There is good news for those who use savings clubs.
They will soon be protected under new laws to be introduced by the UK Government.
Many families pay into schemes throughout the year to spend on Christmas, weddings or home projects.
These clubs are not yet covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
But new laws mean that, even if the company goes bust, shoppers' money will still be protected.
The BBC reports it is aimed at preventing scandals like the collapse of Farepak, which happened 16 years ago.
Christmas savings clubs allowing customers to top up an account throughout the year and receive products and services in time for the festive season.
The average family spends about £740 extra in December, analysis from the Bank of England has shown.
Consumer Minister Paul Scully said that families' hard-earned savings needed to be protected now more than ever due to the cost-of-living crisis.
"New laws will crack down on dodgy dealers who have no plans in place to protect shoppers' savings if their business goes to the wall," he said.
"We'll make sure scandals like Farepak never happen again, where thousands of families, many on low incomes, lost all they had saved for Christmas."
The law will apply to Christmas savings clubs and other prepayment schemes that are forms of a savings club.
In 2012, a High Court judge partly blamed the "hardball" attitude of the HBOS banking group for the demise of Farepak.
Mr Justice Smith exonerated the company directors of any blame, after the Government dropped legal proceedings to have them disqualified as directors.
In a highly-unusual move, the judge called on the bank to return up to £10million more to the customers who lost savings.
HBOS said its employees had acted "entirely appropriately".
Swindon-based Farepak collapsed in 2006, leaving 116,000 customers with losses of £37million.
They had saved an average of £400, though some had put away four-figure sums. The customers waited six years to get any of their money back and finally received about 50p in the pound, which mostly came from compensation funds set up to help those facing hardship.
A number of companies run Christmas savings clubs in the UK, with Park Christmas Savings claiming to be the largest. It has about 350,000 customers who sign up annually, and that all prepayments are held in an independent trust.