Credit Matters in the Media
Voice - Debt is a Lifestyle! - 10 March 2010
Oh please let month end come! March is a month which somehow seems to drag on forever! Financially, that is. We are all looking forward to the Daily Voice carnival taking place at Rygate Sportsfield ( opp Vygieskraal ) this weekend. For those of us into the nagtroepe - the big competition – the Top 8 is taking place at the Good Hope Centre on Saturday and there are many other sporting and social events on the calendar for March. Mense, almal die outings kos geld! Hopefully you have been clever enough to put some money aside for these things. Yet how many of us can actually do that? We all have our everyday living expenses and debt to see to. How does one save?
I think as a society, we first have to acknowledge how big a part debt plays in our lives and in our lifestyles. Many South Africans are trapped because of years of borrowing money to finance a lifestyle that they would never have been able to afford without debt. The government encouraged it and the banking system was more than happy to loan you the money! You just had to be over 18 and have a post box – en credit card en personal loan was jou naam! The ride while things are good is always fun – buying nice things and showing it off – but in the end, is it really worth it? People have been living beyond their means for far too long and the bills have finally come due. We now sit with a big problem – we’ve totally forgotten how to budget and live according to our means and how to work with our money responsibly.
There are a few facts about debt that we simply cant ignore
- Everybody has it
- Most people have too much of it
- People are ashamed of it
- People think that if they ignore it, it will go away
- Creditors have made a lot of money out of it
- Debt collectors are loving it!
What are the processes that take place when you cant pay your debt.
- All creditors first have to send you a Regulation 129 letter to notify you that have 10 working days to go to a debt counsellor to see if they can help you restructure and repay your debt.
- The debt counsellor can assess you and find you over – indebted and place you under debt review.
- If you do not go to a debt counsellor the process will take its normal course.
What is the legal process when you default.
- Your account is handed over to an attorney that issues a summons
- If you do not appoint your own attorney to issue a notice to defend that summons within 5 working days – judgment is taken against you.
- You get blacklisted
- Some credit agreements give the creditor permission to get a garnishee order on your pay slip without any notice
- If that clause is not included in your contract, they can have a warrant of execution issued and repossess your assets
It does not make any sense to stick your head in the sand and deny that you have a problem with your debt and your finances. If you see that you are struggling, use the protection the National Credit Act gives you and go and see a registered debt counsellor, who can lower your monthly installments and protect your assets from repossession.
Credit Matters, but more importantly, so do you. See you all at the Carnival!
Thanks