Life in Canada

TORONTO - Canadians continue to rack up more debt but the speed at which they are piling it on is beginning to slow, the TransUnion credit agency reported Tuesday. Well isn't that reassuring. AS per usual its camouflaged with the typical term up oe down by certain percentage from last years comparison which we never see and find hard to find being a year old..or more.. Its a neat way of tell us nothing... The mushroom technique often used with great success by the Harper government and of course churned out by the governments mouthpiece STATSCAN

The average debt for about 24.8 million Canadians tracked by the report, which excludes mortgages, rose to $25,163 — up 4.3 per cent in the third quarter compared with a year ago. I wonder why it excludes mortgage?

The main source of non-mortgage debt for Canadians was vehicles, with credit card purchases a distant second.

TransUnion said Canadians seem to be managing their debts better than they were, with delinquency rates and past-due balances dropping across the country.

The national credit card delinquency rate was down nearly 10 per cent in the third quarter of this year, compared with a year ago when the Canadian economy was just beginning to recover from a major recession. Did Canada have a recession..well well...never heard it being said..heard it denied many many time that Canada was prepared better etc..and boasting of how well we were doing. Do you feel as if we are doing well.. Have you been shopping or paid insurance lately?.

"There continue to be positive signs in the credit market as Canadians slowly manage out of the recession," said Thomas Higgins, TransUnion’s vice-president of analytics.

"The most positive sign has been the significant decrease in past due balances (outstanding debt that is at least 30 days past due) which has dropped 15 per cent since last year after three years of increases." Maybe this is because the cause has been removed with delinquent accounts closed..or even worse re-funded.?

Quebec posted the largest increase in debt at 6.6 per cent, while Manitoba had the lowest increase at 2.6 per cent compared with the national average of 4.3 per cent.

However, TransUnion says that is still an improvement over the double-digit increases that had been going on since before the recession.

Canadian average credit card debt increased to $3,709 from the previous quarter’s $3,614, but fell 1.7 per cent compared with a year ago.

Average auto loan debt increased to $16,183 from the previous quarter’s $15,135, and up 9.8 per cent from a year ago.


I feel so much better seeing these figures and the other 5 blogs of my data this last week.. I am so well looked after by my government...I am so lucky?