Currently I am living outside of canada because my visa was expired. For the last five I had been paying regular payment and never had debt more than $1,000. Last year I lost my job, therefore My debt started increasing, applied for visa extension it was rejected and I left with no money. I called RBC and told them about my situation and they said we can’t do anything about it. Now my credit card debt is with collections and it has grown to $14,000. How Can I settle this from outside canada. i have no Idea when I will return to canada maybe in 1 year or more than that. All I have right now is around $3,000 that I saved in my home country. What would be the best strategy for me to settle this debt with collections??
PLEASE HELP. Thanks

My wife took 18 months parental leave in total

Its been 12 months already for her, so i will be taking 8 weeks paternity leave now.

My plan is to apply for paternity leave on December 4 and it will be my last day of work.

On december 5 i will inform Service Canada that we (whole family with kid) will go out of country while me and my wife is on EI.

and on December 8 we will fly out of country (whole family) for religious purposes and come back before 8 weeks are complete.

Will there be any issues on this?

Hi, I’ve been reading through some of the posts here about parental leave/maternity leave. I’m confused by the rules on the federal site. Hoping someone can help me out. Husband and I both work full time.

-I am due in Feb, I was planning on taking six weeks of maternity leave only. Then I’ll return back to work.
-My husband was going to do a year of parental leave. So returning back to work in Feb 2028.

Questions - Can we both be off at the same time, or would his leave start after my maternity six weeks is up? And is he allowed to take a full 52 weeks off? I’m seeing cases of 40 weeks only, and it’s confusing.

Thanks very much for your help.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the kind advice on taking more than six weeks off. Your perspectives are making me think about extending that for sure!

Was starting to look at places at the beginning of the year, but then unfortunately dealt with some pretty heavy personal loss and now am just feeling like getting back into it. But of course fixed rates went up a month ago, and now it looks like BoC is raising rates on Wednesday.

At this point what's the best option here? My rent is too high and I want to stop feeling like I'm wasting my money, but I don't want to lock into too high of a rate and regret it.

Any advice is appreciated.

Voila ma situation . Je n'avais jamais eu de credit jusqu'a il y a environ 3 ans . Jai commencer avec des chose comme sezzle et Borrowel rent advantage qui ont beaucoup aider ma cote mais qu'avec equifax . Depuis 11mois jai une nouvelle voiture et jai ete approuvé rapidement . Aujourdui mon equifax a une cote de 796 mais mon transunion est a 678 et ne semble pas vouloir monter plus haut pour le moment mais je n'ai que mon prêt auto dessus .

Je suis sur la CNESST a vie donc je suis payé jusqu'a mes 67ans 27k par année, cest pas extreme mais bon jai eu un accident et je ne peux plus travailler .

Jaimerais avoir une carte de credit pour ameliorer mon score avec mon transunion aussi car je ne crois pas que seulement qu'un pret auto va la faire monter tant que ca .

Je sait qu'il y a exemple capital one mais j'aimerais eviter d'avoir a donner un depot de securité de 500$ ou dequoi du genre.

Je suis avec tangerine pour mon compte de banque mais jai vu beaucoup de commentaire negatif sur ceux qui reussissent a avoir une carte vs des gens qui sont refusé .que c'etait tres aléatoire comme selection 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

Pensez vous que je vais etre refusé avec un equifax de 796 et un transunion de 678 ?

Je n'ai pas de paiement en retard , jai que mon auto a payé .

Je ne veux pas une carte de 10000$ non plus 😅

Jai besoin de conseil .

I’m really confused and frustrated with this whole credit limit situation, and I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar.
I’ve been with CIBC since I was 18. I got my first student credit card with a $1,000 limit, no annual fee. I’ve always paid my bills on time, never missed a payment, and I don’t carry a balance. I’m now 21, and despite requesting a credit limit increase several times over the years, my limit has never changed.
About a year and a half ago, I opened an account with BMO and got the cashback credit card with a $1,500 limit. I eventually moved my banking over to BMO, and my paycheques now go directly into my BMO account. I no longer use CIBC for anything other than keeping that original credit card open.
The issue is that I’ve now graduated, have a full-time job, and earn a regular income, but my credit limits are still ridiculously low. I can’t comfortably make larger purchases on my credit cards because the limits are so restrictive. I recently had to buy a plane ticket that cost $2200 with my debit card.
I always pay on time with BMO as well, so I genuinely don’t understand what the issue is.
I recently requested a credit limit increase from BMO, and they wouldn’t approve it either. Their explanation was essentially that I haven’t been at my current job long enough

For context, my credit score is above 788
What makes this even more frustrating is that most of my friends who got credit cards around the same time I did have significantly higher limits now. I understand that everyone’s financial situation is different, but I’m trying to understand what I need to do differently.
Am I missing something? Is this just because I’m young and don’t have enough credit history or income history yet? Or is it because the credit cards have no annual fee is it’s low priority?Should I apply for a different credit card with another bank, or would that potentially hurt my credit score without solving the problem?
I’d appreciate any advice from people who’ve been in a similar situation, especially those who started with student credit cards and eventually got higher limits.
I’m just tired of having to work around such low limits when I’m doing everything I thought I was supposed to do to build good credit.

Thank you

Edit: thank you everyone for your suggestions. I’ll definitely look into them.
And also just a side note, my credit utilization is usually between 30 -35 %. My credit limit is usually a problem when I want to make huge purchases.

Thanks again!!

I have a debt from 2013 that timed out on my credit report (it was there for 7ish years before being deleted).

I still have the debt, but I moved countries a few years ago and I've had a legal first name change (different issue. Not running away from debt. I know it looks bad, but I promise lol).

The debt is only $800. I've tried to pay it off a few times over the years but everytime I run into the issue of the debt being under my previous name, I try to pay it, the collector gets hung up that my current name doesn't match the file, says they'll call back once they speak to their manager, they never do. So I've all but given up on resolving this issue. Also it's BELL, so I'm not in any empathetic position to really try that hard to follow up on owing a billion dollar corp my pennies.

Anyways, to the problem.

This debt has been passed around for a while and the company that recently acquired it has decided to put it on my credit profile as a NEW (2026) debt.

Is this allowed ?

I do not live in Canada anymore (if that matters).

The company is CFG CANADA FUNDING LLC.

I have never signed a contract with them, I did not do business with them, upon googling I can see they are simply a debt/financial acquiring company. They have listed themselves as the original creditor, with a subcompany being the debt collector (NCRI inc.)

So essentially they bought my BELL debt, listed themselves as the original creditor for a new debt, while getting another collections company to collect it.

Is this allowed ?

If it is legal feel free to tell me to kick rocks for stupidity, but it feels like a huge loophole for the whole timed out credit report window thing.

Hi so I only recently started making a fairly decent good amount of money the last 6 months $15-20K (Luck tbh).
Before that I was making $2-4K monthly with 30k in credit card debt that had been sitting like that for months (had fomo and wanted to travel). I never really had anyone to talk to regarding finances and been really bad w handling money… but I think it was moreover a good investment in myself because I was able to travel the world & build good connections.

Long story short — I was able to clear that credit card debt from 30 to now 5 within the last 6m

Monthly:
Income:
~20,000

Rent
~2800 with utilities

Groceries
200

Shopping / Miscellaneous / gifts
1000-2000

Entertainment / subscriptions
Netflix - 21
YouTube - 10
Apple - 13
Phone - 45

Gym
70

Flowers
100

Transportation - I walk everywhere, and occasionally uber or take TTC
50-100

Student loans
Total federal 50k, - $300/m

Savings / TFSA
I will try to set aside however much I have left over tbh, only finally started putting money into tfsa last month.
I’m not sure If I ever want to own a home so 0 into FHSA also I can’t wrap the concept of me living longer than 55 , 0 into my RRSP …

Any advice would be greatly appreciated thanks

Hi everyone! I’m (23F) getting a work bonus for the first time and I’m not sure what to do with it. After CPP and EI I’ll be getting $4,621. There’s no federal tax being taken off because I make so little at this job (should I put some aside for that when I do my return?)

My situation:
I got laid off my full-time job in August. I’m working part-time (the job I’m getting the bonus from) two days a week. I get about $700 biweekly from work and $750 biweekly from EI. I live at home and pay $300 biweekly for rent. My biggest bill is my car loan at $223 biweekly.
Before I got laid off, I was trying to get into rent-to-own. I have about $10,000 in a TFSA that I was savings for my down payment ($9,838.76 contributed, all in 2026). I also have a short-term savings account with $4,600 and my chequing has $3,100 currently.

Options I Thought Of:
1. Paying off my car loan
My 6 year car loan will be done in about a year. It’s 7% interest and has about $9,000 left to pay. I could pay it partially off with my bonus or use my bonus and savings to fully pay it off. But I’m still planning on rent-to-own or buying a house once I find a job and I don’t want my credit score to go down massively (currently 773). I have two credit cards and about $750 of student loans, but my car is the biggest thing on my credit report.

2.Paying off my student loans
I have about $750 of student loans left. They have barely any interest ($0.01 per day) and I’m not sure it’s worth paying off or if it’s nice to keep on my report. I’m currently paying $25 a month

3.Savings/Investing
I could also put it into savings. I have lots of contribution room in my TFSA. Or I’ve been thinking about opening an RRSP. I don’t know much about investing and I’d prefer something easy and hands-off

I’m also open to other suggestions or a mix of ideas. Thank you if you’ve read this far!!
If you have any questions or need any other info, just let me know

I have just two credit cards - the WS Infinite Privilege Visa (free, given my WS holdings) and the Amex Cobolt (~$175 a year). I'm finding that points dont really do much for me any more. Most of my travel is with work and so I only take maybe 1 personal vacation a year (something simple like an all inclusive or a city break to one mid range hotel) so playing the points game doesn't seem to do it for me and I think I prefer more tangible rewards like direct cash back where I can see the impact more directly. The cost of Amex has also gone up this year.

I'm thinking of converting the Amex points to Aeroplan and then closing down the card - do you think this is a good idea or is the Amex card still considered the best general spending card? For context I probably spend about $400 a month on groceries, maybe about the same on dining out, I dont drive (for gas points) or spend a ton on other higher point categories like subscriptions. I'm not sure the Amex is really worth it any more?

Like, don't courier your bank cards to anyone. That should go without saying. If someone is saying something's going on with your account. Maybe log into your account and check first? Hang up and call your bank? Why are people still getting scammed like this? https://youtu.be/ID-rxAA-58Y?si=1rAmc3o3jkdt6vcW

I will be hosting at least one information session with my friends and families before the year runs out.

I have question in regard to the transfer of FSHA funds.

Currently I have a potential move to the UK and my understanding is that capital gains, interest and dividends recognized in the FSHA are taxable per the HMRS; while certain ETFs held in RRSP are not taxable per tax treaty law. As such I am considering whether it may be worth it to transfer my funds to an RRSP as I have contributed to every year since it has was introduced.

However, I am uncertain if I will stay in the UK and may be return to Canada. My question is if I make this transfer of a FSHA funds to the RRSP would I be permanently unable to reopen a FSHA? I find it unclear what would happen though I still theoretically have another $8,000 in the lifetime contribution limit in the next taxation year and it would suck to permanently lose that.

Hi there, I have received an inheritance and need advice choosing between 2 financial planners. I'm located in Quebec, Canada. Both have an FPI certification, both have roughly the same management fees. One is an advisor through my bank, the other works at an independent firm. I've had some smaller investments through the bank person in the past but a couple people have suggested I'd make more money with a non-bank advisor.

Option 1)

• Advisor with my bank
• Previous investments with her did very well
• Bank is a reliable institution
• She is nice
• There have been 2 instances that give me pause: In the first case I tried to reach her during a market crisis and didn't hear back from her for several days, which may be normal for all I know. The second was when I met with her more recently to discuss investing my inheritance she mentioned a document she needed and said she would follow up with me a week later, which she did not (I have not otherwise provided the document.) Not a huge deal, but not great.

Option 2)

• He is an advisor with an independent firm called CRW (dealer is Canada Life, an insurance company.) He's also a founding partner, if that matters.
• He had a very slick powerpoint presentation, but ultimately he offers the same thing as the bank lady.
• He seems nice
• My hesitation is that he isn't affiliated with a bank or another large investment company (Industrial Alliance and Fidelity are a couple of big ones here.) He explained that the dealer relationship makes it impossible for the firm to shutter and make off with my money, but I worry that it's somehow less secure than the bank.
• He was recommended by an acquaintance in real estate and I kind of wonder if she gets a referral fee of some kind, not sure how that works.

I'd be grateful for any advice, thank you.

My boyfriend and I are planning on having kids in a couple years and thinking about how we’ll manage our finances during that period. I’d like to see some examples on how other couples have structured managing finances during maternity leave.

Some background:
- We make the same salary
- No maternity/paternity top ups
- I’d take a bigger salary hit (~12 months off) a than him (~3 months off)
- We’re common law and don’t plan on getting married
- We live in Quebec

Our current financial set up:
- Household expenses are split 50/50 we keep track using Splitwise
- We contribute to our investments/savings separately
- We have separate accounts
- We both sign up/close credit cards often to maximize travel credit card points
- We built a financial plan for our retirement/goals
- We have one joint account that’s only used to pay our mortgage
- We have very open communication around finances

Some ideas:
- Using a yours/mine/ours set up (I think this could be a lot of work to manage with our credit card set up)
- Combine finances for a year then return to our current set up
- Keep the same set up but use a pro rata split

Very curious how others have structured this and gone about it. Thank you in advance!

Hey everyone!

I'm newish at this so my apologies if there's any stupid questions or comments. I'm looking for advice on optimizing our credit cards to maximize cashback and Aeroplan points

We currently have a CIBC Costco Mastercard (3% cashback on restaurants and Costco gas, 2% on Costco.ca purchases and other gas stations, and 1% on everything else), and a TD Cash Back Visa (1% cashback on groceries, gas, recurring bills etc. and 0.5% on everything else). I have this card mainly because my chequing account is with TD. I'll be switching to a better cashback credit card then potentially switch to another bank once I've figure out what make the most sense.

I also work at Costco, and a large portion of our grocery spending is done there. We spend most of our money on Costco groceries, dining out, and gas since I commute a bit farther for work.

I've done some research and am considering getting the Amex Cobalt and TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite - thinking of switching over from TD visa cash back to the Aeroplan visa to take advantage of the welcome bonus and start accumulating Aeroplan points then cancel a few years later.

I'm thinking of keeping my CIBC Costco Mastercard, applying for the Amex cobalt and the TD Aeroplan Visa infinite and potentially one more card that's good for cashback?

I've heard the Rogers Mastercard, American Express Simply Cash, Wealth Simple credit card (no charge for using your credit card outside Canada), and Tangerine were also good credit cards.

What I'm wondering is - is the Amex cobalt and the td Aeroplan visa the best for Aeroplan points? What card is best for cashback? It looks like it's the Amex Simplycash but not everywhere takes Amex. How many credit cards are ideal?

Our main goals are to maximize cashback and earn Aeroplan points - I want my parents to experience a business class flight and eventually...hopefully my husband and I too :)

Thanks in advance :)

Hi, I used my RBC WestJet credit card to pay for a flight on Expedia 6 months ago but since then I have switched my credit card to a no fee one since I didn’t find value with the card. Due to plan changes, I had to cancel part of my trip. The refund is going to back onto the original form of payment. With the card switch, my card number has also changed. Will the refund still show up on this card or will it be stuck in limbo with RBC?

If I need to state my net income on a gov form…is that before or after I claim RRSP’s? I don’t want my income to be over a certain amount.

Thank you!

Just closing on a house soon. I have 25k in my FHSA already and still have 8k for this year to deposit. Just trying to time things correctly so my money is transferred in time.
If I transfer in the 8k then I can still withdraw the 25k without waiting the 5 business day settlement period? Or does transferring in 8k somehow lock up the rest of the funds till it is all cleared?

I thought I would be smart and save Tax returns on a drive but have discovered that went kaput. Will the CRA be able to provide copies of T776 Statement of Real Estate rentals for the period 2003 - 12? I looked on My CRA and didn't see that information available. I would like to know the amounts claimed thoughout those years CCA and would like to sell the property soon but want to know how much the recapture will be.

I guess I really only need to know what the original balance was for the UCC and then deduct the balance showing now so I will be able to know how much the recapture will be, but don't have the numbers for that either.

Hi there, I have a 4 month internship starting in January and plan on opening an RBC cross border account since I’m already with them with no plans of returning to the US. I’m currently fully allocated into XEQT and was wondering whether I should be converting my usd to cad to reinvest in Wealthsimple, or if there’s a better way to invest it to avoid fees and utilize the US currency.

Any experience/help would be appreciated.

What are the chances I’ll find a cheaper phone plan soon?

Unlimited CAN/US/ MX talk and text
Currently with bell at $43 a month.

Hello PFC,

I am in the process of purchasing my first car. I spent the last couple of weeks doing research on what to check when purchasing a used vehicle, and how to get a good financing deal. I thought I was making the right choice - going for a reliable used car (2023 Toyota Corolla hatchback with 22,000km on it) and saving up my money beforehand. I am trying to follow the 20/4/10 rule.

In order to minimize the amount paid in interest, I was trying to put $15,000 down (out of the total of $29,000) and finance the rest. I have a strong credit score (700s to 800s). However, the finance manager at the dealership told me that my interest rate will be high since I am financing a relatively small amount. Also all the salespeople so far have been telling me that since auto loans are open I can pay them off early at any time, but the sales manager said that in the future banks might punish me for that by charging a higher rate on my mortgage etc. She is trying to convince me to go for a 5 year loan instead.

Is there any truth to what they are saying, or is this all just a way for them to push me in a direction that will bring them a greater profit at my detriment? I told them I will give it some more thought and let them know.

Hey all,

My insurance bundle is up for renewal for my 2 autos and home in a little over a month and I'm tired of the price slowly creeping up. I used to switch between companies based on what was cheaper but never used a broker before.

When people say to look into brokers, are they referring to actual agents like mortgage brokers or online brokers like rate aggregators like rates.ca? If so, any recommendations for one that is easy to deal with and genuinely gives good rates? Or should I stick to just those online tools that look at every provider?

I always get this error. I can use Apple Pay at a vendor in person though?

It always says “not enabled for payments on the web”

I’ve been dealing with unemployment for about a year and a half now. Because of that my already bad financial situation turned worse and all my various debt went to collections.

I was recently approved for the DTC and 10 years of back payments. (Ive already opened an rdsp too) I’m currently waiting for the back payments to be processed (hopefully before the end of the year) I’m am expecting $15,000-$20,000 in back pay.

I want to use this money to help get a chunk of my debt out of collections to not only to clear it but improve my basically 0 credit score.

I know I owe the debts but I also know that most of the collectors may accept a settlement vs never getting anything.

So my question is how do I prioritize what debts to pay and how do I go about negotiating a settlement to pay a smaller amount than the owing debt but have it marked as paid? Like how do I approach the conversation/what do I ask? Is there a difference between paid in full and a settlement?

Do we reach a verbal agreement and then have them email or mail written agreement before I make the payment? To ensure they cant change the terms?

How long after clearing the debts will it take for my credit score to start improving? Its low 400s right now.

My approx debts owing, not including government student loans. Everything except TD is with a collections agency

TD Visa
$8000 - account is marked as “open” (still held at TD, but they didnt renew the card/cancelled it due to my poor external score even though payments were being made monthly)

Captial One
$1400

Pc mastercard
$3700

Rogers
$2000

Canadian tire
$1000

Easy financial
$12000

Teppermans
$11000
Not sure why this one is $11000. The items and original loans were only for no more than $3500. Maybe its interest? Idk