Debt counselling gone horribly wrong

[Dave A]

***** is bought out by Credit Assist and from this point onwards, the original debt counsellor disappears from the scene.

With Standard Bank threatening to repossess the vehicle at any moment, there is a mad scramble to try to sort out the sorry mess before the damage becomes irreparable. Quite a few errors are found in the management of the accounts, but the biggest problem remains Standard Bank which is proving rather obstinate. They are determined that they are not bound by any debt review and want the account settled or the vehicle repossessed as soon as possible.

The matter was escalated to Andre Snyman of Consumer Assist to try to repair the damage caused by the debt counsellor. Of course Andre was trying to claim that they were not responsible as all they did was purchase *****. My view was that in purchasing ***** they had acquired their clientele, and in so doing had also acquired responsibility to correct the problems that ***** had caused.

In the end Andre agreed to pursue the matter personally – and for a while it seemed he had succeeded. The threatening phone calls from Standard Bank stopped, and around May 2011 there even was a phone call from Standard Bank Asset Finance thanking Mrs X for her regular payments.

And then, one balmy Sunday evening in August 2011 there was a knock on the door. The vehicle with the Standard Bank finance was repossessed.