There are people out there advertising debt counselling and they are not registered debt counsellors. How do people know the difference and what can they do if they need debt counselling?

There are a number of companies that are offering voluntary debt review to clients. The main problem is that very often the client doesn’t know that they are applying for voluntary debt review. And these companies don’t make it clear that they are not registered debt counsellors.

What often happens is that someone decides that they need debt review and starts looking for a debt counsellor.  They get onto the Internet and they type in debt counsellors and a number of options come up.  They all look like debt counsellors and they all talk about debt counselling on their website and about reducing monthly payments.  Even though all of the results look legit, the problem is that some of them are not registered debt counsellors.

So, if you are looking for a debt counsellor, then look for a few  that you would like to phone. Before you make contact with them, go onto the NCR website,   the National Credit Regulators website, and search the name of the debt counsellor to see if they are registered.

If they are not there, then the red flags should go up.

Another option is to contact the Debt Counsellors Association of South Africa , DCASA. Russell Dickerson, owner of RD Debt Counselling, is on the national executive committee of DCASA, and they have a list of all their members on their website and all members of DCASA, are properly registered.  You can phone the DCASA office which is on the West Rand, and someone there will check for you if someone is a member. They can even recommend a debt counsellor in your area. Their phone number is 0861 43 22 72 and the website is dcasa.co.za.

What are the problems with going to an unregistered debt counsellor?

Voluntary debt counselling is not approved by the National Credit Regulator

1. They have not done the debt counsellor training, so they are not registered
2. They may be able to negotiate with your creditors, but you have no protection. They are not registered with the NCR, so if things go wrong you have no law to protect you.
3. They do not go to court, and get the court order, so if your bank decides to change the amount they want to receive and start with legal action, you do not have a court order to protect you.

Here we are not talking about the complete fraudster who just wants your money and then runs, this guy is trying to operate outside the legal debt review process, many of them have connections to debt counsellors, so let’s say you start with the voluntary debt counselling, what they do is charge you exactly the same fees as if you were doing debt counselling. And then when something goes wrong, they quickly start you with proper debt counselling and you have to pay fees again, and the result is that you end up paying double fees for the same thing which you should have started in the first place and had all the protection.

What can people do if they discover that they are doing voluntary debt counselling and they thought they were doing proper debt counselling?

People are welcome to contact me, and I will check to make sure that we all have our facts right

If necessary we will switch them over to legal debt counselling and get a court order which protects them.

They should also be reported to the NCR so that they can have action taken against them to stop them from fooling other people into thinking they are doing debt counselling and then they discover too late when there is a problem, that they don’t have any legal protection.

If you are having any problems with this issue or any other debt counselling problems then call DCASA the Debt Counsellors Association of South Africa 0861 43 22 72 and let them help you.

Russell Dickerson

RD Debt Counselling

011 421 2918

www.rddebtcounselling.co.za