Premier Prentice says Alberta credit rating safe if province stays the course + MORE Mar 4th

Interest costs far outweigh any rewards offered by credit cards, so prioritize paying off your balances before thinking about earning rewards

THE COVER STORY
Canada is in the midst of the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in its history, with an estimated $1 trillion in family wealth being passed down from the so-called “Greatest Generation,” raised during the Depression and the Second World War, over the next couple of decades. But for many Boomer recipients of this massive mass inheritance, the money can’t come soon enough.
Half of homeowners in their 50s still have mortgage debt, and an equal share of Canadians expect to retire before they’ve paid off their homes.
Laden with credit card debt and car loans, Boomer children need cash to maintain their standard of living, say experts, and their desperation is starting to show.
Court files are replete with challenges to wills involving claimants nearing retirement age, while the sheer nastiness of family battles is on the rise.
Parent against child, sibling against sibling, Maclean’s takes readers inside the inheritance wars.
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CALGARY – Alberta Premier Jim Prentice reaffirmed Tuesday that his government will stay the course in an effort to right its financial ship and maintain the province’s strong credit rating.
“The truth is that the cracks in Alberta’s fiscal foundations run deeper than is generally acknowledged,” Prentice said in a speech to the Calgary Rotary Club.
“Yes, we have a revenue problem, but we also have a spending problem. It has been overlooked for too long.”
Prentice has not revealed a specific date to deliver the next budget, which he has said will also include a 10-year plan to insulate the government’s revenues and day-to-day spending against wild swings in oil prices.
He is forecasting a $7-billion hole in the coming fiscal year, given that oil prices have been cut in half from a high of more than US$100 a barrel last summer.
In recent weeks, Prentice and members of his cabinet have floated several ideas to raise revenue and cut spending, but have only committed to not increasing corporate taxes or raising oil royalties…

Here are the Rewards Canada’s  Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of March! This is not a ‘best’ credit card list like our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards that have very good acquisition offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the sign up bonus, but when most of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when not taking into account insurance packages and other non-reward benefits. In fact 4 of 5 cards on this list for March are first year free so you can try them out at no cost and decide later on if the card is right for you. All the while earning the sign up bonus which can be used to subsidize your travels! The only card that isn’t first year free is the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express. It has an annual of $120 but the new sign up bonus of 20,000 Starpoints is worth no less than $400 depending on what you value Starpoints at…

(JGI/Jamie Grill)
TORONTO – Consumers are continuing to pile on debt despite economic uncertainty created by the sharp drop in oil prices.
Credit monitoring agency Equifax says consumer debt, including mortgage debt, rose to $1.529 trillion at the end of 2014.That was up 7.7 per cent from $1.42 trillion at the end of 2013, including a 1.1 per cent increase in the latest quarter.Compared with the same quarter last year, Equifax says national consumer demand for credit was driven mainly by credit cards. Bank and auto inquiries also increased.Meanwhile, the average debt held by Canadians, excluding mortgages, totalled $20,967 at the end of last year, Equifax says.
Despite concerns about consumer debt, the 90-day-plus delinquency rate has remained the same or declined in most regions, coming in at 1.09 per cent nationally in the fourth quarter, the lowest since 2008.
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