What Is Amnesty?
Credit Amnesty is a government initiative that takes effect on April 1, 2014. The credit bureaus removed information from your credit report as follows:
Once-off removal of negative information, including DEFAULTS, that were reflected before 1 April 2014 .
Once-off removal of paid-up JUDGMENTS that were reflected before 1 April 2014.
What Is Credit Amnesty Not?
Credit Amnesty DOES NOT change anything about loans themselves. Even if you qualified for amnesty, you are still just as responsible for your loans as you were before. So you still owe the lender per the terms of your credit agreement.
Amnesty does NOT forgive, pardon or write off your debt. It NEITHER reduces the debt you owe NOR changes the terms of your loans.
What do you need to do?
The first thing you need to do is to request your free credit report. South African government passed a law that allows you to get at least one free credit report per year. This is your right and you are entitled to it.
A credit report contains details about how you manage credit, including your credit card, car loan, cell phone account etc. Your credit report contains information that has been gathered by TransUnion on an ongoing basis from many sources that you have applied to for credit or services. It is a record of your past and current credit obligations and shows your credit behaviour and payment conduct with your account holders, service providers and any public record information such as judgments and court notices.
Each Credit Report consists of the following sections:
Your personal information
Your current and previous addresses, contact and employment information.
Public (Court) information
Any judgments, sequestration and administration orders listed against you by a court of law.
Credit behaviour
Includes information that is forwarded to TransUnion by credit/service providers on each of your accounts to indicate how you have paid your debts. Your Account History shows your account details over a 24 month period. This shows your payment habits - whether you've made timely payments on your credit cards, auto loans etc.
Default data
Information provided by any credit/service provider on late payment or non-payment of an account. If it relates to payments that were slow, defaulted or that you were not contactable, the information remains for one year. If, however, the information relates to bad debt, written off debt, repossession or a credit card being revoked, the information remains on your credit report for two years.
Enquiries section
Lists all the credit/service providers that have viewed your credit report, over a two year period, either with your consent or for purposes permitted by the National Credit Act. This is usually done when applying for any kind of credit card, housing and microloan or clothing accounts.
How is the decision made to extend credit to me?
Behind the purchase of homes, cars, cell phones and clothes, there's a system in place that enables the millions of credit-based transactions that occur every day to be conducted quickly and efficiently.
When you apply for credit at a credit/service provider you complete an application form. The information you provide on the application form is sent to TransUnion, who packages it into your credit report. The credit/service provider then sends TransUnion your payment information monthly which is reflected and shown within your credit report.
Some people incorrectly think that the credit bureau is the source of these credit updates and that they make recommendations about consumers' credit applications this is not the case. The credit bureau cannot and does not make decisions about whether a consumer qualifies for a loan or credit card. The decision is made directly by the credit/service provider.
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