Introducing the Automated Debt Review Dispute System - ADRDS
Take Control of your Debt Review Clearance
South Africa consumers needs more fearless voices if we ever hope to restore the credibility of the consumer protection systems and take an impenetrable stand against fraud and corruption within the debt review industry and its significant players, especially amongst those who are empowered to uplhold the NCA regulations and entrusted with the welfare and protection of the consumers. As a means to reinforce the protection of consumers against unfair, deceitful and unlawful debt review placements AACS has designed a new recognised fraud detection and compliance assessment system.
What is ADRDS?
The Automated Debt Review Dispute System was inspired by the millions of consumers whose lives have been disrupted by being unfairly, deceitfully and unlawfully trapped under debt review.
This high tech innovation was created by a group of dedicated trained and certified debt review clearance experts with the goal of cleaning up the existing NCR database of unlawfully placed debt review with a vision to put in place proactive systems to close down existing loopholes and protect the consumers from future unlawful debt review flagging.
The ADRD System is a computer program specifically built on the foundation of prescribed NCA regulations related to debt counselling processes and procedures, as well as the NCR code of conduct for registered debt counsellors. The system will analyse the process that placed the consumer under debt review and compare with prescribed regulations. The outcome of the analysis will determine if the process was compliant or not.
The system has been in the development since 2019 and finally released to the public in 30 August 2024. Since launch date, over 9000 consumers have used the ADRDS to successfully log and resolve disputes with the NCR.
Major Non-Compliance issues within the Debt Review Process:
1. Form16:
Form16 is mandatory form that you must complete and sign to apply for debt review and authourize the debt counsellor to conduct assessment of your financial circumstances. Without this form the debt counsellor cannot conduct financial circumstances assessment. Upon receipt of this form, the debt counsellor must issue a confirmation receipt of the Form16. If you did not sign and submit this form to a debt counsellor and you did not receive confrmation of receipt thereof, there is a possibility that the debt review flag on your credit records was unlawfully placed. You cannot be placed under debt review with a telephone call
2. Form 17.2:
This is the form that contains a proposal for restructured repayment with credit providers. One the credit providers accept the proposal, it must be signed by the debt counsellor, the credit provider and the consumer. If you did not receive or sign this form, there is a chance that the credit providers did not receive or approve a proposal from the debt counsellor. This means that your debt review is unlawfuly and/or you are not protected.
3. Court Order:
It is a little know fact that 90% of the debt review placements are not fully conducted in compliance with the prescribed regulation, because the consumer is not aware that the process must be finalised with the magistrate or tribunal court order. This final step is not optional or discretionary, it is a law. There is no excuse for the debt counsellor not to file the court application. Any debt review that is not concluded with a court order (within 60 days of the application) is deemed unlawful. Without a debt review court order you are at risk since the credit providers can withdraw from the debt review process and engage other means to collect debt, which might include judgments and repossession or goods and property.
The above are the major 3 contraventions of the prescribed debt review regulations. There are other prescribed processes and timeframes that should be met in the debt counselling process. We have a vast data showing that 90 percent of the debt review placing did not meet the prescribed timeframe and court order was not granted. This is your chance to make sure that all processes concerning your debt review are compliant to avoid potential pitfalls, and where necessary take the steps to dispute or correct the issues.
Click the button below to complete the questionnaire to determine if all required processes were executed in the compliance with the prescribed regulations.
A Mandate to Accelarate Social Justice and Redress
THE NCR IS COMMITTED TO REMOVE INVALID AND UNLAWFUL DEBT REVIEW FLAGS
"While the NCR endeavours to resolve received complaints within a period of not more than 30 days from receipt, this depends on several factors, such as gathering of all related evidence, the level of cooperation from parties concerned and the nature of the complaint." : Advocate Kedilatile Legodi, acting company secretary at the NCR
Our mandate is to collect a database of all consumers who are placed under debt review by through the ADRD System and submit to the NCR and ensure that any debt review flag that was placed without following the prescribed regulations and processes is removed from the consumers' credit records.
Fraud and Non Compliance
There is a spike in fraudulent and unlawful debt review placing. There are thousands of cases where consumers are fraudulently placed and flagged as under debt review without their consent. while thousands more remain locked under debt review due to debt councellors non compliance with prescribed regulations. The ADRD System is capturing and submitting this data for the NCR to investigate and removed the unlawful debt review flags.
The mandate and the design of the ADRD system is a collective directive by the banking, government, labor, and consumer advocacy sectors in response to the staggering number of unjustified and unlawful debt review listings that are harming businesses, disrupting the lives of families, causing severe financial stress on workers and impeding the country's economic growth.
Click this link for your Free Debt Review Verification Assessment: ADRDS
The National Credit Regulator (NCR)
The Urgent mandate to clean the database
In terms of Section 136 of the NCA, the NCR has an obligation to investigate all complaints/disputes and ensure that the information that is displayed on the consumer's credit records is correct and accurate.
The NCR is aware of the huge number of consumers who are stuck with unlawfully placed debt review flags as well as those placed by deregistered debt counsellors.
The NCR is determined to remove the debt review flag from these consumer's credit records, however, the NCR can only execute the removal when instructed to do so by the consumer in a prescribed manner.
In other words, the NCR needs your help to investigate your complaint and update your profile.
Click for Free Debt Review Verification Assessment: ADRDS
The Automated Debt Review Dispute System (ADRDS)
Embracing Change - Accelerating the mandate for social justice and redress
The Only System that Talks to the NCR
The ADRD System is an innovation by the AACS commissioned by a collective concern in the banking, government, labor and consumer-advocacy sectors in view of the massive unjustified and unlawfully placed debt review listings which are harming business, families, workers and impacting the country's economic growth.
The ADRD System is designed to accelerate the debt review flag clearance process by capturing the consumer's complaints and conduct preliminary assessment to establish non-compliance or irregulaties in the process of placing you under debt review, as well as the registration status of the debt counsellor.
The system will then instantly send the assessment outcome to the consumer with detailed instructions on the appropriate action and required documentation to log a successful dispute with the NCR.
The consumer will have the option to use the supplied recommended guidelines to log a dispute with the NCR or to activate the ADRDS system.
Click for Free Debt Review Verification Assessment: ADRDS
The Affidavit
Regardless the nature of the dispute or the circumstances under which you were placed under debt review, an affidavit is compulsory to initiate an investigation.
The law requires that when an allegation of non-compliance, unlawful action, fraudulent activity, violation of regulations, or misconduct is directed at another person or party, you must submit a statement under oath to initiate an investigation and where necessary take action against the offending party.
The NCR cannot initiate an investigation without the affidavit.
The ADRD System will draft a Free Personalised Affidavit based on the information you supply and other established aspects of regulatory non-compliance.
Click for Free Debt Review Verification Assessment: ADRDS
A Call to All Consumers!
Is your Debt Review concluded with a Magistrate or Tribunal Court Order?
Verify your Debt Review - Get Your Status Update
Whether you have a complaint or not, we strongly encourage you to submit your details in order to verify if your debt review was conducted in compliance with the prescribed regulations and you are trully protected by a court order! This will prepare you for any challeges in the future. This is the most important function of the ADRD System.
Did your debt counsellor issue you a copy of the court order?
If you applied to be placed under debt review but your debt revieew was not finalized by either the Magistrate or the Tribunal, you are still at risk of credit providers terminating the debt review and taking action against you. Ensure that the debt review status on your credit record shows that a court order was granted.
Reimbursement of Fees:
If you have paid the debt counsellor any service fees, and they did not complete the debt review process as per prescribed regulations (court order not granted), you are entitled to claim reimbusment of the fees you have paid. The ADRD system will advice you if the debt counselling process was not fully completed and guide you on how to claim reimbursement.
Is your Debt Counsellor still Active?
Over 3000 debt counsellors have left the debt review while somce have been deregistered by the Tribunal Court due to misconduct. If your debt counsellor is no longer registered with the NCR, it means that you have no protection and you will not be able to exit the debt review.
Automated Debt Review Dispute Service
When can you challege the debt review flag?
Unlawful Debt Review:
To apply for debt review, you need to complete a mandatory application form named Form16. If you did not complete, sign and submit Form16 application, the debt review flag is unlawful. Debt counselling is a voluntary undertaking where the debt counsellor shall conduct the assessment of the consumer's financial circumstances and apply to the court to make the proposed restructured payment an order of the court. Such a proposal must be a written agreement between the credit providers and the consumer. Therefore you cannot be placed under debt review unless you have volutarily applied and agreed to the restructured payment.
No Court Order
All debt review matters should be concluded with a court order to enforce the restructured repayment arrangments. The court order is not optional or discretionary. Any debt review that is not concluded with a court order (within 60 days of application) is unlawful.
No longer over-indebted:
It is common knowledge that debt counsellors will not remove your debt review flag even when you are no longer over-indebted insisting that you must settle all your accounts to be removed from debt review. This notion is misleading since the law states that only over-indebted consumers qualify to be placed under debt review. The law further states that a consumer who has been placed under debt revieew can apply for a clearance certificate at anytime. The regulations place an obligation on the debt counsellor (as part of the after-care service) to monitor your financial circumstances and advise the consumer on their alternatives to exit the debt review. This includes but not limited to filing an application to court for a not over-indebted order.
Clearance Certificate:
Once you have settled all debts that were placed under debt review with the exception of a home loan (where applicable), the debt counsellor must issue you with a clearance certificate and update the Dhs system to inform the credit bureaus to remove the debt review flag from your credit records. In the event that the debt counsellor refuse to issue a clearance certificate or is not available, you need to log a complaint/dispute with the NCR to investigate and facilitate issuance of the clearance certificate.
Absent Debt Counsellor:
The law requires that all consultation to be placed under debt review and aftercare service must be conducted by the debt counsellor in person. In the even that you cannot get hold of the debt counsellor, you need to log a complaint with the NCR to investigate if the debt counsellor is still active or why they are not available to render after-care service.
Fraud and Deception:
Thousands of consumers have been flagged as under debt review without their knowledge or consent. There is a growing trend of unscrupolous debt counsellors colluding with corrupt elements who will supply them with the consumer's personal details obtained through deceitful calls to place the consumer under debt review, and when the consumer realize they have been placed under debt review, the debt counsellor will be demand a fee to remove the flag - and still, this will never happen because the removal can only be done by the credit bureau upon verification of appropriate documents.
Deceitful debt review:
Thousands of consumers who apply for debt consolidation end up being placed under debt review while they are misled to believe that they are applying for consolidation loan. There is evidence that certain (known) credit providers will refer loan applicants to an inhouse debt counsellor agent who will convince the client to reduce their instalments and not mentioning that they are signing for debt review.
Deregistered Debt Counsellors:
Over 3000 debt counsellors have left the practice while some (29 as of last update) have been deregistered by the Tribunal for misconduct. A consumer cannot remain under debt review when the debt counsellor who placed them under debt review is no longer involved in debt counselling. Unfortunately there is no system in place to alert consumers when the debt counsellor leaves the practice. It is therefore upon the consumer to monitory the registration status of the debt counsellor and where the debt counsellor is no longer practising, the debt review flag should be removed from the consumer's credit records.
The Automated Debt Review Dispute System - ADRDS
All the above unlawful debt review flags can be disputed in terms of Section 136 of the NCA through the ADRDS system with the NCR for investigation and removal. The NCR is dedicated to release the qualifying consumers as well as unlawfully placed consumers from the burden of undeserved and unlawful debt review. The ADRDS system is the only system that links the consumer directly with the NCR and automatically triggers constant progress update request until the matter is resolved.
ADRDS Advantages and Benefits:
* Efficiency: The ADRDS simplifies and speeds up the dispute resolution process compared to manual methods
* Accessibility: The system makes it easier for consumers to submit disputes without the need for legal representation or third-party interventions.
* Fairness: ADRDS is designed to ensure fairness for consumers who feel trapped in debt review or are facing issues with unresponsive debt counsellors
* Transparency: The ADRDS gives consumers direct control over their disputes, ensuring transparency throughout the process.
ADRDS Unlawful Debt Review Dispute
Regular Fee R1200
Early Bird = R750 - valid till 30 November 2024
Available Instalment Arrangement
* First month R30 then R120 x 10 months
* First month R30 then R200 x 6 months
* First month R30 then R300 x 4 months
* First month R30 then R400 x 3 months
* You did not sign Form16
* Never consulted with a debt counsellor
* You did not supply account statements or Proof of Income.
The ADRDS Assessment is Free and is based on the information you supply in the questionnaire.
The Full ADRDS Service includes:
* Detailed credit report with debt counsellor details
* Detailed assessment of regulatory compliance issues
* Full Personalized Affidavit
* Automated NCR Dispute and Clearance Launch
* Automated weekly NCR resolution progress follow-up
* Automated weekly clearance progress updates and final resolution (7-20 days).
ADRDS Clearance Certificate Dispute
Regular Fee R1200
Early Bird = R750 - valid till 30 November 2024
Available Instalment Arrangement
* First month R30 then R120 x 10 months
* First month R30 then R200 x 6 months
* First month R30 then R300 x 4 months
* First month R30 then R400 x 3 months
* You Voluntary applied for debt review
* You Settled all accounts
* Debt counsellor refuse to issue certificate
* Debt counsellor not contactable
The ADRDS Assessment is Free and is based on the information you supply in the questionnaire.
The Full ADRDS Service includes:
* Detailed credit report with debt counsellor details
* Detailed assessment of regulatory compliance issues
* Full Personalized Affidavit
* Automated NCR Dispute and Clearance Launch
* Automated weekly NCR resolution progress follow-up
* Automated weekly clearance progress updates and final resolution (7-20 days).
ADRDS Deregistered Debt Counsellor Dispute
Regular Fee = R1200
Early Bird = R750 - valid till 30 November 2024
Available Instalment Arrangement
* First month R30 then R120 x 10 months
* First month R30 then R200 x 6 months
* First month R30 then R300 x 4 months
* First month R30 then R400 x 3 months
* You do not know the debt counsellor
* The debt counsellor is not contactable
* The debt counsellor is out of business
The ADRDS Assessment is Free and is based on the information you supply in the questionnaire.
The Full ADRDS Service includes:
* Detailed credit report with debt counsellor details
* Detailed assessment of regulatory compliance issues
* Full Personalized Affidavit
* Automated NCR Dispute and Clearance Launch
* Automated weekly NCR resolution progress follow-up
* Automated weekly clearance progress updates and final resolution (7-20 days).
ADRDS Absent Debt Counsellor Dispute
Regular Fee= R1200
Early Bird = R750 - valid till 30 November 2024
Available Instalment Arrangement
* First month R30 then R120 x 10 months
* First month R30 then R200 x 6 months
* First month R30 then R300 x 4 months
* First month R30 then R400 x 3 months
* You do not know the debt counsellor
* The debt counsellor is not contactable
* The debt counsellor is out of business
The ADRDS Assessment is Free and is based on the information you supply in the questionnaire.
The Full ADRDS Service includes:
* Detailed credit report with debt counsellor details
* Detailed assessment of regulatory compliance issues
* Full Personalized Affidavit
* Automated NCR Dispute and Clearance Launch
* Automated weekly NCR resolution progress follow-up
* Automated weekly clearance progress updates and final resolution (7-20 days).