Higher interest rates are coming. Are you ready?
CBC
Everything seems to be getting more expensive. Food, gas and housing prices are on the rise while paycheques are slow to keep pace.
The CBC News series Priced Out explains why you're paying more at the register and how Canadians are coping with the high cost of everything.
Over the past several months, mortgage agent Rasha Ingratta has fielded a flood of queries from clients worried about how rising interest rates will impact their mortgage payments.
"People are in a panic," said Ingratta, who works with Mortgage Intelligence in Windsor, Ont. "They're thinking, 'Oh my God, what is the interest rate going to go up to?'"
For the past two years, Canadians have enjoyed access to cheap credit thanks to rock-bottom interest rates. However, to help curb soaring inflation, many economists predict the Bank of Canada will begin hiking its benchmark interest rate — starting with a hike of 0.25 per cent on Wednesday.
The bank's rate influences the rate creditors charge for consumer loans and mortgages.
The question now is, how high will interest rates go, and will indebted Canadians be able to handle it?
Ingratta advises her clients not to panic, because she believes any increase in mortgage rates will be slow and incremental. To help allay her clients' fears, she set up a private Facebook page where she offers advice.
"I go on there and I can calm their nerves."
But Toronto-based bankruptcy specialist Doug Hoyes says he's concerned about Canadians already struggling with their finances.
"I'm absolutely worried about everybody living paycheque to paycheque."
Hoyes notes that prices have climbed recently for household staples such as food and gas. So for some people, he said, a rise in rates — and therefore a hike in loan payments — could tip the scales.
"How are you going to be able to increase what you have to pay on your debt when you also have to pay more for food and transportation and everything else?" said Hoyes, who works with the firm, Hoyes, Michalos & Associates.
"You're getting squeezed at all ends."
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