Martin Lewis shares exact time you should buy Christmas presents

Martin Lewis has offered timely advice on purchasing Christmas presents - after a fan asked when they can get the lowest prices. On his Money Show Live, which aired on ITV on Tuesday, Mr Lewis replied to one viewer who had written in to the programme.

The fan, named Korka, asked: "When is the optimal time to buy Christmas gifts? Often I find items are discounted before I even give the gift. And are gift vouchers to be avoided?" Mr Lewis candidly responded: "The optimum time to buy Christmas gifts is in January."

His remark drew laughter from some audience members, but he went on to explain: "Generally in the January sales it's cheapest. There's two ways to do this, you can buy them very early or give someone an IOU if you're brave enough and say 'I'll buy you it when the prices are lower'.

"Then we're not held hostage by this retail festival we seem to live in." Providing a more "practical" take, based on research his team conducted by comparing Black Friday and pre-Christmas sales prices on some 50 items, he continued: "70% of items were cheaper on Black Friday, 12% were cheaper in the pre-Christmas sales, and the other 18% were equal. So if you're going to be buying before Christmas at this time of year, Black Friday is the time that you want to be buying."

Speaking about gift vouchers, he said his is "not a fan, for two reasons". He explained that the first reason is their expiry date, and the second is that "if the company goes bust, they are worthless".