Canadians appear to be heeding the advice of financial advisers who have been warning that they are over-leveraged, according to a new BMO survey.
BMO’s 2012 Holiday Spending Outlook found 12% of Canadians plan to take on debt for their holiday shopping, entertaining and travel this year.
And those who do plan to rack up credit card bills say Christmas is the only time of year they spend outside their means.
B.C. and Ontario had the highest percentages of residents who planned to overwork their plastic for the holidays.
Fifteen per cent of British Columbians said they planned to go into debt for the Christmas shopping period; this was topped only by Ontarians, at 16%.
The survey was conducted by Pollara based on a random sample of 1,000 Canadians 18 years of age and over.
