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The Spendcheating Effect: 42% of Canadians Have Hidden Money From Their Partner
It`s the affair that hides in a bank statement, not a phone, and new data suggests it`s more common than the romantic kind.
A survey of 1,000 Canadian adults in relationships, commissioned by Casinos Analyzer, found that 42% have committed financial infidelity, hiding a purchase, a debt or their spending from the person they share a life with. That`s more than the 37% who admit to physical or emotional cheating. Casinos Analyzer Canada calls it "Spendcheating."
Key findings:
- 42% have hidden a purchase, debt or spending from their partner
- 37% admit to physical or emotional cheating, making money the more common secret
- 31% say summer is when their secret spending is at its worst
- 9% have secretly spent money on someone else, from gifts to meals
Money secrets are the new affair
For most people, infidelity means a physical affair. The numbers say otherwise. While 37% of Canadians admit to cheating physically or emotionally, a larger 42% confess to hiding money, making the average person now more likely to keep a financial secret than a romantic one. The betrayal has moved from the bedroom to the banking app.
What people hide is rarely dramatic. It`s the everyday spending they`d rather not explain: an indulgent purchase, a debt that crept up, a total they`d prefer their partner never saw. Small on its own, but corrosive when it stacks up in silence.
Summer is when the secret spending peaks
Some 31% of Canadians say their secret spending gets worse in summer, more than any other time of year, as holidays, festivals and long days out stretch the budget. What they conceal reads like a summer itinerary: nights out at 26%, a new warm-weather wardrobe at 23% and the true cost of a holiday at 20%.
Then there`s the figure that turns a money problem into something else: 9% admit to secretly spending money on someone else, from gifts to meals, the kind of secret that rarely stays just about money.
Why it does more damage than the money itself
Jaime Bronstein, LCSW, a relationship therapist, says the harm rarely comes down to dollars. "Most people believe infidelity only exists in physical form, but often forget the concept of financial infidelity," she says. "In my work with couples, I often see that financial infidelity is much more common than one would think. It can show up in many forms, such as hiding a large purchase, funneling money to a secret bank account, lying about debt, or hiding investments and savings. The partner who discovers it may experience a range of emotions, such as anger or shock. Quite often, a person poses a rhetorical question of what else is there that I am not aware of. Over time, one awkward conversation can add up to a full-scale crisis. Therefore, the unresolved issue that needs to be looked at is the deception and loss of trust."
So, how honest is your relationship really?
The data isn`t a verdict on your partner. Plenty of couples keep some money separate and function perfectly well, and the difference has never been the separate account. It`s the disclosure. A secret spend only holds power while it stays hidden, and the couples who talk openly about what they earn, owe and spend are usually the ones with nothing to discover.
Survey of 1,000 Canadian adults in a relationship, commissioned by Casinos Analyzer, a casino research platform, as part of its ongoing research into modern relationships.
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The betrayal that ends relationships is moving from the phone to the bank account. New research finds hiding money is now more common than hiding an affair.