Free Credit & Debt Counselling Services in Toronto

Yes, we provide credit counselling to Toronto, the GTA, and across Ontario. We serve both Toronto and the province with phone and in-person appointments from our Toronto office and other offices.

Speaking with a credit counsellor is entirely private and doesn’t influence your credit score because it’s not reported to the credit reporting agencies. However, enrolling in a Debt Management Program might affect your score—sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s best to plan for some impact. The good news is that the notation is removed from your credit report two years after completing the program. With the right steps, you can rebuild your credit quickly, and as part of our Debt Management Program, we provide guidance to help you do just that.

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.

The effectiveness of credit counselling can be very strong—provided you work with the right kind of organization. Those with the highest success rates tend to share the following traits:

• 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.
• 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 enroll in their repayment program (called a Debt Management Program), you’re likely to succeed. People who complete it often gain valuable financial skills that last a lifetime. These programs have a relapse rate of less than 1%, compared to 20% for bankruptcy or consumer proposals.

Here is what credit counselling organizations often look like that have lower success rates:

• 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 may tend to push their clients toward filing a consumer proposal with a Licensed Insolvency Trustee (bankruptcy trustee) because this earns them more money. Sadly, many will effectively double charge their clients in doing this by first charging them thousands for a consumer proposal before referring them to a bankruptcy trustee who is legally 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 debt consultant or a financial wellness expert 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.
• 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.
• 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).

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.

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 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 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 simply came here looking for credit counselling near me or want more structured financial guidance, these sessions are designed to give you a clear picture of your situation and a 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 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.

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

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.

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 provided 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.

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.

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 organization has earned over 80 awards for its outstanding work and along with more than 1,500 online reviews, with an average score of 4.9 out of 5 stars. Each year we survey of over 10,000 of the people we help and for many years now, these surveys show that 98% would recommend CCS 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.

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.

When it comes to trust and accountability, we 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 governed 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 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.

No, the Government of Ontario 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.

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.