Avoid nasty surprises and check your credit score

Guess how many of the country’s 26.52 million credit active consumers are classified as being in good standing by the credit bureaus?

You’d be right if you said most. According to the National Credit Regulator, in the quarter ending in June, 62.73% of credit active South Africans had credit records which wouldn’t scare off a credit provider, a landlord, an insurance company or an employer.

That’s about 198,000 more South Africans with a good credit record than in the previous quarter.

But, of course, that does mean the credit records of more than 37% of those 26 million are not looking good and they would struggle to take out a loan or a cellphone contract as a result.

Here’s the thing: according to credit bureau Transunion, fewer than 5% of them know this because they’re not taking advantage of their legal right to a free credit check at least once a year, from every credit bureau in the land.

And that’s a shame, because they will only discover their credit record is “impaired’ by some kind of adverse listing — commonly referred to as a blacklisting — when they apply for credit and get turned down.

A huge proportion of adverse listings on people’s credit records have no right to be there: the debt has prescribed, for example, or they’ve paid the debt but the listing hasn’t been removed, which is a legal requirement. If they knew, they could lodge a dispute and get the unjustified ones removed.

Another reason to be on intimate terms with your own credit record is this: someone could have applied for credit in your name — and given the frightening levels of identity fraud in SA, there’s a very strong possibility of that being the case.

And there’s another scenario, as Sharon of Modderfontein’s experience reveals: the “blacklisting” on your record could belong to someone who has a similar ID number to you, and their debt has mistakenly ended up on your record.

The bizarre case landed in my inbox because Sharon had struggled, and failed, to get that other person’s “adverse” off her record for two long years. Two years!

“I don’t know where to turn and would really appreciate it if you could help me,” Sharon began.

“In the past two years, I’ve contacted Experian directly, as well as the service provider who had me listed directly; I even went as far as contacting the Credit Ombud, which was of some help, but still Experian has not removed this account from my credit report.

“It’s extremely frustrating because this all happened at a time when I was applying for a bond, and the bond I eventually managed to get would have been at a much better rate, save for Experian.”

Through the Credit Ombud’s intervention, Sharon found out last May the account in question was opened by a Namibian national with a similar ID number to hers, and the report which the company sent to Experian was uploaded to Sharon’s credit profile by mistake — a mistake which, when Sharon wrote to me this week, had yet to be rectified.

I asked Experian why not. Here’s the response I got just 24 hours later.

“We have investigated [Sharon]’s adverse listing and have removed this incorrect listing from her credit record today.

“We understand how frustrating this has been for her and we apologise for the inconvenience this has caused her.”

Experian confirmed Sharon had approached them for help in September 2020, but they had to wait for the Credit Ombud to complete its investigation “before taking further action”. So the credit dispute was only initiated in April 2021.

“At this point, the listing was removed. However the error which caused this initially, occurred again, resulting in the listing being reloaded against [Sharon]’s profile.

“Given the anomaly of how this adverse listing was linked to her ID number, an exception routine to monitor credit profile is now in place.”

How appalling that it took a journalist’s intervention to achieve in a day what Sharon had failed to accomplish in more than two years. But she’s incredibly grateful for the resolution.

Experian’s advice to Sharon applies to all consumers.

“For additional peace of mind, we would also recommend that she registers for her free personal credit report on Experian’s My Credit Check self-service portal [www.mycreditcheck.co.za] where she can regularly check her credit report at any time, free of charge.

“Should she need to dispute any further information, she can do so from this portal directly with the bureau. Upon registering, she will also automatically receive free SMS alerts when a credit enquiry is made on her credit report from now until December 31 2023.

Transunion’s “Credit Report Plus Alerts & Score” also allows you to keep a close eye on your credit health — for a monthly or annual fee.