Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for February 15th, 2007

I saw that bit of data on the Stats Canada site and wondered out loud what could be causing this? Sales increased by 5.6% in December, and for the life of me, I can’t understand it.

Gas prices are as high as ever, and there isn’t really a drop in the near future, yet sales of cars and trucks are both very strong here in Canada. This isn’t like in China where the consumer is getting introduced to this new “toy”, Canadians are buying new trucks and cars to replace old ones.

For 2006, sales are up a modest 2.2% over the previous year, but they are still UP. What about all this Global Warming hysteria? Why are we still buying cars?

I am really curious to hear other folks opinions on this one, because I really can’t see this other than the fact that the Canadian economy is so darn strong, that folks just don’t care about gas prices, they want NEW cars! –C8j

Credit Card Security

It seems that BMO and CIBC are both sending out new credit cards to their customers, even before they are expired. These are not renewals either, these are NEW credit cards and the customers are being told their cards may have been used or will be used fraudulently (good word).

Pardon?

I haven’t got such an e-mail yet (although I don’t think I ever activated my CIBC card the last time it renewed, so who knows). This really worries the crap out of me.

What can you as a consumer do about this?

1. Check your account balance regularly either on line or by phone. This is really important, since I have caught a couple of “odd” charges this way, and the bank appreciates you being pro active in this area.
2. Cancel old credit cards (remember I have said this one before), if you must have a credit card, only have 1, don’t have 7 of them (more chance of fraud there).
3. Never let your credit card wander away for extended periods of time at Restaurants or places of business, also don’t allow sales folks to “swipe” it many times, that is a dead giveaway that something is not right with things, if you see that.

Not having a credit card is the only way to stop this fraud (much like the only fool proof method of birth control is abstinence (don’t make me tell you my vasectomy story)).

Protect yourself from fraud NOW folks, it’s important.