Help is available to consumers who are haunted by the same bad debt. According to the office of the credit information ombud, consumers should not be listed by the credit bureaux for the same debt more than once.
‘Consumers may not be listed more than once in terms of the same debt on a credit bureau; this has been part of our jurisdiction since the inception of this office and the same principle has been echoed in the National Credit Act,” says Manie van Schalkwyk, the ombud.
He explains how consumers can end up being listed for the same debt:
- When a consumer stops paying an account, the credit grantor writes the debt off as a bad debt. The consumer will be listed for two years at the credit bureaux by the credit grantor. At a later stage the credit grantor might sell the bad debt to a debt collecting company, which in turn lists the consumer at the credit bureaux in an attempt to recover the outstanding debt.
- In other instances, the credit grantor does not sell the debt but appoints a debt collector to act as an agent in collecting the money from the consumer. The agent then lists the consumer with a credit bureaux in an attempt to recover the money.
- A credit grantor or debt collector lists the same information in more than one section of a consumer’s credit profile.
- The credit grantor or debt collector lists the consumer at the credit bureaux as a result of non-payment and the listing remains on the credit bureaux for a period of two years. If the consumer fails to pay the outstanding debt after the required two-year retention period on the credit bureaux, the credit grantors/debt collectors list the same information again with the bureaux in an attempt to recover the debt.
According to the ombud, the confusion is caused by lack of communication. The credit grantor does not inform the debt buyer that the consumer has been listed at the credit bureaux; in turn the debt buyer does not ask relevant questions to ascertain whether the consumer has been listed for the debt before.
Consumers who have been listed at the credit bureaux more than once for the same debt can contact the office of the Credit Information Ombud on Tel: 0860 66 28 37, visit the website www.creditombud.org.za or email [email protected] for help. This service is free of charge