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By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Paying for inflation with our credit cards will end badly

Sep 7, 2022 | 4:57 AM

HAD COFFEE with a friend yesterday. Perhaps feeling a bit rebellious, I tipped the barista only 18 per cent, down from the 20 I was allotting during the height of the pandemic.

It’s not exactly going to reverse the inflation I’ve been paying for. Remember when the standard tip was 10 per cent for good service, and then only for certain things?

The tipping situation is only a symptom, the tip of the iceberg, of course. As we all know, we’re paying through the nose for everything from dairy products, veggies, rent, clothing, and gasoline.

Our house got an email from a local service provider the other day giving notice that rates were going up, along with the expressed hope that we’d understand. Understand what? No explanation for the hike was offered.

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So how are we paying for all this? With our credit cards, naturally. A report from the credit bureau Equifax came out yesterday that found Canadians are going more deeply in debt to keep buying the things they did before prices went up.

Excluding mortgage debt, the average British Columbian owes just shy of $22,000, slightly higher than the national average.

Those in their 40s and 50s are the most in debt, but young people between 18 and 25 are thousands in debt, too, probably boosted by student loan repayments.

Credit card companies are obligingly raising our credit limits. And at the same time as we’re piling more debt onto our cards, interest rates are climbing.

With little likelihood that wages will catch up to inflation any time soon — especially for those with fixed incomes — somewhere along the line we’ve got to start cutting back.

That creates its own problems but there’s little alternative; many Canadians are one paycheque away from financial disaster.

And, by the way, everything I read about it says we should be tipping anywhere between 15 and 20 percent, or more, these days.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.