Credit card holders are taking an average of 90 days to pay off the debt they built up over Christmas, more than a month longer than a decade ago, according to the findings by the over 50s group Saga.

Paul Green, a spokesman for Saga Group, said: “It is a shocking indictment of the nation’s economy that so many people are left struggling to cope with so much debt.”

Credit card holders took 33 days less to pay off their debts, or just 57 days in 1999, it said.

Younger people are less debt savvy with one in five under 50s saying they were still paying off debts incurred from Christmas 2008. But those over 50 are much wiser users of credit with a third of card holders planning to clear their balance immediately.

The reliance on credit cards to cover the costs of Christmas comes after savers saw their rates of return plummet last year. It means almost all higher rate taxpayers now miss out on a return on their savings once tax and inflation is taken into account.

Just 13 per cent of people dipped into their savings to help fund Christmas last year, compared to 31 per cent 10 years ago, Saga said.