519-646-2222Blog Articles
SO YOU HAVE A HELOC (HOME EQUITY LINE OF CREDIT):
Banks love HELOCs because they bind you, the consumer, to (them) one institution for a long term. You cannot shop for better rates until the term of your mortgage is up. Here’s how it works – imagine you have a house valued at $250,000.00 and you are in the process of renewing a mortgage for let’s […]
Read moreHow much longer will mortgage interest rates remain low?
Let’s start this discussion with the usual disclaimers – I am not an economist and the opinions expressed are personal and may not be shared by others who are far more knowledgeable about this stuff than this writer. However, I have had a lot of conversations with people about how long mortgage rates will stay […]
Read moreHow to improve your credit score
Yes, you can improve your credit score – here are some simple tips Do not max out your available credit Make more than minimum monthly payments on your revolving debts Be aware of your debt service ratio and stay under your upper threshold Do not use high risk lenders such as payday loan companies or […]
Read moreBANKRUPTCY MAY BE A GREAT DEBT STRATEGY
Here’s how it works: You start out with a few credit cards and use them frequently being sure to make minimum monthly payments on time. Run up those credit cards to close to their limits and the credit card companies will increase your limits – the fact that you don’t make enough money to be […]
Read moreWhy Canadians are dependent on credit
It is no mystery – statistics can help unravel the causes. Between 1950 and 1975 Canadian family incomes rose exponentially. In fact, wages grew by about 1,000% while the cost of living only rose by about 375%. This was the first (and only) time in the history of capitalism when men dominated the workforce. It […]
Read moreMortgage rates are going up again
Canadian banks are increasing interest rates on consumer mortgages, again. The increase shouldn’t send shockwaves through economic markets but they do signal several points of contemplation. On one hand banks are looking to increase margins and faced with a nearly saturated credit market and a shrinking demographic there are less opportunities to entice new borrowers. […]
Read moreTHE ECONOMY AND CONSUMER DEBT
Interesting economic data is available from Statistics Canada – let’s have some fun and imagine how much better off we were 45 years ago. In 1970 approximately 30% of women were employed on a full time basis by 2015 that percentage has increased to about 68%. What we can reasonably conclude from that is that […]
Read moreMORE THAN 50% OF ADULT CANADIANS ARE AGED OVER 50
In fact about 14,000,000 Canadians are aged over 50 so should we be surprised that more of them are insolvent? It should come as no surprise that seniors represent the largest population demographic having financial problems. After all with 14 million people aged over 50 out of a population of 33 million there are far […]
Read moreReal Estate Bubble and Bankruptcies
The value of your real estate can impact what you must pay in a bankruptcy In estimating the asset value of your home trustees had treated the value of real estate as if the value were fixed at the time of the bankruptcy filing until the decision of the Ontario Appeals Court in LePage of […]
Read moreAre You Broke or Broken?
There is a difference but being broke can break some people’s spirits. It is important to separate out, in your mind, the difference between having no money and having no future. Unfortunately for some people their lives are so tied to being in debt that they feel like failures when they are not in debt […]
Read morePROPOSAL OR BANKRUPTCY
Which is better to help rebuild credit? This is an older topic that we have often talked about in the past but it is certainly worthy of repeating. Proposals are good alternatives to bankruptcies but they are always more expensive than bankruptcies and provide little to no advantage in terms of rebuilding credit. In fact proposals can […]
Read moreIncome disparity between men and women
Is there really a huge wage gap between men and women when the top 2% are removed from the data sample? This is an interesting and intriguing question which is certainly not resolved by our brief survey of a limited population set. However, we did look at thirty (30) random, joint insolvency files and compared […]
Read moreYOU COULD BE A UNICORN
In today’s economy a “unicorn” is someone who is debt free – like real unicorns they are very rare indeed. Lack of employment opportunities, lower incomes, higher taxes, more expensive cost of living – we hear it all the time. Canadians are broke! By the same token people are fed up with being broke, they […]
Read moreAre my statute barred debts still collectible:
This question cannot be answered with a simple YES or NO! The complexity arises from variants in the application of laws, rules and regulations. The Limitation Act of Ontario imposes a basic two (2) year period for legal action to be brought before the courts. In the simplest example let’s assume you owed me $10,000 […]
Read moreINFORMAL VERSUS FORMAL PROPOSALS
There is no substitute for a qualified professional bankruptcy trustee. Last year we tried to help out a debtor out by assisting with the filing of an informal proposal. The offer to the creditors was set out in the form of an agreement and the supporting documentation suggested something like this: INFORMAL PROPOSAL If you […]
Read moreCRA SCAM
Relax, the Canada Revenue Agency is not the perpetrator of the scam. There is a perennial phishing scam that pops up every year – it seems to be two pronged on one hand collecting data, confirming email addresses are working, and on the other hand they may be trying to obtain bank account information. In […]
Read moreBANK FEES FOR PAYING YOUR BILLS
Here’s an idea – it may not get a lot of traction, but it is a thought – read on… Fortunately the government is reviewing the RBC’s notion of charging people fees for paying their bills and the RBC had apparently decided to move away from the implementation of the plan anyway. However, some companies […]
Read moreHOW LONG BEFORE I GET MY CREDIT BACK
Way faster than you might think! Although it’s counter intuitive some lenders are so eager to lend that they will approve debt for people who are not yet discharged from their bankruptcies or still under consumer proposals. This is of course a sad indictment on the ethos of our lending industry and is something we […]
Read moreSome Canadians cannot file for bankruptcy
This blog was inspired by an article posted on the Bankruptcy Canada website. This is the criteria for people to qualify make an assignment into bankruptcy in Canada: 1. Have at least one thousand dollars ($1,000) worth of debt;2. Be unable to pay debts as they become due;3. Ceased paying creditors in the ordinary course […]
Read moreDO YOU WANT TO REPAIR YOUR CREDIT RATING?
Many people do! Be wary of Ôtoo good to be true‘ schemes and scams – there are many of them around. There is no easy way to Ôrepair’ your credit. Contact Equifax and/or Trans Union to get a free copy of your credit report – it comes with explanatory notes – read it very carefully, […]
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