Three ways of counting give three different answers.

A credit bureau, a Bank of Canada study and a Bank of Canada survey all count Canadians who carry a credit card balance. They get very different answers, because each one asks something different.

TransUnion is one of Canada’s two national credit bureaus. The Bankcard Summary table in its Credit Industry Insights Report for the second quarter of 2025 counts 28.5 million consumers with access to an active credit card account, and 25.0 million consumers carrying a balance. That is close to nine in ten.

The arithmetic is right. What matters is how TransUnion counts “carrying a balance”.

The report counts balances at quarter-end. Its definitions count a balance greater than zero on that day.

So the count is one day’s picture. If there is any amount on the card on that day, the person is counted. It does not matter whether they pay the whole amount a few days later.

Paying in full by the due date matters for interest. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) says you will pay interest if you do not pay your credit card balance in full by the due date. A person who pays in full pays no interest on purchases, but can still have a balance on the day the picture is taken.

The Bank of Canada study. A 2024 Bank of Canada staff analytical note used TransUnion data on over 30 million Canadians and nearly 58 million active credit card accounts. It did not count a balance on one day. It counted people who had a balance for at least two consecutive months on at least one card.

Among Canadian credit card holders, it found that in any given month since January 2016, about 46% on average carried a balance for at least two months in a row. The share moved between 42% and 49% over that time.

The Bank of Canada survey. The Bank’s 2023 Methods-of-Payment Survey asked around 4,000 people about how they pay. It counts a “revolver”: a credit card owner who does not pay off their whole monthly balance and is charged interest. Among Canadians with a credit card, it found that 29% revolved their debt in the past month in 2023.

None of these is a mistake. The first question is the widest, so it gives the biggest answer. It can include people who paid their card in full a few days after the quarter ended.

An example, not a real person. Someone puts $900 of groceries on a card in December. The quarter ends on 31 December, and $900 is on the card that day. They pay the full $900 by the due date in January and pay no interest. In the first column they are counted. In the second and third they are not.

The same Bank of Canada note compared, for 2023, people who pay in full each month with people who carry a balance for at least two months in a row.

The two groups are close in age, and among people with a mortgage, close in income. The people carrying a balance held more cards and had higher limits. The table shows this. It does not say why.

The note then looked at who later fell behind: at least 60 days late on a payment on another credit product, at any time over the next six months. It reports associations. It does not say one thing caused the other.

How long. Among people without a mortgage, the note found that those who carried a balance on at least one card for 7 to 12 months in a row were seven times more likely to fall behind than those who paid in full each month. Among people with a mortgage, the factor was more than two.

How much of the limit. Among people without a mortgage, those borrowing 80% or more of their total limit were almost nine times more likely to miss a future payment. Among people with a mortgage, it was more than seven times.

The note also found that among people carrying a balance, 14% of those with a mortgage, and 23% of those without one, were borrowing 80% or more of their total credit card limit.

The same dollar amount can be a different share of the limit. $2,000 on a $16,000 total limit is 12.5% of it. $2,000 on a $2,500 total limit is 80% of it.

These are the two measures the Bank of Canada note used. Both are on your statements.

Find your last six statements for each card you hold.

Count the months in a row that ended with a balance you did not pay in full. If you have more than one card, the note used the longest run on any card.

Add up the balances you carried on every card.

Add up the credit limits on every card, and divide the first total by the second. The note calculated the share this way, across all cards together, not one card at a time.

So is the nine in ten wrong?

No. TransUnion published it and the arithmetic holds. It counts anyone with a balance above zero at quarter-end, which includes people who pay in full after that day.

Which number is the right one?

Each is right for its own question. The bureau count answers “was anything on the card that day”. The study answers “was a balance carried for two months or more”. The survey answers “did you pay interest last month”.

Does a balance on the statement mean I pay interest?

Not if you pay the full balance by the due date. FCAC says federally regulated financial institutions must provide a minimum 21-day grace period, and that you will pay interest if you do not pay your balance in full by the due date.

Why does this page look at months and share of the limit, not the dollar amount?

The Bank of Canada note did not study the dollar amount on its own. It looked at how long a balance was carried and what share of the total limit it used. Those are the two findings it reported.

Every claim on this page was checked against these documents on 28 September 2026.

• Bank of Canada: Staff Analytical Note 2024-18, The reliance of Canadians on credit card debt as a predictor of financial stress · Staff Discussion Paper 2024-8, 2023 Methods-of-Payment Survey Report: The Resilience of Cash
• TransUnion Canada: Credit Industry Insights Report, Q2 2025
• Financial Consumer Agency of Canada: How credit cards work

Watch · 8:31

9 in 10 Cardholders Carry a Balance: Are You One of Them? Published 23 September 2026. Loads on click. Nothing is requested from YouTube until you ask.

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