Advice and information for the festive season

christmas tree

Whether it's budgeting for the big day, keeping on top of your everyday spending, or knowing your consumer rights when that perfect present wasn't so perfect after all, we've got plenty of advice and information to get you ready for Christmas and support you throughout the festive season. 

Our Christmas opening hours

All our offices and our adviceline will close for Christmas at noon on Tuesday 24 December 2024 and reopen, as usual, from 9am on Thursday 2 January 2025. Our channels will not be monitored during this time. Throughout the Christmas period you can find advice online at citizensadvice.org.uk, and you can find details of where to get support, including from food banks here.

With best wishes for the festive season from everyone at Wiltshire Citizens Advice.

Shop Aware - Know Your Rights

To help shoppers get clued up on their rights, Citizens Advice Wiltshire is sharing its top tips to shop confidently.
 
A woman with a laptop shopping online while her dog is sat behind her on a sofa - the image features the words Helping you stay ShopAwareAs part of our annual awareness campaign we’re encouraging consumers to know their rights when shopping, including what to do if you run into issues after purchasing, have complaints around defective goods or substandard services, and when sellers fail to deliver.
 
With budgets already stretched, none of us want to waste precious time or money on retail issues that could easily be avoided. 
 
That’s why we’re dedicated to giving you, the consumers, the knowledge you need to stay savvy when shopping on the highstreet or online. 
 
Everyone can be a consumer champion when they have the right information!
 
With the key shopping times of Christmas and the January sales, we’re sharing our top tips and advice on what to do if things go wrong, or if something you ordered didn’t arrive, as well as how to return faulty goods and how to shop safely and stay aware of scams. 
 

Read more: Shop Aware - Know Your Rights

12 top tips to budget for Christmas

Christmas presentFor many of us this year has been a tough year, and we know from speaking to so many of you that your budgets are stretched like never before. But there are things you can do to help ease the pressure on your finances. 
 
So, do we have any advice or tips we can share? 
 
Well, yes we do! Here at Wiltshire Citizens Advice we love nothing better than sharing advice... and this year we've a dozen top tips to help ease the pressure on household budgets and guard against the heavy toll the festive season can take on family finances - and hopefully help you start the new year without a debt hangover.

12 tips to budget better this Christmas

Read more: 12 top tips to budget for Christmas

Christmas on a budget

smiling family at christmas Christmas is about more than just the presents but trying to keep costs down can be difficult and overwhelming.

We’ve put together our top tips for having the perfect Christmas on a budget. External link

Advice on consumer issues

Citizens Advice also has a consumer helpline.

Our consumer service provides advice on issues around buying goods or services. This includes being treated unfairly by a trader, receiving a poor service or you may want to switch energy suppliers or cancel a contract.

How to contact the consumer service External link

Useful phone numbers

There are ways to get to help over the festive break.

Here are some numbers you might find useful over the Christmas break...

useful phone numbers

If something goes wrong

Not everything always goes to plan!

Here are some key useful numbers in case something goes wrong this Christmas…

if something goes wrong
Contact us
Please use this form to get advice or to contact us.

We will usually respond to your enquiry by email, however sometimes we may need to call you (for example a foodbank request). We aim to respond to your enquiry within 5 working days, however during busy times it may take a little longer. Please check your junk and spam folders if you have not received a response.

If your enquiry is urgent, it’s usually better to call us on 0808 278 7995 (Lines are open Monday to Friday 9am to 4pm. Closed on public holidays, and over the festive period).
For more ways to get advice, click here.

Please note we will be closed over the festive period from noon on Tuesday 24 December 2024 and will reopen on Thursday 2 January 2025 at 9am. You can still send us your enquiry using this form during the festive period; and we will reply when we reopen.

Note: We are only able to give advice to Wiltshire residents. If you live outside Wiltshire you can find your nearest Citizens Advice here.

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