If you are faced with the problem of having to borrow money in South Africa, you need to take care. It’s not that South Africa is any worse than many other countries when it comes to organising a loan. The problem is that wherever you may live, there are always plenty of loan sharks around, and they are to be avoided at all costs.
To make sure that any finance company you borrow money from is entirely legitimate, its always a good idea to check out if they are NCR (National Credit Regulator) approved.
Addressing the difficulty with short-term loans for some people
A lot of South Africans find it difficult to arrange loans on a relatively short term. The solution that many people have been forced into in the past is to take out pay-day loans. Actually, these are excellent products. They, in themselves, are not the problem.
The problem usually comes from the fact that they are very short-term. You often only have a matter of days in which to make the repayment. As these loans are often secured to the borrower’s next pay cheque, they can leave people struggling to manage once they pay off the debt.
What is needed is a new type of loan that offers a more extended repayment period. Not so long as to make the total amount of interest repayable unattractive, but not so short as it puts the person who takes the loan out, under financial difficulty to make the repayment.
The young athletes having to take loans out
The people who need to borrow money in South Africa come from all sorts of backgrounds and need the money for various reasons. Sometimes its because an unexpected expense has arisen that must be dealt with immediately, or sometimes it is to be able to afford something that wouldn’t be possible without taking out a loan. Take sport for example.
You would think that athletes who want to represent South Africa would be funded or financially supported by the government. This is the case with some sports and athletes, but not all.
Some young athletes are being forced to borrow money if they want to achieve their dream of representing their country on the world stage. Good examples of young athletes facing this dilemma include Touch Rugby team athletes and women’s Softball team members, as reported in a recent article on the SouthAfrica.com website.
It really is a sorry state of affairs, and if it weren’t for the fact that some of these young sportsmen and women have taken out personal loans, South Africa wouldn’t be being represented in the Youth World Cup being held this year in Malaysia.
Organising your own loan
Nuraan Sieed, chairman of the Western Cape Touch Association, is appealing to members of the South African public at large to help fund the players’ places by donating money. Unfortunately for ordinary people who are seeking loans, this sort of appeal is not appropriate. They will have to organise their own arrangements.
Luckily there are some new loan products available that could well prove beneficial.