We will go on the air in August!

www.thedebtcoach.co.za is proud to announce that we will have live radio ads as from 15 August 2009!
We will keep on delivering free advice on debt counselling and debt review in South Africa.

Steafn

www.thedebtcoach.co.za
www.debt-counselling-south-africa.co.za

Debt review: The process (1/10)

When you apply for debt review or debt counselling you have allready taken the first and most important step.
Once interviewed by a debt counsellor you will be required to fill in the application form and complete a "form 16" This form is regulated and prescribed by the National Credit Act 34 2005.

You will then be required to pay an application fee of R50. This money will be deposited into the National Credit Regulators account and you will be listed with them as "applied for debt review"

The most important of this first step is to bring all your financial information along to the debt counsellor. Income, expenses and all obligations under any credit agreement.

Remember to visit our websites for more info
www.thedebtcoach.co.za
www.debt-counselling-south-africa.co.za

Stefan

Consumers must disclose all information

Hi all

When applying for the preocess of debt review in south africa, please be advised that all your financial matters must be included in the restructuring of your debt according to the debt counselling process.

Please remember to visit our website
www.thedebtcoach.co.za
www.debt-counselling-south-africa.co.za

Stefan

Consumers must work hand in hand with debt counsellors.

Hi all.

We are constantly reminded by clients that since we are the debt counsellors we must make sure that their credit providers are not bothering them........

Remember that debt counsellors, consumers and creditors must work hand in hand to ensure a smooth reconstruction and a distribution.

Your role as consumer is not over once the order has been granted, it then only really starts.

Please remember to visit www.thedebtcoach.co.za
www.debt-counselling-south-africa.co.za

Section 129 Notice.

Hi all

I want to share with you a very interesting remedy when you are unable to repay your debt.
According to the National Credit Act (NCA) and enforced by the National Credit Regulator (NCR), your creditors are forced to supply you with a Section 129 notice. This basially gives you the oppertunity to see a debt counsellor to prevent legal action against you once you are in default or have been in default for at least 7 working days.

Please let us know if you have received such a notice or would like to find out more about debt counselling and debt review in South Africa.

Please visit our websites: www.debt-couselling-south-africa.co.za
and www.thedebtcoach.co.za

Stefan

New site

Hi all

We have just uploaded a brand new website to compensate for the huge traffic that www.thedebtcoach.co.za generates.

please feel free to visit www.debt-counselling-south-africa.co.za for free advise and service pertaining to debt counselling and debt review in south africa.

Stefan

Plan ahead

A financial plan is a blueprint that defines how you will achieve your finaåncial and lifestyle objectives. At the acsis/Personal Finance Financial Planning Club's series of meetings this month, Gerrit Viljoen, the director of Ultima Financial Planners in Pretoria, talked about what you need to consider when drawing up a financial plan.When you want to go on holiday, you start preparing and planning months beforehand to make sure that your holiday will go smoothly. And yet many people fail to put a similar amount of effort into preparing a financial plan, Gerrit Viljoen says. Although gambling, for example, may seem like an exciting way of taking care of your financial needs, you stand to lose everything. Financial planning, on the other hand, can be very boring, but the result will be your financial security, Viljoen says.Applying the fundamental principles of financial planning over the long term will enable you to achieve your lifestyle objectives. Although there are many good financial planners, Viljoen says there are just as many who are merely product pedlars.

read the full story here

Remember to visit www.thedebtcoach.co.za and www.debt-counselling-south-africa.co.za for advice and great service concentrating on debt counselling and debt review in South Africa

Stefan

www.thedebtcoach.co.za is proud to announce our exiting new web-feature that will allow client to track all their progress online. Usernames and passwords will be used to access exclusive member areas.

We look forward to provide South Africans with even more exiting new idea's when in comes to debt counselling and debt review.

Stefan

Thibnk twice before getting a loan

You should think twice before you borrow money or apply for credit, the National Credit Regulator (NCR) warns.It says the number of South Africans who are struggling to pay off their debt is at a record level: more than 80 000 people have applied for debt counselling since the National Credit Act was introduced in 2007.About 40.5 percent of consumers who use credit have impaired credit records. An impaired record means that at least one of your accounts is in arrears by three months or more, or that a judgment or an administration order has been issued against you. Peter Setou, the senior manager of education and strategy at the NCR, says borrowing is reckless if you borrow money without having a plan for how you will repay it, borrow from unscrupulous credit providers or sign loan contracts you do not understand."More often than not, you will eventually find yourself in a worse financial predicament than when you started," he says. Borrowing does not only refer to applying for a cash loan. Buying on credit - in the form of credit cards, clothing accounts or overdrafts - is simply borrowing in a different guise.Don't duck and diveSetou says the NCR has noticed that consumers who are over-indebted tend to panic, avoid their creditors and take on more debt to pay off what they are already struggling to repay. "By doing so, you only get yourself into more financial trouble," he says. Instead, you should approach your creditors and work out a repayment plan.You will need to cut out all non-essential spending, but don't be threatened or bullied into making commitments you cannot meet, the NCR says. A creditor must give you written notice before it can approach a court to enforce the payment of a debt. The notice must inform you of the options available to you. They include:
Seeking help from a debt counsellor; or
Bringing your payments up to date through an alternative arrangement.If it is essential that you apply for credit, you should compare the interest rates and other costs of a number of different credit providers. Quotations from credit providers are valid for five days, which gives you time to decide whether to enter into a credit agreement.

Read the full story here.

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Stefan

Pay off debt when the going is good

You should use the opportunity of lower interest rates to pay off your debts and to start saving. This is one of the messages of National Savings Month, which will be launched in Johannesburg on Monday.And there is a "sign of hope" that South Africans are paying off a little more debt and saving a little, despite the credit crunch and economic recession. But we all need to do more to reduce debt and improve the level of savings, Elias Masilela, the chairman of the South African Savings Institute (Sasi), says.The financial crisis makes the National Savings Month campaign even more critical this year, he says.Masilela says you have a better chance of sailing through the recession if you:
Fully appreciate and understand the need to manage debt;
Live within your means; and
Have built up savings.
Read the full story here

Remember to viit the Debt coach online by clicking here for free advice on debt review and debt counselling in South Africa

Stefan

What is debt counselling?

Debt counselling is a way of restructuring debt and keeping creditors "happy" according to the provisions set out in the National Credit Act and regulated by the NCR.This way you keep your assets, restructure your debt and look forward to a brighter future.With the the help of the debt coach you can clean your debt and keep your creditors happy!http://www.thedebtcoach.co.zaStefan

Privately selling your house?

Homeowners with properties to sell are breaking with tradition and ditching estate agents in favour of finding their own buyers. With prices under pressure, selling privately is taking off because of the money you can save yourself in commission. But isn’t a sluggish market the time when you most need the skills of an estate agent? We look at what it takes to sell your own home.After years of buying and selling investment properties, Cape Town-based investor Steve Binos decided to take a stab at selling his home himself.Binos placed an advertisement in the property supplement of the weekend papers, organised boards and brochures for a show day, and had an attorney friend draw up the paper work.When his Harfield Village house sold to a cash buyer on the first show day, Binos was blown away.At a cost to him of just over R1 000 and what he calls a "small hassle factor", he saved R80 000 in estate agent’s commission. "When I realised just how simple it was, I was sold!"But that was in 2006, when the market was hot and it seemed like everyone who could afford it (and many who couldn’t) was buying and selling property to get a piece of the action.Selling was also easier then than it is today. In the third quarter of 2006, properties took an average of eight weeks to sell, according to the residential property barometer of First National Bank (FNB). Now it takes twice as long. FNB’s report for the second quarter of this year shows that properties are on the market for an average of four months – or longer if they are valued at more than R1.2 million.The number of estate agents has dwindled, which the Estate Agency Affairs Board attributes to current market conditions. The board estimates that of the 82 000 agents who registered last year, 26 000 agents have not renewed their licences this year.Banks are not lending as freely as they were. In June, house prices showed a 7.3-percent fall from a year earlier, according to Absa’s house price index. Economists warn that South Africa is entering a period of house price deflation. Given all of these factors, the prospect of handing over tens of thousands of rands to an estate agent who has facilitated the sale of your house is particularly galling.In the heady days of the property market boom, it was common for agents to charge commission of 7.5 percent. But times are tough for them too, and their fees are "under stress", Willie Marais, the president of the Institute of Estate Agents, says. (See "Commission: how much leeway do your have?" below)Even if your estate agent is willing to accept commission of five percent, on a R1 million house that’s R50 000 before VAT. (You would pay another R7 000 in VAT.) It’s a lot of money to pay for what many homeowners regard as little more than the placing of a few adverts in the newspapers, the holding of a show house or two and the overseeing of signatures on a contract. (See "How estate agents add value" below.) The amount you pay in commission affects not only the seller but also the buyer, because it reduces the room the seller has to manoeuvre when considering offers. If you, as the seller, have to shell out R50 000 in commission, you have less room to negotiate the price of the property with a prospective buyer. This becomes even more pressing as increasing numbers of homeowners teeter on the brink of negative equity (a situation where the outstanding balance on your mortgage bond is greater than the value of your property).Justin Clarke, the executive chairman of Private Property Holdings, says the incentive to sell privately is stronger than ever, particularly in this market."A large percentage of South African homeowners are highly geared because it was so easy to borrow money against property. People have propped themselves up to the full value of their properties."In some areas, prices have fallen. So someone who bought an apartment for R3 million and can now get only R2.5 million is stuck if he’s got a full R3-million bond. How does he pay estate agent’s commission, let alone the bank to cancel the bond? So this market pushes people into the private-sale environment," Clarke says.The private routeIt may be more difficult to sell in the current market, but, compared with two years ago, there are more options for people who want to buy and sell privately.Immediately after Binos’s watershed experience with his own sale, he contacted Andre du Toit, a friend who was on the board of a national estate agency and an owner of two of its franchises. Reading the trends here and abroad, the two saw an opportunity to offer South African property sellers something new. At the time, ForSaleByOwner.com was one of the fastest-growing online companies in the United States and today it is one of the top five real estate websites in that country.

Dont forget to visit our website http://www.thedebtcoach.co.za if you are in need of debt counselling or want info on debt review

Stefan

GDP targets here to stay

South Africa's policy of targeting inflation has helped to stabilise prices and grow the economy and will remain in place, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Friday.

read the full story here:http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-25_2535692

Remember to visit http://www.thedebtcoach.co.za to get help with debt review or debt counselling in South Africa

Stefan

Debt counselling and debt review South Africa

We are proud to introduce the Debt Coach to you.

Please visit our website at http://www.thedebtcoach.co.za