As the post pandemic inflation crisis continues, every aspect of daily life in Park-Extension has been affected. Many Park-Ex families resort to credit card which follows a bigger Canadian trend.
The Equifax Canada consumer survey released Tuesday November 1st 2022 found the average credit card balance held by Canadians hit a record high of $2,121 at the end of September. A new poll indicates that Canadians are relying more on credit cards amid persistent inflation and rising interest rates.
Equifax says average non-mortgage debt per consumer was $21,188, back to levels not seen since the first quarter of 2020. Canadians feel less secure about their financial outlook than they did a year ago, and more of the half worry about having to pay regular bills like rent, utilities or insurance, especially adults aged 65 and over. More than half of Canadians surveyed said they were very worried about their level of personal debt. Julie Kuzmic of Equifax Canada says the last high average credit card balance was in the fourth quarter of 2019, at $2,118.
Steady Increase for 2 years
Julie Kuzmic adds that the average credit card debt has fallen during the pandemic, but credit card use has now increased for six consecutive quarters reaching “historic highs”.
She pointed out that the increased use of credit cards would be “risky” for some, as debt could be harder to pay off in the current economic environment.
More than half of respondents said they either look for grocery discounts more than a year ago or spend less of their budget on grocery shopping.
Equifax Inc. is an American multinational consumer credit reporting agency headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the three largest consumer credit reporting agencies, along with Experian and TransUnion (together known as the “Big Three”). Equifax collects and aggregates information on over 800 million individual consumers and more than 88 million businesses worldwide. In addition to credit and demographic data and services to business, Equifax sells credit monitoring and fraud prevention services directly to consumers.
