The last debt review payment is not the finish line

The National Credit Regulator's latest annual report tells the story of a man who paid off his debts four years after entering debt review. He then stayed listed as under debt review for another four years, until a different debt counsellor issued the clearance certificate he had been entitled to all along.

That sounds extreme. It isn’t rare. Between July and October this year my practice ran just over 4 000 checks against the NCR’s debt review register for people who asked us to. We found 1 531 people listed, and 179 of them were already recorded as cleared, with a clearance certificate issued.

Of the 128 cleared people who told us beforehand what they believed, fewer than a third said they were out of debt review. Most weren’t sure. A few thought they were still in it. And 51 of the 179 had come to us asking how to get out of debt review, a process the register showed they had already finished.

These are people who chose to check with us, so they are not a sample of everyone who has been through debt review. But they show how easily the ending gets lost. The NCR says almost 61 000 clearance certificates were issued in 2024/25, about 13 200 more than the year before. If you are heading for the end of debt review, these are the things to check:

Debt review does not end with your last payment

Under section 71 of the National Credit Act, your debt counsellor must issue a clearance certificate within seven days of you settling every debt in your plan. They then have seven days to file it with the NCR's register and the credit bureaus. Until that happens you are still listed, whatever your bank balance says.

It works the other way too. Stopping your payments doesn’t end debt review. Neither does losing touch with your debt counsellor.

So when your last instalment goes through, ask your counsellor in writing for the clearance certificate (it is called Form 19), and keep the paid-up letters from each creditor. If your counsellor has closed down or stopped responding, another registered counsellor can take over your file.

Smart About Money's article on avoiding scams when you leave debt review explains how to do that safely. If a counsellor refuses to issue a certificate you believe you are owed, you can ask the National Consumer Tribunal to review the decision. If the certificate was issued but never filed, you can file a certified copy with the NCR yourself and lodge a complaint.

One point catches many homeowners out: you do not have to stay in debt review until your bond is paid off. If your home loan was part of the plan, you can be cleared once every other debt is settled, provided the bond has no arrears and you can show you can keep up the payments.

Check what the credit bureaus actually did

When a bureau receives your certificate, the law says it must remove three things: the fact that you were under debt review, the record showing each account that was part of it and the default information that led to the debt review or was taken into account in it.

You are entitled to one free credit report from each bureau a year. Wait about a month after the certificate is issued, then check three things on your credit report:

The debt review listing is gone;

Every account that was in the plan shows as settled or closed, with a zero balance;

The payments you made while you were under debt review are there.

That last one surprises people, because they expect their record to be wiped clean. It isn’t, and it shouldn’t be. In June 2025 the NCR issued a guideline after finding that some credit providers had stopped reporting the payments of consumers under debt review (NCR Guideline 003/2025).

People who finished the process came out with no recent payment history at all, and lenders treated them as if they had never had credit. The NCR told credit providers to keep reporting those payments, and told the bureaus not to delete payment history when a clearance certificate arrives.

That matters, because payment history stays on your report for up to five years and is the biggest single part of your credit score. If you paid every month for four years, that record is the best thing debt review gives you. If it is missing, challenge it with the bureau, which costs you nothing, and refer them to the NCR’s guideline.

Be realistic about the rest. Late payments you made during the plan are not part of what gets removed. A cleared record is a fresh start, not a perfect one.

Keep paying the instalment – to yourself

For years you have lived without the money that went to the payment distribution agency each month. That is the most valuable habit debt review leaves you with, and it takes only a few months to lose.

So keep the debit order running, and point it at a savings account. Smart About Money suggests an emergency fund of three to six months' after-tax income. That is a big number when you are starting from nothing, so make your first target one month. If your instalment was R3 500, six months of paying yourself instead gives you R21 000. That is enough to absorb the car repair, the school fees or the month without overtime that so often sends people back to borrowing.

Once the emergency fund is in place, the same debit order can go towards your retirement savings or a tax-free investment. The savings goal calculator will show you what a few years of it adds up to.

Don’t rush back into credit

Within weeks of being cleared, the offers start: credit cards, overdrafts, limit increases, loans that are “pre-approved”. A clean record means lenders can see you again. It does not mean you need what they are selling.

If you want a credit record for later, say for a home loan in a few years, one small account that you use lightly and pay in full every month does more for you than several. Every application stays on your record as an enquiry for two years, and a cluster of them in a short time looks like someone under pressure.

Before you take on any new monthly repayment, use the test from my last column, A good salary is not a debt plan: add up all your debt repayments except your bond or rent, and divide by your take-home pay. If the answer is heading past a third, wait.

Finish it properly

Debt review is meant to end, and it ends properly only when four things are in place: a clearance certificate, a credit record without the listing, a payment history that shows you kept your side of the deal, and enough savings that the next emergency doesn't become the next loan. Each takes a little effort after the last payment.

It is worth the effort. The alternative is finding out years later, when you apply for a home loan or a job, that the process you finished never officially ended.