If you’re battling with a financial hangover from a holiday spending spree, we have a 5-point plan to get you back on track: 1. Budget Write down an accurate and honest list of your expenses and income. Use your recent bank statements, invoices and...
If you can prove that you are able to start making regular payments, you can request to end your debt review. When Joseph Masemola's debt began to spin out of control in 2010, he applied for debt review via a debt counsellor. Since then, he has...
The National Debt Mediation Association is re-forming as a non-profit, independent financial wellness organisation to assist indebted consumers. The National Debt Mediation Association (NDMA) has over the past five years provided assistance to...
The latest Old Mutual Savings Monitor shows that South Africans are coming to terms with their new economic reality and taking control of their finances, but it’s still really tough to make ends meet. As households come under pressure from rising...
An emergency fund is your most important savings priority. Thanks to a collision with an uninsured driver and vet bills due to a dog with a penchant for swallowing bouncing balls, our household was faced with thousands of rands worth of unexpected...
Michael wonders whether it's legal for a bank to charge more than double the amount of his personal loan. “I recently applied for a personal loan of R79 000 to buy a car as I did not qualify for car finance due to a poor credit record. After costs,...
Changes to the National Credit Act are necessary to deal with reckless lending, but proposed amendments may have unintended consequences. The Department of Trade and Industry recently proposed amendments to the National Credit Act to deal with...
The 27th of April is Freedom Day in South Africa, marking the annual celebration of South Africa's first non-racial democratic elections in 1994. Since political freedom, South Africans have striven to correct the wrongs of the past. South Africa...
A task team headed by Credit Ombud Manie van Schalkwyk has been established to investigate current practices and  establish a code of conduct to address concerns that emolument attachment orders, loosely referred to as garnishee orders, are...
Putting a personal financial plan into action After writing my review on the South African version of Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover, I received an email from a reader who shared his experience of getting his finances in order after reading the...
Without a proper record of credit, can a provider be responsible for reckless lending asks Maya Fisher-French How does someone get into the position where their debt levels reach 217% of their income and who is responsible? While a desperate consumer may take whatever...
We are starting to see cases of reckless lending being brought before the courts, but the process will remain slow unless the National Credit Regulator provides support Despite many court rulings charging credit providers with reckless lending, the practice appears to...
How the experience of editing the Total Money Makeover changed the way I view my finances Having written on personal finance for the last nine years and being a financially savvy person, I didn’t think there was much I would learn from working on the Total Money...