Financial information is everywhere, and it's not all created equal. Here's how to tell the difference before you act on advice that wasn't made with your situation in mind.
Understanding the Problem
Q: I’ve been trying to get better with my money for the past year. I paid off one credit card, I’m working on a second, and I’ve started looking at where my money goes each month. A big part of what got me motivated was following a few accounts on Instagram and YouTube that talk about budgeting, paying off debt, and building savings. Some of it has been helpful. But lately I’ve been second-guessing myself. One creator I follow told me to cancel all my credit cards to get out of debt faster, and my bank told me that was actually going to hurt my credit score. Another one I watched had what seemed like a foolproof debt payoff strategy, but when I looked into it more, I realized they were selling a course for $400 to explain it. My boyfriend thinks I should just stop watching financial content altogether, but I did get some real value from it. How do I figure out what’s worth listening to? ~Dana
Expert Advice
A: Financial advice is easier than ever to find, and it has led many people to take more interest in their finances. Not that long ago, learning the basics of budgeting or debt repayment meant finding a book, taking a course, or knowing the right person to ask. Today, the same information is a click or two away, and a lot of what is posted online is genuinely useful. But being easy to find does not make information reliable. Online financial content is largely unregulated, and it’s produced by people with a wide range of knowledge and motivations. That doesn’t mean it’s all useless, but it does mean people need to be more careful about the information they trust.
The fact that you’ve been questioning what you’re reading, and checking it against your bank’s advice, is already a sign you’re on the right track. With that in mind, here are some ways to evaluate what you’re seeing before you act on it.
Understand what online influencers are and what they aren’t
Anyone can post financial content online. There’s no licence required, no regulatory body overseeing what is said, and no professional accountability if the advice turns out to be wrong or harmful. Some creators are genuinely knowledgeable people sharing insights from their profession, who may face repercussions if they share incorrect information. Others are enthusiastic beginners documenting their journey and what is working for them. And there are those who are primarily in the business of building an audience. At first glance, all of them can look equally credible.
It helps to keep that in mind because popularity doesn’t make advice reliable. What really matters is whether the person offering the advice has the knowledge and expertise to support it. Personal experience with debt or budgeting can be useful and relatable, but it doesn’t replace professional training. Even good advice can fall short when it’s applied to the wrong situation. A strategy that worked for one person, in their province, with their income, their debt load, and their specific credit profile, may not be the right approach for someone else’s situation.
Look at the business model behind the advice
The most useful filter is one that many people never think to apply. Before acting on a recommendation, consider whether the creator has a financial incentive to steer you in a particular direction. Affiliate links, sponsored posts, and course sales are common revenue streams for financial content creators. None of those things automatically makes the advice bad, but they do create a potential conflict of interest worth being aware of. If a creator consistently recommends a specific budgeting app, a particular financial product, or their own paid program, it’s fair to wonder whether the advice is shaped by what helps their audience or by what generates revenue.
In Canada, sponsored content is supposed to be labelled, though the standards vary and enforcement is inconsistent. If a post or video is recommending something without any disclosure, and the recommendation is suspiciously specific, it’s worth checking their bio and doing a quick search to see whether an affiliate relationship exists. You don’t have to assume bad faith, but you’re entitled to understand the incentive structure.
Check whether the advice fits your actual situation
Generic financial strategies can be a useful starting point, but they rarely account for the variables that matter most to your situation. The advice to cancel all your credit cards, for instance, isn’t universally wrong, but it’s also not universally right. For someone with no other credit history, closing accounts, especially revolving forms of credit such as credit cards, could drop their credit score significantly by reducing both the age of their credit usage and their available credit limit. In addition, closing credit cards with a balance owing, immediately puts your accounts over limit, which will also lower your credit score. Good advice considers your full financial picture, and it was wise of your bank to flag this for you.
Strategies that work well in one province may not apply in another. Debt repayment advice geared toward American consumers, for instance, often doesn’t translate to Canada where credit reporting, consumer protection rules, and available debt relief options are different. Before applying anything you’ve read or seen online to your own finances, it’s worth asking whether the advice was written with someone in your situation and your location in mind.
Where to find credible free resources
There’s no shortage of trustworthy, free financial information available to Canadians, from sources with no product to sell and no audience to grow. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada publishes plain-language guidance on budgeting, credit, debt, and consumer rights. Non-profit credit counselling organizations provide free tools, calculators, and articles on everything from building a budget to understanding how debt repayment works. Your bank or credit union can also be a useful source of reliable information, particularly for questions about how specific financial products work.
The difference between these sources and most online content is accountability. Non-profit credit counsellors, bank advisers, and regulated finance professionals all operate under professional and legal standards that a content creator doesn’t. That doesn’t mean every conversation with a professional will be perfect, but it does mean there’s a framework of responsibility and a way to escalate complaints that independent creators and influencers aren’t subject to.
Know when to talk to someone directly
Online content is useful for building general knowledge, and a good video can be exactly the thing that sparks the motivation to take action. But there are limits when your situation involves specific variables. If you’re carrying debt across multiple accounts, trying to understand how a decision will affect your credit score, or feeling uncertain about the best order to pay things off, a real conversation with a qualified person is worth more than any trending reel. The difference between a general strategy and the right strategy often comes down to the details of your income, family size, assets, your credit file, and the terms of what you owe. Those details matter, and they’re exactly what a professional conversation can account for in ways that a comment section never will.
The Bottom Line
The problem with online financial content isn’t that it’s all bad. It’s that good advice and questionable advice often look identical, and the stakes are real. A useful test before acting on anything you’ve read is asking yourself if you can verify the advice from at least one other source that has no financial stake in your decision. That might be your bank, a government resource, or a non-profit website. If the advice holds up under that check, it’s likely worth considering. If it only exists in one creator’s ecosystem, and especially if acting on it requires buying something, slow down. The habits you’re building — paying down debt, tracking your spending, and questioning what you read — are the foundation of a strong financial future, and the advice you follow should support your efforts.
Peta Wales is President and CEO of the Credit Counselling Society, a non-profit organization. For more information about managing your money or debt, contact Peta by email, check nomoredebts.org or call 1-888-527-8999.
