Consumers in Wales are being advised to watch their spending to head off the prospect of ending up in the red after Christmas.

The call comes as the Government is calling on credit card companies and others to lend money more responsibly.

Credit card companies are to restrict the amount they lend to people who have difficulties with their repayments.

Roland McLaren: 'Knotty problem' of consumer debt

From the New Year, lenders are to work more closely to identify those with large amounts of debt.

In Wales, people spent an average of �376 on Christmas presents, the highest outlay in the UK.

And yet the average 18-year-old is more than �3,000 in the red.

For credit unions and other organisations left to pick up the pieces of overspending, Christmas is their worst time.

Roland McLaren, of Swansea Credit Union, said: "We would like to see some of these companies acting more responsibly.

"They will lend and they'll lend, and they'll lend and they simply don't care what kind of problems people get into.

Sales

"I don't know what the government can do to pass legislation to help that.

"It's a knotty problem. We live in a capitalist society and people are entitled to run businesses."

The warning over consumer debt comes after stores in Wales reported a bumper start to the post-Christmas sales.

One of Cardiff's oldest department stores, David Morgan's, said Friday had been one of the busiest days in its history.

In Swansea, shoppers at the city's Quadrant Centre were reported to have kept on spending where they had left off on Christmas Eve.

And in Bridgend, the sales started early with the McArthur Glen Designer Outlet Park reporting traffic in and out of the out-of-town shopping centre increasing by 30% compared to Boxing Day last year.