News
Holiday budget shoppers plan to use cash and debit

Nov. 23, 2011 – A new CIBC poll
conducted by Harris/Decima reveals 65 per cent of Canadians are planning to stay on budget by using cash or debit to
pay for the majority of their holiday spending this year.

Nov. 23, 2011 – A new CIBC poll
conducted by Harris/Decima reveals 65 per cent of Canadians are planning
to stay on budget by using cash or debit to
pay for the majority of their holiday spending this year. The poll
also revealed the vast majority of Canadians (87 per cent) are planning
to keep their holiday shopping expenses the same or lower
versus last year.

Highlights of the poll on how Canadians plan to pay for the majority of
their holiday shopping this year include:

• 36 per cent plan to use their debit card
• 29 per cent plan to use cash
• 31 per cent plan to use their credit card

While cash and debit combined were favoured by Canadians for holiday
spending, a number of Canadians will be using their credit card to pay
for the majority of their holiday shopping (31 per cent).  The good news
is most Canadians planning to pay with credit also
have a plan to quickly pay off their holiday spending in full (76 per
cent) while only 23 per cent of Canadians using credit said they will
pay their balance off over
time.

The poll also revealed that a majority of Canadians who said they plan
to use their credit card to pay for their holiday purchases said they
are doing so because they collect reward points (57 per cent) or for
convenience (62 per cent).  In fact, 15 per cent of all Canadians said
they plan to redeem their reward points to help
cover some of their holiday expenses.

KEY POLL FINDINGS

Percentage of Canadians that plan to use cash or debit to pay for the
majority of their holiday spending by region:

Percentage of Canadians that plan to use their credit card to pay for
the majority of their holiday spending by region: