Well, it seems the Government is listening.

I’ve been posting about the abuses of debt settlement companies such as Cambridge Life Solutions  for months, Both Doug Hoyes and Ted Michalos, the Founders of Hoyes Michalos & Associates Inc. have been as well, on the radio, in print and on the television. My previous post linked to their most recent posts.

Today, the Ontario Government issued a Consumer Warning regarding Debt Settlement Companies operating in Ontario.

You  can read the release at this LINK

This is good news because it shows the government is listening. Lets hope this is just a first step in the Government taking action to outlaw the abusive tactics of these companies such has been done in the USA and in Alberta and Manitoba.

If  you were thinking of using one of these companies, and now don’t know what to do, call us at 310-PLAN ( 7526) or clisck on www.hoyes.com  and lets get started

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We have all heard the ads for Cambridge Life Solutions,  Hoyes Michalos and Associates Inc. Co founder Doug Hoyes has done a lot of research on this Company and has found out some very interesting things.

Check out Doug’s blog post about a recent Global Television Interview Doug did about Cambridge Life Solutions. Doug has several posts on his blog about Cambridge Life Solutions, I’d recommend you check them all out while you are visiting Doug’s Blog.

Cambridge Life Solutions  has been getting a lot of attention lately, with a recent article in Mcleans News-magazine, Ted Michalos, Co-Founder of Hoyes Michalos & Associates Inc. writes about the article in his Blog there is some interesting information everyone needs to know.

In a even more telling example,  Cambridge Life Solutions is suing a local debt settlement company for Libel over statements that the company made in a blog about Cambridge Life Solutions.  I don’t have much good to say about either of the companies involved in the suit, but it sure is telling when the practices of Cambridge Life Solutions draw the ire of  companies doing the same kind of work. Here is a link to the Blog posts outlining the claims.

It may seem like everyone is jumping on to Cambridge Life Solutions,  which begs the question, Why?

What is it about their practices that has everyone up in arms? Is it just “sour grapes” by Trustees who are having their “grass cut” by Cambridge Life Solutions?  That’s what Cambridge Life Solutions would have you believe, but the truth is for most people who choose to use their services, the outcomes touted by Cambridge Life Solutions seem to be pretty rare. Instead of “saving thousands” in principle and interest, many people end up “paying thousands” for nothing.

All I can tell you is that recently I have helped a number of people who set up a program with Cambridge life Solutions, gave them a few thousand dollars and ended up right back where they were before, with creditors calling them, threats of legal action and in more then one case, garnished wages. Cambridge Life Solutions did nothing for them, other than extract a few thousand dollars in up front fees.

As you can imagine, all of these people were pretty upset with Cambridge Life Solutions, they felt victimized despite the fact that Cambridge Life Solutions did exactly what they said they would do, which is absolutely nothing until the client had saved enough money to settle their debts and permitted Cambridge Life Solutions to skim off their full fee up front.

I asked every one of these clients why they chose Cambridge Life Solutions, and every one of them said 2 things. First their advertising sounded good, and they seemed to indicate that what they were offering was a Government Sponsored and Approved program of Debt Relief.  ( nothing could be further from the truth, the governments of Alberta and Manitoba have outlawed their practices)

Second, people are generally afraid of talking to bankruptcy Trustees, almost as if the just the act of talking to to a Trustee is like admitting you are bankrupt. The fact is every person who had done a failed program with Cambridge Life Solutions ended up filing a Consumer Proposal through Hoyes Michalos & Associates Inc. All of their proposals were approved by their creditors (nearly 100% are) and they are all on their way to being debt free with NO calls from creditors and with a LEGAL protection from being sued in place. Unlike the program being offered by Cambridge Life Solutions, Consumer Proposals actually work most of the time, and people get REAL RELIEF from their creditors  day they sign up, there are NO UP-FRONT FEES.

If you are dealing with more debt than you can handle, you owe it to yourself to find out about ALL of your options.

Call 310-PLAN ( 7526)  click on www.hoyes.com  and lets get started

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Spring Cleaning

Spring seems to have come early this year.. I cut my Lawn for the first time in 2012, on April 8.. I’ve never done that before.

It’s been a strange winter, but despite all of that, the traditional Spring activities are getting into full swing.

Clearing up all the accumulated debris from the winter is something we all have to deal with. Putting away the winter coats, swapping off the winter tires, and generally getting ready to emerge from our winter “hibernation”.

Financially, often the winter can be a difficult time, heating costs, clothing costs, Food costs, are all higher in the winter. And of course the spring brings TAX TIME. All of these issues can make the Spring a great time to think about doing some spring cleaning of your finances as well.

Maybe you are dealing with too much debt? Maybe you can make your payments but you just can’t see a future without debt? If this sounds like you, then you need to do some “Spring Cleaning” of your own, and look into solutions for dealing with your debt. The hardest part of cleaning up debt problems is making that first call for help.

At Hoyes Michalos & Associates Inc. we help people take control of their debt and deal with it for once and for all. We can help you too. It costs nothing to talk to us and find out your options, and nothing feels better that being debt free.

Call us today, at 310-PLAN ( 7526) or click on www.hoyes.com  and lets get started.

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I have not posted in a bit,  I’ve been busy.

Recently I sat the Oral Board Examination set by the Superintendent of Bankruptcy to qualify me for my License as a Trustee In Bankruptcy. I’ve been working on this for 6 years ( it’s a long process with a lot of exams along the way) It feels good to be finished. I don’t know if the Superintendent will grant me a license or not yet, I won’t know till June or so.

But what has occurred to me is how much time I have been devoting to this endeavor.  All kinds of things had been set to the side while I focused on my final preparations for the exam.  In fact I set some things to the side 6 years ago, and I just may be able to get back to them soon.  I know I’ll have no problem filling up my time with things that need doing.

I meet with people every day that are like me,  busy, busy with work, busy with kids they don’t have a lot of time to deal with things.  When debt starts to be a problem, many people put the problem to the side, hoping it will sort it’s self out.  The issue is, of course, that problems generally don’t just go away.  You have to take control, you have to do something.

This is where Hoyes Michalos can help, we’ve been helping people deal with their debts for a long time, we have helped thousands get back on track and deal with their debt, and get back to their busy lives.  It’s what we do, it’s what we keep ourselves busy doing every day.

If you need help taking control of your debt, we can help call us today at 310-PLAN ( 7526) or click on www.hoyes.com and lets get started.

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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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Dealing with Debt,  There are more options than you may think

Every day I meet with people in my Mississaugaoffice who are dealing with debt, I  also get a lot of e-mails and take a lot of calls from people asking the same question. What should I do about my debt?

Doug Hoyes, Co-Founder of HoyesMichalos & AssociatesInc. recently posted on our main site a clear summary of you options when dealing with debt. Included is really clear video summary of your options.

Click on this link to see Doug’s post and check out the video, it’s really quite good and answers a lot of questions.

If you want more information call me at 310-PLAN ( 7526) or click on www.hoyes.com and lets get started

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The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcies released the 2011 third quarter results today. If you like you can look at them at this  LINK Overall we can see a continued trend.

Bankruptcy filings are down from 2010 and trending down throughout 2011.  This is not really surprising as the economy continues a slow recovery from the 2008-2009 recession when bankruptcy filings reached a peak. More and more people are getting back to work, things are getting better for many people.

Another interesting trend is the continued increase in people choosing to file ConsumerProposals rather than filing for bankruptcy.

In the Toronto region Bankruptcy filings are down 25% over 2010  but Consumer Proposal filings are up over 3% over 2010 numbers.  In some parts of Ontario, the numbers are more striking, In Hamilton for example bankruptcies are down by 25% but Proposal filings are up by nearly 30%!

I think that this is due to a combination of reasons, foremost, people are learning more about Consumer Proposals, Trustees ( particularly HoyesMichalos & AssociatesInc.) are working hard to get the word out about Proposals. In addition legislative changes in 2009 to the bankruptcy and Insolvency Act made Proposals a much more viable solution for dealing with debt than they used to be compared to Bankruptcy.

In general these numbers give us insight to 2 things. first, the overall numbers of people needing to file bankruptcy or proposals is down from 2010.  Second, more and more people are avoiding bankruptcy by filing a ConsumerProposal to deal with their debt.

Although filings are trending downward, which is good news, we have not seen filings reduce to pre-recession levels. Clearly there are still a lot of people who need help dealing with their debt.

If you are struggling with debt, take some time and call us, we can help you get a fresh start, and finally put you on the road to debt freedom.

Call 310 PLAN ( 7526)  ir click on www.hoyes.com and lets get started

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Ted Michalos, CA, Mississauga Bankruptcy Trustee

I work with Brian McIlmoyle in our Mississauga consumer proposal and bankruptcy  office helping people deal with their debts.  Here’s my advice for budgeting and planning for next Christmas.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but in January the first round of “Christmas bills” start arriving in your mail box…

If you’d like to avoid this problem next year, now is the time to start planning for Christmas next year.  I can see your eyes rolling in your head, “We just cleaned up from this Christmas and you want us to start thinking about next year?  You’re nuts!”

Maybe, but give me a couple of minutes of your time to make a serious suggestion.

As the Christmas bills roll in, try and figure out just how much you spent this year.  $300?  $500?  $1,000?  More?  Whatever the amount, did you pay with cash or put it on credit?  If you paid on credit, do you have a plan to pay off the debt?

Most people over spend at Christmas – which is ok, but only if they have a plan to pay for it.

The best way to avoid Christmas bills in 2012 is to save enough money between now and then to pay cash for your gift buying this year.  Take whatever amount you spent in 2011 and divide it by 10 – that’s your monthly saving target.

If you spent $1,000 on Christmas 2011 and you want to pay cash for Christmas 2012 then you need to find a way to set aside $100 per month starting in February (and running to November) in order to have the money you need to do so.

You can pay your bills, and create a savings plan for next year, by not budgeting; just pay your bills as often as you get paid, or set aside money for next Christmas every payday.

The hard part, the really hard part, is doing this for the first time.  If you used credit to pay for your shopping this Christmas, then you have those bills to pay off.  Finding the extra $100 (or whatever number you need) every month will be difficult.  Having the discipline not to spend your Christmas savings may be even harder, but you need to do it.

It is like dieting (the OTHER Christmas nightmare).   Set a goal for yourself – in this case saving a set amount of money each month and stick to it.

Happy New Year everyone – here’s hoping 2012 finds you happy, healthy and prosperous.

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Holiday Money Stress

This time of year brings many joys, gathering with friends and family, parties and holiday cheer.

But is can also be a time of financial stress.

Good times cost money, gifts and traveling to family gatherings can put stress on an already stretched budget.

One of my colleagues, Ian Martin, who works out of our Kitchener head office wrote a great guide to keeping your holiday spending in check.  Click on this link to read his guide. It’s really great advice, and I could not state it better.

So have a great time over the holidays but keep in mind the bills come in in January.

If you are worried about how much debt you have, or are having trouble now making payments. Give us a call at 310-PLAN (7526) or click on www.hoyes.com  We can help.

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