If your debt counsellor is not registered, or not contactable, or not providing you the required service, then you can transfer to another debt counsellor. All you have to do is approach a new debt counsellor and complete the application form. It will then take about a week for the change to reflect on the NCR system, after which your new debt counsellor will be on your record.
The NCR’s website contains a list of all regisered debt counsellors. There are currently only 1 646 registered debt counsellors, but there are also 1 723 debt counsellors that have not maintained their registration, for various reasons. Only registered debt counsellors can assist you.
According to David O’Brien of debt counselling firm Meerkat.co.za, if you transfer debt counsellors for any reason, then you need to be aware of several important points.
If the court or National Consumer Tribunal (NCT) order has already been issued, you have no choice but to stick to the agreement. You can, however, accelerate the repayments so that you settle the debt sooner.
If you transfer to another debt counsellor before the court order has been issued, the new debt counsellor will reassess your case, which may result in a different or better payment plan, or even find you not over-indebted, but they are entitled to a new fee for that process. The new debt counsellor will then complete the legal process and have the order issued.
If your previous debt counsellor is contactable, you can ask them for a refund of any fees, where work has not been done.
O’Brien emphasised that it is not advisable to switch debt counsellors just because you have been promised a lower repayment. Generally these promises are not fulfilled.
Be careful when paying your creditors directly
If your debt counsellor provides poor aftercare service, you are fully entitled to pay your creditors directly as per the court order and not through the debt counsellor. However, you need to keep an eye on the monthly amounts, as these often change between credit providers as the plan matures through time. Remember that you are responsible for meeting the terms of the court order. The PDA process manages that administration and can also be cheaper than the bank fees of managing all the payments yourself.
If you have been paying directly, and have settled all your debts, you need to ask your creditors for a paid-up letter for each account. If your original debt counsellor is not contactable, then you can transfer to a new debt counsellor to issue the clearance certificate. Some debt counsellors offer this clearance certificate service to non-customers, but could charge a fee that can come to around R1 000. You could also apply the NCT to obtain a clearance certificate. This is issued to all creditors, credit bureaus and the National Credit Regulator’s debt system in order to remove the debt review flag.
Related:
- Video: How to exit debt review
- A debt review success story
- Q&A: debt review
- When can you exit debt review?
- The truth about debt review
- Voluntary withdrawal from debt review
- How to get out of debt review
- Advice on a consolidation loan
- When debt consolidation is not the solution
- Should I apply for debt consolidation?
- The true cost of debt
- Court mediation available to over-indebted consumers
I am receiving my PDA statements monthly. I have queried before on how much the balances on this statements and the statement of the creditors differ. First I was told that I need to look at their statements, now all of a sudden the story changed and I am responsible to look at the balances.
My problem is, I don’t get all the statements and are ignored by some of my creditors. I feel that I pay the DC, which is unreachable and I always need to speak to an agent. I have no contact for the DC.
Is the court order only for the person under debt review to be adhered to or can I (seeing that it has now become my duty) keep the creditor to the court order.
I need urgent advice
The problem is that the PDA statement does not always match the credit statement. This can be for various reasons eg: there are account fees that have not been taken into consideration. You have a right to access all your own credit statements – your creditors cannot refuse to provide that to you and if they do you can lodge a complaint with the National Financial Ombud. It also sounds like your DC is not servicing you correctly either. You do have the option to transfer to another DC.
i have been on debt counseling since 2018 and my instalments were paid as prescribed . in february 20203 calls came from my creditors saying that my account has not been paid and they demanded the money which is equal to what a owed when starting this process . may you please help in this regard
Have you raised this with your debt counsellor? If they have not been paying you can lodge a complaint with the national credit regulator (dccomplaints@ncr.org.za)
You can also check with the industry associations and ask them to intervene https://www.dcasa.co.za/contact/ and https://www.ndca.org.za/
GOOD DAY.
I settled my debts 3 months ago. My debt Counsellor is not giving me a clearance certificate.
Kindly advise steps I can take get the clearance form.
If there are fees outstanding then that may be the reason. Otherwise the debt counsellor is obliged to issue the certificate. You could lodge a complaint with the National Credit Regulator or ask another debt counsellor to issue it for you. That will cost around R1000 excl VAT
If you have all the paid up letters you can try and email the NCR with the court order and all the letters, and ask them to lift the flag
Hi my debt counselor is not reachable and I have missed payment due to being played late,I need assistant on what to do. Thanks
You need to lodge a complaint with the NCR immediately. You may need to transfer to another debt counsellor
My debt counsellor has been messing up my payments and now my creditor contacted me directly, informing me that I have missed payments even though I have never missed my monthly payment to the debt counsellor. What steps can I take to “fire” this organisation?
Your debt counsellor should be using a Payment Distribution Agency (PDA) – if not, that is against the law. The PDA is responsible for allocating the funds. I do recommend you lodge a complaint with the NCR (you can cc me). You can transfer to another registered debt counsellor
my debt counsellor issued a clearance certificate .It’s now 21 days over but nothing happens. what must I do?
According to David O’Brien of Meerkat debt counsellors “The DC should have issued the cert to the bureaus and the credit providers. The bureaus can take up to a month to update, some are quicker. I advise my clients to wait a month. “nothing happens” may mean that they cannot get a loan, which can be for credit score reasons. After a month, he can get a credit report from any bureau and the flag should be removed”
I transferred to another debt counselor due to unfavorable services. I was not aware that the court order had not been granted when I transferred and the initial debt counselor did not inform the new counselor of this either. Today 9 months later, I received a summons from one of my creditors. I had been paying all credits for over a year as per their agreements all to discover, the court order was not granted. I enquired with the previous councilor and was told that the follow up court date was on 26 October and because I transferred the day before this so they withdrew the court application.
Please help, what can I do about this?
I am surprised your new debt counsellor did not check the court order as that would have specified the payment agreement. What has the new counsellor done with the payments? Surely these were going to the creditor as per the agreement? Who is the new debt counsellor?
I have had to send them the distribution statement from the previous debt counsellor, for them to distribute accordingly. The first two payments have still not been distributed, I notified the NCR about this in February. The last email I received from the NCR was that the complaint has been captured for investigation. It is also difficult to get hold of them via telephone.
I have continued with payments to them for the fear of falling behind.
What can I do if no court order has been granted?
We cannot get hold of our debt councilor they just went ghost they not at the offices they used to be and not answering phone calls we want to settle the debt in full and get a clearance coz we want to buy a house but now we cannot get the debt councillors please give advice
As the article indicated, you can follow up with the NCR but probably easier to transfer to a new debt counsellor who can sort it out
I want my name to be removed from debt review, as i made arrangements with my creditors and now paying them directly, i recently wanted to buy a house i cannot do as i am black listed
You have to settle the debts and get a clearance certificate
Hi I have settled all my debt and clearance certificate was issued but my name still under debt review can’t get hold of my debt counselor kindly assist with update my status
My Debt counselor is not paying my Creditors, suddenly I am owing creditors the same balance as 2years ago. What should do I? Who do I contact to assist me? Should I pay my Creditors directly?
Gosh that is bad. You must report them to the NCR…http://www.ncr.org.za/
Hi, did you get help and If so what kind. My mother in law entered debt rescue without her knowledge and the debt rescue has not paid the creditor in the last 36 months. She only found out when the creditor was at her door step to repossess the assets