Free Credit & Debt Counselling Services in Saskatchewan

Yes. We provide credit counselling across Saskatchewan. We used to serve the province from our offices in Regina and Saskatoon, but during the pandemic we switched to serving people over the phone and virtually. So many people preferred this that we continued providing our service this way.

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:

• Typically a member of Credit Counselling Canada, an association of non-profit credit counselling organizations with the highest standards of quality and transparency in the industry.
• 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.
• 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 decide to go onto their debt repayment program, called a Debt Management Program, your chances of successfully completing it are high. People who complete this program with a quality non-profit organization also learn life-long skills – and it shows. These programs have less than a 1% recidivism rate (this compares to a 20% recidivism rate for insolvency).

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.
• Their “credit counsellors” providing advice may lack professional accreditation, have no oversight from a regulatory body, and may not be bound by a strict ethical code. Credit Counselling Canada is the only national credit counselling association in Canada that does not allow it’s members to take 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.
• These “credit counsellors” tend to earn commissions on specific “solutions” they sell. This naturally influences their recommendations and may result in certain viable options never being mentioned. Some of these salespeople also call themselves “debt consultants” and will charge hefty upfront fees before passing you on to a less than reputable bankruptcy trustee. Reputable non-profits never do this. If it looks like either a consumer proposal or bankruptcy are your best option, they’ll simply offer you a list of trustworthy trustees 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, around 20% of people end up repeating the process. One reason for this is that many of these individuals aren’t helped to understand and address the root causes of their financial struggles. Quality credit counselling agencies do this—and that’s part of why they achieve better long-term outcomes.

So to summarize, there are a number of ways you can approach credit counselling in Canada. Many people who call themselves credit counsellors treat the people they help as a business and often put profits ahead of doing what’s in an individual’s best interest. Quality non-profits who are often members of Credit Counselling Canada tend to have high success rates because they put the interests of each individual they help first even if this means their organization will not make any money off of that individual (this happens around 95% of the time when people call in for help and around 80% of the time when people meet with a credit counsellor in person. You can see why a profit focused credit counsellor would not be happy helping this many people for free).

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 record, 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.

You can talk to one of our credit counsellors as often as you like, and it will never be recorded on your credit report. However, if you decide to complete a Debt Management Program through your credit counsellor and a recognized non-profit like the Credit Counselling Society, any notation on your credit report will disappear no later than two years after your final payment. This is much faster than the six years for bankruptcy. It also clears from your credit report about a year sooner than a consumer proposal and, unlike proposals, doesn’t leave any record in the public court system or impact future employment options.

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.

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 probably have a plan of action and a clear sense of your next steps. If you need more help later, a follow-up session can be scheduled—also free of charge.

If you decide that a Debt Management Program offered by the credit counselling organization is your best solution, a quality non-profit will never allow you to sign-up that day. They will always insist that you go home, sleep on it, and discuss it with anyone whose advice you value. A quality decision should not be made on the spot and should always be carefully considered.

If a consumer proposal or bankruptcy appears to be a better choice, they’ll refer you to a local Licensed Insolvency Trustee that they trust.

Whether you’re simply looking for credit counselling near me or need more structured guidance, the goal of the session is to give you clarity and a way forward.

Often, yes. Many people use a Debt Management Program from a non-profit as an alternative to bankruptcy or a consumer proposal. A credit counsellor can review your finances in detail and help you determine if this is a realistic solution for you.

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 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.

The Credit Counselling Society is well known for the top quality, free help it provides. In fact, it’s been providing free help ever since starting out as the Credit Counselling Society of BC in 1996. Now we provide services across the country from BC to Quebec, which is why we are sometimes called the Credit Counselling Society of Canada.

Our organization delivers professional, non-profit services to people locally and nationwide. When it comes to finding the best credit counselling Saskatchewan offers, you can count on us for trusted guidance, proven accountability, and top client ratings.

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.

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, CCS has helped more than a million Canadians through one-on-one help in person and over the phone. We’ve also helped millions more online through our websites. We also operate the largest network of offices among non-profit credit counselling agencies in Canada, and our staff are frequently featured in the media offering insights and advice on personal finance.

We also contribute weekly and bi-weekly articles to two major Canadian publications, The Province and the Financial Post, which are often re-published by media outlets nationwide.

The work we do has resulted in the organization winning more than 80 awards and receiving over 1,500 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.

Education is central to our mission, with a team of full-time educators on staff, multiple awards for excellence in financial literacy, and a self-help educational website that has helped millions.

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.

When it comes to transparency, trust, and accountability, we strive to go the extra mile:

• We’re governed by a volunteer board of directors composed of financial and professional experts from all across Canada.
• Our finances are independently audited every year by an external accounting firm—something no other credit counselling organization in Canada does.
• We operate as a non-profit registered with the Government of 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 were the very first international affiliate of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC)—North America’s leading non-profit credit counselling organization.

Finally, our staff do not work on commission, ensuring that all advice and guidance provided is impartial and focused solely on what’s best for clients. Because our staff do not receive a financial incentive to promote any particular “solution,” you’ll notice a big difference in the assistance our staff provides compared to many other agencies out there.

Not anymore. The Saskatchewan government once offered credit counselling and a program called Orderly Payment of Debts. But in 2012, after seeing the results delivered by the Credit Counselling Society (CCS), the government closed its own program and began referring people to CCS instead. So while government credit counselling Saskatchewan doesn’t exist anymore, CCS is the recommended provider.