Media release article

Your credit at your fingertips

The economic strain that South African consumers have been feeling in the past has put many in financial trouble or have not been able to satisfy their obligations on accumulated debt resulting in the consumer being "blacklisted",  This hinders them from accessing credit  from banks or other financial groups. The problem of consumers inability to access Credit is further compounded by their lack of understanding of Credit Matters and their unawareness of what information is on their Credit Profiles. The National Credit Act of 2005, gives the Consumers the right to access, one "Free Credit Report" a year, so that consumers can become knowledgeable of their Credit Information and to exercise their right to challenge the information. Consumers access to their Free Credit Report has just become much easier.

Says XDS Managing Director Vivian Pather: "Credit4life, an initiative between XDS,  Blue Label Telecoms and Integrat, allows consumers to easily access their free credit reports via their cellphones  and with that get a better understanding of their heir credit scores, assisting consumers to become not only credit active again but also build a better score." Members of credit4life will, as they improve their scores, be invited receive invites for accounts, contracts or credit from credi4tllife partners plus score many benefits and rewards. This initiative was started by Xpert Decision System (XDS) who is the only 100% black owned registered credit bureau with full accreditation from the NCR, CPA, and CBA. XDS has significant experience in emerging markets, has Credit Bureau operations in Ghana and Nigeria plus has been actively involved in Credit Bureau projects in Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Australia and Namibia.

Credit4life will empower consumers and enable them to take charge of their credit information, become more credit conscious and with that a more responsible borrower of credit. XDS has found The Credit Bureau Monitor (published by the National Credit Regulator) shows that for the period January 2009 to September 2009, only 124 287 consumers accessed their Free Credit Report. This represents less than 1% of the Credit Active Consumers.

"We opted to use mobile as our main delivery mechanism because of its mass personal reach and interactive nature," adds Pather. "Credit4life will though use a multi channel approach to provide free credit reports, education and awareness of credit matters allowing consumers to get credit in a responsible manner and credit grantors to market to credit healthy consumers more effectively."