Missed credit card payment numbers on rise in Manitoba: Equifax

Young adults and renters are feeling squeezed as Manitobans increasingly miss credit card payments, new Equifax Canada data show.

The credit reporting agency tracked a six per cent year-over-year increase in missed payments in the July through September period.

Meantime, Manitobans’ average non-mortgage debt is rising: the number jumped three per cent year-over-year to $18,635.

However, Manitobans still carry the least non-mortgage debt among their Canadian counterparts.

“Based on this information, it seems like younger people are feeling a lot of financial stress,” said Chi Liao, a University of Manitoba professor who studies household finances.

She reviewed the Equifax data, reading the firm’s notes on younger shoppers and renters.

Nationally, one in 20 Canadians ages 18 to 35 missed a credit payment during 2025’s third quarter.

Eighty-four per cent of a total 1.45 million Canadians who missed a payment didn’t hold a mortgage. (The number of homeowners who missed payments also rose, to one in 35 in the third quarter of 2025 from one in 37 people in the second quarter.)

“We all know grocery prices, prices on everything keep going up,” Liao said. “For the most part, our incomes haven’t kept up.”

Young adults generally have fewer savings and assets, a lower income, higher rent than years past and a lacking job market, Liao said.

Equifax has tracked young Canadians increasingly miss payments at least three months in a row. The delinquency rate among 26- to 35-year-olds hit 2.45 per cent last quarter, a 20.51 per cent jump from the prior year.

That rate increased 16.58 per cent year-over-year — to 2.11 per cent — for Canadians 18 to 25 years old.

The 90-plus-day delinquency rate for Manitobans (no specific age) has also inclined: it sat at 1.73 per cent last quarter, up 5.99 per cent year-over-year.

“The holiday season, everybody’s spending increases,” Liao said. She recommended spending less during the holidays but noted “that’s hard.”

Missed payments typically rise during the first months of the year following a boom in holiday spending, said Kathy Catsiliras, Equifax Canada’s vice-president of analytical consulting. Already, Equifax has noted nearly 46,000 more missed payments in 2025’s final quarter so far than the third quarter.

“Where we had a little bit of stabilization earlier in the year, in (the second quarter), it’s basically changed,” Catsiliras said. “Financial stress has entered.”

Credit card spending typically increases $300 to $500 per Canadian during the holiday season, Equifax said in a news release.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com