CAN I APPLY FOR CREDIT OR USE MY CREDIT CARDS DURING DEBT REVIEW?

No. This is to prevent you from incurring more debt, as the purpose of debt review is to reduce your debt and work towards becoming debt free. Once you’ve settled all of your debts, National Debt Advisors will issue you with a clearance certificate and you’ll be able to take out credit again. However, we do hope you will be far more cautious going forward!

The purpose of debt review is to reduce your debt and work towards becoming debt free

‘UNDER DEBT REVIEW’ FLAG 

As soon as you qualify for the process, your debt counsellor will contact the credit bureaus to let them know that you are officially under debt counselling. The bureaus will then add an ‘under debt review’ flag to your credit profile.

Whenever you go to the bank or a lender to apply for credit, they will run a credit check. When you enter debt counselling, your credit profile will indicate this fact. So, when credit providers draw a copy of your credit report, it will show that you are under debt review and they will thus reject your credit application.

Once you have paid off your debts, your credit applications will no longer be rejected 

CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE 

However, once you have paid off your debts and been issued with a clearance certificate, your debt counsellor will contact the bureaus again and tell them to remove the ‘under debt review’ flag from your credit profile.

Accordingly, when you apply for credit and creditors pull your report, it will no longer show that you are undergoing debt counselling. So, your applications will no longer be rejected based on the fact that you are under debt review.