Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty and Bank of Canada governor, Mark Carney, may have thought that their warnings about our increasing debt levels have fallen on deaf ears – as they’ve had to repeat them time and time again. But a new study done for CIBC shows that we’ve been listening (or at least that we’ve started listening.) The poll shows that Canadians are starting to take their debt seriously; so seriously in fact, that many Canadians are now making extra payments just to get out of debt.
Not surprisingly, the study found that the majority of Canadians have some type of debt, with 72 per cent of people in the survey claiming mortgage, second mortgage, student loan, or credit card debt. But of that percentage, 49 per cent that they were so serious about getting rid of that debt that they had made at least one extra payment over the course of the last year.
“Debt management is top of mind for Canadians,” said Christina Kramer, CIBC executive vice-president of retail distribution. “These poll results show that many Canadians are taking steps towards reducing their debt.”
This is good news, as interest rates are about to raise on Toronto mortgages, and mortgages all throughout the country, as early as this year and no later than early 2013. When that happens, the federal government and the BoC have warned, it could leave many homeowners strapped and maybe even unable to afford their homes.
CIBC also released a statement with their survey findings. The statement said that it was very good that Canadians were beginning to take their debt so seriously, but that past reports have found that we’re still more likely to think about retirement planning than debt repayment – or at least, we’re more likely to get help with retirement planning than we are with our debt repayment.
The survey was conducted for CIBC by Harris-Decima and it questioned 2,003 Canadians over a span of ten days between March 22 – April 2. Each survey was done over the phone.
What do you think about the mindset of Canadians to pay off their debt? Do you think it’s something that will continue, even if interest rates remain low for a little while longer? And are you more likely to seek help with your debt repayment schedule, or with retirement planning?
