At least two of the banks I deal with offer a no-cost way to check my credit score online. I say at least because I have accounts at many banks and haven’t visited them all lately. But... read more
There is no way that interest rates can rise sharply without a high degree of unfairness in how people are affected. Take borrowers and savers, for example. If you owe a lot on a mortgage, rising rates can increase... read more
Canadians’ wallets are feeling the bite on two sides: soaring prices and rising borrowing costs. We crunched the numbers to show how much more they’re paying. The financial double bite is everywhere. A stick of... read more
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has announced plans to erase the interest on federal student and apprentice loans as part of the government’s fall fiscal update. The move, made amid soaring living costs and the threat of... read more
Two of our biggest cities are an affordability trap for young adults. Without six-figure incomes or well-off parents, anyone in their 20s and 30s has to question whether they have a future in Vancouver and... read more
While Canadians vastly prefer to own their homes, there were always some strong points in favour of renting. Just try and make a case for renting today. The brutal dynamics of today’s housing market have... read more
The next chapter in financial inequality will be the divide between those who can afford to prepare their household finances for the coming recession and those who cannot. Keeping a stockpile of cash protects you against the... read more
Businesses in Canada can now add surcharges to bills when customers use a credit card to pay. The new rules are the result of a settlement in a long-running class-action legal battle launched by merchants against Visa and MasterCard and... read more
The No. 1 risk in personal finance for the next year is that high inflation and rising interest rates give way to a recession. Things really get interesting after that. The accelerated pace of change lately suggests we will... read more
The Business Development Bank of Canada is ramping up support for women technology entrepreneurs, who despite recent breakthroughs still struggle to raise funding. On Wednesday the federal Crown corporation said it would provide $500-million in... read more
An epic moment in interest rate history was the surge of summer, 1980. A quick recap of what was happening in the year the Bank of Canada’s benchmark rate jumped to roughly 17 per cent... read more
Scariest financial number of the summer: By 2026, nearly one-quarter of all global online purchases will be made with a buy now, pay later option. Did you think I was going to quote the inflation rate or... read more
There’s a rule of personal finance that says average earners are spending foolishly by paying the average rent in their city. According to this rule, monthly rental costs should account for no more than 30... read more
For more than a year, Canada’s record labour shortage has held the promise of generous pay bumps for those willing to switch jobs. But with economists increasingly worried about a recession and some tech companies... read more
The mortgage stress test faces its first big challenge in this year of soaring interest rates. The regulators behind the stress test generated massive pushback from the housing-industrial complex, but they were dead right to worry about... read more
