Dealing with debt can be a nerve-wracking situation for most people. When we find ourselves face to face with our debts we assume that bankruptcy may be the only option we have which could possibly save us. However, if you are a resident of Canada you just may be in luck because you have an alternative to bankruptcy: A Consumer Proposal.
Despite the Consumer Proposal being one effective solution of reducing debts, most Canadians have never heard of the term. What is it? How does it work? And why it is better than bankruptcy, are just a few of the questions that may be going in your head.
Consumer Proposal vs. Bankruptcy:
We say that a Consumer Proposal is a far more powerful solution to settling your debts than bankruptcy and we say this with good reason. By filing for a Consumer Proposal you can take the debt which for some reasons you cannot pay at the moment, reduce the debt by two thirds or possibly even more than that, stop all the interest that may be charged on the money you owe and get five years time to pay back the owed amount.
During these five years you are safe in the sense that nobody can take you to court or sue you for not being able to pay your debt. The five year period that you are allotted takes off some of the pressure as it is a good amount of time in which you can arrange for money to pay back.
It is better than bankruptcy also because you would not be required to surrender any assets while agreeing to a Consumer Proposal. If you are still not convinced, here’s another reason why Consumer Proposals are a way better option to handle your debt than bankruptcy: when you opt for a Consumer Proposal you get an R7 credit ranking which is basically indicating that an agreement has been made between you and your creditors about how the debt would be settled. This R7 rating remains on your report for three years only. On the other hand when you file for bankruptcy, an R9 credit rating is assigned to your credit report which is the worst rating anybody could have and to make matters worse it remains on your credit report for about seven to fourteen years.
While we now understand why Consumer Proposal may be a good option for an individual in debt, but what is in it for the creditors? When a person in debt files for bankruptcy, the creditor gets nothing out of it whereas when he files for a Consumer Proposal the creditor gets something out of it. For example, you owe 20,000 dollars and you file for a Consumer Proposal which reduces the amount by some percent, consequently you have to pay back some amount of money, let’s say 200 to 300 dollars per month to the creditors, whereas in bankruptcy you just straight up cannot pay anything at all at the moment. This is why most creditors are more than willing to accept a Consumer Proposal.
