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Welcome to Smartie
Struggling with bills, debts or accessing credit?
Find the right way forward with our award-winning tool
Smartie helps you understand your financial position, what you can realistically afford and the options that may be available to you.
✓Understand your financial position
✓Understand what you can realistically afford
✓Find a solution and a path forward
Request access first. We’ll contact you with the steps to complete your Smartie assessment.
Free to use · No impact on your credit score · Secure & private
How Smartie works
Three simple steps. A clearer way forward.
Once your access is set up, Smartie uses your consented banking information to help you understand your position and explore your options.
Understand your position
Review a report showing your income, spending and what is left after your commitments.
Explore your options
Use that picture to prepare for a repayment discussion or explore support and more suitable financial options.
Less document chasing and guesswork. One financial picture you can use again and again.
What you receive
Your financial picture, in one place.
Your Smartie report brings together money coming in, essential bills, everyday spending and borrowing, so you have a clearer starting point for deciding what to do next.
- See your income and spending together.
- Prepare for conversations about repayments, credit or support.
- Use your report again without starting from scratch.
Illustrative sample report. Your figures and available options will depend on your circumstances. Support providers make their own eligibility decisions.
What brings you here today?
Start with your situation.
Find a way forward
Real help. Real options.
Once you understand your financial position, choose the next step that fits your situation.
Escalator Loan
Struggling with payday or loan debt under $18k? Check whether you may prequalify for a lower-cost Escalator Loan.
Check to prequalify →LEAP or OESP support
Need help with energy bills? Start an application for emergency financial assistance or energy support.
Apply for support →Help paying rent or mortgage
Home Relief Bank can provide interest-free loans covering up to two months of rent or mortgage payments when an unexpected crisis puts your home at risk.
Ask about Home Relief Bank →Repayment plan
Owe money to a lender or utility? Understand what you can afford and work towards a sustainable repayment plan.
Start with Smartie →Collections repayment or settlement
Use your financial position to support a short-term repayment plan or settlement proposal with a collection agency.
Understand what I can afford →Debt advice or insolvency
Prepare a clearer financial picture before seeking debt advice, a consumer proposal or insolvency support.
Prepare my position →One Smartie. Multiple possibilities.
Do it once. Use it again and again.
Use your Smartie to help pay bills, pay debt, access benefits, access affordable credit, rent a home or apply for debt help — without starting from scratch every time.
About us
Built in Canada for Canadians.
🍁 Built in Canada for Canadians
I built Smartie because people should not have to explain their financial situation over and over again just to get help.
I have spent more than 25 years working in credit, collections, lending, open banking and customer resolution across the UK and Canada. I have seen first-hand how difficult it can be for people to get the right support — even when they are willing to engage.
When I moved to Canada, I experienced another side of the problem. Despite having a career and income, I had very little Canadian credit history. It showed me how much a traditional credit file can miss about a person's real financial position today.
Built in Canada for Canadians, informed by global best practice. Through our wider consulting network, we have access to experience and best practice from the UK, Australia and Europe — helping us bring proven ideas into the Canadian market rather than starting from scratch.
Our founder also contributes to the Prosper Canada Debt Help Roundtable, a cross-sector initiative bringing together government, community and business leaders to improve access to affordable, appropriate and trustworthy debt help. Participants include representatives from FCAC, the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, Finance Canada, Employment and Social Development Canada, BDO, Equifax, DUCA Impact Lab and Credit Canada.
That experience helped shape Smartie. A simpler, more human way to understand your financial position once and use it to access the right support, products and solutions — while staying in control of your information.
Do it once. Use it again and again.
Meet the team
The people behind Smartie.
Simon Howard
Founder
More than 25 years across credit, collections, lending, open banking and customer resolution in the UK and Canada. Simon created Smartie to make financial understanding simpler and help people reach the right resolution faster.
Kerry Howard
Co-Founder
More than 20 years in customer service and client management across the UK and Canada, with a focus on making financial support feel clear, respectful and human.
Built with experience around us
Supported by research, innovation and expert advice.
Partners who helped develop Smartie
Smartie has been developed with support from Georgian College Centre for Innovation and Research and the Henry Bernick Entrepreneurship Centre.
Fintech programs
Smartie is a graduate of Fintech Cadence Ascension, IFH Lab and Fintech Hub programs.
Global affordability expertise
We draw on expert UK affordability advice from RO-AR, including Chris Warburton, alongside broader best-practice insight from the UK, Australia and Europe.
Canadian advisory panel
Our Canadian advisory panel brings practical experience from lending, data, collections and financial services.
Pedro Maya · Tangerine Bank
Blair DeMarco-Wettlaufer · Kingston Data
Michael Ohler
Greg Maitinsky
Start your journey
One simple financial assessment. More ways forward.
Smartie is designed to make getting help simpler, faster and less stressful.
Free to use
No charge to complete your Smartie.
No credit score impact
Using Smartie does not affect your credit score.
Secure & private
Your financial information is handled through a secure consent-based process.
