Most credit disputes settled in favour of consumers
For a relatively small office, the Credit Ombud had to wade through more than 30 000 inquiries and 3 645 disputes in 2022, says a Moneyweb report.
The Ombud’s annual report for 2022 shows consumers are becoming better informed about their financial rights, and this explains in part why two-thirds of account disputes were settled in their favour last year.
A total of R3.4m was recovered for consumers.
Account disputes represented 42% of all disputes, with fraud and contractual disputes accounting for 10% and 9% respectively.
Some of the categories that probably should get more attention – such as debt prescription – do not rank highly among consumer concerns, probably because they do not know how this works.
Lee Soobrathi, head of case management & dispute resolution at the Credit Ombud, said the Ombud seldom, if ever, has to make a ruling.
Matters are routinely resolved when the disputants are gathered around a table to thrash it out and come to a settlement.
In this respect, says the report, the Ombud is doing what it set out to achieve.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
