Act now or your creditors will never go away!

Your debt problems have consequences

Contrary to popular belief, overindebtedness isn’t just a “rough patch”. It can be the result of unforeseen circumstances like a job loss or health problems. Or it could be from spending more than your budget allows. No matter how you got into so much debt, you’ll have to deal with the consequences until you get out:

• Your creditors won’t leave you. The harassment will only increase.
• The interest on your debts won’t stop accumulating. Every month you’ll have to pay more, especially for “bad debts”, or debts with high interest rates (such as purchases made with your credit card or your line of credit, or even “fast cash loans”).
• Your credit rating will crumble, along with your reputation among lenders. The result? You’ll be denied loans, or offered loans only at unreasonable rates. For example, if you want to buy a car, lenders will be concerned that you can’t make payments on time. They might refuse to lend you money, or impose extremely high interest rates, up to 29.99%.

Creditors will go great lenghts to contact you

We’ve already said it: one of the consequences of owing money to creditors is that you’ll be subject to their harassment. Collection agencies will make every effort to speak to you. They have the right to phone you at home — many times a day. They can also send you letters and emails.

But that’s not all. If your creditors don’t succeed in contacting you at home, they can:

• Call you at work
• Call your guarantors, meaning anyone has agreed to pay your debts if you are unable to
• Contact your friends, partner or family

Creditors can even seize your assets

If you don’t pay your debts, your creditors can seize:

• Your job income
• Money or investments that you have in your accounts
• Money that other people owe you
• Securities you have hold (for example, company stocks or bonds)

In certain cases, they can have a bailiff come and seize your assets, including furniture, clothing or anything else of value. (However, certain things are still protected: anything you need for work, like clothing and tools required for your job, and anything that ensures your family’s quality of life.)

Creditors have many strategies to recover the money you owe them, but they don’t have the right to do whatever they want or threaten you. You have rights when dealing with creditors. Make sure they are respected!

How can you stop your creditors starting today?

There are few ways to put an end to the harassment from creditors.

1. Pay your debts

The easiest way to stop the harassment is to pay your debts. But how can you do that if you don’t have the money? It’s sometimes possible to negotiate a payment agreement with the collection agency. For example, to pay back a $5,000 debt, you could make a monthly payment of $500 for 10 months.

2. Consult an expert

If you can’t commit to this kind of agreement, or the collection agency won’t agree to one, contact a counsellor in financial recovery. After looking at your situation with you, they’ll be able to suggest different solutions.

There are two options that will put an end to all of your creditor’s efforts: bankruptcy or a consumer proposal. The bankruptcy process is similar to that of a consumer proposal, but they’re not the same. Still, in both cases, the calls from creditors will stop within a few days.

To talk about it, contact one of our counsellors right away. The faster you act, the sooner you can enjoy your life and find peace of mind again.