxing time for those people with low incomes or minimum disposable income. Marketers begin the festive hype months before the actual holiday and, despite their best intentions, far too may people are drawn into the ever-spiralling credit abyss that results when expectations far outweigh income.

A lot of people depend on credit cards or personal loans to offset the cost of participating in the spirit of giving, yet few actually take the time to totally assess just exactly how much a loan is going to cost or how long it will take to actually repay it.