Parliament should hold hearings on the conduct of credit providers in the debt-review context, MPs deliberating a debt-relief policy heard this week. Credit providers are driving up the cost of debt counselling, Kaveer Beharee told parliament in a submission on behalf of payment distribution agencies (PDAs) - the bodies that collect money from debtors when they are in debt counselling and distribute it to their creditors. Beharee said these costs were carried by both debt counsellors and the agencies, which had to "spend an inordinate amount of time resolving mistakes made by creditors". When errors occurred in the debt-counselling process, the consumer in debt counselling carried all the risk, including having to pay high interest charges or having debt removed from debt review by creditors, he said. "There is a lack of regulation to promote fair market conduct by credit providers," Beharee told MPs. "Although credit providers have received more than R35-billion through the debt-re...
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