CREDIT
BUREAUS AND CREDIT INFORMATION UNDER THE NATIONAL
CREDIT ACT
INTRODUCTION
One
of the many purposes of the National Credit Act
is to regulate credit information and to provide
for the registration of credit bureaus. A person
must apply to be registered as a credit bureau
with the National Credit Regulator if that person
engages for payment, other than as a credit provider
or an employee of the credit provider in the business
of receiving reports of, or investigating credit
applications, credit agreements, payment history
or patterns, or consumer credit information relating
to consumers or prospective consumers, other than
reports of court orders or reasons for judgement
or some other information that is in the public
domain, compiling and maintaining data from such
reports and issuing reports concerning consumers
or other natural persons based on information
or data referred to in this paragraph. A person
must not offer or conduct business as a credit
bureau or hold themselves out to the public as
being authorised to offer any service customarily
offered by a credit bureau, unless that person
is registered as a credit bureau in terms of the
Act. A natural person may not be registered as
a credit bureau. A registration certificate is
issued by the National Credit Regulator to the
credit bureau.
CONFIDENTIALITY,
PERSONAL INFORMATION AND CONSUMER CREDIT RECORDS
Chapter
4 of the National Credit Act deals extensively
with the personal information of consumers, the
right to confidential treatment and the consumer
credit records. Any person who in terms of this
Act, receives, compiles, retains or reports any
confidential information pertaining to the consumer
or prospective consumer must protect the confidentiality
of the information. Confidential information means
personal information that belongs to the person
and is not generally available to all known by
others. A person, who discloses confidential information
in contravention of this Act or fails to disclose
confidential information in contravention of this
Act, is guilty of an offence. The Act creates
an offence known as breach of confidence and stipulates
that it is an offence to disclose any confidential
information concerning the affairs of any person
or firm obtained in carrying out any function
in terms of this Act, or as a result of initiating
a complaint or participating in any proceedings
in terms of this Act. Any person convicted of
an offence in terms of this Act, is liable to
a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding
12 months, or to both a fine and imprisonment.
RIGHT
TO ACCESS AND CHALLENGE CREDIT RECORDS AND INFORMATION
Every
person has a right to be advised by a credit provider
within the prescribed time before any prescribed
adverse information concerning that person is
reported by it to a credit bureau and to receive
a copy of the information upon request and to
inspect any credit bureau or national credit register,
file or information concerning that person without
charge as of right once within any period of 12
months, or if so ordered by a court or the Tribunal
and once within a reasonable period after successfully
challenging any information in terms of this section,
for the purpose of verifying whether that information
has been corrected and at any other time upon
payment of the inspection fee of the credit bureau
or national credit register, if any.
FOUR
EASY STEPS TO CHALLENGE CREDIT RECORDS AND INFORMATION
