Financial Counselling

Regular one-on-one counselling sessions provide ongoing support to talk about your financial goals and challenges in confidence. Our professional counsellors offer impartial information, tools and resources to help you navigate your personal finances, without trying to sell you anything. We support you to develop money management and spending plans that will help you to take the right steps towards financial wellness.

Dealing with bills and balancing household budgets can be overwhelming. If you need help to determine your financial health or if you want advice about how to start paying down debt, Thunder Bay Counselling can help. A financial assessment will help you look at your income, assets, expenses and debt to determine your financial situation. With an understanding of your current position, our counsellors will work with you to develop spending plans that make sense for you and your family.

Our services include free advice to access the right banking services and support programs. We know which programs can put free money in your pocket such as income supports and tax benefits. Our helpful professionals offer support to individuals and families at no cost and will ensure that you are choosing the right financial options for you.

Credit Counselling helps you to reduce debt and better manage your financial wellness. Our certified Credit Counsellors have extensive experience in customizing personal debt reduction programs.

A Debt Management Plan is designed to help clients pay off debt in a set amount of time. It is a formalized agreement where our Credit Counsellors provide you with support to deal with creditors. Creditors usually agree and, in some cases, may reduce or eliminate the interest rate and/or fees on the debt. We make debt repayment simple and stress free with one monthly payment that is disbursed to creditors.

Thunder Bay Counselling offers unbiased information and consumer education on a wide array of topics related to personal money management to help you make the right financial decisions. Our Literacy Education programs are offered in one-on-one and group sessions to meet diverse needs. If you want to learn more about your consumer rights and be better prepared to manage your finances, ask us about our Financial Literacy Education programs.

Start saving for your child’s education after high school with an RESP. The Canada Learning Bond (CLB) is $500 offered by the Government of Canada to help modest-income families start saving today for their child’s future post-secondary education. Your child could receive $100 every year until he or she turns 15 years old to a maximum allowance of $2,000. Canada Learning Bonds can be used to pay for full-time or part- time education including apprenticeship programs, Colleges and Universities. Let Thunder Bay Counselling help you get started for free.

Thunder Bay Counselling is a community partner of SmartSaver, a non-profit organization whose goal is to make it easier for families to understand and access the government money that is available for education after high school using an RESP. Read more about how to start your kid’s education savings with free money.

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Filing your income tax is an important part of financial management and may help identify income benefits and savings. Thunder Bay Counselling is proud to partner with the Lakehead Social Planning Council in the provision of Tax Clinics that are free of charge for people living on low incomes. Visit LSPC’s web-site at www.lspc.ca for more information.