NCR Comes Out Swinging Against Aunty Karen

A while back, an amendment bill was signed into law with the plan of having the National Credit Regulator (NCR) perform a type of debt review called debt intervention where they would be allowed to postpone consumers debt repayments for years and even write off debt. 

Though there was a lot of controversy about how constitutional this actually was the Act was heavily published in the press and signed into law by the President.  

A Law That’s Not a Law

And then a weird thing happened. Instead of saying exactly when the Act would come into effect (be used day to day) the President never published this date. Which has meant that the law has not become current active law. It has sort of disappeared into limbo. It exists somewhere but is not in effect.

‘created an opportunity for scam artists to take advantage of people’

The fact that it was so heavily pushed into the media has however created an opportunity for scam artists to take advantage of people who believe they can have their debts written off miraculously without having to pay for them. This has meant that debt intervention scams have become too common online.

Debt Intervention Does Not Exist

The NCR recently sent out a press release about the topic warning people that debt intervention currently does not exist.

They have also come out swinging against a particular website called Ask Aunty Karen. They have asked consumers not to visit the website and to avoid falling for the appealing offers made there.

They have labelled it as a scam and asked consumers to rather visit www.ncr.org.za so that they can enter debt review to realistically deal with their debt challenges.

Don’t Pay Agents – Go Direct

The NCR has also reminded people that they do not have to pay an agent any fees for finding them a Debt Counsellor. They can go directly to a Debt Counsellor and will only be asked to pay fees for the process once the process is underway (never upfront).

You can also find a list of Debt Counsellors in the service directory section of each issue of Debtfree Magazine or on sites like www.debtreviewawards.co.za