Demand for credit up in Western Canada: Equifax + MORE Jun 10th

A busy Monday here on RC with a nice mix of news and bonuses! News, Tips & TricksAir Canada is cancelling their direct non-stop service between Montreal and Denver as of July 1st. If you have revenue or Aeroplan award tickets on this route after this date you can expect to receive a call or email notifying you of this change and chances are you will be routed via Toronto. (Source Airlineroute.net)If you missed the post earlier, today is the last day to jump on the 24,000 bonus points sign up offer for the mbna Choice Privileges MasterCard. With no-fee it is a pretty easy way to get a few free hotel nights or a small amount of miles to pad your Aeroplan or other Frequent Flyer accounts. See the post here.American Airlines and US Airways completed a few more steps to the integration of the airlines and their respective Frequent Flyer Programs (FFPs). As of this Wednesday the airlines will offer reciprocal upgrades to members of each others FFPs . For complete details on how the upgrade process will work see this post on View From the Wing…

Miles & More has once again updated their discounted mileage awards “Meilenschnaeppchen” The last set had flights until the end of June (and are still available, see here) while this latest update adds flights to many destinations in Europe from Montreal for travel this October!You can redeem Miles & More miles for round trip tickets between Montreal and Europe for only 30,000 miles in Economy Class  That’s half off the normal price for Economy.  Granted all these tickets will also have fuel surcharges but this is still a pretty good deal when you look at it as a whole in terms of miles+cash outlay. Simply book your tickets by Jun 30 for travel October 1-31.  Full details can be found hereAs always with this post:If you don’t have enough miles you can convert points from the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express (C$1 = 1 Miles & More Mile) If you do try, remember your best bet is to transfer in 20,000 Starpoints increments as you’ll get a 5,000 mile bonus meaning you’ll get 25,000 Miles & More miles…

Western Canadians drove an recent increase in demand for credit, Equifax Canada said Monday.

Credit monitoring agency Equifax says demand for credit has increased for four consecutive quarters in Western Canada, while demand in the Eastern provinces continues to slow down.
Equifax says its first-quarter statistics show that consumers’ overall debt, including mortgages, remains high around $1.4 trillion, up slightly from$1.42 trillion in the same period last year.
But Equifax says while consumer demand for credit is still heading up (it was 2.7 per cent in the quarter),  debt levels still remain manageable.
The report says consumer bankruptcies are down and the overall delinquency rate (bills due past 90 days) is down by 3.9 per cent.
It also says the instalment loan and credit card sectors showed significant increases of 11.8 per cent and 4.8 per cent year-over-year, respectively.
Equifax says while more new credit cards were issued, on average consumers are carrying smaller balances.
The post Demand for credit up in Western Canada: Equifax appeared first on MoneySense.

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