Help finding right credit card
Credit cards are indispensable for shopping. They let you spend more than you have in your wallet or bank account. You can find cards with low interest rates, no annual fees and lucrative reward programs; specialized cards for students, U. S.dollar cards for snowbirds and secured cards for those with poor credit. But with 53 million Visa and MasterCard products in circulation — more than two cards for every Canadian adult — it’s hard to pick the right one. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada wants to help. Today, the agency is unveiling an interactive tool at www. fcac. gc . ca where you can sort through the card clutter. First, you decide what’s important to you. Then, you’re given a list of cards you can compare.
Suppose you pay off your bills in full each month. You want a card with the best travel and vacation rewards, plus travel- related insurance. You tick off all the insurance programs for travellers ( medical, accident, flight delay, trip interruption or cancellation, baggage and rental- vehicle
have happened otherwise, he added. “ When you announce so much tax cuts when you have good times, the risk is higher interest rates and a stronger Canadian dollar.”
If energy prices remain high over the winter, however, any personal tax cuts would actually cushion the economy without triggering higher borrowing costs, Gignac added. Derek Holt, assistant chief economist at the Royal Bank of Canada, believes any tax cuts, whether Liberal or Conservative, will not be enough to panic the central bank. But then again, Holt had already been forecasting an aggressive Bank of Canada; specifically, he expects four more interest- rate hikes by the spring.
“ On balance, it would have a modest impact on the economy.” A lot of the fiscal stimulus was already included in the forecast, Holt added. But now it seems the shift will be toward lower taxes rather than further increases in program spending, he said. A Conservative election victory would have about the same overall impact, though the bias would be toward more corporate tax relief, which would help bolster investment spending. “ There are good points to both platforms. It’s just whether you want a consumer or productivity focus,” Holt said.
Scotiabank’s Pyle also dismissed warnings that tax cuts will over-stimulate the economy, thus forcing the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates beyond what was already planned. Consumers were already trying to cope with rising borrowing costs as well as high energy prices, which will hit Canadians particularly hard on their homeheating bills this winter.
“ Those headwinds were going to start pushing on the Canadian consumer, and that would have been reflected in weaker growth in 2006,” Pyle said.
“ Any tax- cut package may soften that slowdown a bit.”