Your credit report is a snapshot of your financial history. It is one of the primary tools that credit grantors, like banks and credit card companies, use to decide whether to grant you credit.
What is in my credit report?
Your credit report may include the following information:
Identifying information: Your name, current and previous addresses, Social Insurance Number, telephone number, date of birth and current and previous employers
Credit history: History of payments to credit grantors (such as retail stores, banks, finance companies)
Public records: Items that may affect credit worthiness such as bankruptcies and judgments
Inquiries: A list of credit grantors and other parties authorized by you and/or by law that have received your credit information
Other information, which could include banking information and/or collections
Your credit report does not include your income, purchases paid in full with cash or cheques, or information about business/personal accounts (unless you are personally liable for the debt). It also does not include any information about your medical history, ethnicity, political affiliations or criminal record.
What is a consumer reporting agency or credit bureau and what does it do?
Consumer reporting agencies, like TransUnion, serve consumers and businesses by providing credit information and risk management tools to help businesses make credit-granting decisions.
Lenders and other institutions provide credit bureaus with factual information about how their customers pay their bills and other debts. Credit reporting agencies compile payment histories, along with public record information, into a “file” for each consumer. Credit grantors and authorized institutions obtain credit reports about individual consumers. Consumers benefit through faster credit decisions.
TransUnion generates millions of credit reports each year to make buying on credit fast, easy and safe for qualified applicants.
How does information get on my credit report and is it updated on a regular basis?
Lenders provide updates on your account activity to at least one of two credit bureaus in Canada —TransUnion and Equifax. Since lenders do not necessarily report to both bureaus, the information on your credit reports may vary. Lenders also report activity to the credit bureaus at different times during the month, which may result in slight differences in your reports and credit scores.
Why is my credit report necessary? What purpose does it serve?
When you apply for credit, like a mortgage, car loan, a new credit card, apply for a job or want to rent an apartment, companies need a way to gauge your credit worthiness. Your credit report includes a record of your financial reliability.
How long does information stay on my credit report?
Positive credit information, like information about paid accounts with no negative history, may remain on your credit report for up to twenty years. By sharing this information with creditors, lenders see the types of credit you managed successfully in the past and recognize your previous good credit history, even when you have limited or no current credit history.
Adverse credit history, collections and defaulted accounts that were not settled through a debt repayment program (i.e. orderly payment of debt, credit counselling, consumer proposal), are removed automatically from your credit report after six years from the date the account first went delinquent.
Public records such as judgments and bankruptcies may report on your file for 6 to 10 years depending on the province.
In the case of multiple bankruptcies, each bankruptcy will report for 14 years from the date of discharge.
TransUnion may delete credit information reported about you by a data supplier if our relationship with the data supplier comes to an end. The end of a data supplier relationship may impede our ability to maintain a current and accurate credit file and/or carry out our investigation procedures. We delete credit information in these circumstances to ensure that your credit file remains as accurate, complete and up-to-date as possible.
Who can access my credit report?
Provincial and federal laws outline the requirements for what organizations may access your personal credit information. As part of the credit application process, organizations ask for your consent to access information about you. They may also request a credit report when they are looking to collect on a debt, or if you have applied for employment, tenancy, or insurance. Finally, you also have the right to access your credit report.
What is an inquiry?
An inquiry is a notation on your credit report that someone received information contained in your credit report. To assist organizations with credit, tenancy, employment or insurance decisions, they may request your consent to obtain your credit report. Credit bureaus only disclose credit-related inquiries to other companies viewing your credit file. A large number of inquiries over a short period of time may have a negative impact on your credit score.
Credit-Related Inquiries:
When you apply for credit, companies may request your consent to access your credit report to assist in their decision. Each time they request your report for credit-related purposes, an inquiry is listed on your file. These inquiries will be disclosed to other companies viewing your credit file and may impact your credit score.
Non-Credit Related Inquiries and Account Review Inquiries:
Non-credit related inquiries and account review inquiries, as well as your own requests to view your credit file, have no impact on your credit score. Companies may, with consent or as authorized by law, access all or part of your credit information before completing a transaction or entering into a relationship with you for purposes other than credit (non-credit related inquiries) and/or to periodically review your credit file after establishing a relationship with you (account review inquiries). Companies perform non-credit related and account review inquiries for such things as verifying your identity, collecting on a debt, employment or tenancy screening, insurance underwriting, fraud detection, meeting regulatory requirements, account renewals, limit changes, monitoring or for products and services offerings.
Non-credit related and account review inquiries may be used (without disclosing the details of such inquiries) by TransUnion to provide fraud detection and monitoring, identity verification, alerts and analytical services to our customers and may be disclosed to deliver products that you have requested through a direct-to-consumer reseller.
Is there a place where I can explain information on my credit report?
Absolutely. You have the right to attach a statement to your credit report that explains why, for example, you have a few late payments on your record. The statement remains for six years and is viewable by companies receiving a complete copy of your credit report. Life is complicated, and this statement may convince an otherwise apprehensive lender to give you a chance.
How often should I check my credit report?
You should review your credit report at least once a year to make sure the information is accurate. If you are planning important financial transactions over the next few months, you should review your report well before you expect these transactions to occur. That way, you have enough time to contact the credit reporting agency if you have questions or need amendments.
VICTORIA – British Columbia is forecasting a record budget deficit and a rising debt of almost $129 billion less than two weeks before the start of a provincial election campaign where economic stability and future progress are expected to be major issues.
Finance Minister Katrine Conroy, who has announced her retirement and will not seek re-election in the Oct. 19 vote, said Tuesday her final budget update as minister predicts a deficit of $8.9 billion, up $1.1 billion from a forecast she made earlier this year.
Conroy said she acknowledges “challenges” facing B.C., including three consecutive deficit budgets, but expected improved economic growth where the province will start to “turn a corner.”
The $8.9 billion deficit forecast for 2024-2025 is followed by annual deficit projections of $6.7 billion and $6.1 billion in 2026-2027, Conroy said at a news conference outlining the government’s first quarterly financial update.
Conroy said lower corporate income tax and natural resource revenues and the increased cost of fighting wildfires have had some of the largest impacts on the budget.
“I want to acknowledge the economic uncertainties,” she said. “While global inflation is showing signs of easing and we’ve seen cuts to the Bank of Canada interest rates, we know that the challenges are not over.”
Conroy said wildfire response costs are expected to total $886 million this year, more than $650 million higher than originally forecast.
Corporate income tax revenue is forecast to be $638 million lower as a result of federal government updates and natural resource revenues are down $299 million due to lower prices for natural gas, lumber and electricity, she said.
Debt-servicing costs are also forecast to be $344 million higher due to the larger debt balance, the current interest rate and accelerated borrowing to ensure services and capital projects are maintained through the province’s election period, said Conroy.
B.C.’s economic growth is expected to strengthen over the next three years, but the timing of a return to a balanced budget will fall to another minister, said Conroy, who was addressing what likely would be her last news conference as Minister of Finance.
The election is expected to be called on Sept. 21, with the vote set for Oct. 19.
“While we are a strong province, people are facing challenges,” she said. “We have never shied away from taking those challenges head on, because we want to keep British Columbians secure and help them build good lives now and for the long term. With the investments we’re making and the actions we’re taking to support people and build a stronger economy, we’ve started to turn a corner.”
Premier David Eby said before the fiscal forecast was released Tuesday that the New Democrat government remains committed to providing services and supports for people in British Columbia and cuts are not on his agenda.
Eby said people have been hurt by high interest costs and the province is facing budget pressures connected to low resource prices, high wildfire costs and struggling global economies.
The premier said that now is not the time to reduce supports and services for people.
Last month’s year-end report for the 2023-2024 budget saw the province post a budget deficit of $5.035 billion, down from the previous forecast of $5.9 billion.
Eby said he expects government financial priorities to become a major issue during the upcoming election, with the NDP pledging to continue to fund services and the B.C. Conservatives looking to make cuts.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the debt would be going up to more than $129 billion. In fact, it will be almost $129 billion.
NANAIMO, B.C. – Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney says he’ll be advising the Liberal party to flip some the challenges posed by an increasingly divided and dangerous world into an economic opportunity for Canada.
But he won’t say what his specific advice will be on economic issues that are politically divisive in Canada, like the carbon tax.
He presented his vision for the Liberals’ economic policy at the party’s caucus retreat in Nanaimo, B.C. today, after he agreed to help the party prepare for the next election as chair of a Liberal task force on economic growth.
Carney has been touted as a possible leadership contender to replace Justin Trudeau, who has said he has tried to coax Carney into politics for years.
Carney says if the prime minister asks him to do something he will do it to the best of his ability, but won’t elaborate on whether the new adviser role could lead to him adding his name to a ballot in the next election.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says she has been taking advice from Carney for years, and that his new position won’t infringe on her role.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government has introduced a bill that would kick-start the province’s offshore wind industry without federal approval.
Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton says amendments within a new omnibus bill introduced today will help ensure Nova Scotia meets its goal of launching a first call for offshore wind bids next year.
The province wants to offer project licences by 2030 to develop a total of five gigawatts of power from offshore wind.
Rushton says normally the province would wait for the federal government to adopt legislation establishing a wind industry off Canada’s East Coast, but that process has been “progressing slowly.”
Federal legislation that would enable the development of offshore wind farms in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador has passed through the first and second reading in the Senate, and is currently under consideration in committee.
Rushton says the Nova Scotia bill mirrors the federal legislation and would prevent the province’s offshore wind industry from being held up in Ottawa.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
