Who the national credit act really helped

Please advice if the life insurance is really compulsary as stated by the stores.I questioned the store manager and they insisted it is compulsary,and then i questioned the high amountschargedmthey could not give a valid answer.I bought goods to the amount of R13000,and an extra 3300 was added for life insurance besides the other fees and interest rates
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I do feel that the NCA needs some fine-tuning. Many companies are getting away with "admin fees" that amount to high percentages of the "loan" For example Cash Converters. If you want to pawn something or as termed today, get a cash advance - you are offered R600 at 0% interest for one month, but the admin charge is in excess of 30%
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Both the article, as well as Allan Holton's comments, are an eye-opener. I wonder what other industries are operating in the same way and also contravening the law. Motor dealers is one example I can think of.
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Ellerines is flouting the law and the FSB does not seem to have any concern about this. Let me elaborate. According to the official website of Ellerines (http://www.ellerines.co.za/geographical.html) they had 1016 outlets in South Africa at the end of their 2006 financial year. Every single one of these outlets provides a financial service to customers in that funeral policies and short term insurance are sold as a matter of course every time an item is purchased on credit. The question and implications of the nature of this financial service and whether it amounts to advice or an intermediary service is a topic deserving of its own focus. According to the FSB website, FSP 2814, Ellerine Services (Pty) Ltd has only one Key Individual , Mr. Robert James Furmidge and only three Representatives, these being Charmane Basson, Dave Allen Neumann and Ellerine Furnishers (Pty) Ltd with Arnoldus van den Borne appearing as the Key Individual of this juristic representative. On the face of it, financial services are being rendered at over a thousand locations by a mere three human representatives. How is this possible? Could it be that the requirements of Section 13 of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act 37 of 2002 are being ignored? Section 13(1)(b) provides that a person may not act as a representative of an authorised financial services provider, unless such person is able to provide confirmation, certified by the provider, to clients that a service contract or other mandatory agreement, to represent the provider, exists and that the provider accepts responsibility for those activities of the representative performed within the scope of, or in the course of implementing, any such contract or agreement. I have called at four Ellerine stores and asked the sales people for sight of their section 13 Certificates and every time I received a blank stare in response. Section 13(3) provides that every authorised financial services provider must maintain a register of representatives, and key individuals of such representatives, which must be regularly updated and be available to the registrar for reference or inspection purposes. The current register as displayed on the FSB website shows only three representatives. Section 13 (6) states that any person who complies with the requirements of this Act for a representative and acts as employee or mandatory for any authorised financial services provider, is, for the purposes of this Act, but subject to the provisions of this Act relating to representatives, regarded as a representative. This being the case, it could be said that every sales person in this group who in any manner sells insurance to a customer is actually a representative of Ellerines. But are they fit and proper? Do they have the minimum educational requirements? And why do they not appear in the FSB register? Section 36 of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act 37 of 2002 which provides that any person who contravenes or fails to comply with a provision of inter alia, section 13 (1) is guilty of an offence and is on conviction liable to a fine not exceeding R1 000 000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or to both such fine and such imprisonment. Clearly Ellerines is aware of the requirement that a register of representatives be established and maintained. If this is the case, how is it physically possible for just three people to provide financial services at 1016 outlets? What can we expect from the Regulator? The FSB has recently sent a letter to all authorised financial service providers. Under the rubric "The FAIS Division of the Financial Services Board started with a series of on-site reviews of selected Financial Services Providers (FSPs) ("theme visits") in terms of its risk base supervision approach"some earth shattering comments were made such as: 29% of all FSPs reviewed did not have plans for business continuation in place . . .. 71% of the FSPs had only one Key Individual and no business continuation . . . 90% of all FSPs reviewed did not have formal management structures and processes . . . Only 38% of the FSPs reviewed actually had risk management plans in place . . . One can imagine the time and resources that went into a survey of this kind. If one tenth of this time and these resources were devoted to visiting the real perpetrators of what the FAIS Ombud called an abuse and exploitation of the poor and vulnerable, we could justifiably expect fireworks. Sadly, I don't think we will see even a squib go off.
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