Another 185 000 consumers in trouble

Consumer Debt Worsens

The NCR have recently released some statistics (as they do every few months). The statistics show that more people have received access to credit and that more people than ever are not repaying their debt obligations.

The NCR report that in the past three months, almost 200 000 additional consumers have been classified as having “impaired credit records”. This means that the number of consumers with poor repayment status is now sitting at almost half of the credit active consumers in SA (9.53 million).

Unsecured Credit

It seems that these defaults are among those consumers who recently ran out and got unsecured credit in the unsecured credit boom of the past while. This portion of the credit market has nearly doubled since 2010.

Debt Counsellors have been warning that there was danger in this explosive growth however most other parties insist that there is no “bubble” or “crisis” developing in this area. Recent reports by major banks has indicated that they expect higher default numbers on these accounts and this has seen bank share prices fall dramatically.