Credit Counselling Services of Canada – Free Non-Profit Help
Serving Canada with Free Debt & Credit Help

Yes, we provide credit counselling nation-wide to all provinces plus the northern territories. We serve the country with phone and in-person appointments from our many offices across Canada.

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 belong to Credit Counselling Canada, a nationwide network of non-profit agencies that follow rigorous standards of transparency and service quality.
• 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 don’t earn commissions or incentives based on the advice they give, so their guidance is objective.
• Around 95% of the people who reach out to these organizations are helped for free and only around 20% of the people who have an appointment with one of their credit counsellors end up going on the organization’s debt repayment program. Everyone else is either provided with a solution they can implement themselves or is referred to another professional for more specific 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 (recidivism) rate (people needing to do a Debt Management Program again in the future) is under 1%. This compares to roughly a 20% repeat rate for people who file for insolvency (bankruptcy or a consumer proposal).

In contrast to credit counselling services with high success rates, those with lower success rates tend to operate quite differently. Here’s what they often look like:

• The help you receive may end up feeling more like a sales pitch than a genuine counselling session.
• The “credit counsellors” who have lower success rates are often not professionally accredited, are not accountable to a professional 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. If anyone else charges you money for a consumer proposal, this is illegal and is needlessly double charging you. Unfortunately, this happens a lot.
• They often steer clients toward a Licensed Insolvency Trustee (bankruptcy trustee) for a consumer proposal because this is more profitable for them. Tragically many will effectively double charge their clients when they do this by charging them thousands for a consumer proposal before then referring them to a bankruptcy trustee who by law is the only one allowed to charge for a consumer proposal.
• 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 will provide you with contact information for a number of local, reputable trustees entirely for free.
• The “solution” to your situation will likely be a consumer proposal because that is the option that pays them the most and it sounds better than its big brother, bankruptcy (both are legal options governed by the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act). For many people who call themselves “credit counsellors” but aren’t a member of Credit Counselling Canada, there is quite possibly an 80% chance that you won’t leave their office without being convinced to sign up for a program that pays the credit counsellor or debt consultant money.
• The recidivism rate (repeat rate) for all insolvency options (consumer proposals and bankruptcy) is around 20%. This means that 20% of people who complete these programs will repeat them again in the future. There are many reasons for this but one is that many times no one takes the time to help these people figure out what caused their financial problems in the first place and what proactive steps they can take to avoid similar financial problems in the future. Quality non-profit credit counsellors do this, and it’s one of many reasons why their success rate is very high.

In short, credit counselling isn’t all the same. Some providers prioritize profits over doing what’s best for their clients, while long-term, results orientated non-profits—often members of Credit Counselling Canada—put people’s needs first, even if it means earning nothing from the interaction. In fact, about 95% of those who contact us receive support completely free of charge, which is something profit-driven agencies simply can’t match.

Speaking with a credit counsellor does not affect your credit score in any way. It’s a private, confidential conversation and is never reported anywhere. No one will ever know unless you tell them. However, if you decide to begin a Debt Management Program that is offered by the credit counselling agency, then this may impact your credit score. The odd thing is that sometimes this program affects your credit score while sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s safest to assume that it will. Fortunately, the longest the negative effect will last is until 2 years after you finished repaying your program. At this time the credit counselling organization will instruct the credit reporting agencies to remove all records of your Debt Management Program from your credit report. Your credit score can then rebound quickly if you re-establish a form of credit that reports on your credit reports. Your credit counsellor can help coach you through this.

You can speak with a credit counsellor as many times as you like, and it will never show up on your credit report. However, if you choose to work with your credit counsellor to enter into a Debt Management Program through a non-profit such as the Credit Counselling Society, then this will show up on your credit report. A Debt Management Program typically stays on your credit report for two years after the program is completed. This is much shorter than the six year record left by a bankruptcy, making it a less damaging alternative for many individuals. It also comes off your credit report about a year sooner than a consumer proposal, but leaves no permanent record with the courts like a consumer proposal does (unlike bankruptcy or a consumer proposal, a Debt Management Program avoids the courts entirely).

Your experience will depend on the type of organization you choose. If it’s a for-profit company, their priority may be enrolling you in a program that earns them money. But if it’s a non-profit like one accredited by Credit Counselling Canada, the session will be very different.

You’ll likely spend close to an hour with a counsellor who listens to your concerns, learns about your situation and goals, and then helps you build a realistic budget that works. From there, you’ll review all the options that might help, weighing the pros and cons of each. The goal is to find a solution that fits your situation, helps you get out of debt within a reasonable time, and stays within your budget.

Good counsellors are experts at budgeting and as part of their process will help you make the most of what you have.

By the end of the session, you’ll usually have a clear action plan and a good sense of your next steps forward. If you need more help at any time in the future, you can arrange a free follow-up session.

If a Debt Management Program seems like your best option, they’ll encourage you to take time to decide and even run it by 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.

Yes. We offer no-cost credit counselling, financial education, and other free resources. More than half of our clients ultimately choose a self-managed plan that costs them nothing. In these cases, we create a personalized action plan and invite you to check in with your counsellor—at no charge—whenever you want advice, encouragement, or help tackling new challenges. When it comes to our debt repayment program, if we believe that someone truly can’t afford the fees, we waive them.

Yes. The Canadian Credit Counselling Society (that’s us) 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 – even when we started out in 1996 as the Credit Counselling Society of BC. Now we provide services nationwide, which is why some people refer to us as the Credit Counselling Society of Canada.

We provide professional, non-profit support to individuals across all provinces and territories throughout Canada. For those seeking the best credit counselling Canada can provide, our team is often recognized for being super helpful, professional, and highly recommended. You can see links to thousands of our reviews here.

Yes, the Credit Counselling Society (CCS) is a legitimate and highly respected non-profit organization that’s been helping Canadians manage their money and debt for nearly 30 years.

At one time, a lot of provinces offered their own credit counselling services, but they eventually discovered that non-profits such as ours provided better results at a lower cost. Consequently, most provinces now refer people to trust non-profits such as ours.

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.

Since we first opened our doors, we have helped more than a million Canadians over the phone or in person and have helped millions more online. We operate more offices than any other non-profit credit counselling agency in the country, and our staff are frequently featured in the media offering financial tips, insight, and advice.

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.

We’re also recognized as an exceptional workplace, earning multiple Great Place to Work Canada® honours for fairness, giving back, including others, employee satisfaction, and support for women and younger professionals.

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.

The work we do has resulted in the organization winning more than 80 awards and receiving nearly 2,000 online reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook. These reviews have an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars. We also survey more than 10,000 of our clients every year, and for many years now, over 98% have responded saying 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 independently audited every year by an external accounting firm—something no other credit counselling organization in Canada does.
• Our organization is governed by a diverse board of directors who serve as volunteers and come from many different financial and professional backgrounds across Canada.
• We are accredited by and maintain the highest level of standing with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) along with Credit Counselling Canada (CCC), Canada’s credit counselling association with the highest standards of transparency and accountability.
• We operate as a non-profit registered with the Government of Canada.
• We also became 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.

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, the Government of Canada does not offer credit counselling. We can share, though, that many provincial government ministries and agencies across Canada refer people to us every day. The federal government does as well. In addition to this, they also use our resources and have us teach their employees how to manage their finances better.