{"id":46555,"date":"2016-03-31T13:03:12","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T17:03:12","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-03-12T16:44:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:44:53","slug":"what-are-credit-counsellors-and-debt-settlement-companies-not-allowed-do","status":"publish","type":"publications-page","link":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-credit-counsellors-and-debt-settlement-companies-not-allowed-do","title":{"rendered":"What are credit counsellors and debt settlement companies not allowed to do?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>They&#8217;re not allowed to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>say they are a charitable or not-for-profit organization if they are not<\/li>\n<li>claim that their programs are approved by the government if they are not<\/li>\n<li>promise results that are better than what they actually got for other clients within the last year<\/li>\n<li>promise results that are not in their control, for example, promising they can stop a creditor from trying to collect a debt<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>They&#8217;re also not allowed to charge you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>an up-front fee for a making repayment plan, except for a $50 set-up charge<\/li>\n<li>more than 10% of your debt in a single payment plan<\/li>\n<li>more than 15% of your debt for each debt payment in an instalment plan<\/li>\n<li>any fee before they have made an agreement with your creditors and made payments to those creditors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-46555","publications-page","type-publications-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What are credit counsellors and debt settlement companies not allowed to do? 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