WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-09-09 Time: 05:00:01 Posted By: News Poster
By Michael Bleby
Johannesburg – Banks, the credit regulator and debt counsellors will on Thursday begin a coordinated marketing campaign to encourage people with problem debts to seek help to prevent their debt from spiralling out of control.
The campaign launched by the Banking Association of SA, National Credit Regulator and Debt Counselling Association of SA sees a new call centre set up for people to contact and get a referral for help.
The campaign, due to run until December 19, seeks to patch weaknesses in SA’s three-year-old debt review system identified by a task team review that completed its work in July. With SA’s household debt-to-income ratio remains high, at 78,4% in the March quarter. While this is down from a peak of 83,4% in the first quarter of 2008, there are concerns at the small number of people accessing the formal debt review system and the even smaller number using it to get themselves back to a state of creditworthiness.
“Consumer awareness of these options and how to exploit these options is very low,” said Johan de Ridder, group executive at African Bank Investments Ltd.
The National Credit Act that came into effect on June 1, 2007, set up the formal debt review system that to date has registered about 1800 debt counsellors and created the legal framework for the resolution of agreement between debtors and creditors. While a total 198 000 people have so far applied for the formal debt review process, about half of them have withdrawn or been terminated from the process.
Of the remaining 90 000 to 100 000 consumers that remain under active debt counselling, only about 57 000 of these are making regular payments to creditors. The sums being recovered from these people are significant – over R200m per month is being returned to creditors – but this is tiny compared to the potential if the system works properly.
Part of the problem has been the lack of information about how the system works.
“It’s the first time the credit industry, debt counsellors and regulator have come together and created a common plan to which they’ve all signed up,” Banking Association MD Cas Coovadia said at the launch event today.
The call centre set up by the National Debt Mediation Association, a credit industry body, will provide the first point of contact for consumers with problematic debt. Consumers can call or SMS the name of their bank and get a return SMS with contact numbers for who in the bank they should contact.
“The NDMA call centre staff will filter incoming calls and provide preliminary advice to callers in terms of the appropriate line of action in their particular situation,” said Peter Setou, the regulator’s senior manager for education and strategy yesterday.
The campaign also targets the 57 000 consumers who are already in the debt review process and making payments. Having come through initial phase of the process, before standard rules between debt counsellors and creditors were in place – and a time when many payment agreements were contested by creditor – consumers may be paying, but not under an agreed regime that has the consent of creditors or a court.
It is important for these people to get back in touch with their debt counsellors and ensure that what they are paying meets the agreement of creditors, Mr De Ridder said.
“Most of those payments have not been made by agreed payment plan or court order. They don’t have a legal status. Consumers may be under the impression that what they are paying is ok. Go back to your debt counsellor,” he said.
To get advice on dealing with problematic debt, consumers can call 086-111-6362. Alternatively they can SMS the name of their bank to 32 422 to get contact details of whom to approach in their bank.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 8 September 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201009090044.html?viewall=1