How long must I wait before applying for debt review?

We often get the following scenarios that can have the result that debt counselling and debt review actually outs you off much worse than your current situation. What happens if consumers wait too long after they realise that they are in financial distress before they apply for debt counselling and debt review. The answer is very simple yet there is a complex reasoning behind the answer. If you leave your accounts to get so far in arrears and then apply for debt counselling, Help with debt, debt counsellors cannot guarantee that we will be able to lower that specific repayment. The reason being is that your creditors are forced to first bring your arrears amount up to date before they can start paying off your capital. Furthermore, the National Credit Act only allows consumers under debt counselling and debt review to extend certain agreements for a maximum period. This is also dependant on the age of the agreement. For instance, if you have only a few months left on your original contract term but you are in arrears with almost half the agreed amount, the period cannot be extended so much that you will benefit from debt counselling. I had a new client today that was more that 22 months in arrears with a finance agreement that only had 8 months (original) contract term left. The result was that the restructured payment for that account was almost R200 more than his original instalment. This brings me to my next example. Normally if I get clients that are not in arrears with accounts but foresee a difficult financial future, I am almost guaranteed to more than halve their payments. Bottom line. The sooner you make a plan to sort out a dismal financial situation, the better. Banks and other credit providers respect clients that are precaution and make arrangements through debt counselling and debt review sooner than later. If the credit providers have to phone trace and keep on asking you for money they will view you as a risk. If you feel that you need some more information on the process of debt counselling and debt review, please do not hesitate to contact us. Help with debt!