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The NCA - Complaining Made Simple

Complaining to the NCA

The National Credit Act may be onerous for banking consumers in many ways, but in as far as it defines and protects your rights, the NCA has proven to be a valuable Act. Think about it: extortionate fees, rates and charges can no longer be levied; the banks are compelled to be transparent and even handed in their dealings with you; your personal information is safeguarded by law; and the powers of the formerly omnipotent credit bureaux have been reined in to levels appropriate to the role they are required to play.

The lawmakers, who collaborated in the compilation of the Act, knew that implementing and enforcing the requirements of the NCA could turn out to be a veritable nightmare unless dedicated structures were put in place to take on the jobs of regulating the credit environment and adjudicating the many disputes and complaints that were likely to arise.

It is for this reason that the lawmakers included the requirement that a National Credit Regulator (NCR) and a National Credit Tribunal (NCT) be established. The impact of this decision on the banking consumer is positive. Laying complaints have suddenly become a great deal easier than ever before.

When can you complain?

As a banking consumer you can lodge a complaint with the NCR if you have been put at a disadvantage because your bank contravened any part of the NCA. The NCR published an introductory brochure which concisely summarises the requirements of the NCA. You can obtain a copy of this brochure at the following URL: http://www.ncr.org.za/publications/Brochure%20(English).pdf.

How do you lodge a complaint?

If you have a complaint against your bank, you can contact the NCR via fax, email, snail mail or telephone. They will ask you to complete the short Complaint Initiation Form (Form 29) either in person or via a call centre operator. If you prefer, you can give written consent indicating that a specific third party (such as your lawyer) is authorised to act on your behalf.

How will your complaint be handled?

After submitting your complaint, it will logged by the NCR on their Complaints Database. The complaint will be allocated to a Complaint Officer, who will contact you to verify the information you provided and to obtain any additional information they may need. The Complaint Officer will then assess your complaint to determine whether the Act was contravened. If there was a contravention, the Complaint Officer will contact the bank to resolve the matter.

How long will it take to resolve your complaint?

If your complaint relates to a simple matter, it is usually cleared up within three weeks. More serious matters take quite a bit longer, because these are generally referred to the National Credit Tribunal.

What if your problem relates to a credit bureau, and not your bank?

If you have a problem with the information contained in your credit report, there are two steps you will be required to follow:

1· Contact the relevant credit bureau and lodge a dispute with them. They will have thirty days within which to achieve resolution.

2· Should the credit bureau fail to resolve the issue within this period, you can to contact the Credit Information Ombudsman (http://www.creditombud.org.za).

If mediation by the Credit Information Ombudsman fails, the Credit Information Ombudsman will escalate the matter to the NCR for adjudication.

The Million Dollar Question…Does it Work?

Although the NCR included a table of complaints logged by category, no meaningful, sufficiently granular statistics were available in their 2006/2007 annual report to indicate which institutions were charged by consumers, the number of cases resolved versus the number of cases reported, and in whose favour the rulings were made.

The fact of the matter is that the NCR is still quite new. This makes how well or poorly it will serve its purpose, impossible to predict right now.

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