You will be able to describe what Credit Counselling Singapore offers and how to prepare for a first session.
Kumar found out he would not qualify for a Debt Consolidation Plan, or at least not yet, and that felt like the last door closing. A colleague who had been through something similar told him to call a credit counsellor. Kumar's first reaction was embarrassment, and his second was suspicion: wasn't that for people who were about to go bankrupt? It isn't. And the earlier you call, the more a counsellor can do.
Credit Counselling Singapore, usually called CCS, is a non-profit organisation that helps people who are struggling with unsecured consumer debt, such as credit cards, credit lines and personal loans. It is not a lender and not a debt collector, and it does not lend you money. Its role is to look at your whole situation with you, explain your options, and where it fits, help arrange a repayment plan with the banks you owe.
People contact CCS at different stages. Some have already missed payments and are getting calls from collectors. Others, like Kumar, are still paying but can see that the numbers do not add up. The website, ccs.org.sg, explains who it helps, how to make an appointment and what its services cost, if anything. Read it there rather than relying on what someone else was told.
The main tool a counsellor can offer is a Debt Management Programme, or DMP. Under a DMP, CCS works with your creditors to agree a repayment plan you can afford. That usually means one monthly payment that is shared among the banks, over a set period, often on revised terms compared with what you are paying now.
What the creditors agree to depends on your situation and on them. A DMP is a negotiated arrangement, so the counsellor cannot promise a particular outcome before talking to the banks. Like a Debt Consolidation Plan, it usually comes with conditions on new credit while you are in the programme, and the counsellor will explain what those are for you.
A DMP is not the right answer for everyone. A counsellor may conclude that you can manage with a budget and an avalanche plan from module 6, or that a consolidation plan from lesson 7.2, Debt Consolidation Plans: one loan in place of many, would suit you better once you qualify. Part of the value of the first session is an honest view of which path fits.
A counsellor can only help as much as the information you give allows. The first session goes faster, and leads somewhere, if you arrive with everything in one place.
Bring a full list of your debts: every card, credit line, loan and instalment plan, with the lender, the balance, the rate and the minimum payment. The page you made in lesson 6.1, Put every debt on one page, is exactly that. Bring the latest statement for each debt, and any letters from lenders or collectors. Bring proof of income, such as recent payslips, your IRAS notice of assessment or your CPF contribution history. And bring a picture of your monthly spending: rent or mortgage, utilities, food, transport, family support, insurance, school costs, everything that goes out each month.
The spending picture is the one people skip, and it matters as much as the debts. A repayment plan has to fit inside your real budget, not an optimistic one, or it will fail in the third month.
Many people who call a counsellor are afraid that bankruptcy is where this ends. For most, it isn't. Bankruptcy is a legal process that restricts your finances, your work and your daily life, often for years. Treat it as the last resort it is, because it offers no quick way out.
Before anyone reaches that point, there are other options, and a counsellor can walk you through the ones that apply to you, including formal schemes run by the government's insolvency office. The Ministry of Law's insolvency pages describe who they are for. The earlier you speak to someone, the more of those alternatives are still open, which is the strongest reason not to wait.
Kumar booked a session. He went in expecting a lecture, and instead spent an hour going through his numbers with someone who had clearly seen situations like his many times before.
You may never need a counsellor. But the documents a counsellor would ask for are the same ones you need for any serious decision about debt, from a consolidation plan to your own avalanche. Putting your debt list, statements, income documents and monthly spending into one folder, paper or digital, takes an evening, and it means you are ready the day you need to be.
Gather the documents a counsellor would ask for and put them in one folder, even if you do not plan to call.
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