Is Debt Review the Same as Debt Consolidation?
The short answer? Maybe.
It all depends on exactly what you mean by "debt consolidation." Let's break it down.

What is Debt Review?

Debt review is when a NCR Registered Debt Counsellor looks at your finances to see if you have too much debt. They check your income, expenses, and debts in detail. If you're struggling to pay your debts and cover living costs, they can help you to:

• Adjust your budget.
• Negotiate lower interest rates with credit providers.
• Get a court order to restructure your repayments into something more manageable.

Under debt review, you make one monthly payment to a Payment Distribution Agent (PDA), who splits the money among your creditors. You could call this a consolidated, single payment, instead of many smaller payments of different amounts to different accounts.

What is a Consolidation Loan?

A consolidation loan is when a bank or credit provider gives you one really big loan to pay off all your smaller debts. Instead of managing multiple payments, you have just one. All your debt is consolidated from multiple credit providers into the one big loan. Convenient.
However, you must be careful:

• The loan should have a lower interest rate than your existing debts.
• Some consolidation loans end up costing more in the long run.

Debt Review vs. Debt Consolidation

When people talk about “debt consolidation,” they may mean:

1. A consolidation loan – taking out new credit to settle old debts.
2. Debt review’s single consolidated payment – where all your repayments are combined into one, but your actual debts remain separate.

The main difference is that debt review does not involve taking on more debt. Instead, it legally restructures how you repay what you already owe to something more manageable.

So, Are Debt Review and Debt Consolidation the Same?

Sort of.

In both a debt consolidation loan and a debt review you can end up paying one simple consolidated repayment amount each month.

While both can simplify your payments, a consolidation loan involves new debt, while debt review simply helps you manage existing debt more manageably.

If you’re struggling financially, debt review may be the safer option.