Watching the Numbers Move
Over the next four and a half years, June made every payment without exception. No skipped months, no major disruptions, just steady, consistent progress toward zero. “It was so nice to see it coming down every month,” she says. “I wasn’t seeing that with my credit card bills; they were just the same. But every month on the Program I could see it going down, and especially that last year — wow. This is nothing compared to what I started with.”
She appreciated her credit counsellor’s annual check-ins in the early years, then found she didn’t always need them as things settled into a comfortable rhythm and proceeded smoothly.
“It goes by quicker than you think,” she says. “Five years sounds like a long time, but it goes fast. And if I hadn’t done the program, five years would have gone by anyway, and I’d have been in exactly the same place.”
Life on the Other Side of Debt
June made her final payment earlier this year. The nearly $1,000 a month she once put toward debt is now hers to keep, for continued savings, an emergency fund, and for some anticipated golf trips and travel plans she’d put on hold.
“I can put money away now,” she says. “I don’t have to panic if something happens to my car. I can afford to get it fixed. You’re proud of yourself for accomplishing that.”
She also credits the program with shifting something deeper: her relationship with money itself. “I’m more thoughtful about it now,” she says. “I used to think, friends in similar circumstances seem to be able to afford things I can’t, so you try to keep up. Only to find out some of them were in as much debt as I was, if not more. Everybody’s trying to impress everybody. I don’t feel I need to do that anymore.”
After years of budgeting for her monthly repayments, living within her means has simply become how she operates. “I don’t buy something unless I have the money to buy it.”
And the feeling that comes with that?
“Life is light and airy,” she says. “The debt is just gone.”
For Anyone Hesitating to Consolidate Debt or Payments
When asked what she’d say to someone in a similar position who hasn’t yet made the call, June doesn’t hesitate to suggest that they should find out more about the options they have to consolidate their debt or payments.
“There are options out there. You might be pleasantly surprised to find out that you can get a handle on the debt without spending more than you’re currently spending. And it is a relief to get ahead of it. The years go by faster than you think, and it’s a lot better to come out the other side debt free than to spend those same five years running in place.”
What a Debt Management Program Can Cover, Overdraft Debt Included
June wasn’t expecting her overdraft debt to qualify, and she isn’t the only one. A Debt Management Program can cover most unsecured debts beyond just credit cards, such as overdrafts, payday loans, and unsecured lines of credit. If a DMP turns out not to be the right fit, paying down an overdraft on your own is another path worth knowing about.
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