Earlier this week I received an e-mail from Michelle Miranda, the manager of Credit Counselling at the Family Counselling Centre of Brant, to remind me that today is the launch of the first annual Credit Education Week, which runs from November 13 to November 16. During the launch, the results of a national consumer survey of more than 4,000 Canadians were released, and the survey showed that the majority of Canadians do not have a sufficient understanding of basic personal finance and credit.Michelle and I have discussed credit problems many times over the years, so neither one of us was surprised that the survey found that 55% of Canadians have monthly expenses that exceed their monthly income at lease once a year, and 40% of Canadians do not pay their credit card off in full each month. Full results of the survey can be found at crediteducationweekcanada.com.

Are Michelle and I alone in believing that excessive debt is a problem? To find out, yesterday Scott Schaefer, Ted Michalos and I had lunch with Heather Cudmore, Dave Pearson, and Krista Dobson from the Catholic Family Counselling Centre in Kitchener. We discussed the survey, and they all agreed that Canadians need to take a more active role in managing their money, and taking steps to reduce debt.

If you are carrying more debt than you can handle, all of the credit counsellors I talked to agreed that debt problems do not generally go away on their own, so you should take action now, before your problems get even worse. As described in our article on Debt Management Plans, one option is a debt management plan that typically involves your creditors agreeing to a reduced or zero interest rate, provided you repay them in full over no more than a five year period. For more information, contact Michelle and her team at the Family Counselling Centre of Brant in Brantford at (519) 753-4173, or Heather and her team at Catholic Family Counselling in Kitchener at (519) 743-6333, or use our list to find a credit counsellor in your city.

If you have more debt than you can repay over a five year period, then a consumer proposal or a bankruptcy may be necessary.

Whether it’s a debt management plan, consumer proposal, or bankruptcy, help is available, and the sooner you get help, the sooner the collection calls stop and you can get on with your life. At Hoyes Michalos our initial consultation is always free, so to explore any of these options contact Hoyes Michalos
today.