As I keep saying: What happens in the U.S. will come to Canada. This time, it’s a massive increase in credit card penalty interest rates. It was announced last week by the CIBC and TD that, if you get behind on your credit card, they’ll jump the rate – a lot!
It’ll increase by up to 15%. That’ll put a low rate credit card of 12% or so to upwards of 27%. And it used to be for six months – now you’ll be in the penalty box for a year at that insane rate. If you play with fire, you’re going to get burned. Credit cards are a great convenience but they’re not your friend. If you carry a balance, low rate 12% cards are a bad rate, 20% normal cards even worse – but 27% is insane. And who pays them? The people who can least afford the penalty rates, because they have a hard time making the minimum payments. Don’t charge today what you can’t pay off by the end of the month. Whatever you’ve bought on your credit card isn’t worth paying for years at close to 30%.
The second bank change, this one on lines of credits and credit cards, also has to do with your credit rating – your credit score. You’ll see a ton of rates that are now “prime plus.” When rates go up, your rates will go up right with it the following month. On the TD website, their Emerald credit card is now prime plus 1.5% to prime plus 12.75%. If you apply, you don’t know what your rate will be when you get the card in the mail. It might be low or insane. That totally depends on your credit rating. Reason number 238 to go to equifax.ca and purchase your credit score. If you don’t understand it, email it to me and I’ll explain it, or go to yourmoneybook.com for the US Fighting Back! book. It has a huge section on credit scores…something Americans all know and live and die with. Us Canadians better get to learn it, too – it’s coming to Canada right now!