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Think twice before borrowing against your home equity

(NC) An estimated three million Canadians have one, and they have emerged as the single largest contributor to the growth of household debt in Canada.


Yet many consumers do not appear to fully understand how they work.


No, we’re not talking about credit cards or car loans. We’re talking about home equity lines of credit or HELOCs.


According to a 2019 survey by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, many people appear to lack awareness of the terms and conditions of this widely sold financial product, exposing them to the risk of over-borrowing, carrying debt for extended periods and uninformed decision-making.


HELOCs are a secured form of revolving credit. The lender uses your home as a guarantee that you'll pay back the money you borrow. And, as you pay your HELOC down, you can borrow it again, up to a maximum credit limit.


Most major financial institutions offer them with a mortgage as a combined product, which is sometimes called a readvanceable mortgage. Many use them for...

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Identity Theft

Identity theft has been on the rise so I thought I would share some information to protect yourself from identity theft.

How to Spot Identity Theft

  1. Review your credit report regularly to spot suspicious account openings.
  2. Check banking transactions regularly. Report anything strange immediately.
  3. Recognize, and look into it, if youre not getting important pieces of mail (i.e. bills, bank statements).
  4. You are receiving calls from debt collectors about debts that aren't yours.
  5. You get a notice that your information was compromised at a place you do business with or have an account. 

How to Protect Yourself

  1. HTTPS. Purchasing or putting your information into a website that does not have the prefix HTTPS means it is not secure. Watch out for sites that only have HTTP.
  2. Secure your mail. Do not leave any trace of information on credit card statements, utility bills, and the like. This is a strategy lots of thieves use to gather information from you. Shred anything that has your name and address...
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Worried about rising interest rates affecting your mortgage?

(NC) With the Bank of Canada recently raising its key interest rate once again, many of are concerned about the impact on our household debt and mortgages. Fortunately, there are many tips and tricks for saving and budgeting you can use for other areas in your life.

Try the three-category budget. It can be overwhelming trying to track all your expenses, but it is advisable to have a baseline to check your progress. Money experts recommend picking just three categories you want to focus and get a handle on, since most of us overspend in just one or two categories. The three-category system is an easy way to get started on trimming expenses.

Pay down high-interest debt. One in three of us sometimes buy things we can’t afford. If you’ve put a few too many purchases on your credit cards, a big portion of your monthly payment are going just towards paying down debt. To get out ahead, consider moving the debt to a low-interest option, like a line of credit. When paying off...

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