Debtfree DIGI July 2016

NEWS CONTINUED
Century Capitol. If it seems confusing all DCs
have to do is check closely what the CoBs from
Consumer Friend say and quote these entities
in any court applications. For the most part the
changes will have little impact on the process
other than different names on some papers.
Consumer Friend was one of the big winners
in this years’ Debt Review Awards.
NCR Website Seems Fine
During July 2016 the NCR’s website became
a scary place. Visitors who went to visit were
warned that the site was infected with malware
that wanted to infect their computers and that
they should not go onto the website. The issue
has since been resolved and you can now visit
the site without any scary red warning screen.
SBSA & DCRS Acceptances
Standard Bank (SBSA) have reminded Debt
Counsellors that they will only be willing
to send a final acceptance letter for a DCRS
proposal (a computer system that shows
the way credit providers suggest debt be
restructured) if the Debt Counsellor send
them (SBSA) an acceptance letter for the DCRS
proposal the Debt Counsellor sent them. If the
Debt Counsellor sends SBSA an acceptance
letter for the proposal they made via DCRS
then SBSA will send back an acceptance letter
of their own.
Send The Sheriff
SA Taxi have recently began corresponding
with Debt Counsellors telling them that they
want to have any court documents served
on them via the Sheriff of the Court. This is an
option (along with service via registered mail)
that all parties have under the Magistrates
Court Act. Most credit providers chose to have
service via email since this is faster and saves
consumer money.
Credit Providers Arrested
The NCR recently joined the SAPS in raiding
10 credit providers in the Northern Cape. The
raids turned up several illegal activities such as
keeping consumers ID books, ATM cards and
SASSA cards. As a result 4 of these naughty
credit providers found themselves under
arrest for breaking the law. The NCR recently
conducted a workshop for Debt Counsellors
and Credit Providers in the Northern Cape.
The NCR also took the opportunity to pop past
several companies and individuals who had
formerly been registered with them (but had
not paid to renew their registration) to check
that these firms were not still operating without
being registered. The arrested credit providers
will face not only the cops but also the NCR will
take these matters to the National Consumer
Tribunal and fines and deregistration may
follow. The NCR recently announced that
they are not only investigating smaller credit
providers but even the (now defunct) old
African Bank.
2016 Debt Review Awards
The annual Debt Review Awards recently took
place in Cape Town. Big winners on the night
were Hyphen PDA, Consumer Friend, Standard
Bank and the IDM group. The awards were
based on an industry wide peer review. Read
More about the 2016 Annual Debt Review
Awards in this issue: HERE