Debtbusters / Capitec Account Mismanagement Nightmare

My husband and I app**** for debt review in November 2015 through Debtbusters and during the first half of 2017 we received communication from Debtbusters that my husband’s Capitec account had been paid up, so we agreed with the consultant over the phone that the installment would be completely reallocated to the next smallest balance as we wanted to reallocate full amounts to pay off each account one by one, instead of having portions of the installment allocated to various accounts. We received a paid up letter from Capitec, via Debtbusters that we did not realise at the time was in my name, even though the account was in my husband’s name.

A few months later my husband and I started receiving calls from Vertex Solutions indicating that his Capitec account had been handed over to them. We repeatedly informed Vertex that we had never missed a payment to Debtbusters and they need to deal with them as we were informed the account had been paid up. We also sent them the paid up letter received from Capitec. Vertex brought it to our attention that the letter was in my name, whilst the account was in my husband’s name. We thought it is strange that Capitec would issue a paid up letter in my name when I did not have any credit with them, only a savings account. Furthermore, around the same time my husband and I were informed that his Capitec account was paid up, my sister received the same communication regarding her Capitec account and she was later informed that this was not the case. However, we did not receive any such communication from Debtbusters or Capitec and were completely unaware of the status of the account until we started receiving calls from Vertex.

Vertex then dealt with Debtbusters and eventually we were informed that a payment arrangement for the balance needed to be made directly with Vertex due to termination of debt review by Capitec in August 2017. We made the arrangement with Vertex and have been paying them directly ever since. A query lodged with Debtbusters, Vertex and Capitec regarding this account has since not been resolved. The exact nature of the query is (1) regarding the payments that were made to Capitec via Debtbusters before “the account was paid up”, that was not deducted from the balance handed over to Vertex and (2) according to the statements received from Debtbusters the total contributions were different on various statements and until recently no one ever told me why. When I requested proof of payment from Debtbusters I received a short statement with payments not reflecting, even though they appeared on my statements received via email. Recently, I requested another statement and received my complete statement history which showed that the first Capitec payment was reallocated in March 2016, which was just as my creditors started receiving payment. The statement further shows that various Capitec payments were reallocated, none of which I was ever contacted about by Debtbusters.

To date, this query remains unresolved despite numerous comms back and forth and the installments paid to Capitec via Debtbusters is not reflecting on the Capitec balance owing to Vertex. I have lodged complaints about Capitec and Debtbusters with the NCR for the following: Debtbusters: 1. The Capitec installment was reallocated numerous times without contacting, consulting with or informing me. 2. When Capitec payments were returned during various months, I was not informed. I was only informed recently, after years of this query remaining unresolved with Debtbusters. 3. How could my debt counsellor not pick up that the paid up letter received from Capitec was in my name when it should have been in my husband’s name and how could they not inform me that there was a problem with the payments, especially after contacting them regarding the calls received from Vertex? 4. My husband and I being held liable for interest on an account we were under the impression was being paid via Debtbusters 5. I was not consulted with regard to how to reallocate the installment from the very first time the payment returned.

My complaint about Capitec is the following: 1. Not deducting payments made via Debtbusters from the balance handed over to Vertex 2. Producing a paid up letter for a person that does not have credit with the bank 3. Some kind of process or system error or glitch that resulted in incorrect account information being communicated, which is the source of this whole issue. 4. My husband and I being held liable for interest on an account we were under the impression was being paid via Debtbusters. 5. Not receiving any communication from Capitec regarding the incorrect account information that was shared. Also not receiving any communication when payments were not received, until we were contacted by Vertex once the account had been handed over.

Halfway through 2019 we started making payments directly to our creditors as arranged with Debtbusters. We enquired about this numerous times and eventually we got to speak to someone who could assist us. We make payment on time and send them the proof of payments, but on their system our payments don't reflect because its not going through their Payment Distribution Agency. We have also requested our creditors to send us monthly statements directly, According to Debtbusters, as long as we have the proof of payment and it's reflecting with our creditors, this is not an issue. They are still debiting their admin fee monthly and as far as I am concerned this is basically paying for the call they make to me monthly to enquire about the reason they haven't received payment and a statement that reflects no payment.

Debt review has generally been working for us, but I would not recommend Debtbusters. Either their processes and/or systems are faulty or some of their staff are *********** and unfortunately this has impacted us as clients. In the beginning I trusted them, but my trust was broken when they started mismanaging my accounts and I now have to spend countless hours trying to clean up the mess.