{"id":46561,"date":"2016-03-31T12:30:26","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T16:30:26","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-03-12T16:42:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:42:27","slug":"how-do-credit-counsellors-work","status":"publish","type":"publications-page","link":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/how-do-credit-counsellors-work","title":{"rendered":"How do credit counsellors help?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A credit counsellor will review your bills and your budget. They<br \/>\nhelp you choose which of your past due bills are most urgent. And they help you figure out how much you can put toward repaying what you owe each month and still have enough to live on.<\/p>\n<p>The credit counsellor contacts your creditors to let them know you&#8217;re working with them to come up with a debt repayment plan. Sometimes credit counsellors can get creditors to agree to accept less money as full payment of their bills or to lower their interest rate.<\/p>\n<p>If you choose to pay your creditors with an instalment plan, you pay a set amount of money every month to your credit counselling service. The credit counsellor uses that money to pay your creditors what they have agreed to accept until the bill is paid. Once your plan is in place, your credit counsellor will talk to your creditors to let them know you have an instalment plan. This might stop your creditors from contacting you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-46561","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>How do credit counsellors help? - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/how-do-credit-counsellors-work\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How do credit counsellors help? - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A credit counsellor will review your bills and your budget. They help you choose which of your past due bills are most urgent. And they help you figure out how much you can put toward repaying what you owe each month and still have enough to live on. The credit counsellor contacts your creditors to let them know you&#8217;re working with them to come up with a debt repayment plan.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/how-do-credit-counsellors-work\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-12T20:42:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/how-do-credit-counsellors-work\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/how-do-credit-counsellors-work\",\"name\":\"How do credit counsellors help? - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-31T16:30:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-12T20:42:27+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/how-do-credit-counsellors-work#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/how-do-credit-counsellors-work\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/how-do-credit-counsellors-work#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Publication pages\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"How do credit counsellors help?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/\",\"name\":\"CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How do credit counsellors help? - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/how-do-credit-counsellors-work","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How do credit counsellors help? - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)","og_description":"A credit counsellor will review your bills and your budget. They help you choose which of your past due bills are most urgent. And they help you figure out how much you can put toward repaying what you owe each month and still have enough to live on. The credit counsellor contacts your creditors to let them know you&#8217;re working with them to come up with a debt repayment plan.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/how-do-credit-counsellors-work","og_site_name":"CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)","article_modified_time":"2026-03-12T20:42:27+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/how-do-credit-counsellors-work","url":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/how-do-credit-counsellors-work","name":"How do credit counsellors help? - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-03-31T16:30:26+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-12T20:42:27+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/how-do-credit-counsellors-work#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/how-do-credit-counsellors-work"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/how-do-credit-counsellors-work#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Publication pages","item":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"How do credit counsellors help?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/","name":"CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publications-page\/46561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publications-page"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/publications-page"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publications-page\/46561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64164,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publications-page\/46561\/revisions\/64164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}