The SA Debt Review process in a Nutshell

DEBT COUNSELLING is a legal process (National Credit Act) whereby the consumer receives Protection from Creditors by appointing a Debt Counsellor to consolidate your debt after negotiations with all creditors on your behalf.

Step 1. Application for debt review – we receive your application (Form 16) and required relevant information to determine whether you qualify for debt review. If you qualify, we register you on the NCR data base as under debt review and send you an sms with a reference number. At this stage a R50.00 application fee is payable as well as a R50.00 ITC check per person should you not obtain and attach your ITC report to the application.

Step 2. We make a preliminary assessment of your level of over-indebtedness and agree with you on a proposed repayment amount that is affordable and a debit order is signed for this amount to be paid to a regulated and approved Payment Distribution Agent for distribution between your creditors. This debit order will be applicable from the second month under debt review as our fee and that of the attorneys (if possible) will be retained in the first month under debt review.

Step 3. We notify your creditors and credit bureaus within 5 working days (Form 17.1 notice) using the creditor statements provided by you– although your creditors are not supposed to contact you whilst you are under debt review, this may continue until such time as the notice has reached the relevant persons in the creditor offices. Please refer all creditor queries to us.

Step 4. The creditors are supposed to react on the Form 17.1 notice within 5 working days of receipt confirming your detail and outstanding balances. Should no reaction be received from your creditors, a reminder is send and after 5 working days the information provided by you is accepted as correct.

Step 5. Once all information has been received from creditors a formal assessment your level of over-indebtedness is made within 30 working days after your signature on the application. At this stage all creditors and credit bureaus are notified of your category of over-indebtedness by way of a Form 17.2 notice.

Step 6. A formal debt restructuring proposal is developed by us within 25 working days from date of application, submitted to the creditors and the creditors have 10 working days to respond to the proposal (with a reminder and another 5 working days to respond on the reminder). The entire process up to the end of this stage must be completed within 60 working days after date of application for debt review.

Step 7. If the proposal is accepted, the proposal is formulated in the format of a legal order and application is made for a court date in order to make the accepted proposal a court order. If one creditor objects to the proposal, negotiations are re-entered into with new proposals until a final restructuring plan is agreed upon or if no agreement is reached, the Court will make a decision.

Step 8. You as well as all creditors and credit bureaus are informed of the outcome using a Form 17.2 notice.

Step 9. You make payment on a monthly basis by debit order to a Payment Distribution Agent for distribution to your creditors according to the agreed repayment plan which payment is monitored by us.

Step 10. An after-care service is provided by us including an annual case review to determine any problems and creditors are notified if a change has occurred in your financial situation. This service is also available to you at any time on your request.

Step 11. Once all your obligations in terms of this debt review process has been satisfied, we issue you with a clearance certificate within 5 days of receiving your formal application (Form 19) for a clearance certificate. You can also apply for this clearance certificate at any time during the debt review if you can settle your obligations. Once this certificate is issued all credit bureau records must be expunged and we check that this is done within 5 working days after the credit bureau has been notified.

We understand the stress and the pride that is associated with Debt, but you have to act!

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