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'£57 million per hour' to be spent today

24/12/2009

Last-minute shopping on Christmas Eve will see Britons spending a total of £1.37 billion, or £57 million per hour, it has been claimed.

Such a figure is based on research by Sainsbury's Credit Cards, with nearly one in five people - 13.3 million - expected to do some shopping today.

It is anticipated that £246 million of this spending will be on credit cards.

The head of Sainsbury's Credit Cards, Stuart McKeggie, said: "Once again there looks set to be a stampede of shoppers on Christmas Eve as many people leave their shopping to the last minute before Christmas."

Those keen to keep their repayments down after running up large balances on their cards at this time of year may wish to see if they can get a cheaper card with a low balance transfer rate.

According to Barclaycard, the busiest time in the run up to Christmas was at 12:48 GMT on Saturday 19th, when there were 370 card transactions per second.
 

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