Who provides debt and insolvency counselling?
Every debt position is different and therefore the way to get out of debt is different for every person.
Debt counselling originally arose from social work. The counsellors in social debt and insolvency counselling are therefore primarily concerned with restoring your own capacity to act. So it's about you "getting to grips with things" again. You will be at the centre of the counselling sessions, and solutions will be developed together with you.
Other variants primarily include legal advice on foreclosure law or insolvency proceedings or business advice on income/surplus accounts or budgets. Although these may also lead to the short-term goal of no more debts, learning processes and personal growth and knowledge gains are less important.
In order for you to find the path that is right for you, we will show you the different possibilities with their respective focus on work on this page.
Debt and insolvency counselling centres
Law firms
Consumer counselling centres
Debt and insolvency counselling centre
The variety of counselling services is wide - there are approximately 1,400 recognised debt and insolvency counselling centres throughout Germany. Many are organised in welfare associations (e.g., AWO, Red Cross, Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband) or connected to the consumer centres. Municipalities (e.g., social services) also offer debt counselling or small associations.
The social debt and insolvency counselling centres usually receive public subsidies and can therefore offer counselling free of charge.
Law firms
In general, lawyers have the task of helping their clients to exercise their rights. This partisan representation of interests is the defining characteristic of lawyers. In other words: here you commission someone to enforce your rights. You purchase a service in the form of advice and representation.
The German Civil Code (BGB), Foreclosure Law (ZPO, ZVG), Insolvency Law (InsO) and many other laws play a decisive role in this. Therefore, make sure that you choose a lawyer who specialises in these areas, in particular insolvency law, in order to be able to advise and support you successfully. Lawyers who specialise in other areas of law or who do not have a precise area of work often do not know very specific insolvency law proceedings.
Further information on law firms
Work priorities:
- Legal issues
- Clarification of disputed individual questions (e.g., whether a claim is justified)
- Implementation of insolvency proceedings/legal settlement
Working method:
- More as service providers to whom you assign a task (here: debt settlement).
- Partly with personal consultation
- Often together with telephone or correspondence by post or e-mail
Costs:
- The support of a lawyer is usually subject to a fee.
- Depending on the income situation and the existence of alternative support offers, the district court can also assume (partial) costs through consulting and legal aid. Special features: In the city states (Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin), the Public Legal Advice Office (ÖRA) offers free legal advice. In these cities, therefore, no counselling and legal aid is often granted for a law firm.
Consumer advice centres
The largest consumer advice offer is provided by the consumer centres in the approximately 200 counselling centres. The consumer centres are independent, predominantly publicly funded, non-profit organisations. Their work aims to inform, advise and support consumers in matters of private consumption. This includes those who do not (yet) have any debts. They provide an overview of confusing offers and provide insight into complex market conditions.
Since consumer law and debtor protection are closely related in terms of content, many consumer centres also offer debtor and insolvency counselling. The above information on debtor and insolvency counselling centres applies to these specialised advisory services.
Further information on consumer advice centres
Work priorities:
- General information on consumer rights
- Legal review of sales and service contracts
- Legal review of telecommunications and energy bills
- Legal review of bank loans
Working method:
- Group information events
- Individual counselling
- Brochures, information material
- Press releases and policy conversations
Costs:
- Counselling offers depend on the duration of the counselling and the specific topic, for example 30 euros for 30 minutes of counselling
- Many brochures and information materials are provided free of charge
- Thanks to government funding, debt counselling is often offered free of charge
Source: Caritas Mecklenburg e.V.
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These are the frequently asked questions about debt advice.