5 Step Guide to Debt Review

A large number of South Africans are struggling with debt. According to the National Credit
Regulator, of the 23 million people with credit such as loans, store cards and credit cards,
over 45% are considered over-indebted. This means that over 45% of people with credit
cannot afford to meet their debt obligations. Fortunately, there is help available for over-
indebted consumers to repay the debt in a structured, sensible way – debt review. Debt
review is where a debt counsellor will evaluate your outstanding debt and create a
restructured debt repayment plan.

5 steps to debt review:

• 1
  Once you’ve set up a meeting with a debt counsellor, he will ask you to provide him the
  details of your monthly expenses, as well as your debt commitments. He’ll also ask for your
  ID, your payslips and recent bank statements.
• 2
  In order to determine how over-indebted you are, your debt counsellor will use the
  documents provided to assess your current status. He’ll also discuss your finances with you.
• 3
  He’ll examine both your budget and your current debt commitments. Thereafter a new
  budget will be agreed on so that your debt counsellor can negotiate an amount for the debt
  repayments.
• 4
  Your credit providers will be contacted by your debt counsellor to negotiate the new
  monthly payment. The Credit Bureau will also be contacted in order to provide evidence of
  your over-indebtedness. When your credit providers have agreed to the new monthly
  amount towards payment of your debt, your credit profile is then listed as under debt
  review. The listing on the credit profile will remain as such until you have repaid all the debt.
• 5

Your debt counsellor will provide you with an alternate payment plan. He’ll submit it to a
Payment Distribution Agency (PDA). The reason for this is so that you can pay one monthly
instalment for all your debt. The one monthly payment you make to the PDA is distributed
to all your credit providers on your behalf. The one monthly payment will continue until you
have repaid the entire amount of debt to all your credit providers. Once this is complete,
your debt counsellor will issue a clearance certificate to you. The listing is then removed
from your credit profile.

To find out more about how you can benefit from Debt Review, speak to One Debt today.