Many don’t know why they should pay down credit cards faster

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Have you paid down those Christmas bills yet?

A new study finds a large number of Canadians don’t know why they should be making more than the minimum payment every month.

To be fair, the findings from TransUnion suggest 88 per cent of us are making progress at knocking down those balances, but President Todd Skinner says there is a high level of ignorance about why that is such an important thing to do.

“Four-in-10 Canadians don’t understand the importance of making larger than minimum monthly payments,” he tells NEWS 1130. “How it impacts their score and how it makes them a better candidate to do business with for their financial institution.”

Skinner also notes that fewer British Columbians make more than minimum payments on their cards compared to the national average, only 77 per cent.

“I think there’s probably a number of factors that go into that, but certainly one of the things that has been in the media lately is the price of housing in the marketplace.”

There have been repeated warnings from economists that Canadians are carrying too much debt load, leaving them financially vulnerable to any increase in interest rates.

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