{"id":63991,"date":"2026-02-13T10:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/?post_type=publications-page&#038;p=63991"},"modified":"2026-02-13T10:47:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T15:47:15","slug":"debt-settlement","status":"publish","type":"publications-page","link":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/debt-settlement","title":{"rendered":"Debt settlement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Debt settlement companies can give you similar services as a credit counsellor. But they are for-profit businesses. This means they make a profit from helping you. There are other differences that are important.<\/p>\n<p>When you use debt settlement companies, there are some extra risks. For example, they may:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>not tell all your creditors about your repayment, so creditors may keep calling you<\/li>\n<li>pay one bill at a time, so creditors may sue you to try to collect their money<\/li>\n<li>represent both you and your creditor, which is a conflict of interest<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And they might not help you learn how to stay out of debt.<\/p>\n<p>Debt settlement companies go by different names including debt consolidation, debt relief, and debt reduction.<\/p>\n<p>Debt settlement companies must be registered with the Government of Ontario.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-63991","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>Debt settlement - 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\/debt-settlement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Debt settlement - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Debt settlement companies can give you similar services as a credit counsellor. 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