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Helping Consumers Get Clearances

The most exciting part of the debt restructuring process is the day that you get your clearance certificate.

After years of hard work, you finally get your certificate that says you no longer need debt review. You are now debt free. Amazing!

What a great moment.

That moment is the ultimate goal of both the consumer in debt review and the Debt Counsellor assisting them.

And once that is done, the consumer’s credit records are scrubbed of any debt review reference, and they can go back to using credit again, if they wish.

Improvements Over Time

As industries mature and improve, it is not uncommon for technology to be introduced to help make everyone’s life easier.

Though the actual debt review and debt restructuring process remains exactly the same, there is now a new tool to make things faster and more secure. As of 2026, Debt Counsellors are updating all the credit bureaus about consumers’ clearance certificates online.

This is now being done via the Credit Bureau Association’s convenient online Portal, also known as the Debt Counsellor Platform.*

* In this article, we will mainly use the term CBA Portal.

Why The Change?

Since the introduction of the National Credit Act in 2007, Debt Counsellors have been able to issue clearance certificates for consumers who have paid up all their debts.

The process of how that is done has changed slightly over the years. At first it involved using faxes and then later, a big improvement was using emails. Later still, emails and attachments had to be sent to the NCR as well.

The recent move to the Credit Bureau Association Debt Counselling Platform is once again a technological step in the right direction.

You might wonder, though, if things were working before, then why the change?

Well, there are a variety of reasons, including standardising the process and new data protection requirements due to new laws.

In the past, hundreds of Debt Counsellors or their staff members were sending thousands of emails back and forth to send paid up letters and certified copies of certificates to the various credit bureaus and having to loop the NCR in on many steps during the process.

Quite frankly, it was time consuming, felt like a lot of duplication of effort and was open to some obvious data protection issues.

Each email would also involve a person having to data capture information and with that came the risk of making mistakes. Sometimes emails would bounce and didn’t even get to the right place, and that would later cause trouble for consumers who were applying for new credit.

There was a need to make things simpler and safer in terms of the PoPi Act.

Using The New Platform

Now, once a consumer has paid up all their outstanding debt, their Debt Counsellor is able to log on to the CBA webform and use the platform to inform all credit bureaus, in one go, of the consumer having finished their debt review.

Using this online platform, the Debt Counsellor now simply goes online and uploads the needed documents (like paid up letters from credit providers), and with the click of a few buttons, the confidential information is safely updated at the main credit bureaus.

The data is safe; the process is fast, and there is less room for human error.

Getting Used to The New Way

At first, any new way of doing things is obviously going to be a little tricky.

With that in mind, the NCR and CBA provided multiple training sessions for Debt Counsellors and also shared documents showing how to use the system.

During the online training sessions with NCR registered Debt Counsellors, the CBA made presentations to explain how to sign in, which buttons to click and what documents to upload where, etc.

Several sessions were given, and almost all registered Debt Counsellors were able to attend.

If you are a new Debt Counsellor or, for some reason, you missed the training sessions, you can contact: dcsupport@cba.co.za (please cc. alison@cba.co.za).

PLEASE NOTE: This is an email address for Debt Counsellors, not the general public. If we give the public these email addresses, they will flood these addresses with emails and slow down responses for Debt Counsellors. Encourage consumers to use the addresses shown on the CBA website or individual credit bureaus. 

Many Debt Counsellors are already getting used to the system and are making suggestions on ways it can be enhanced.

Soon, we will say goodbye to the days when a consumer, who has been through debt review, goes to apply for credit only to be told they still have a debt review flag showing on their report. That can be so irritating.

The new CBA portal will play a big role in making sure those problems are a thing of the past.

Here are some tips that will make your life easier if you are a Debt Counsellor using the CBA Portal.

    1. Don’t have access to the CBA Portal? Contact: dcsupport@cba.co.za (cc. alison@cba.co.za)
    2. It really helps if you check the consumer’s credit record BEFORE submitting your Debt Clearance certificate and paid-up letters. The consumer can even draw the report. Use it to compare all the creditors shown, account numbers etc. Make sure nothing is missing before you start.
    3. The portal itself is super safe, so please don’t use encrypted documents as the credit bureaus can’t read them.
    4. Only upload the following file types: PDF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF. If in doubt, save stuff as a PDF.
    5. When a consumer exits debt review, and you see that the credit bureaus no longer show any accounts at all for that consumer, you should contact the NCR Debt Counselling team. They can issue an instruction to the credit bureaus to just remove the consumer.
    6. If a consumer changes their name (for any reason) and does so at the Department of Home Affairs, then the consumer must also update their credit profile at the credit bureaus and with their credit providers. The system won’t know about the name change otherwise.
    7. Got any queries with a particular credit bureau?

Get hold of them directly here:

CPB: debtcounsel@cpbonline.co.za
Experian: za.dc_update@experian.com
Transunion: sa_debtcounseling@transunion.com
VCCB: info@vccb.co.za
XDS: debtreview@xds.co.za

Or check the Debtfree Magazine Service Directory Section.

NOTE:

With NCR Debt Help being down over the past few weeks, one step of the normal process was temporarily removed for a few weeks. Now that NCR Debt Help is back up and running, this step will soon return.

When submitting info, the CBA system will check if the Debt Counsellor has updated the F1 or F2 status on the DHS. If not, they will be required to do so before continuing.

NCR Registered Debt Counsellors can use the following link to answer questions about this article and earn CPD points.

CLICK HERE