Credit card holders time to work out the EMIs

People spend lavishly during Diwali, they exhaust their budgets. Now diwali festivity is over burst the crackers, savored sweets and distributed gifts, so it’s time to make up for all that spending. Most of the people have taken personal loans and shopped using credit cards now its time to work out the EMIs.

Varun Singh, a senior database manager, went all out with his expenditure this Diwali. He spent heavily on clothes, jewellery, food and a new refrigerator, which took his expenditure beyond the Rs1 lakh mark.

“The festive season has landed me in a big financial crunch. Having a big family means meeting everyone’s demands. Thankfully, the Diwali bonus my company gave helped soften the blow a little. I’ll now have start saving seriously to pay the numerous EMIs over the next few months.”

Like Singh there are many spent lavishly during Diwali. With an upswing in the economy and an increase in the spending power of the middle-class, retailers made a killing profit this Diwali.

Atul Takle, media representative of Pantaloons India told media “There was an almost 50 per cent growth in sales during Diwali. People don’t mind shelling a few extra bucks during the festival. Besides, there are a number of promotional offers that help boost sales.”

The consumer appliances chains saw increase in the sales, Vijay Sales saw a 40 per cent increase in sales during the last week of Diwali as compared to the rest of the year.

During Diwali many attractive promotional schemes, in the form of heavy discounts on certain goods, and the facility of purchasing products are offered on Easy Monthly Installments (EMIs), which result in higher sales.

But, the difficult part for consumers begins now, when they have to start paying the EMIs, which means cost-cutting and saving to make up for the shopping spree.

Some people start saving for Diwali from the beginning of the year so that don’t have to disturb their budget as Hardik Shah, a senior tele-caller, starts saving for Diwali from March. This year, he went grossly over-budget during Diwali.

Then how does he plan to cope now?

He says, “I am going to refrain from going out, even on weekends, for a few months. I have shopped so much over the festive season that I’d hate the sight of another shop for a few weeks.

I think I’ll have to work overtime in order to manage the EMIs.”

After Diwali celebrations the consumers are taking easy so the sales are set to face a slowdown over the next few weeks.

According to Shailesh Ghatlia, owner, Premsons, “Since a lot of people exhaust their budgets during Diwali, there’ll be a lull in sales over the next few weeks. People will look at saving money for a few months. Even though they’ll be back with a vengeance in a few weeks, it will not be the same as it was during Diwali.”