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Change Coming To DebiCheck

There is a change coming to the DebiCheck system. It has to do with handling disputes that happen on public holidays and non banking days (e.g. Sunday).

What Is DebiCheck?

Rather than push a payment yourself by going onto your banking app or website and making an EFT, it is possible to set up an automatic debit from your account in a specific amount each month to someone.

This is commonly referred to a Debit Order.

Normally, these are used to pay regular expenses and debt such as your rent or even your debt review payment.

DebiCheck is a secure debit order payment system that allows you to electronically approve a new debit orders details.

This will prevent fraudulent debit orders from being processed on your account without you knowing, giving you more control over your finances.

It is also a way for those being paid to ensure that you know about and agree with the payments.

It was hoped that this would cut down on the amount of people who query a payment (ask for the money back) when it is for a legitimate debt or expense. Because consumers have ample time and information when they get notified about a new debit order, the idea was that then it would be harder for people to say, they never knew about the debit order and want the money back (which costs the other party/people processing the payments).

‘Unfortunately, disputes on payments are still common and there have been some loopholes’

Unfortunately, disputes on payments are still common and there have been some loopholes. One such loophole has to do with when the payment should happen on a non bank day like a public holiday or Sunday.

The Change

So, what is this change and will it help?

Debt Counsellors may benefit from the change, when it comes to some clients who are not 100% committed to the process and may consider trying to reverse a payment set for one of those days.

 

The South African Reserve Bank has approved the “Date Move Previous Business Day” Rule change.

This rule change means that the debtor (e.g. a consumer in debt review with your practice) will no longer be able to dispute collections processed the business day before the collection date stipulated on the mandate, when it is a Public or a non-banking day (such as a Sunday).

SARB hope that this will result in the overall  reduction of disputes. And the PDAs say they hope this will help increase distributions and by keeping people in the process, help facilitate quicker consumer settlement of their debt.

Please Note: For this to happen on the consumers payments they have to have selected : Yes  for Date Adjustment, on the DebiCheck Mandate.

Example of a DebiCheck From Capitec To a Gym

When?

The change should take effect from the 23rd of October 2023.

Hopefully it has the added benefit of helping those who have a moments confusion or buyers remorse avoid shooting themselves in the foot by disputing their very legitimate debt review payments.