The Ultimate Small Business Credit Card portfolio! + MORE Jun 8th

In this feature of Rewards Canada’s Ultimate Credit Card Portfolios we look at the ultimate one for those who want to reap the most their Small Business Credit Cards. While many of us use personal credit and charge cards for our small businesses some companies find it much easier to track expenses by using corporate or small business cards. Others like to keep work separate from home and while they would like to use personal cards, small business cards help keep that divide. We have always recommended you should carry a Visa, a MasterCard and an American Express card in your wallet so there is a MasterCard included in this portfolio. The reason why is that there are benefits, promotions and earning potential unique to each brand of credit card. We won’t go into detail here as you can read all about it in our feature on how to Maximize your Miles and Points but here we outline one card from each brand that will help you high end travellers get those perks, benefits and one of a kind experiences…

Credit card balances continued to creep toward an all-time high in April, according to a federal report released Wednesday

A report by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada is warning that home equity lines of credit may be putting some Canadians at risk of over-borrowing.
FCAC commissioner Lucie Tedesco says HELOCs may lead Canadians to use their homes as ATMs, making it easier for them to borrow more than they can afford.
Borrowers may also be more vulnerable to economic shocks such as a job loss or an interest rate hike.
Economists and policy-makers have named household debt as a key risk for the Canadian economy with debt-to-income ratios at a record high.
The FCAC said the number of households that have a HELOC and a mortgage secured against their home has increased by nearly 40 per cent since 2011.
It also noted that 40 per cent of consumers do not make regular payments toward their HELOC principal and 25 per cent pay only the interest or make the minimum payment.
The post FCAC warns of risk of over borrowing with home equity lines of credit appeared first on Canadian Business – Your Source For Business News.

It’s not just skyrocketing real estate prices that have regulators worried. It’s also the fact consumers have been tapping the swelling equity in their homes and don’t seem to be in a hurry to pay it back. In fact, many are only covering the interest payments, which are at near-record low rates. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada is out to raise awareness of this problem, with a warning that carrying more debt for longer could “put stress on Canadian households, at a time when they are carrying record amounts of debt.”
Essential bank jargon: Two terms the FCAC wants you to wrap your head around are “HELOCs” (home equity lines of credit) and “readvanceable mortgages” (an unfortunate mouthful that refers to term mortgages wrapped up with HELOCs and sometimes other products such as credit cards). Canadians are bingeing on HELOCs, with much encouragement from the banks, and the FCAC says readvanceable mortgages have become the default mortgage choice for anyone who has put down 20%…

Positive social media data could help small businesses get credit, but it raises concerns