Ontario Lags in Protecting Consumers with Debt
Alberta, and now most recently Manitoba have enacted regulations governing so called “debt Settlement companies” putting in place a licensing requirement and strict limits on fees.
The Manitoba regulations go even further and stipulate no up front fees at all, and no fees if the company is not able to get an agreement in place. Fees are limited to 10% of the debt settled.
The details of the news release from the Manitoba government can be read here.
So now the question is when will Ontario take action against so called “debt Settlement” companies operating here? There are no regulations governing debt settlement companies in Ontario, they can charge whatever they want, do whatever they want, and consumers have little to no recourse when things go wrong. Many of these companies are actually front operations for large US call centers who’s business model includes large up front fees, high pressure sales tactics and absolutely no assurances that they will be able to do anything about your debt.
Many of the best known outfits who are advertising everywhere, radio , television with celebrity endorsements and even unsolicited calls to cell phones operate from the USA and the only real presence they have here is post office boxes. They don’t know Canadian or Ontario laws, and they don’t care to as long as you sign the dotted line and send them your money.
I have personally met with people who have sent debt settlement companies thousands of dollars to settle their debt, and receive nothing in return except legal documents informing them that their creditors are suing them for non payment. How does this help?
The worst thing about these debt settlement companies is they don’t actually do anything that you could not do yourself, saving you hundreds and maybe thousands of dollars in useless unnecessary fees and enabling you to settle your debt months earlier if you had not bothered using them at all.
If you are dealing with debt, and you don’t know what to do, Call us we are Licensed by the Federal Government to help people with their debt. Just because you are dealing with a Trustee in Bankruptcy does not mean you are filing a bankruptcy, A lot of our work is just giving people advice FOR FREE. If you don’t need our services we will tell you and point you in the right direction to get the help you need.
Call us at 310 PLAN (7526) or click on www.hoyes.com and lets get started.
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