If you are unsure of how to clear your name when blacklisted. There are a number of steps that you can take.
- Check your credit report
Checking your credit report is crucial if you have discovered that you are blacklisted. Because there are laws that bind creditors and blacklisting debtors.
Firstly, if you get your credit report and you are on a blacklist for an amount owing to a creditor. If that is more than three years old, then the creditor legally has no right to do this.
This money will have been written off as bad debt in their books. Therefore they will receive a tax break on this money. So they cannot blacklist for this amount.
Clear your Name after Being Blacklisted and Check your Credit Report
The credit bureaus in South Africa, Experion and Transunion, can provide you with your free credit report. Once a year in the month of your birth.
These reports are free. Any further credit reports that you require during the year will need to be paid for.
Read More: Ways to Find Out if You’re Blacklisted
This really is a nominal fee. And can save you a lot of money in the long run should you be on the blacklist unfairly.
- Contact a debt consolidation lawyer
Help is at hand for people who want to clear their name being blacklisted.
These are lawyers that are trained and qualified specifically to deal with people with debt. Or those people who have been blacklisted.
What a debt consolidation lawyer will do is review all of the money that you owe your creditors. And will advise you on the best ways in which to pay off your debt.
One of the options that they may suggest is that you take out a debt consolidation loan.
A debt consolidation loan is a loan that you take out through either a bank or a private financial institution. In order to pay off all of your creditors.
This will therefore allow you to only have one creditor to whom you owe money.
Advantages to this are…
The advantage of taking out such a loan is that you will not be paying interest on a number of loans. Plus you will only have one creditor.
What is more is that this type of loan allows you the opportunity to pay off a certain amount of money each month. Depending on what you can afford.
Banks and financial institutions will look favourably on a person who is taking out this kind of loan. As it shows commitment to paying off their debt and clearing their name.
Clearing your Bad Credit Record
- Contact the credit bureaus
Once you have finished paying off your debt consolidation loan, it is your responsibility to prove to the credit bureaus that you no longer have any debt. And that you have been steadily paying off the debt consolidation loan.
If you have been working with a debt consolidation lawyer, they can help you through this process.
A Final Thought
- Do not take out any further loans if you can avoid it
The best way to keep your credit records clear is to try and not take out any further loans if you can avoid it.
This is essential until you have saved enough money to cover yourself should you lose your job. Or fall in to an unfavourable financial position, you will at least have this money to fall back on to pay off any debts that you may have.
This way you will safeguard yourself against falling back in to the same position you were before you took the steps to clear your name. So bare this in mind before you start spending and buying on credit.