Free Credit & Debt Counselling Services in Hamilton

Yes, credit counselling services are available across Ontario. We serve the province with phone and in-person appointments from multiple offices across Ontario.

The success rate of credit counselling is very high if you get help from the right credit counselling organization. Here is what credit counselling organizations with high success rates look like:

• They’re members of Credit Counselling Canada, a national association for non-profit credit counselling agencies that follow strict standards for quality and transparency.
• They’ll work with you to understand your entire financial picture, build a practical budget, and help you explore all your options to resolve your debt and improve your financial well-being.
• Their staff members aren’t paid commissions or given incentives tied to the recommendations they make, so they are able to provide you with objective guidance.
• Roughly 95% of people who reach out for help don’t pay anything, and only about 20% go on to join the organization’s repayment program. The rest either receive advice they can follow on their own or are referred to another professional for a more specialized kind of help.
• If you choose to enroll in their repayment plan—known as a Debt Management Program—you learn practical money management skills that last a lifetime. Consequently, the relapse rate is under 1%. This compares to roughly 20% of people who file for bankruptcy or a consumer proposal needing to redo the process again at some point in the future.

On the other hand, organizations with lower success rates often operate very differently. Here’s how things tend to look there:

• You may feel more like you’re speaking with a salesperson rather than someone who is there to fully and truly help you.
• The “credit counsellors” who have lower success rates are often not professionally accredited, are not accountable to an accreditation body, and are not held to an objective, professional code of conduct and ethics. Credit Counselling Canada is the only national credit counselling association in Canada that prohibits its members from taking advantage of trusting consumers by double charging them for consumer proposals (only a Licensed Insolvency Trustee should charge you money for a consumer proposal).
• They tend to refer most of their clients to a Licensed Insolvency Trustee (a bankruptcy trustee) because that pays them the most. Unfortunately, many will effectively double charge their clients in doing this by charging them thousands for a consumer proposal before referring them to a bankruptcy trustee who is legally the only one allowed to charge for this.
• The “credit counsellor” is paid commission and this is reflected in the “solutions” they promote and the alternative options they discourage. Sometimes the person who helps you is called a financial wellness expert or debt consultant and will attempt to charge you thousands of dollars for their help before then referring you to a less than reputable Licensed Insolvency Trustee. A quality non-profit credit counselling organization will not charge you fees and then refer you to someone else. If it looks like an insolvency option is in your best interest, then they’ll provide you with contact information for a number of local trustees they are comfortable with entirely for free.
• Their go-to “solution” is frequently a consumer proposal. While this can sound better than bankruptcy, it’s still insolvency and falls under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. If the credit counsellors or debt consultants helping you aren’t members of Credit Counselling Canada, there’s a strong chance—possibly as high as 80%—that you won’t leave their office with being convinced to sign up for a program that benefits them financially.
• With consumer proposals and bankruptcies, about 20% of people end up having to file for one of these again in the future. One of the reasons why this can happen is because the underlying causes of financial trouble are never addressed. Quality credit counselling organizations tackle these root issues, which is a big part of why they see better long-term outcomes.

To wrap up this up, not all credit counselling is the same. Some providers focus more on generating revenue than helping people, while reputable non-profits—often members of Credit Counselling Canada—put individuals first, even if that means they don’t earn anything. In fact, about 95% of people who call us for help of some kind end up receiving it completely free without ever paying a thing. It’s easy to see why profit-driven counsellors wouldn’t be interested in offering this kind of support – it doesn’t generate the profits they’re looking for.

You can meet with a credit counsellor as many times as you like without it ever showing up on your credit report. However, if you choose to join a Debt Management Program through a reputable non-profit like the Credit Counselling Society, this will appear on your report but will be removed two years after your last payment. This is a much shorter period than the six years a bankruptcy remains on your credit report and about a year less than a consumer proposal. But unlike a proposal, it also leaves no trace in public court records – because it’s completely private.

Just talking to a credit counsellor won’t impact your credit score—it’s completely private and isn’t reported to anyone. But if you enroll in a Debt Management Program, then this may impact your credit score. Sometimes it affects your score, and sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s safer to assume that it will. That said, the impact only lasts until two years after you finish the program. At that point, the credit agency removes the program from your credit report, and with the right steps, your credit score can recover quickly. Your counsellor can let you know what to do to rebuilding your credit score. A credit rebuilding program is actually a part of our Debt Management Program.

In the big picture, any negative effects of a Debt Management Program (DMP) on your credit report are very short term compared to the alternatives. The alternatives could be:

• Repaying your debt on your own. If you’re really struggling to pay your bills, then your credit has likely already been dramatically impacted so going on a DMP will only help you fix your credit sooner. Continuing on your own at this point would likely drag things out for an extended period of time and just keep your credit in the ditch for a longer period of time.
• Trying to qualify for a debt consolidation loan if your credit cards are maxed out and you don’t have some good collateral to offer such as a newer vehicle (without a loan or lease) or real estate probably isn’t going to work out great, and if you end up getting a loan with an interest rate near 30% or higher, you’ll have difficulty paying it off and improving your credit any time soon.
• Getting rid of your debt faster by filing for insolvency through either bankruptcy or a consumer proposal. One of the downsides of this approach is that it destroys your credit for a minimum of 6 years and leaves you with a permanent legal record.

We don’t share all of this to discourage you, but rather to point out that a DMP can be a very helpful and effective tool when used in the right set of circumstances. These other options can also be viable when used in the right set of circumstances. Feel free to speak with one of our credit counsellors to see what options might work best for your financial situation.

What happens in a credit counselling session depends on what kind of an organization you are dealing with. If you’re dealing with a for-profit agency, the goal is often to help you by getting you to sign up for one of the programs that pays the credit counsellor or their employer. If you’re dealing with a quality non-profit credit counselling agency such as a member of Credit Counselling Canada, they will typically spend close to an hour with you listening to you, finding out what your financial challenges are, finding out what your financial goals are, and the begin the solution process by first helping you put together a realistic budget. With your input, they will construct a budget for you from which you can then begin having a conversation about options that may work for you. The credit counsellor will then help you explore all options that could potentially address your situation. They’ll discuss the pros and cons with you with an eye towards finding something that will help you accomplish your financial goals, get you out of debt within a reasonable time period, and work within your budget.

Top quality credit counsellors are experts at budgeting. As part of their process they’ll help you find many ways to fine-tune and optimize your budget to get the most out of it.

By the end of the first session, most people will have a good idea of what their next steps are. They will essentially leave the appointment with an action plan of how to begin resolving their situation. If a second session is needed, this can be scheduled as well (and is also free of charge). The counsellor can then resume your previous conversation and hear how you’ve progressed with your first steps.

If you’re considering a Debt Management Program, a good non-profit won’t pressure you into signing up right away. They’ll encourage you to think it over and talk it through with someone you trust.

If you end up deciding that a consumer proposal or bankruptcy is your best option, then the credit counsellor will refer you to a Licensed Insolvency Trustee that they trust. They may even provide you with a number of names for you to choose from.

Whether you’re just looking for credit counselling near me or desire more structured financial guidance, these coaching sessions are intended to give you a better picture of your situation and a clear path forward.

Quite possibly. A non-profit debt repayment plan (called a Debt Management Program) is a common alternative to insolvency including bankruptcy and a consumer proposal. To find out for sure if a Debt Management Program is a viable option in your case, you would need to speak with a credit counsellor. They’ll go over your entire financial picture with you and help you figure out what your best and most viable options are.

No, government credit counselling in Hamilton and Ontario is not a thing. We can share, though, that a lot of provincial governments across Canada have stopped offering credit counselling services in favour of non-profit credit counselling services like ours. In fact, we can share that provincial government ministries and agencies across Canada refer people to us every single day – as do federal government agencies. They also use our financial tools and resources and ask us to teach their employees how to manage their personal finances better.

Most definitely. The Credit Counselling Society (CCS) is very legitimate. It’s one of the most trusted and recommended credit counselling organizations in Canada. The fact that it’s non-profit and is well known for the high quality of its service have allowed it to continue serving Canadians for almost 30 years.

There was a time when a lot of provinces once ran their own credit counselling programs. However, most eventually found that quality non-profits like ours proved to deliver better results without relying on public funding. Once they discovered this, most switched to referring to non-profits rather than providing the service themselves.

In fact, many of our clients are referred to us by government departments and agencies from across the country. Some government organizations even use our educational resources and invite us to provide financial literacy training for their staff.

Over the years, we’ve helped over a million Canadians one-on-one—and have reached millions more through our websites. We have more offices than any other non-profit credit counselling organization in Canada, and our team is frequently featured in the news offering expert advice and insights on financial issues that impact Canadians.

A couple of our staff members also write weekly and bi-weekly columns for two major publications, the Financial Post and The Province. The articles are often re-published by media outlets in cities across Canada.

The organization is also known as a great place to work, with multiple recognitions from Great Place to Work Canada® for supporting young professionals and women, giving back, fairness, including others, and overall employee satisfaction.

Education is at the heart of what we do. We have a dedicated team of full-time educators across Canada, and our outreach efforts have been recognized with multiple EIFLE Awards (Excellence in Financial Literacy Education) from the Institute for Financial Literacy.

Our work has earned us more than 80 awards at the regional, national, and international levels. We’ve also received over 1,500 online reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook—with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars. Every year, we survey more than 10,000 of our clients, and for many years, over 98% have said they would recommend our service to others.

When it comes to matters of trust and accountability, we work hard to go the extra mile:

• Our finances are audited each year by an independent accounting firm—something no other credit counselling agency in Canada does.
• We’re overseen by a volunteer board of directors made up of financial and professional experts from across Canada.
• We’re accredited by Credit Counselling Canada (CCC), our industry’s national association with the highest standards of transparency and accountability, and the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
• We operate as a non-profit registered with the Government of Canada.
• We were also the first international affiliate of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC)—North America’s largest and most trusted non-profit credit counselling organization.

Finally, we don’t believe commission based compensation is the best way to serve those who look to us for help. Unlike many organizations out there, our staff are never paid commission of any kind. This ensures that every client receives unbiased, objective advice that’s truly in their best interest.

Yes, there’s plenty of free support available. Our non-profit provides no-cost counselling, financial education, and free educational resources. More than half of the people we assist end up choosing a free solution they can manage on their own. In these situations, they receive a personalized action plan, and they’re welcome to follow up with their counsellor (at no cost) for ongoing support or advice as they implement it. If it looks like our debt repayment plan is someone’s best option, but their budget can’t afford our small fee, then we’ll waive it. We’re all about helping people find workable solutions and removing barriers that keep them from moving forward.

Yes. The Canadian Credit Counselling Society provides free counselling appointments with certified professionals, complimentary financial education webinars, and a wide range of online tools and resources at no cost. A fee only applies if you decide to participate in one of their debt repayment programs. Even then, the costs are minimal, and in some cases, fees can be waived if someone is unable to pay.

Help from the Credit Counselling Society has always been free ever since it started in 1996 as the Credit Counselling Society of BC. Now that we service most of the country, some have referred to us as the Credit Counselling Society of Canada.

We offer professional, non-profit help to people throughout the province and across the country. If you’re looking for the best credit counselling Hamilton has to offer, we are a trusted, certified, accountable, and highly rated option.