Canadians now carry $134.2 billion in credit card debt with just 5 paydays before Black Friday

Canadians carried $134.2 billion in credit card debt last quarter, up from $130.6 billion just three months earlier, according to Equifax Canada. Nationally, 90-plus-day credit card delinquencies ran 6.8% higher than a year ago, even after easing slightly from the previous quarter. With Black Friday landing on November 27, there are only five biweekly paydays left before the holiday spending season fully kicks in.

That timing matters more than it might seem. A common instinct is to spend now and sort out the balance once the new year arrives. “January isn’t a reset button,” Peta Wales, president and CEO of the Credit Counselling Society, said in a statement. If a balance is already being carried in September, adding holiday spending on top of it, then pushing repayment further out, mostly just adds more interest.

The national picture is actually improving — yours might not be

Household debt as a share of disposable income fell from 178.6% to 176.4% in the second quarter, the largest drop since the third quarter of 2024, while the household saving rate edged up to 3.7%, Statistics Canada reported. But that improvement sits alongside rising credit card balances and delinquencies, and wage growth that’s cooling: Average hourly wages grew 2.0% year over year in August, the slowest pace since November 2017 outside of 2021. Debt is easing in aggregate while getting more expensive to carry for households already behind, and the two trends can be true at once.

What’s already stacking up before the holidays start

Back-to-school costs alone were estimated at $600 to $750 per child once electronics are included, contributing to a $4.5-billion season nationally, according to the Retail Council of Canada. Layer in summer travel, repairs or general cost-of-living increases, and it’s no surprise the Credit Counselling Society says inquiries were up almost 20% between August 2025 and August 2026, with debt loads among those clients up nearly 4%.

“People calling us in September are not necessarily in crisis,” Ali Harris-Saunders, the organization’s community relations manager said in a statement. “They’re looking at a statement and realizing the balance isn’t going to disappear on its own.”

Why “I’ll deal with it in January” is riskier this year

Equifax found 1 in 4 consumers now expect to make only minimum payments in the months ahead, compared with 4% who currently do — a jump that suggests more households are bracing for a tighter stretch, not a lighter one. Minimum payments barely touch principal once interest is factored in, so a balance carried from September through a full holiday season, then further into January, can grow substantially before it starts shrinking.

How to use the paydays you have left

• Total up what’s still owed from summer and back-to-school spending before adding anything new — a full number is easier to plan around than a vague sense of “some debt”
• Set a holiday spending ceiling now, before sales events start making that decision instead
• Direct extra payments at the highest-interest balance first, not necessarily the largest one
• If a big purchase must happen before a price increase, paying cash preserves any savings; putting it on credit typically cancels them out
• Set aside whatever January bills you can already predict, rather than absorbing them cold

The bottom line

The national debt story and your household’s debt story aren’t always the same story. With five paydays standing between now and Black Friday, the more useful question isn’t whether to worry about the aggregate numbers — it’s whether this year’s balance gets a plan before the holidays add to it, or after.