MBD Granted Permission to Appeal in RCS Matter
The Court Cases Continue
MBD has been granted leave to appeal by the Cape Town High Court in the ongoing dispute involving the collection of debt review payments linked to RCS.
This means the matter can now move on to the next stage of the legal process. The lawyers are definitely making their money on this one.
Ruling
The dispute centres on who should be collecting and handling payments for RCS accounts under debt review.
For a long time, Consumer Friend has been receiving and processing these payments for RCS. The industry was therefore confused when MBD (with Capital Data, a division of Nutun, to help organise the debt review matters) sent out instructions that payments should instead be moved away from Consumer Friend and handled through Capital Data.
Read More: https://debtfreedigi.co.za/rcs-payment-confusion/
When the issue could not be resolved through the usual channels, the matter ended up in court.
Read More: https://debtfreedigi.co.za/rcs-matter-heard-in-court/
Consumer Friend won the case, meaning the current court ruling remains in Consumer Friend’s favour. There was then a question about whether MBD would be allowed to appeal that decision.
Leave to appeal has now been granted.
We won’t bore you with all the technical talk in the ruling, but the outcome was that MBD can appeal (if they want to).
No Impact on Consumers
Some Debt Counsellors made changes to where payments were being directed, while others did not, which created plenty of confusion. It is hoped that the appeal process will finally bring clarity for everyone involved.
For consumers who are paying through a registered Payment Distribution Agency (PDA), the appeal should not change anything.
‘Consumers using a PDA should therefore not need to worry about the dispute’
The PDA will continue to make the required payments and keep accurate records, whether the funds are ultimately routed to RCS through Consumer Friend or even MBD (Capital Data).
Consumers using a PDA should therefore not need to worry about the dispute. You just keep making payments like normal and all this stuff will be sorted out behind the scenes.
NOTE: For anyone trying to manage these payment arrangements without a PDA, however, the situation must be much more confusing. It is yet another good reason to make use of a PDA during debt review.