If you are financially stressed and looking for a way out, tread very carefully, because if you don't, the "help" you seek could very well end up pushing you further into that debt hole. I have no shortage of e-mails from people who've responded to job offers online, been duped into paying an "employment agency"and then they have not heard from them again.And there are those who have gone looking for loans online but ended up with a "loan application service" instead - for a fee, of course.Hundreds of thousands of South Africans have opted to go under debt review with a registered debt- counselling service - a legal process in terms of the National Credit Act. They pay a once-off fee - R6000 at most - to get their debts restructured and the debt collectors off their backs. Then they pay a single lump sum every month, which is distributed to their creditors.The decision by Greg Paul, of Durban, to go under debt review was shortlived, but he was horrified to hear he'd have to pay the debt counselling company R6000 to stop the process.He'd had a phone conversation with a "Noreen" of The Debt Management Group on October 8 during which he said he disclosed that he was married in community of property and that the home loan was in both his and his wife Nadia's name.He was e-mailed an application form the same day, which he filled in on his own, his wife being away on business, and faxed it back on October 12. Two days later he got a welcome e-mail with more documents to fill in and return. He chose not to and assumed the application could not be processed as a result.But on October 15 his wife was e-mailed by the home loan company informing her that the account was under debt review.That day Paul called The Debt Management Company and asked for the application to be cancelled with immediate effect, but the answer he got shocked him. He'd have to pay a R6000 cancellation fee for the process to be halted.When I took up the case, I pointed out that the process should not have proceeded at all without Nadia Paul's input. I asked for the R6000 demand to be justified.Responding, the company said it was the couple's creditors which had pointed out that they were married in community of property, and at that point it did not proceed with the application, putting it aside until the receipt of outstanding documents and information.And what of the R6000 demand?"The e-mail dispatched by our collection agent was in error, as the consultant did not know the history of the matter." the company claimed.Incidentally, it was an error that was not communicated to Paul until my involvement.So what does the National Credit Act allow a debt counsellor to charge as a cancellation fee?Kedilatile Legodi, the National Credit Regulator's debt counselling manager, said the "withdrawal fee" is 75% of the debt counsellor's fee, also known as a restructuring fee.That fee can be charged only when the counsellor has made a determination, based on all the facts and back-up documentation supplied by the applicant - known as a 17.2 - which was not done in Paul's case.And that R6000 is the maximum restructuring fee permissible - it can't exceed the consumer's monthly disposable income, so could well be just R3000. And the withdrawal fee, assuming a determination has been made, can only be 75% of that.Which makes a demand for a R6000 withdrawal fee non-compliant in any instance.If the process hasn't got to the determination stage, a withdrawal notice can be issued immediately at a "guideline" cost of just R300 - plus VAT."But it can be charged only if the debt counsellor is rejecting the consumer's application," Legodi said. "This usually happens because the consumer is found not to be overindebted."CONTACT WENDY:E-mail: consumer@knowler.co.zaTwitter: @wendyknowler..