Equifax Canada: One in Four Canadians Expect to Make Only Minimum Credit Card Payments

The Quick Take

• An Equifax Canada survey of 1,500+ Canadians found nearly one in four expect to make only minimum credit card payments
• Households with children and adults under 55 report sharper financial pressures, increasingly using credit for everyday expenses
• The data signals rising consumer credit stress in Canada as households deplete savings and rely more heavily on revolving debt

Equifax Canada's survey of over 1,500 Canadians revealed a significant deterioration in consumer financial resilience: approximately one in four Canadians anticipate making only minimum required credit card payments. The proportion is higher among households with children and adults below age 55—a demographic that typically faces higher housing costs, daycare expenses, and discretionary spending obligations. Survey respondents reported increasingly using credit and savings for everyday expenses, a pattern that signals depletion of savings buffers and growing reliance on revolving credit facilities, which carry substantially higher interest rates than mortgages or personal loans.

Canada's rising minimum-payment tendency has direct implications for Canadian banks and credit providers. Royal Bank, TD, Bank of Nova Scotia, and the other major lenders will face higher credit card provision requirements as minimum-payment behaviour increases the probability of eventual delinquency. For Equifax Canada itself—as a credit bureau—the data is simultaneously a market signal and a product positioning opportunity, as lenders will need enhanced credit monitoring and risk management services. Canadian mortgage holders who are also carrying high credit card balances face a dual financial pressure from rising interest costs that has no direct parallel in the US, where fixed-rate mortgages are more prevalent.

The near-term trigger is Statistics Canada's next consumer credit and household debt-service ratio report, which will determine whether the Equifax survey data is supported by macro-level evidence. The macro variable is the Bank of Canada's interest rate trajectory: additional rate cuts would reduce credit card interest burden and provide relief to minimum-payment households, while a reversal or pause in easing would sustain debt servicing pressure. Canadian housing market affordability—particularly in Toronto and Vancouver—remains the underlying structural driver of household financial stress among the demographics surveyed.

Synthesized from 1 source.