November is Financial Literacy Month in Canada. It’s the one month each year the spotlight is shone on financial literacy – or the lack thereof. While most people can read and write, far too many Canadians consider themselves financially illiterate. It’s hard to reach your long-term goals if you don’t know how to prepare a budget and regularly misuse your credit card. Here are our best tips towards financial success.
Last week, credit card giants, MasterCard and Visa, finally came to an agreement to cap interchange fees. The announcement is a major win for small businesses, who have been very vocal about high credit card fees. Although credit card fees will be capped at 1.5 per cent over the next five years, the deal falls short of a 10 per cent reduction across the board. Let’s take a look at whether small businesses believe lower fees will help their bottom line and lead to lower prices for consumers.
The Bank of Canada’s interest rate announcement last month was largely overshadowed by the shooting in Ottawa. This past week Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz held his first news conference since the interest rate announcement on October 22nd. Under normal circumstances, the news conferences would have taken place on the same day as the interest rate announcement, but with security concerns top of mind, it was postponed. Let’s recap the announcement, as well as discuss our central bank’s fear of low inflation, and the impact it has for consumers.
There once was a time when small business credit cards were few and far between, but times have changed. Today small businesses have significantly more options to choose from. Small business is behind much of the economic growth in Canada, so it should come to no surprise credit card issuers are really making a push for their business. With so many credit cards out there, choosing the right one be a daunting task. Let’s take a look at what’s going on in the small business credit card space, as well as the benefits and factors to consider.
Photo credit: Ekaterina_Minaeva / Shutterstock.com
After months of tense negotiations, cooler heads have prevailed over hotly-contested interchange fees. There were rumblings last week a deal had been struck between the federal government, credit card companies and the banks. It was made official with a press release this week. With an election set for 2015, there’s no doubt the federal government is breathing a sigh of relief for taking care of this issue once and for all.
Credit cards are a useful financial tool when used responsibly. That means paying off your balance in full before the end of your grace period. Personal finance expert Pattie Lovett-Reid recently wrote an article on credit card rules to live by. We thought it would be fun to borrow some of her rules and expand upon her list. Although this may be common knowledge for some, everyone needs a refresher sometimes.
