No mark for non-payers

Six members of the Credit Bureau Association (CBA) say they will not hold any information relating to e-toll payments on their credit “blacklisting” systems.

Compuscan, Consumer Profile Bureau, Experian, TransUnion, VeriCred and XPert Decision Systems said it had come to their attention that a number of civil court judgments relating to e-tolls and Sanral accounts had been sent to credit bureaus “for loading on to consumers’ profiles”.

The CBA added: “The Transport Laws and Related Matters Amendment Act, 2013, which amended the South African National Roads Agency Limited and National Roads Act, 1998, specifically excludes the levying and collecting of e-tolls from the provisions of the National Credit Act, 2005.

“Credit bureaus receive, hold, display and remove consumer information in accordance with the provisions of the NCA and accordingly are not able to hold information which is specifically excluded from the provisions of the NCA.”

“On behalf of our represented credit bureaus, we would like to advise consumers that information relating to e-tolls/Sanral will not be held on the credit bureaus.”

The group said that any information relating to e-tolls/Sanral “which has been inadvertently loaded onto a consumer profile will be removed”.

The statement followed reports that Sanral had been trying to increase pressure on defaulting motorists by obtaining civil judgments against them and having them blacklisted.