Americans spend an estimated $975 on Christmas – How to pay off holiday debt

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - If you overindulged on spending this Christmas, you are not alone.

High interest rates, expensive food prices, and the restart of student loan repayments made "Buy now, pay later" plans and credit cards more attractive to holiday shoppers, according to financial experts.

According to a survey by Gallup, Americans are estimated to have spent an average of $975 on Christmas or other gifts this year.

Now Americans are paying the price.

Financial experts at the Mountain America Credit Union told Local News 8 the biggest mistake people make is adding on more debt while trying to climb their way out of it.

"They'll make this great plan to get out of debt," said Mountain America Branch Manager Jake Baggaley. "(Then) they start to add debt in a lot of different other ways."

"...A lot of it comes back to a not having a strong enough goal set in the first place. When you set a goal to get out of debt, you want to be focused as much as possible on that goal. And if you're not focused on that goal, you're not thinking about it. It's very easy to go off to golf, and buy and do other stuff that doesn't necessarily fit within your financial goals."

One issue with credit cards and "buy now, pay later" deals is they often have very high interest rates.

Baggaley says, people should pay off the high interest debt first, and if all else fails consider debt consolidation.

"A debt consolidation loan really helps to...make the individual payments and pay those all completely off so you don't have them anymore versus just the one consolidation loan at your financial institution," said Baggaley.

"You're making the payments," said Baggaley. "For example, with your local institution that gets you in a better interest rate, helps you make better monthly payments. So it's much more affordable for you, but also knocks out the debt elsewhere. So you're not adding debt on, you're just changing how the debt's being paid."

Baggaley also suggests that people use strategies like paying for things with only cash.

Mountain America also has free online resources with helpful information on getting out of debt. For more information, click HERE.