Are you a big spender? If so, you are not alone. A new survey published by Consumer Reports indicates that Christmas “holiday debt hangover” will be especially heavy again this year. Among shoppers who used a credit card, holiday debt is predicted to average $626. Yet for some, the bills will be much higher. Seventeen percent of credit card users will have racked up $1,000 or more (DailyLocal.com, Dec. 26, 2006).

Although the extra debt is bad news for gift-givers, it is great news for credit card companies, who will soon be making billions of dollars in missed payment penalties and interest charges from people who do not pay off their balances at the end of the month.

In fact, almost one in four credit card users will not pay off Christmas bills until March or later. Talk about “holiday debt hangover”—that’s one quarter of the year!

“Credit cards are very, very expensive money,” says Michael E. Jacoby, managing director at Phoenix Management Services in Pennsylvania. “They are not just a convenience, they fund a lifestyle people cannot afford” (ibid.).

“With the average household saddled with $9,000 in credit debt already, anything that significantly adds to that … could be potentially devastating,” said Tod Marks, senior editor of Consumer Reports.

Yet even with such levels of credit card debt, shoppers on average were predicted to buy 15 gifts for the holidays and more than half of pet owners supposedly bought Christmas gifts for their animals, the report said.

In a dramatic example of how long it can take to pay back borrowed money, in December the United Kingdom announced that it had finally paid back the money it borrowed from the United States and Canada during World War ii—that is 60 years later! At a 2 percent interest rate, Britain ended up paying America $7.5 billion for just a $4.33 billion loan.

Although not a direct comparison, you may want to ask yourself what interest rate your credit card is at.

King Solomon, commonly purported to be the richest man who ever lived, warned that “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7). Good advice to ponder the next time you consider adding a little more credit card debt.