If you’re having trouble affording the cost of living lately, you’re not alone. To regain a sense of control over your finances, you can reach out to us for help.
“At Cambrian, our goal is to help members understand the reasons that contribute to their financial stress,” says Jonathan Dueck, Loss Prevention Specialist at Cambrian.
“We help solve their financial difficulties by working with them and offering solutions to assist them.”
Today, we’re exploring ways to manage rising costs in your life, and how Cambrian supports members who are having trouble making payments:
What can you do if you’re facing financial difficulties?
“If members are having a hard time due to their debt load, we’ll explore options that help them maintain payments in the long-term,” says Jonathan.
“We use a combination of tools to help our members back to financial health, with an emphasis on coaching, counselling, and guiding our members.”
“First, we go through an in-depth review to gain an understanding of what might be triggering a member’s financial difficulties. Once we find where the issue lies, we can develop a plan.”
Some of the solutions we offer include:
You may have the option to temporarily skip a payment on a loan or mortgage. This might be a suitable short-term fix if you’re having a cashflow issue due to an unexpected expense.
“Payment deferrals are a temporary fix, not a long-term solution,” says Jonathan. “We always want to help determine the cause of the challenge. Is it a cashflow issue, a behavioural/spending issue, or a lack of knowledge about finance?”
A payment deferral does not affect your credit score. Keep in mind that you’ll eventually need to make up for the payment that you skipped.
Are your monthly expenses too much due to high-interest debt? You can look at debt consolidation to wrap multiple debt sources into one monthly payment at a lower interest rate. Learn more about how to get out of debt.
If you don’t qualify for a loan on your own due to low income or a lack of credit history, you could look at bringing on a co-signer.
When someone co-signs your loan, they will take responsibility for the payments if you’re unable to make them.
Amortization is the schedule on which you pay back the money you owe. Your monthly payments are spread out over the life of your loan.
For example, a mortgage can be amortized over 25 years. After those 25 years are up, you’ll have paid off the debt completely.
By extending your amortization, you can lower your monthly payments.
However, it’s important to note that extending your amortization period also increases the interest you pay over time.
“We could take a 5-year loan and change the amortization to 10 or 15 years to make your monthly payments smaller,” says Jonathan.
The budget you made a year ago may not be possible to stick to today, as food expenses and housing costs climb. It may be time to take a step back and look at what you’re spending.
“Sometimes, a member’s debt load may not be the issue—if spending is the root cause, we’ll work with members on budget planning and guidance,” says Jonathan.
In some cases, the best decision may be to sell the asset that secures the loan, whether that’s a home or a car. You can book a meeting with an advisor to discuss the best path forward for your unique situation.
“Whenever possible, we work with our members to minimize credit losses of loans, lines of credit, mortgages, and commercial loans. It’s all in an effort to help our members find solutions that work for them,” says Jonathan.
If you’re facing financial difficulties, you don’t have to go through it alone.
“We focus on assisting our members by offering support, advice, and solutions,” says Jonathan.
Contact us today to talk about your options.
We would be happy to discuss your unique situation with you.
Our goal is to make complex topics like this one, simple.
It takes less than 5 minutes to make an appointment or to apply online. It is up to you how you want to meet your advisor - you will have the option to meet your advisor:
