Debt & Your Rights Guides
Know your rights as a borrower. Plain-English guides to the National Credit Act, debt review, garnishee orders, section 129 notices, prescribed debt, debt collectors, repossession and reckless lending. Learn what lenders and collectors are allowed to do, where to complain, and the lawful ways out when repayments become too much, including the Credit Ombud and registered debt counsellors.
20 guides
Debt collectors can contact you about a genuine debt and ask you to pay, but they cannot harass, threaten, call at unreasonable hours, shame you to family or your employer, add unlawful fees, or collect a debt that has prescribed.
In South Africa you generally have the right to settle a loan early, and on smaller, short-term agreements there is usually no early settlement penalty.
A garnishee order, properly an Emoluments Attachment Order (EAO), is a court order that makes your employer deduct money from your salary to pay a debt.
Reckless lending is when a credit provider grants a loan without properly checking affordability, without helping you understand the risks, or in a way that leaves you over-indebted.
A judgment debt is a debt on which a court has ruled against you, usually after you defaulted and did not defend the case.
Debt review, or debt counselling, is a legal process under the National Credit Act.
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