1.4 million consumers missed a credit payment in Q1, says Equifax report

The Canadian Press

· Posted: May 27, 2025 4:38 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

There's a deepening disagreement betwixt consumers successful the look of economical uncertainty arsenic those missing payments roseate compared with a twelvemonth ago, a caller Equifax study shows.

Rebecca Oakes, Equifax Canada's vice-president of precocious analytics, said overmuch of the inclination stems from the precocious outgo of living, increasing unemployment and rising commercialized tensions.

"In bid for anybody to benignant of support making the payments, you request to person an income, you request to person bully employment," said Oakes. "When there's economical uncertainty, that does make a fewer impacts."

The study recovered 1 successful 22 consumers, oregon 1.4 cardinal people, missed astatine slightest 1 recognition outgo during the archetypal quarter, adjacent arsenic the mean monthly recognition paper walk fell by $107 per cardholder.

"We really deliberation this is much to bash with pulling backmost connected that discretionary spend. And that is going to person a knock-on interaction to concern and that yet volition person a knock-on interaction to employment levels," she said.

"It's each benignant of interlinked a small spot erstwhile you commencement to spot that economical uncertainty."

Credit paper delinquency rates up among young people

The study said consumer-level delinquency rates among non-mortgage holders roseate 8.9 per cent twelvemonth implicit year, compared to 6.5 per cent for owe holders.

Average non-mortgage indebtedness per user roseate to $21,859 successful the archetypal quarter, the study said, chiefly driven by a beardown car indebtedness marketplace arsenic buyers looked to fastener successful car purchases earlier prospective tariff-induced terms hikes.

Younger consumers look to beryllium having a pugnacious go, the study showed. Credit paper delinquency rates among that cohort was 5.38 per cent, up 21.7 per cent twelvemonth implicit year.

"If you person got recognition commitments and your day-to-day surviving costs spell up or it's harder to get employment, oregon possibly your incomes haven't risen astatine the aforesaid magnitude arsenic outgo of living, past it's conscionable harder to support making the payments that you've committed to," Oakes said.

The full user indebtedness grew to $2.55 trillion successful the archetypal 3 months of 2025, up 4 per cent twelvemonth implicit year, but down much than $6 cardinal from the extremity of 2024, the study showed.

A precocious fig of owe renewals besides added to accrued levels of debt. Many homeowners who locked successful debased involvement rates astatine the opening of the COVID-19 pandemic are looking astatine owe renewals, which Oakes called "the large renewal."

Ontario became a blistery spot of fiscal accent during the archetypal quarter, the study showed. The province's 90-plus time owe delinquency complaint surged to 0.24 per cent since past year.

"We are conscionable seeing missed payments linked to consumers that person a owe successful Ontario spell up and up," Oakes said.

The state besides saw the highest non-mortgage delinquency rate, up 24 per cent twelvemonth implicit year, followed by Alberta and Quebec.