How a consumer can terminate or remove your name from
DEBT REVIEW
TERMINATION OF DEBT REVIEW or DEBT COUNSELING
Conditions under which a Debt counseling(flag) can be Terminated or Removed from your Credit Bureau(ITC) Profile.
1. Where the accounts under debt review have not been settled in full.
If your debt review was made an order of the court, an application to rescind the debt review order must be made to court by a lawyer with proof that you certified minimum criteria or a clearance letter must given by the debt counselor provided that you have settled outstanding accounts and you are up to to date with your accounts. Once the debt review order is rescinded by the attorney, payments in respect of any outstanding accounts will then be made directly to the credit providers by way of negotiated payment arrangements if you are not already doing so. If your debt review was not made an order of court, then an application by a lawyer must be made to court to declare that you are no longer over-indebted.
Often, many creditors refuse to enter in to negotiations for payment arrangements until the debt review flag is removed from ITC, a clearance certificate has been obtained or the consumer declared no longer over-indebted, as such lenders reason that they cannot accept payments directly from the consumer whilst the consumer's status still shows debt review. Thus, where a consumer wants to cancel debt review and the consumer still has outstanding accounts, Our affiliated debt review specialties/attorneys will conduct free preliminary assessments and evaluation to determine whether the consumer is financially able to make or continue to make payments of amounts that are greater than the amounts that the creditors were or are receiving via the debt counseling process.
2. Where the accounts under debt review have been settled in full
The debt review process can also be terminated if you have paid up all the accounts that were subject to the debt review order. In this instance, your debt counselor will located and instructed to issue a clearance certificate often this is very tricky as many debt counselors cannot be located however our specialists experts will find other alternative processes to ensure that you are removed .
3. Where all accounts have been paid up but there is a home loan account or large credit agreement that is outstanding
The debt review process can also be terminated by a consumer where all the accounts that were subject to the debt review agreement or re-arrangement order have been paid in full but there is a home loan account or any other large credit agreement that is still outstanding and there are no arrears in respect of the home loan or large credit agreement in terms of the debt re- arrangement order.
4. Termination of Debt Review by creditors
After the expiry of a period of 60 business days a credit provider may terminate an account that is in arrears from the debt review process. The consumer must be in default with the credit agreement to be terminated. This implies that the credit provider can after termination proceed with legal action to enforce the rights in terms of that credit agreement.
The NCA determines that “If a consumer is in default under a credit agreement that is being reviewed in terms of this section, the credit provider, in respect of that credit agreement, may give notice to terminate the review at any time, at least 60 business days after the date on which the consumer applied for the debt review.”
As soon as debt review is terminated by a credit provider in accordance with Section 86(10) then the protection the consumer enjoyed in terms of the NCA, comes to an end.
The Credit Amendment Act, 19 of 2014 determines that a credit provider is not entitled to terminate a debt review after the debt counsellor has referred the matter to the Magistrate’s Court for a debt review order while the hearing is still pending.
The purpose of the debt review is not to relieve the consumer of his obligations but to achieve either a voluntary debt re-arrangement or a debt re-arrangement by the Magistrate’s Court. The purposes of the NCA include the promotion of responsibility in the credit market by encouraging responsible borrowing, avoidance of over-indebtedness and fulfilment of financial obligations by consumers’. Its approach to over-indebtedness is ‘based on the principle of satisfaction of all responsible consumer obligations’. By providing for a consistent and harmonised system of debt restructuring the NCA ‘places priority on the eventual satisfaction of all responsible consumer obligations’. It follows that the NCA serves not only the interest of consumers.
