[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/canadians-groan-under-unprecedented-debt-burden\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/canadians-groan-under-unprecedented-debt-burden\/","headline":"Canadians Groan Under Unprecedented Debt Burden","name":"Canadians Groan Under Unprecedented Debt Burden","description":"\u201cI owe, I owe, it\u2019s off to work I go\u201d is what Canadian are apparently singing to themselves these days. A new survey conducted by credit rating agency\u00a0Equifax Canada\u00a0reveals that Canadians are groaning under record levels of debt: $1.422 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2013. This is up from $1.36 trillion in the third […]","datePublished":"2014-06-16","dateModified":"2024-04-19","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/author\/admin\/#Person","name":"admin","url":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/author\/admin\/","identifier":2,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9802e0bea345b33afa85a53646482da09b2d7944429d88b59778b5d3e1c3dd14?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9802e0bea345b33afa85a53646482da09b2d7944429d88b59778b5d3e1c3dd14?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Richard Killen and Associates","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/landscape-logo-12345-for-web.png","url":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/landscape-logo-12345-for-web.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Canadians-Groan-Under-Unprecedented-Debt-Burden.png","url":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Canadians-Groan-Under-Unprecedented-Debt-Burden.png","height":478,"width":640},"url":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/canadians-groan-under-unprecedented-debt-burden\/","about":["Debt"],"wordCount":260,"keywords":["Canadian debt","credit debt burden","record debt."],"articleBody":"\u201cI owe, I owe, it\u2019s off to work I go\u201d is what Canadian are apparently singing to themselves these days.A new survey conducted by credit rating agency\u00a0Equifax Canada\u00a0reveals that Canadians are groaning under record levels of debt: $1.422 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2013. This is up from $1.36 trillion in the third quarter and up 9.1 per cent compared to a year earlier.Credit card debt was up almost six per cent, with Canadians owing $81.6 billion on their plastic pals. Mortgages make up the largest part of our debt load: 63.6 per cent, or $903.8 billion in the fourth quarter; this is followed by bank revolving loans and instalment loans: 17.6 per cent ($249.9 billion) and 8.8 per cent ($125 billion).Research also shows that Canadians are able to handle the debt for now, with delinquencies at an all-time low. But some industry observers ask whether a lot of us are just paying minimum amounts on our debts \u2013 a strategy \u00a0that will crash and burn eventually.\u201cUsually it goes downhill from there, where people eventually can\u2019t even make minimum payments as the interest creeps higher and higher. A vicious cycle,\u201d says Laurie Campbell, executive director of Credit Canada, in a\u00a0Financial Post\u00a0article.A very underused tool available to anyone with a\u00a0problematic debt load is a consultation with a trustee. It costs nothing and usually provides a person with a realistic perspective and options that can really help see them through the forest.\u00a0Even the Seven Dwarves (who probably didn\u2019t have credit cards) needed to find their way through the forest."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Canadians Groan Under Unprecedented Debt Burden","item":"https:\/\/rkillen.ca\/canadians-groan-under-unprecedented-debt-burden\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]