Saturday 28 November 2015

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Why am I listed?

I am writing this letter to you so you guide and help me as I have been owing a store P7,800 and they took me to their sherrifs but I then paid the amount in cash on the 20 October and asked for certificate of clearance, When i checked with ITC I found my name is there but when I asked them to update my profile at ITC but they say it is going to take time, so my query is how long does somebody’s profile be updated at ITC according to law as I have paid last month and is already a month now. What can I do?


The process when someone owes an institution money is straightforward. The company will send the debtor a series of letters or make a series of phone calls reminding them that they owe money. If that doesn’t work then it’s likely that a debt collector will become involved. These are professionals whose main job is hassling people until they cough up the money they owe. This is the beginning of the dangerous stage. The problem is that (as far as I know, please correct me if I’m wrong) the debt collection industry is unregulated. Anyone can set himself or herself up as a debt collector and it’s an area that has its share of dubious characters.

If the debt collector doesn’t make any progress, and sometimes even if they do, the next stage will be to “list” you with a credit reference agency such as Transunion (which used to be called ITC). Companies like TransUnion hold records on everyone who has ever had any financial transactions, showing how good we are as payers. Some of us have records full of defaults and missed payments, others have records of being good payers. Most of us are somewhere in between.

Once you clear a debt you are entitled to have your record with TransUnion updated to show that. However some of these agencies have told me that this isn’t something that happens quickly. It should normally happen within about 30 days but I’ve known it take a lot longer than that. I suggest that you contact the store and the debt collector and ask them to confirm that they’ve told TransUnion that you’ve now paid the debt. Then keep checking to make sure they’ve done it.

Meanwhile we’ll get in touch with the store to see how far they’ve got.

Who withdrew my money?
Ok here we go. Some months back I posted on Facebook regarding a bank transaction of 500 pula that was done 45 minutes after I had withdrawn 500 pula from an ATM. The bank after all these months finally called me and lo and behold they will not be refunding me my money because after their " findings", they believe my pin number was used so it could have just as easily been me!!! I have only one question how did this occur when I had my ATM card in my possession at the time the sms of that transaction came through and i was halfway to Kanye. Please help!!!.

You need to see the evidence that the bank has on which is based it’s conclusion that your PIN was used.

The general rule is that if your PIN is used, the bank assumes that they’re not to blame for any misuse of your account. In that situation they’ll say that you either used the card yourself or that you somehow disclosed your card details and PIN to someone else.

The bad news is that this might actually be true. It’s possible that your card was “skimmed”. This is when a device attached to an ATM copies your card details while simultaneously a hidden camera records you entering the PIN. With the card details and your PIN the crooks can produce a replica of your card within minutes and can be withdrawing money from your account moments later.

We heard months ago of a situation like this when someone’s card details were copied and just a few minutes later her money was being withdrawn from an ATM in Peru.

The lesson is always to be vigilant. Every time you use an ATM take a good look to see if there is anything strange about the slot where you enter your card. Then you MUST cover your hand as you enter the PIN. Don’t give the crook’s hidden camera a chance to see the numbers you press.

We’ve contacted the bank in question about your case but I’m afraid I’m not very optimistic.

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