|TOP|Christian Research, has revealed that a majority of evangelical Christians are more likely to have avoided escalating credit card debts over Christmas.

The leading Christian research organisation in the UK, and a member of the Evangelical Alliance, carried out a study which found that the evangelical households surveyed have average short-term debts, excluding mortgages, of just £1,250. The national average as a whole is, however, £7,600.

The survey also revealed that of those surveyed, the evangelicals have three times the amount of accessible savings than the average UK householder, standing at £21,000, compared to the UK average of just £6,300.

The Finance Director of the Evangelical Alliance, Helen Calder said, “It is heartening that evangelical Christians appear to use their money more wisely than most. Many people, particularly at Christmas, find themselves in trouble with maxed out credit cards which can lead to an increasing spiral of debt and deprivation.”

|AD|The Christian Research representative that was responsible for the survey, Bill Lattimer said, “This survey shows a stark difference between evangelical Christians and those in the population at large. It seems that Christians are less likely to be tempted into debt, perhaps because they have other priorities.”

The survey, entitled – ‘Money Management’ – surveyed 1,200 evangelical Christians from the mainstream Protestant organisations such as Anglican, Baptist and the Salvation Army among others.

The Director and Deputy Chief Executive of Kingdom Bank, Chris Sheldon, whose organisation sponsored the research said, “Kingdom Bank has been delighted to sponsor this research which shows that evangelical Christians are careful in the management of their money, making use of loans to a lesser extent than the population as a whole.

“As a leading Christian Bank we aim to use this information to develop our services to enable evangelicals make even better use of their money particularly helping them to support the work of the Church across the UK. It is also worth noting that we too, as part of our strong Christian values, give 10% of our annual profits to Christian charities.”