Orderly Payment of Debt

Orderly Payment of Debt (OPD) Program

The following information is a brief description of the orderly payment of debt program
and is by no means complete. It is intended as an overview only.
We hope that you find the information useful.

The orderly payment of debt program, or OPD, is a program run by a not-for-profit society in the province of Alberta. This program allows you to pay your creditors back in full over an extended period of time. There are several advantages to using this program to get your debts under control, and this tends to be one of the more affordable options available.

Some of the advantages are as follows:

There is a legal stay of proceedings put into effect

The interest is stayed to a simple 5%

The creditors pay for all the program costs

The application fee is only $20.00

An R7 credit rating for three years past the date of completion of the program

This program tends to work best if you are able to pay out your creditors in 36 months or less even though the program can be extended for longer periods of time. This is not usually recommended because if you are on the program for more than 3 years you may end up doing more damage to your credit rating than if you filed a bankruptcy. It is important to remember that the payments must be affordable to you without pinching your budget too tight, as the penalties for defaulting on the program are rather severe.

Some of the disadvantages are as follows:

Automatic judgement on default. This means that your creditors no longer have to go to court for the right to garnishee. This is given to them automatically if you default.

This is a court ordered payment, and there is not a lot of flexibility in this program.

Before deciding on any program, you should consider consulting with a counsellor first. Our counsellors can help you go through your finances and find the right program or solution for you. To arrange an appointment or to ask a question you can either e-mail us at debt@planet.eon.net or call us at 488-3328 in Edmonton, toll free at 1-800-890-9612 if you are elsewhere in Alberta.

Once again, this information is intended as an overview only and should not be considered to be a complete description of this program.