The credit bureau statistics indicate that consumer performance is holding steady, the acting CEO of the National Credit Regulator, Nomsa Motshegare said yesterday, 8 December. She advised consumers to exercise restraint in their spending and credit use during the upcoming festive season.
The number of accounts increased from 65 million in the previous quarter to 66.03 million, an increase of 1.6%. 16.54 million accounts were reported as impaired for the quarter ended September 2011. The number of accounts with impaired records decreased by 0.2% quarter-on-quarter to 25.1% in proportion to the total number of consumer accounts, with 74.9% of the accounts in good standing.
The total number of enquiries made on consumer credit records was 258.33 million for the quarter, an increase of 3.5% quarter-on-quarter and 36.1% year-on-year. Enquiries initiated by consumers accounted for 13.36 million of all enquiries, an increase of 9.6% quarter-on-quarter and 25.4% year-on-year. Of the total enquiries made on consumer records, enquiries from banks and other financial institutions accounted for 74.5%, enquiries from retailers accounted for 5.2% and enquiries from telecommunication providers accounted for 9.3%. Banks and other financial institutions' enquiries increased by 13.5% from the previous quarter, retailers decreased by 31.7% and telecommunication providers also decreased by 37.3%. Enquiries made by debt collection agencies increased by 44.6% quarter-on-quarter.
Consumers received 100 885 credit reports during the September 2011 quarter. Of the total credit reports issued, 81.6% (82 348) were issued without charge and the remaining 18.4% (18 537) were issued with charge.
There were 7070 disputes lodged on information held on consumer credit records for the quarter ended September 2011, which was an increase of 9.8% quarter-on-quarter and a decrease of 68.7% year-on-year. More disputes were resolved in favour of the complainant (5652) when compared to disputes where the record remained the same (1305).
