Our consumer education has started off once again after having slowed down over the festive period. We have received very positive feedback from stakeholders whom we have conducted workshops for and will continue to take workshops to as many of our members and partners as we can in 2013.
In 2012 we conducted 46 workshops in 5 provinces. We decided to change our approach to consumer education, by focusing more on workplace-based workshops and conducting workshops for our members’ employees. By doing more workshops in this manner, we are able to reach credit-active consumers who are faced daily with problems our office offers assistance with. Employers also benefit as employees who have financial problems end up being unproductive and have high rates of absenteeism.
Some of the topics covered in the workshops include:
- How to deal with listings at the credit bureau
- What are credit reports? Deciphering them and how to make them work in your favour
- How to deal with being over indebted
- How to deal with garnishee orders
- Consumer rights
- Being financially savvy
We are inviting credit providers and any other members to please contact our office if you need us to do workshops for your employees at your premises. You can send an email to nloeto@creditombud.org.za or call 011 781 6431.
On 15 March we celebrated World Consumer Rights Day and the theme for this year was Consumer Justice Now. We partnered with various Consumer Protection Offices around the country to commemorate the day by taking part in exhibitions and consumer education programmes for communities and employees in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Gauteng.