There are few different ways to significantly reduce debt on credit cards in Ontario but each have their own pros and cons to consider. The top three ways to try to pay off debt include:

• Budgeting
• Refinancing
• Shopping Smarter

As such, we will examine the pros and cons of each to help you in your journey to worry-free finances.

Budgeting To Pay Off Debt:

Pro – Easy to create - A comprehensive budget is easy enough to make with plenty of free online programs to assist. The government of Canada in collaboration with the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada offer a particular user-friendly page full of tools and relevant information to help you get started. It can be found here .

Pro – Great for Goal Setting – creating a budget is like making a financial vision board. Whether your goal is to reduce debt, or to generate an emergency savings fund, a budget will allow you to track your past spending, monitor current spending and begin to see the money allocated to your goals start to increase little by little.

Con – Sticking to it - Sticking to a budget is probably THE biggest con. It can be a challenge to completely overhaul your spending habits, and further if you don’t create a budget that is sustainable for the long term, you’ll have a hard time maintaining it. This will translate into wasted time, wasted opportunity and likely even wasted money.

Con – Life Happens – Even if you find you work well on a budget, life happens. Unexpected life events are unpleasant and sometimes even scary to think about, so as a rule, most people don’t. However, divorce, job loss, the death of an immediate family member, or getting a chronic illness are all situations that have both immediate and long term financial implications that can be devastating. Emergency funds or no, it’s hard to budget for truly worst-case scenarios of epic proportions.

Refinancing To Pay Off Debt:

Pro – Quick - Mortgage refinancing is a great way to quickly reduce debt on credit cards and pay off any other financial obligations. You can renegotiate your current mortgage agreement in order to generate a large sum of cash that should be more than enough to cover your bills and then some.

Pro – Continued Saving – Mortgage refinancing also allows people to get a better interest rate so payments are less going forward – that’s continued savings every month. Further, depending on your situation it is also an opportunity to change the type of interest you have, be it fixed or variable for even more savings in the right climate.

Con – Legwork – You will have to requalify the same as you did for your existing mortgage. That means paperwork, proof of income, etc., And, depending on when you purchased your home you may not yet be acquainted with the mortgage stress test, which is basically an extra verification process that will help demonstrate that you will be able to continue paying your mortgage should rates change in the future.

Con – Upfront Cost – Essentially mortgage refinancing means breaking the terms of your current mortgage to obtain a different mortgage, therefore there will likely be a cost penalty involved. Further, refinancing will require an appraisal and additional legal fees; these may also become an upfront cost.

Shopping Smarter To Pay Off Debt:

Pro – Deals -Shopping smarter is a great way to both cut costs and save money, especially when you’re working towards reducing debt. Coupons, promotional deals, buy-one-get-one offers and the like all offer value to stretch your dollar.

Pro – Connections with professionals – some discount places offer incentives for using their collaborative partner. Not only is this a great way to save and earn money, but you can also bet that any company working with other industry professionals won’t expose their customer base to anything less than the best in the business.

Con – Having to hunt for deals – Although there are savings to be had, having to hunt them down from fliers, and online, or keeping track of different promotions can become tedious fast. Another con of shopping smarter is having to do price comparisons; always having to check multiple locations to make sure you’re getting the best deal takes a great deal of time.

Con – Having to buy in bulk - Having to buy multiple items when you only really need just one is quite a common savings technique. You’re likely familiar with the warehouse chains that cater to that type of shopping. However when you are small household, this may not be the deal you think it is. Sure, you can get a great price if you buy a 20-pack of toothpaste, and you’ll likely never have to buy toothpaste again for the rest of your life, BUT on a price-per-item basis, you’re not really saving.

Shop2Save is an online discount savings program that removes the con’s from shopping smarter. Additionally, they also connect members to top professionals. For mortgage refinancing, that’s Dominion Lending Centers, Canada’s leading mortgage company. Shop2Save can offer deals that provide immense savings, as they are able to source volume based discounts due to their extensive membership base. You’ll never have to price compare, and you only need to buy what you need, never in bulk to achieve the best discounts. Plus, their loyalty program pays big! 45% real cashback rewards dollars just for shopping. And, if you choose to connect with Dominion Lending Centres to arrange mortgage refinancing you’ll receive additional rewards!

Visit Shop2Save today to see how they can help you reduce debt on credit cards in Ontario!