What a Canadian card actually charges
The Bank of Canada publishes what chartered banks actually charge on outstanding credit card balances. In June 2026 it was 21.34%. Published rates sit around that: premium travel and rewards cards about 20.99%, standard rewards cards about 21.99%, cash advances about 22.99%. Low-rate cards at the same banks run around 13.99%, and premium low-rate cards nearer 9.99%.
The phone call worth about $700 a year
Most major banks offer a low-rate card alongside the rewards cards. Moving a balance from a 20.99% card to a 13.99% low-rate card at the same bank saves about seven percentage points. On a $10,000 balance that is roughly $700 a year. It costs a phone call. You keep the same bank and the same account, and you give up rewards points that, on a carried balance, were never worth anything close to seven points. Most people never make that call.
Why the minimum is built to shrink
Minimum formulas vary and yours is in your cardholder agreement. A common shape is a percentage of the balance, often around 3%, with a dollar floor. The important feature is that it is tied to the balance, so as the balance falls the payment falls with it. It is always just big enough to keep things moving and never big enough to finish. Paying the minimum is not a mistake and it is not against the rules. It is the slowest exit the issuer permits.
The entire technique
Pick a dollar amount and pay it every month, whatever the minimum says. If today's minimum is all you can manage, make today's minimum your fixed payment and hold it there. Most issuers let you set automatic payments as a fixed amount rather than "the minimum" — choose that. Then ask what happens in a month where the minimum comes out higher than your fixed amount, so that month isn't recorded as short.
Why this chapter sits in a mortgage book
Because renewal shock does not surface as a missed mortgage payment. It surfaces on the Visa. Ontario mortgage holders' 90-plus day non-mortgage delinquency rate rose 27% year over year to 0.86% in Q2 2026, while outside Ontario the national increase was 2.1% and mortgage arrears nationally were 0.24%. People do not stop paying the mortgage. They pay the mortgage and quietly stop paying everything else, for years, at 21.34%.
Balance transfers
Promotional offers exist and are heavily marketed. Check the transfer fee, usually a percentage of the amount moved, and the date the promotional rate expires, because the rate snaps back to the standard one at the end. Check the fee and the expiry date, not the headline rate.
