Debt's biggest problem is YOU !

Have I got your attention -  Ok   Just answer the following questions :

Do you know exactly how much money came into your account in June this year . Do you know how much you spend on food in that month? How much did you spend on restaurants and movies in that month? How much did you save that month for a rainy day?  Do you know exactly how much money is in your wallet right now ?  Do you know how much your nett worth has changed since June this year to the end of November this year?  Do you know how much the debt increased or decreased on your credit for the same period?  If you answered yes to 50% of these questions do not read further - You are bluffing yourself and you will not learn anything from from the rest of this post.

The biggest problem with debt is not creditors, debt collectors, summonses, judgments et all. The biggest problem is.....YOU !
Why is it YOU?
YOU are conditioned to think that your credit profile is the most important & sacred thing in this life - I Have news for you - It is not.
The most important & sacred thing in life is to be able to get the answers the the questions in the first paragraph on an ongoing basis within 1 minute.

You will cry foul - it cannot be done - If it can be done I have no clue how that is possible.

Here is the answer again in one paragraph.
The only way is to BUDGET and to keep to it - it is like slimming - it sounds so easy but it only works if you keep up with it - And having someone to account to helps a lot. Whatever you thought you knew about debt ...............I will guarantee you ......needs a 180 degree paradigm shift.

Want to know how to change your life forever ?   Join our first seminar in February 2015
If you do not agree with me at the end of the seminar that money is not the biggest sin - not knowing how to work with it is.............I will pay you all of your seminar fee back - immediately no questions asked!

johnbrandow@mweb.co.za

Consumers in action: Claim your rights:

 Pick up your pebbles and face Goliath.

In the preamble of the Consumer affairs act you find this gem:

The people of South Africa recognise—

That it is necessary to develop and employ innovative means to—

(b) PROTECT the interests of all consumers, ensure accessible, transparent and

efficient redress for consumers who are subjected to abuse or exploitation in

the marketplace; and  (c) to give effect to internationally recognised customer rights.

Service providers are in business for one reason and one reason ONLY: TO MAKE MONEY.

Do not be fooled by any Mission or Vision statements that might imply otherwise.

Due to this ultimate vision client service will always play second fiddle to their ultimate goal.

That is why you find companies like Cell C being prepared to pay Hundreds of thousands of Rand in legal fees to try and proof why they did not solve a client’s R5000 problem, a problem where the probability of the client being right was in the favour of the client.   

A recent yet unreported case between a bank and a client in the Eastern Cape found the bank in default in that they approved the finance on a home loan recklessly and the case was found in favour of the client. The bank has now found a technical point and the message is clear “we are losing cases because of so-called reckless lending” and “we will fight the tendency no matter what it cost us”

AS CAN BE SEEN FROM THESE 2 CASES THERE IS A CONCERTED EFFORT BY BUSINESS TO RATHER REMOVE THE “protect” portion from the above quote.

So what am I saying?  Consumers are being threatened, painted into corners, lied to , cheated, and about any other illegal and unethical technique  used to “ enforce our rights” by business.  And consumers as standing idly by and taking the blows and basically crucifying themselves rather than stand up and fight.

Join us in actions to counter this. 

Here are some actions that have been started and the more people get involved with it the more clout we are going to have to take on these unethical actions of corporates – especially banks

1.       The website www.legaltalk.co.za has all sorts of guidelines and links on how to handle specific situations – Debt, Rentals etc.  Make a point to put this website as a 

“Favourite” on your browser.    You might just find the answer to your problem for FREE!

2.      Join us in our Consumers in Action drive – a website for this will soon be available.  

 In the meantime follow the action on the blog     http://activeconsumers.blogspot.com/         

and get involved! 

Acknowledgement of debt

Banks and other creditors make extensive use of  " Acknowledgement of Debt " and most of these are standard company printed documents - Clients tend to sign these documents out of fear of "Attorney Actions"   

There is no way that any creditor can claim that this document is not regulated in terms of the NCA and  the "permission for summary judgment" clause contained therein (it is always there) this document is totally illegal.  The problem is that banks - for one execute on this and get judgment and to be able to take them on about the judgment is a massive legal cost for the debtor - 

Some very clever lawyers thought they might get around this: 

Renaming AOD's crafty or downright stupid?

Banks (apparently on legal advice from their brilliant legal teams) are now changing the scenario of AOD’s by calling it “Merely a settlement agreement” containing the following clauses:

“For purposes of executing in terms of this Settlement Agreement the parties agree that this settlement is not subject to the National Credit Act 34 of 2005 as this agreement merely amounts to a Settlement Agreement and no credit is granted to defendants”

And then they drive a nail straight through their own argument with this little gem:

“This Agreement shall not create any novation of the cause or causes of action in terms whereof the defendant owe their indebtedness to the plaintiff”

If the “merely settlement agreement” is not a novation it is then part of the original agreement and it cannot then be outside of the NCA. Trying to get a client to sign this document would then be in contravention of art 90(2) a (ii) of the NCA A provision of a credit agreement is unlawful if its general purpose is to deceive the customer and 90 2(b)(i) it directly or indirectly purports to waive or deprive a consumer of a right set out in this act”

The big Debt indaba - Consumers in action

I wrote this article a while back on one of my blogs.  I think somewhere at the back of my mind this must have got stuck.   It is for this reason (amongst others) that the idea of trying to find solutions to the problems facing the debtor on the receiving end was born.  And now I have just given the idea a name : The Big debt indaba

Details of the action, planning and other mindmaps will be posted here on an ongoing basis and I invite all interested parties to send me some detail of things that might be missing in the system as they encountered it - We cannot use all material but at least it will be there in the open for every one to see.  

Watch out for my next post on guidelines in the process 

The article that gave birth to the idea: - it was written on 25 August 2014 at 12.16am - why I wasn't sleeping I have no cooking clue...........................

Socio economic effects of bank's collection systems

Debt has a two sided face. The one face is that of the Creditor and the other that of the Debtor.    The one is smiling and the other one is not. I will leave it to the imagination of the reader to decide which one is which. One thing is certain: they are never the same.


Banks and money lenders need customers to borrow money from them.  This is the basis of the money system.  You take money from depositors and pay them interest.  You lend it to borrowers who pay you interest. There is a difference in these rates and the difference pays the overheads of the Creditor and makes provision for Debtors that get distressed and cannot pay their loans. The difference that is left is the bank's profit  This is banking in its most basic form.

To make sure everything is in perspective I will be giving some definitions as I go along.  A Debtor(or sometimes referred to as the client or consumer is the one lending the money and owing it to the Creditor. (Bank - financier)

Banks have over the years perfected (In their opinion) the system of collecting the money owed to them and I will discuss in some detail one of those systems

Banks "finance" purchases of homes by registering a bond or lien over the property thus financed and this will be their "security" in case the clients default on their payments.  The banks have systems in place to "repossess' and sell properties of distressed clients.  There is practically always a shortfall once the property has been sold between the price obtained and the outstanding loan.  This is referred to as the shortfall.

Normally banks will persuade clients to sign a document called an Acknowledgement of debt to repay this.

The socio economic impact of the action is not discounted.  This is (in my opinion) a heartless system and has only one purpose:  to get the distressed client out of the way and get as much money back as possible in the most effective and cruelest way possible.

Of course it makes sense. But only to the banks.   "So why are you attacking us?" they will ask - this has been done for ages and there is no other way.

Of course there are other ways and I am going to discuss this at length in follow up posts - keep watching !