Over a quarter of Brits are feeling the pressure this year having nothing yet saved for Christmas, according to a survey conducted by Payplan.

The debt management company found that fewer people are finding the money to save with 32% saying they would be relying on credit cards to pay for Christmas, 13% relying on their overdraft and others using payday loans to get by.

18-24 years olds are 15 times more likely to use a payday loans company than over 55s.

The survey also highlighted how much the economic downturn is affecting people’s lifestyles with 5% admitting they’ve been forced to visit a food bank in the last year and 4% saying they will be relying on supplies from a food bank for their Christmas meal this year. A further 4% also said that they’d been forced to visit a clothes bank this year as well.

There has also been a surge in people buying second-hand gifts for people at Christmas, with 48% of people saying they would buy a gift for someone from a charity shop and books being the most common choice of charity shop gift.

Women came off as the most prepared for the Christmas season with the majority using savings (52%) or their current account (65%) to pay for Christmas expenses while men were more likely to rely on credit cards (33%) or their overdraft (15%) than women. Women are also more prepared when it comes to when they start their Christmas shopping with men being nearly twice as likely to leave Christmas shopping to the last minute, as 36% doing their Christmas shopping in December compared with only 17% of women.

The survey also revealed the average amount people spend on their loved ones at Christmas, with partners having the most varied result quite evenly split between £0 and £200.