Fancy Body Art Or A Boob Job Christmas Present?

Many are picking rather more unusual Christmas presents this year, including tattoos, piercings, cosmetic surgery and even vasectomies. What’s happened to a pair of socks or some smellies?

According to research by Gocompare.com, 64% of festive shoppers say it’s getting harder to buy truly different gifts with 43% saying the people they buy for already seem to have everything.

Opting to give a gift card or voucher for some friends and relatives is often a safe bet. here’s also buying someone an experience day, museum pass, club membership or charity-based gift.

However, what about a more unusual, even alternative Christmas present? Top of the alternative Christmas list for 2011 is a tattoo, followed by a piercing or a boob job.

With personal finances under so much pressure, many Brits are having to make their Christmas list year more practical than perhaps exciting. Socks and underwear unsurprisingly come out as the first choice for practical gifts. Some 9% of Brits will be getting essential maintenance on their house from Santa this year.

The research also found that on average we will spend £528 buying gifts for 10 people.  While 70% expect to spend the same amount or more as last year, 30% were looking to reduce the amount they paid out for presents.

Of concern though is that almost 20% of people will either go overdrawn or put the cost of Christmas on a store or credit card.

“Jeremy Cryer, Gocompare.com’s head of credit cards, commented: “If you think that you or any of your friends or family are going to struggle to pay for presents this year, perhaps the best alternative Christmas gift is to suggest that you don’t exchange presents, or instead keep to a very small budget for a token gift. The pressure to buy gifts at Christmas can push someone who’s already struggling financially into even deeper trouble.

“If you’ve no alternative but to use plastic to pay for Christmas try to use a card with 0% introductory deal for purchases. The interest free period can be up to 15 months with cards like the Halifax All-In-One card, which gives you time to repay your Christmas spend without racking up interest.

“If you’ve already got a credit card debt look into switching to a 0% balance transfer deal with an extended interest free period – these usually charge a small balance transfer fee of around 3%, which will initially be added to the debt but it is still worth it if you can get 0% interest for 22 months*.”

MoneyHighStreet comments: “The whole Christmas buying experience can easily get out of hand as people spend huge sums of money, whether it be on Christmas presents, food or other Christmas festivities.

Spending money that you don’t have and resorting to borrowing money can be a disaster unless you take time to ensure you can realistically afford to repay the loan or perhaps credit card at an agreed point in time. Be aware that many people are actually still in debt from Christmas last year.

Opting for alternative, perhaps more interesting presents may well go down a treat for many.

Equally, with so many trying to save money, employing more tactics this year for Christmas present buying may well be a good move – including for example ‘Secret Santa’ and agreeing a financial limit for gifts.

*Based on the Barclaycard Platinum Visa Card which currently offers 0% for 22 months for balance transfers subject to a 2.9% handling fee.