Many Planning Winter Holiday To Save Money

With Winter upon us, one in four Brits are planning their holiday during this end of year low season, with many doing so to avoid peak holiday prices.

According to research by Halifax, of those opting to holiday late in the year some 25% said that they do so as to avoid peak prices.

A further 23% are looking for a holiday to get some winter sun – over 2.5 million are hoping for some late sun with a visit to southern Europe and the Mediterranean.

With 14% saying that with a winter holiday they can go further for their money, around 3 million will be planning a trip to a long haul destination,outside of Europe and Russia.

All this means that a lot of people will be looking to get the best deal on their holiday travel money – it is expected that collectively they will be spending over £9 billion getting away and a further £500 million whilst on holiday.

In recession hit Britain it’ll come as no surprise that one in three state that they are finding it harder to save up money for a holiday. As a result many now spend longer looking for the best deal, whilst others have cut back on leisure activities to afford their holiday or have taken on extra work.

There are other ways in which consumers can save on their holiday too.  With many holiday makers using a credit card or a prepaid currency card whilst away, it is increasingly important to make sure that the plastic in your wallet will make your money go further.

The Halifax Clarity credit card for example doesn’t charge foreign exchange fees worldwide on any transactions or cash withdrawals.  It offers a flat rate of interest at 12.9% typical APR across all transactions, which means consumers will see no cost difference for using their card whilst they are on holiday than when using it in the UK.

Using a prepaid currency card, such as from FairFx, there are no foreign exchange charges on purchases (as long as you stick to the currency on the card), no commission fees and as you fix the exchange rate at the time of loading your money onto the card you know what everything costs when using it.