Life After A Consumer Proposal

After the completion of your last payment the Administrator of your consumer proposal will send you, your Creditors and the Official Receiver the following documents:

• After the completion of your last payment, the Administrator will send you a Certificate of Full Performance. This document states you have completed your consumer proposal and your unsecured debts have been satisfied.
• Some time afterwards the Administrator will send you a Statement of Receipts and Disbursements (An accounting of the monies paid and disbursed in the Proposal) and Notice of Taxation of the Administrator's Accounts and the Discharge of the Administrator.

Credit rating agencies will be notified of the completion of your proposal by a government agency through the Official Receiver, not by the Administrator.

Fresh Start and Credit Rebuilding

After the completion of a consumer proposal, you have now permanently moved on from your past financial issues and are free of your unsecured debts. It is time to start rebuilding your credit rating. The consumer proposal will show on the Equifax and TransUnion Canada systems for three years from the time of completion.

Here are links to the two major credit bureaus websites which allow you to request your credit report:

• Equifax
• TransUnion Canada

You can start rebuilding your credit after a consumer proposal as follows:

• One common method is to regularly use secured credit cards, a type of credit card secured by a deposit account owned by the cardholder. This booklet, published by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada , an agency of the Government of Canada, explains how secured credit cards work and why they’re useful in building up your credit rating.  
• Stay away from reloadable or prepaid credit cards – they will do nothing for your credit score.
• Build relations with your financial institution. Try to do most of your business through one bank, including having a chequing account, savings and a credit card. Being a member in good standing with one bank can help you get access to better account perks later on.
• Try to arrange two credit cards from major chartered banks. The bank you deal with on a daily basis may even give you an unsecured card – the limit will likely only be $500 to id="mce_marker",000. You may have to offer up a security deposit for these new cards.
• Open an RRSP account with an attached loan to pay down monthly.

Other things to do after a consumer proposal:

• During the process of the Consumer Proposal, you successfully balanced your monthly budget. After the proposal is finished, put those monthly proposal payments into a monthly savings plan or RRSP. Remember - you are used to not having that monthly amount.
• Contributions into RRSPs will generate greater tax savings and you can use the tax refunds to build your savings even quicker. It is never too late to save for your retirement.
• Save money both monthly and when opportunities arise – e.g. tax refunds, bonus, commission, overtime (with a large down payment it is possible to finance a car at a reasonable interest rate).
• Open a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) and contribute monthly. Any interest or gains are tax free.
• Pay all your bills on time (like rent, utilities, etc.) and pay off your credit card balances every month.
• Dispute incorrect information on your credit reports. Contact creditors directly if they are reporting incorrect information. Make sure you follow up with any reporting agency who lists incorrect information on your credit report or who continues to allow discharged debt to appear on the report. To dispute incorrect information on your credit report listed by the bureaus listed above, you can use the online dispute form on Equifax or TransUnion.
• Reduce the number of credit applications you make. If too many potential lenders ask about your credit in a short period of time, this may have a negative effect on your score.