Said with respect: millions of South Africans borrow from a mashonisa, and they are not fools — they are people the formal system was too slow for. This article is a price comparison, not a… 

Quick answer: Unsecured loans are loans not backed by an asset, so if you cannot repay, the lender has no specific house or car to seize, only your promise and your creditworthiness. Most personal, payday… 

The one rule, upfront: a real lender never asks you to pay money to receive money. Everything else in this article is detail — that sentence alone defeats most loan scams in South Africa. The… 

Quick answer: Loan affordability is whether you can genuinely repay a loan from your income after living costs and existing debts. Before granting credit, a registered lender must run an affordability assessment: confirm your income,… 

Quick answer: 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. The National Credit Act makes… 

Worth knowing first: South African law gives parents more protection around school fees than most parents have ever been told. Half this article is about using rights you already have — free. January does not… 

Quick answer: An interest rate is the price of borrowing, shown as a percentage. It is only part of a loan’s cost, fees matter too, which is why the APR and the total cost of… 

Straight up: this article will not tell you to “just budget better” in a month that is already half over. It is triage, written for the middle of januworry, usable today. Nobody has to explain… 

Quick answer: A judgment debt is a debt on which a court has ruled against you, usually after you defaulted and did not defend the case. It lands on your credit record, can stay up…