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New year, new you? That’s not the case financially for many consumers—January doesn’t magically erase the debts and past-due bills from the previous year. And holiday expenses have become a longer-lasting financial commitment for some, with 28% of credit card users reporting they had not paid off the gifts they bought the previous year before entering the most recent gift-giving season.
Although consumers may be carrying over more debt into the new year, that doesn’t mean your business has to accept writing off delinquent accounts. The right engagement strategy can help your past-due customers prioritize repayments and help your business recover more.
But first let’s understand where consumers find themselves financially in 2025, and then dive into how to best reach your customers for better bottom line results.
Results of Holiday Spending: New Debt on Top of Existing Delinquencies
Consumers spent a record-breaking amount over the holiday season, and many went into debt specifically from it. In 2024, 36% of shoppers reported relying on credit to finance their holiday purchases, with the average debt per consumer rising to $1,181 from $1,028 in 2023. In November, credit card debt hit $1.17 trillion, the highest it has ever peaked.
And in a December survey, over a third of Americans reported they were taking on debt due to seasonal spending—and only 44% of that number had anticipated taking on debt due to holiday shopping.
Beyond breaking the bank from holiday shopping, the ripple effect of overspending means many are falling even farther behind on other bills. In fact, 9% of consumers reported they will prioritize buying gifts over paying some of their regular bills over the holiday season—and it’s even higher for parents of younger children: 12% reported prioritizing buying gifts over paying some of their regular bills during the holiday season and 38% said they anticipated going into more debt than usual to buy gifts.
No matter how far over budget the holidays may have careened, helping your customers get back on track in 2025 is possible.
Don’t Let Your Repayment Reminder Get Lost in the Digital Pile
While the reality of this year’s gift-giving price tag settles in, don’t let existing delinquent accounts get lost in the shuffle of bills for customers. Considering that 23% of consumers who’ve paid late in the past six months say it is because they forgot their bill entirely, consistent and compelling communication is critical for 2025 collection strategies.
Let’s take a look at two of the key components that help ensure your communication is consistent and compelling for your customers: deliverability and empathy.
Deliverability - Ensure Your Email Makes It to the Inbox
Also known as “inboxing rate,” deliverability measures how many emails reach the recipient’s inbox, as opposed to their spam folder, compared to the total number of emails sent. If your business is just measuring email delivery rate, you could inadvertently be sending all your messages into your recipients’ spam folders. Research shows the number of spam emails sent within one day nets out around 7.8 billion in 2024 and around 46% of all emails sent globally were considered spam in 2023.
Sending messages consistently won’t make any difference if they all wind up unopened in a junk folder—and consistency can be key to reaching delinquent customers. Surveys of consumers with debt found that 21% expect it’ll take five months or longer to pay it off, so staying vigilant with communication through the right channels at the right time can make the difference between securing repayment and falling out of sight, out of mind.
Empathy - Engage with Understanding for Better Outcomes
Meet your customers where they are—both in communication channel preference and in understanding the financial landscape in which you are trying to reach them. If you’re succeeding with deliverability rates, don’t stumble once the recipient opens the email. While technical know-how and backend optimization are core elements to any digital collections program, approaching with empathy can be just as important to get delinquent customers to prioritize repaying accounts versus deflecting.
As we saw above, the holidays left many with a hefty bill to pay and 60% of consumers who took on debt say they were stressed doing it. But the new year has also shown that consumers are motivated to repay those overdue balances—63% of consumers shared they were optimistic about the economy heading into the new year and surveys find that 72% of respondents who made financial goals have resolutions to either completely or partially pay off their debt in 2025.
Bottom line: it may take them a bit longer with debts stacking up, but consumers want to get out of debt. Help facilitate them reaching these goals with consistent and understanding communication delivered intelligently using Retain by TrueML Products. Retain ensures that your emails reach their intended destination thanks to our email delivery and deliverability rates consistently beating industry standards. With your brand’s emails competing against millions of others, cut through the clutter and don’t leave deliverability up to chance.