Debtfree Magazine March 2019

When the NCT first heard the case, without the Debt Counsellors attending,
they were asked by the consumers to rule that they were no longer over
indebted (no longer needed debt review). This is a common challenge
for consumers who wish to have the credit bureau listing for debt review
removed. Credit bureaus only have one type of listing for anyone in debt
review and the NCR have told them not to remove this listing quickly and
without a lot of extra work (which is not required by the National Credit
Act). The NCT heard the matter and worked with the information given.
The NCT also saw that the consumers had two accounts which had not
been included in their original NCT debt restructuring consent order. The
NCT are happy to grant consent orders* for debt review where all the
consumer’s credit providers agree to a new adjusted debt repayment plan.
It now seemed that the big debt counselling firm had somehow forgotten
or ignored these accounts and thus the consent order was probably not
valid (since there was no consent for those two other accounts).
This was why the NCT ruled that the consumer’s debt restructuring NCT
ruling was not valid and that they were no longer under over indebted and
under debt review.
Once the Debt Counsellor found out about the matter (probably by getting
an email about their case in their inbox like all the other Debt Counsellors
in the country) they immediately went to the NCT and asked to present
their side of the matter. They did not want to stop the consumers from
exiting debt review but wanted to present the NCT with extra important
info about how they had helped the consumer.
It turns out that the big debt counselling firm took over the consumers
matter from another previous debt counselling firm. Before they even
got to handle the matter the two supposedly ignored accounts had been
‘terminated’ from debt review by the credit provider. If a credit provider
doesn’t want to help a consumer through debt review they can send out