Most Canadians think of themselves as being “middle class”; however that seems to be changing. According to an Ekos-Canadian Press poll, Canadians who self-identify as working class poor are on the rise. The increase seems to be at the expense of the Canada middle class size. This same poll suggests people are feeling more pessimistic about their own futures not just over the next year, but over the next five.
Canada middle class size: The old Canada middle class definition
We used to define middle class as the median in household net worth, but this too, has changed. Middle class has now morphed into more of a state of mind than a demographic bracket. We now tend to think of middle class as a lifestyle and a value system – hence the expression “middle class values”.
This belief in middle class being a lifestyle is contributing to an increasing debt load for many Canadians. According to a recent CIBC poll:
Many Canadians seems uninterested in prioritizing needs over wants
Only 50% of those surveyed were willing to cut spending on non-essential items to keep up with bills
Canada middle class size: Canadian average household debt
The sad truth is that regardless of whether you’re middle class as a demographic bracket or a lifestyle, Canadians are now carrying more debt than those of any other G7 nation. Many are spending as much or more than they earn and as a result spreading things so thin that they’re living paycheque to paycheque.
In a recent survey by Canadian Payroll Association, almost 48% of respondents admitted they wouldn’t be able to make ends meet if their paycheques were late even by a week.
Canada middle class size: Is your debt pushing you away from the middle class
Are you getting deeper in debt trying to maintain your middle class lifestyle? If so, you need professional help before your house of cards comes tumbling down. I strongly recommend that you contact a professional trustee as soon as possible. Ira Smith Trustee & Receiver Inc. can help, no matter how dire your situation seems. With immediate action and the right plan, we can solve your financial problems Starting Over, Starting Now. Give us a call today.
Poor credit personal loans guaranteed approval Canada: Introduction
Legit companies do not give poor credit loans guaranteed approval Canada. If you’re experiencing significant economic problems and declined for a financing by conventional banks, do not be seduced by advertising that states “… poor credit personal loans guaranteed approval Canada …” even if you have bad credit or no credit.
Poor credit personal loans guaranteed approval Canada: They try to trick you with seductive marketing slogans
They use catchy marketing tag lines such as:
100% Free, Bad or No Credit, Great Terms, $0 Down, Fast, Apply Now!
Borrow Up To $5,000 With Affordable Payments. Find out more & Get Started!
Or they send either an email or letter in the mail offering you a bad credit loan, student loan, mortgage, negative credit score loan, or a fantastic bad credit, credit card offer.
Poor credit personal loans guaranteed approval Canada: Beware of the scammers!
They may seem to be genuine yet beware! They will certainly ask you for your personal ID and financial info; and that is where your issues will certainly begin.
These are rip-offs! They are victimizing you because they know you are desperate and will not stop until you get the funding from someone for a bad credit loan.
Poor credit personal loans guaranteed approval Canada: What the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre has to say
According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, advertisements that promise guaranteed approval loans generally show up online or in city and national newspapers, magazines and tabloids. Remember, just by advertising through reputable media outlets does not make the business behind the ad honest or legitimate.
Poor credit personal loans guaranteed approval Canada: The up-front fee scam
These companies usually ask you to pay an up-front fee before they will start work. This fee might vary from hundreds to thousands of $$$. You rarely get your funding after paying the up-front fee. If you do, it is on the most onerous terms. You can never get your money back.
poor credit personal loans guaranteed approval canada
Poor credit personal loans guaranteed approval Canada: How to fix your bad credit and debt issues
If you have actually been declined for a loan through a normal lender, then that is a signal that you have debt concerns that have to be handled. Companies that advertise poor credit personal loans guaranteed approval Canada are scams. They are not the solution to your troubles; expert help is.
Contact Ira Smith Trustee & Receiver Inc. today. We are professional trustees. As such, the Canadian government licenses and supervises us. First, we will assess your situation and help you to come to the very best possible solution for your troubles.
When you come to us for your free consultation, we first check and figure out with you if one of the bankruptcy alternative choices is best for you. These include credit counselling, debt consolidation or a consumer proposal. If none of those options are available to you, only then will we discuss the bankruptcy route. Starting Over, Starting Now we can help recover you to financial health.
poor credit personal loans guaranteed approval canada
It seems that we’ve become obsessed with credit score improvement and credit scores. Traditionally the singular purpose for credit scores was to find how much of a risk you would present to a lender if you were applying for a credit card, insurance, loan, mortgage, rental unit, etc.
Now we even use credit scores to decide if your new date is worthy of becoming your new mate and employers use credit scores to screen job applicants. Somehow from determining credit worthiness, credit scores are now being used as a quasi-personality test to find out your character and level of honesty.
Credit score improvement: Should credit checks be used to screen job applicants?
“Credit reports were not designed as an employment screening tool,” saysnon-profit group Demos. “Employment credit checks are an illegitimate barrier to employment, often for the very job applicants who need work the most.” In a survey of job-seekers, Demos found that one in seven people with blemished credit said that they’d been denied a job as a result.
On the other side of this issue is credit reporting agency, TransUnion. They stand firm on the use of its reports when determining a person’s employability. “One study found a job applicant with a troubled financial history was almost twice as likely to engage in theft as an applicant who lacked any financial history issues,” company spokesperson Clifton O’Neal said in an email.
Credit score improvement: How is your credit score determined?
There are several factors that go into determining your credit score:
Debt history
Payment history
Amounts owed
How long you’ve been in debt
Type of debt
Length of credit history
Credit inquiries
Credit score improvement: What does your credit score really say about you?
Your credit score means that you’re making your payments on time but it doesn’t tell the story. Many people find themselves in financial difficulty as a result of illness, job loss, divorce or many other factors and that doesn’t make them “undesirables”.
Credit score improvement: Do you really need debt repair?
Are you in financial difficulty and looking for someone to help you get back on track? CallIra Smith Trustee & Receiver Inc. We’re here to help, not judge. Make an appointment for a free, no obligation consultation and take your first step to debt free living Starting Over, Starting Now.
It is the end of a Canadian retail symbol. Sears Canada is closing every one of its remaining 130 stores. After 65 years of business in Canada, Sears Canada is closing.
On Friday, October 13, 2017, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice Commercial List, under the Sears Canada CCAA process, issued the liquidation order. The final Sears Canada liquidation sale will begin and then the final Sears Canada stores closing happens. The reason for this is because there were no practical Sears Canada bids for the Court to consider from the entire bid process. The only alternative was complete liquidation. So the Court has now ordered that Sears Canada is closing.
Sears Canada is closing: I hate to say I told you so, but on June 21, 2017…
“Sears Canada are as good as finished. It is just currently an issue of time before the last pieces are marketed and sold.”
So, that we now know Sears Canada is closing is not a surprise to me or my readers.
Sears Canada is closing: I hate to say I told you so, but on August 2, 2017…
In my August 2, 2017 vlog, SEARS CANADA NEWS TODAY: ARE THEY SABOTAGING THEIR OWN RESTRUCTURING?, I talked about the public backlash at that time. I spoke about the social media campaign against the Sears Canada key employee retention program (KERP) proposed payments to senior management.
This KERP program implementation happened while the ordinary Sears Canada employeesand retirees were being hurt. They knew they were not going to receive all of their benefits and pension payments or any severance or termination pay.
I then provided my personal assessment that:
“You must wonder if Sears Canada really wants to restructure, or if they are just liquidating their inventory. They are also trying to sell whatever other assets they can. If it was a true restructuring, you would think that senior management would want to see more customers who would be loyal to (the new) Sears Canada when it would exit bankruptcy protection.”
We now see that there is no possibility of restructuring. Just a Sears Canada liquidation and then Sears Canada is closing. I am proud of my professional opinions. However, it gives me no joy to see that the remaining 12,000+ Sears Canada employees will for sure now end up on the Sears Canada list of creditors.
Sears Canada is closing: I hate to say I told you so, but on September 27, 2017…
Mr. Duvall anticipated that Sears Canada is closing. We will have to see if his effort gets any traction.
sears canada is closing
Sears Canada is closing: The liquidation agreement
The Company intends to begin the liquidation sales by today. So you’re going to see offers at existing Sears Canada stores. Many of the store employees will keep their job during the liquidation. However, most of the 800 or so staff members at Sears head office in Toronto have now been let go.
Sears Canada became part of an Agency Arrangement with a legal joint venture. It consists of:
Gordon Brothers Canada ULC;
Merchant Retail Solutions ULC (collectively, with Tiger Capital Group, LLC and GA Retail Canada ULC.
The liquidation agreement dated October 7, 2017 has arisen from the solicitation procedure. BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. (“BMO”), the Sears Canada financial advisor, obtained proposals from 7 prospective liquidators. The liquidation proposals were to help the Sears Canada Group with liquidating the inventory, furniture, fixtures and equipment remaining throughout Canada.
Sears Canada is closing: How the liquidation will work The liquidation is to begin no later than October 19, 2017. The liquidation sales will continue for 10 to 14 weeks. The outside day for finishing the liquidation sale right now is January 21, 2018.
The liquidation will take place at all remaining Sears Canada full-line and home store locations. It may also happen at some of the Sears Canada distribution centres. Sears Canada will receive a guaranteed minimum recovery of:
83% of the cost value of the inventory included in the liquidation sale at the full-line stores; and
52.5% of the cost value of the inventory included in the liquidation sale at the Sears Home stores, subject to certain exceptions.
You may be able to snap up some bargains to put under your Christmas tree as Sears Canada is closing.
Sears Canada is closing: The honouring of Sears Canada gift cards, gift certificates, merchandise credits
Although Sears Canada is closing, gift cards and certificates and merchandise credits are honoured. No gift cards or certificates will be sold. Returns will not be allowed when it comes to any kind of goods offered throughout this Sears Canada liquidation process or the liquidation approved earlier by the Court on July 18, 2017. The Company will then have a time period to clean up and vacate the stores while Sears Canada is closing.
Sears Canada is closing: A Sears Canada warranty won’t be honoured
As far as warranty claims, if the warranty is from a third-party, then you may claim on any warranty for a product purchased at Sears. If it is a Sears Canada warranty, then you are out of luck. That warranty is now worthless because Sears Canada is closing.
Is your business showing early warning signals of financial problems? Are you scared that it too may have its own “Sears Canada is closing” scenario?
If you’re trying to find a way to reorganize your company’s financial debt, callIra Smith Trustee & Receiver Inc. Don’t wait until it is too late and corporate bankruptcy is the only answer. If we meet with you early enough, we can develop a Sears Canada chapter 11 like restructuring and turnaround plan. The plan will be to save your company and the jobs of many people. It does not have to end in a “Sears Canada is closing” scenario.
Our technique for every person is to develop an outcome where Starting Over, Starting Now happens, beginning the minute you stroll in the door. You’re just one call away from taking the essential action steps to get back to leading a healthy and balanced stress and anxiety free life.
Many Canadians sleep well knowing that when they retire they’ll be well taken care of with their defined benefit pension plan andgovernment pension programs. Defined benefits plans are the Cadillac of pension plans. They guarantee a set pension amount for life, regardless of how the plan performs.
Defined benefits plans sound great, don’t they? Employees from Sears, Nortel, Northstar Aerospace and others thought so too. That is untilcorporate bankruptcy turned their dreamretirement into a nightmare.
Defined benefits plans: Should you be worried about your Defined Benefit Pension Plan?
“At the end of the day, your (defined benefit) pension is only as good as the amount of assets in the fund. So you better hope it’s fully funded”, says the lawyer Mark Zigler of Koskie Minsky.
The problem is that low returns from low-interest rates and high costs due to retirees living longer have made it increasingly difficult to fund defined benefits plans. In Ontario, under funding affects 30% of defined benefits plans. This is according to the latest report by the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO). The same situation exists in Quebec. According to data by Retraite Québec (RQ), 29% of plans are running deficits.
The implicit assumption is that the employers who sponsor these plans will remain solvent or that the plans don’t cease to exist.
Defined benefits plans: What happens to your defined benefit pension plan if the company you work for goes bankrupt?
If the company becomesinsolvent and the pension plan is underfunded, this will expose retirees to the pension losses. Under Canadian law, retirees are treated like unsecured creditors. This means that the retirees’ claims will only be considered after those of secured creditors like banks.
If you’re fortunate enough to have a defined benefit pension plan, hopefully it’s fully funded. Unfortunately there are many retirees whose hopes and dreams were dashed when companies they worked for wentbankrupt.
Defined benefits plans: What if your debt payments are greater than your retirement income?
With a mindset that they had a well-funded retirement, there are seniors who areaccumulating debt they can’t hope to repay. If you’re being strangled by debt contactIra Smith Trustee & Receiver Inc. We can’t give you back defined benefits plans. However, we will help you conquer debt. With our help, you will get back your peace of mind,Starting Over, Starting Now. Give us acall today.
Suggested changes from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) have left people with some misunderstandings about the Canada mortgage stress test. The idea is a little frightening to a lot of people. So I wanted to give this information to hopefully settle a lot of nerves.
The most fascinating (and most misunderstood apparently) is the mandatory stress testing of brand-new mortgages. The new OSFI proposal titled “Draft Guideline – Residential Mortgage Underwriting Practices and Procedures” involves a new Canada mortgage stress test procedure. But the greatest changes are checking if borrowers could manage an interest price hike of 2% more than they’re paying. OSFI also recommends a re-calculation of the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio.
The real issue isn’t really screening for new home loans. Just Toronto and Vancouver and are truly getting an a ** whipping from the new suggested policies. The problem is, there is lots of online chatter providing misinformation. Many blogs are declaring that lots of existing homeowners that could have overpaid in some markets, won’t qualify on renewal. That’s not exactly true.
OSFI states that a “residential mortgage” for the purpose of the suggested new stress testing includes any loan to a borrower secured by residential property. The following loan products also apply:
OSFI verified that certain existing consumers would not undergo stress testing. The 2% higher rate test will be avoided if they renew at the very same financial institution. If you can, simply renew at your existing lending institution. That way you will not need to show that they can manage their mortgage at the greater rate.
Those intending on locking in a better rate at a new financial institution, would certainly have to undertake the Canada mortgage stress test procedure like a new debtor. Many people may not feel they can pass the new proposed stress testing rules. So they may not be able to shop for the cheapest mortgage rate. They also won’t lose their homes because of the new stress testing if they renew with their existing mortgagee.
canada mortgage stress test
Canada mortgage stress test: Stress test LTV ratios
What happens if your home’s value experiences a real decline? What if your uninsured mortgage drops below the threshold and would now need being insured? If you’re moving to another financial institution, you could be in big trouble. You’ll have to go through the stress testing. The new lender will tell you if you qualify on rate and value.
OSFI’s proposed new guidelines also states lenders need to update the debtor and residential or commercial property analysis periodically. Not necessarily just at renewal. They make this recommendation as part of properly assessing credit score risk.
Widescale capitulation of real estate markets, would give the regulator a bigger problem. Your lending institution doesn’t want your house. They want the rate of interest on your home mortgage paid.
It’s not exactly in their best interest to voluntarily update the LTV ratio of your home with routine frequency. They could, yet that does not make a great deal of economic sense to try to seize homes that are dropping in value. The lenders want their borrowers to stay current with their payments and not look for a technical reason to take over your home.
Canada mortgage stress test: Meet your new predator, The Big 5
As I stated above, the most fascinating thing is borrowers at danger of falling short on the refinance stress test, won’t be able to go shopping about for better prices. With half of all Canadian bank revenues coming from mortgages, and with growth set to taper– you better believe somebody is going to take up the slack.
Ironically, those that cannot manage to pass the stress test, will possibly be charged a higher rate of interest by their lender!
Canada mortgage stress test: Are you stressed out over not being able to pass the new Canada mortgage stress test guideline?
If you or your business are stressed out by your debt, regardless of what type it is, we can help you. The Ira Smith Team has lots of experience in helping people and businesses restructure their debt and avoid bankruptcy. Call the Ira Smith Team today and book your free consultation. We treat everyone with compassion and respect, while together we solve your debt problems, so you can be Starting Over, Starting Now!
We’ve written many blogs about Canadians who haven’t saved for their retirement and now find their golden years less than golden. You, on the other hand have been saving, perhaps with the help of a retirement planning advisor. So your retirement should be relaxing and fun filled. Unfortunately that’s not necessarily the case. You may not have given enough thought to your retirement plan.
Retirement planning advisor: When you planned for retirement, how long did you plan for?
Canadians are living much longer than past generations. In fact the fastest growing age group is centenarians (Statistics Canada). And now, new census data reveals that for the first time in history the percentage of seniors (16.9%) now exceeds the number of children (16.6%).
Have you planned for what could be a 30-year retirement? The Government of Canada is recommending just that.
Retirement planning advisor: Do you know how much money you would need to retire?
According to a 2015 BlackRock survey:
40% of Canadians said they only had a general sense of how much money they’d need to retire
33% said they had no idea what-so-ever how much money they’d need to retire
Retirement planning advisor: How much money will you get in government pensions?
Most Canadians depend on Old Age Security (OAS), Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) for the all or most of their retirement income. Do you have any idea how much money this amounts to? This federal government calculator will give you a rough estimate of how much income to expect from CPP and Old Age Security once you retire.
Retirement planning advisor: Have you planned for the unexpected?
You may plan to work well into your 60s, 70s or beyond; but what will you do if you have to retire early because:
Your health won’t permit you to continue working
You have to assume the role of a caregiver for a loved one
You or a loved one require additional care
Even though you’ve been saving, it doesn’t mean you’ll have a well funded retirement. When making your retirement plan, take all of the things we’ve discussed in this blog into consideration.
Retirement planning advisor: How to get rid of a troublesome debt load
As part of the credit counselling process, many people start asking for retirement planning advice. When I ask, do you have aretirement plan? people start talking to me about how they will need to grow their savings and investments. Retirement planning is so much more than that. What your retirement ultimately looks like is largely dependent on your healthy lifestyle plan.
Retirement planning advice: You can’t go from full throttle to neutral
You’re most likely used to working at least a 40 hours a week. And, at the end of the rainbow is retirement – no more alarm clocks, no fighting rush hour traffic or an overcrowded public transport system, no more brown bag lunches… Now you can reclaim at least 40 hours a week in addition to the hours that you spent commuting; but what will you do with those hours?
Retirement planning advice: The key to a happy retirement is having a healthy lifestyle plan
People that retire are very prone to depression, particularly men, whose sense of identity is closely tied to work. A 2013 study from the Institute of Economic Affairs that says retirement increases the chance of suffering from clinical depression by about 40%.
Men also have the highest rates of suicide worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. It’s not the job or the money that men miss so much in retirement, but the socialization and self-esteem that work brings, says Ken LeClair, co-chairman of the Canadian Coalition on Seniors Mental Health (CCSMH) and professor of psychiatry at Queen’s University in Kingston.
Retirement planning advice: Retirement is a huge adjustment
Retirement is a huge adjustment and like all stages of life, requires a plan. The key to a happy retirement is having a lifestyle plan. Do you have hobbies and interests? Volunteer work? Learning new things? Meaningful friendships? Travel? Lifestyle planning should ideally start 5 – 10 years before retirement starts so that you’ll be prepared for the transition.
Retirement planning advice: Start saving early on for your healthy lifestyle plan in retirement so as not to have to make tough financial adjustments
The likelihood is that once you retire there is going to be a significant change in your income. Most retirees can’t continue to live the same lifestyle as when they worked full time. The reality is that you’re going to have to make some financial adjustments that may involve downsizing your residence, driving a more economical car, traveling less.
However people generally want to do more in retirement. They have put off their travel and hobbies because they lacked one of the most precious resources – time. Many retirees start off by doing more now that they have the time. There is only one problem; they never saved properly during their working years to have the money to turn their dreams into reality in retirement.
Retirement planning advice: What to do if you have too much debt in retirement?
Unfortunately manyretirees are taking on debt they can’t afford by using credit that they can’t repay to support their lifestyles. This is a recipe for disaster and the sooner you seek professional help the better.
Toronto business bankruptcy protection: Introduction
The federal NDP party recently met in Hamilton, just outside of the Greater Toronto Area. There was a rally to argue for federal government regulation changes to safeguard pensioners in business bankruptcy and restructuring administrations.
Toronto business bankruptcy protection: Proposed NDP private member’s bill
Hamilton Mountain MP Scott Duvall, the New Democrats’ pension plan critic, informed a group at the United Steelworkers’ Hall that he will certainly present a private member’s bill to secure employees’ pension plans and benefits, and pressure business to offer termination or severance pay, prior to paying secured lenders.
Toronto business bankruptcy protection: The U.S. Steel Canada saga
The concern has actually been a lengthy simmering one with unions and created significant debate throughout the almost three-year, court-supervised restructuring of U.S. Steel Canada. The company exited from its business bankruptcy protection proceedings with a brand-new owner– Bedrock Industries– as well as an old name, Stelco.
Pensioners were smarting. The court permitted the firm to put on hold health benefit repayments for a year and a half while the business was under bankruptcy protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA).
Generally, these advantages have been maintained by the reorganized business. Pensioners are fretting that a financing system to maintain the pension plan solvent will ultimately fail. It calls for, inter alia, extra Stelco land to be cleaned up, marketed and sold for the net sales proceeds to cover future pension plan commitments.
Toronto business bankruptcy protection: Sears Canada too
Duvall, with NDP leader Tom Mulcair, claimed one more instance of exactly how the regulations are unfair to employees. They cited the Sears Canada situation. Sears Canada remains in business bankruptcy protection. Its employees are encountering a potential decrease in their pension plan benefits.
Toronto business bankruptcy protection: Fairness for employees
They say this should have to do with justness for employees. The NDP wants to see a Canada that benefits every person as well as seeing to it that companies, including multinationals, cannot take the pension plans their employees have earned.
They state that the existing regulation permits funds that ought to go to employees’ pension plans to be given to the secured creditors instead. The NDP is especially concerned when the secured lender is the financially troubled or creditor-protected company’s parent company.
Stelco’s biggest secured lender was U.S. Steel in the United States. The $500 million restructuring saw the American firm get $130 million.
Toronto business bankruptcy protection: Pension plan funding should have first priority
The Duvall proposed private member’s bill would call for pension plans to be 100 percent funded prior to secured lenders being paid. Firms would certainly not be permitted to put on hold retirement benefits in court-supervised restructurings, which occurred with U.S. Steel Canada.
The NDP is calling their proposal “End Pension Theft”. It focuses on altering CCCA legislation as well as the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) to stop companies from placing investors, financial institutions and other lenders ahead of their staff members when they go into bankruptcy protection.
business bankruptcy
Toronto business bankruptcy protection: Is there a comparable precedent for such an amendment
Yes there is – the enactment of the Wage Earner Protection Program Act (WEPPA). From 1975, proposals were proactively taken into consideration for the facility of a wage protection plan for when the bankruptcy, liquidation or receivership of a company. The many choices gone over for just how this could be attained consisted of:
very top priority for wages;
acknowledgment of existing provincial/territorial concerns within the BIA structure;
a waiver of the waiting time for EI benefits; and
a wage earner protection fund financed either from basic tax revenue or as a part of the EI coverage regimen.
In November 2003, the Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce examined the background of these conversations and chose
the alternative for a super priority be taken on. Although the BIA was amended in 2005, these changes did not quickly come into force, as many technical amendments were required to be passed in 2007. The WEPPA came into force on July 7, 2008.
The reason for the timing of creating the WEPPA was a result of NDP pressure put on the minority Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin. The Liberals agreed to the NDP proposal as part of obtaining continued NDP support for the minority government.
So there is precedent for a significant amendment to Canadian insolvency legislation.
Toronto business bankruptcy protection: How likely is such a pension reform in restructuring proceedings to succeed?
At this time, I believe there are certain obstacles from seeing such a significant overhaul being successful. The reasons I say this include:
Today there is a Liberal majority government in power, so the support of the NDP party is not required for the government to pass the legislation it wishes to.
Providing a super priority for all pension shortfalls would dramatically alter the way lending is done in Canada. Banks would be required to include pension plan actuarial shortfall calculations into their borrowing base calculations. It may end up that when there is a pension plan shortfall, there is no borrowing room available at all for a business. This would increase the number of insolvencies.
If the number of business insolvencies increased, that could lead to an increase in job losses. That would hurt employees which would hurt the same group the private member’s bill would be trying the protect.
However, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has shown that it does try to play to whichever group the government feels it can gain votes from. So, it is not out of the realm of possibilities that the government would try to enact some legislation to give a limited super priority to a part of an underfunded pension plan liability. Time will tell whether such a proposal has any chance of success at this time.
Toronto business bankruptcy protection: Does your Toronto area business require restructuring proceedings to survive?
If you’re company is struggling with too much debt, give the Ira Smith Team a call. We can help with refinancing and restructuring so that your business can get back on track Starting Over, Starting Now.
Do you believe that because you make thecredit card minimum payment amount on time every month that you’re doing well? Do you think this would let you be considered a good credit risk? If that’s the case, you would be wrong. Making only the minimum payments on your credit cards is a sign that you’re living in afinancial danger zone. And the likelihood is that if you continue along this path, you’ll accumulate more debt. You will not get out of debt.
Credit card minimum payment amount: What the TransUnion survey says
TransUnion, one of Canada’s largest reporting agencies, did a recent survey. It showed that making just the credit card minimum payment amount is leading more consumers intodelinquency. This is the same result with other loans too.
They’ve also created a “Total Payment Ratio” metric that shows the correlation between the payment amount and the delinquency across multiple products. To calculate the TPR a consumer’s total monthly credit payments are divided by the total minimum due on all the consumer’s credit products. The higher the TPR, the less likely a consumer falls behind on payments. Using the TPR to find the risk of delinquency, the TransUnion study showed:
Canadians with a TPR of less than five on their credit cards had a 1.77% high risk of auto loan delinquency — defined as not making a payment for 90 days or more
Once the TPR rose to more than 15.0, the high risk of delinquency dropped to 1.4%
Credit card minimum payment amount: It is not a good sign of your credit worthiness
As you can see, just making the credit card minimum payment amount is not a good sign of yourcredit worthiness. Conversely, making more than the minimum monthly payments will make you more attractive to financial institutions. This is because consumers that make more than the minimum monthly payments tend to have more liquidity and will be less likely to miss payments.
Credit card minimum payment amount: You need help to get out of debt
If you’re making only the credit card minimum payment amount, you haven’t got a hope to ever get out of debt. The interest rates are around 20% (and sometimes more). Your minimum monthly payments are paying the interest, not the debt. Now is the time to call in the professionals! Contact aprofessional trustee.The Ira Smith Team can help you conquer debt and get back on track to living afinancially healthy lifeStarting Over, Starting Now. All it takes is onephone call.
