Canadian’s average carried over credit card balances highest in 14 years, Equifax reports

The average carried over credit card balances for Canadian consumers topped CAD 4,300 in Q2, reaching the highest level since 2007, Equifax Canada said in its latest Market Pulse Consumer Credit Trends and Insights Report. This came as total outstanding credit card balances increased 13.7% YoY to CAD 122 billion.

The increasing carried over balances, which like resulted in expensive interest charges by the issuing bank, is mainly a result of lower card pay rates, with younger consumer, those under 35 years old, had the fastest decline in card payment levels.

Mortgage holders also saw a faster jump in outstanding credit card balances with a 11.9% YoY increase, compared to 7.7% for non-mortgage holder.

Overall consumer debt increased 4.2% YoY

The macro picture is that consumer lending increased to CAD 2.5 trillion, up 4.2% since Q2 last year, and delinquency rate for non-mortgage balance rose to 1.4% in Q2, the highest level since 2011.

The good news was that delinquency rate for mortgage balances was still 0.16%, still a bit lower than the pre-pandemic 0.17%.