We answer your questions
Question:
I’m struggling to cover all of my expenses, but I haven’t defaulted on any of my accounts. My brother and I bought a property together (we have a joint bond) and he is now unemployed.
If I go under debt review, how will he be affected? Will it be harder for him to find employment, considering that employers usually do credit checks on prospective employees? – Anonymous
Answer:
Debt counsellor Michelle Barnardt replies: I recommend that you apply for debt review. Since you have a joint bond with your brother, the bond needs to be excluded from debt review. The National Credit Act does not prescribe that all credit agreements have to be rearranged under a debt review order.
The implication of excluding a credit agreement from debt review is that you will have to pay the full instalment on that credit agreement – in this case the bond – while in debt review. Your relief lies in the reduction of instalments on debts in debt review.
Your debt review status will never affect your brother. Only when people are married in community of property will it affect another party, that being a spouse.
Question:
I applied for a business loan of R100 000 from OCM Investment and it was approved. I was then asked to pay R1 200, and then R5 200 for the loan amount to be released.
Then I was told I needed to pay R7 000 for the money to be released. Why am I being charged these fees? I found the loan provider on Gumtree.
The payments made to the loan provider have been made into an FNB account. – Anonymous
Answer:
Sowetan Money’s Angelique Ardé replies: Always make sure that you take credit from registered credit providers only.
To check whether a credit provider is registered, search the list of registrants on the National Credit Regulator’s website www.ncr.org.za.
A legitimate lender would never insist on the debtor making advance payments before “releasing” funds.
Credit providers are also prohibited from charging more than certain regulated charges such as an initiation fee of R165 per credit agreement plus 10% of the amount in excess of R1 000, but never more than R1 050, in the case of an unsecured loan, and a maximum service fee of R60 a month.
While some well-known registered credit providers such as DirectAxis and RCS advertise on Gumtree, be very wary of those that you have not heard of before.