My name is Ira Smith, President of Ira Smith Trustee & Receiver Inc.
First, we hope that you and your entire family
are remaining safe, healthy and secure during this coronavirus pandemic.
Ira SmithTrustee & Receiver Inc. remains fully operational.
Both Brandon Smith and myself are holding all meetings by telephone
or video chat, so shoot us a message, give us a phone call.
We would love to hear from you.
Today's Brandon Blog is titled Lowest Credit Scores Rating
These Canadians Led Gigantic Credit Card Debt Repayment.
A couple of days ago, Statistics Canada came out with its report
on what has happened to debt levels during the first year of the pandemic.
So I hope you can watch until the end of this
video because I know you will find it informative.
Brandon goes through the highlights of the Statistics Canada report
finding that those with lowest credit scores
have led the wave of pandemic credit card debt repayment.
Brandon first gives a primer on what the credit report, credit score is,
the basics, how to check your credit report
for errors, and then describes how the average Canadian
credit scores have actually improved during the pandemic.
Based on a Borrowell study, Borrowell
being, a fintech company that monitors credit scores for people at no cost.
The StatsCan study shows that those with the lowest credit score ranking
paid down credit card debt the most.
The Statistics Canada report also found that mortgage debt ballooned during
the same time period. There have been reports in the media
discussing the Stats Canada report, but they tend to stop right there.
And so on the surface, you would say this is really good news.
But Brandon delves deeper into it because what he's saying is that if you
think about it, those with very low credit scores are not the ones buying the bigger
single family homes and taking on the bigger mortgages.
So
you really have in Canada two distinct classes.
1. Those with higher credit scores
selling their existing home, buying a bigger home,
having a bigger mortgage or refinancing and increasing their
mortgage in order to do renovations, build additions,
whatever.
2. Then you have those with the lowest credit score who are
getting benefit out of government pandemic assistance support.
And it's a sad commentary that while not working and getting government assistance,
albeit are staying at home and not having a lot of places to spend their money,
are able to save and dramatically pay down credit card debt.
So what happens when they go back to work and there's no more government support?
They're not
earning what they were on government support.
They're spending more and more than likely,
their credit card purchases is really there to meet the gap between what they're
earning at their job and what they are spending to live.
So if you delve deeper as Brandon did, it's not a pretty picture.
Whereas the media reports stop short and make you think things are really good.
So I invite you to read the entire Brandon Blog below.
Brandon finishes up with a question we are asked many times.
What is the minimum credit score rating for mortgages in Canada?
And he answers that question. I know you will find the blog
very informative, so I hope you will have a chance to read it.
Again, the Ira Smith Trustee & Receivership Inc. Team
hopes that you and your entire family are remaining safe, healthy, and secure.
Ira Smith Trustee & Receiver Inc. is fully operational.
Both Brandon Smith and myself
are holding all meetings and are available by telephone or by email.
So shoot us a message, or video chat. So shoot us a message,
give us a phone call, we would love to hear from you.