Indebted Consumers to seek Debt Counseling

South African debt beneficiaries are increasingly defaulting on debt repayments leading to increased debt counseling, debt negotiations, debt defaulting and civil cases. According, to the latest Consumer Credit Report; the credit granted to consumers increased by R. 9.71 billion for the December 2009 quarter. Furthermore, the last three months reflected a 6.9% in civil cases for debt according to Statistics SA.

Some say, that this recent surge in debt could be attributed to the recently concluded World Cup. They claim that the alluring advertisements coupled with the excitements of being part of a historic movement made a lot of consumers come out of hiding and whip out credit cards and sign on loan contracts in an unplanned manner.

This could be true, however that fact is that the consequences now pose a conflict between the consumer and financial or asset provider. In theory, whenever two people are in conflict there has to be an intermediary. Hence in a situation, where a consumer is in conflict with the bank often at times, debt counseling is the best intermediary.

Contrary to the belief, it is important to note that debt counseling is definitely not for sissies nor does it come with any form of stigma. Debt counseling should be viewed as a vanguard in getting out of debt or at least getting some sort of relief. The National Credit Regulator has also come in to re assure consumers that debt counseling is a legal and regulated industry.

Seeking debt counseling is therefore a natural process in the event that consumers find themselves in financial crunch. Getting access to a debt counselors in South Africa is as easy as buying a world cup ticket.