The Credit Ombudsman no longer exists as a separate office. It has been folded into the National Financial Ombud Scheme, and creditombud.org.za now redirects to the NFO’s own landing page for former Credit Ombud complainants. Everything the Credit Ombud used to do is still done, free of charge, under the new name.
National Financial Ombud Scheme contact details
- Telephone: 0860 800 900
- Alternative number: 076 574 8055
- Email: [email protected]. Media queries: [email protected]
- Johannesburg office: 110 Oxford Road, Houghton Estate, Johannesburg 2198. Parking entrance at 19 9th Street, Houghton Estate, Illovo
- Cape Town office: 6th Floor, Claremont Central Building, 6 Vineyard Road, Claremont, Cape Town 7708
The service is free to consumers. There is no fee to lodge, no fee to have a complaint investigated, and no requirement to use an attorney or a claims agent.
What was merged into what
The NFO is a single, one-stop dispute resolution service built from four longstanding offices: the Credit Ombud, the Ombudsman for Banking Services, the Ombudsman for Long-Term Insurance and the Short-Term Insurance Ombudsman. It now runs three divisions — Non-Life Insurance, Life Insurance, and Banking and Credit. A dispute with a credit provider goes to the Banking and Credit division.
How to lodge a credit complaint
- Complain to the credit provider first and give it a chance to resolve the matter. The NFO is an escalation, not a first port of call.
- Use the online complaint form on nfosa.co.za, or the Application for Assistance if you would rather submit on paper.
- Track the progress yourself through the Track Your Complaint page rather than phoning for status updates.
The NFO records whether a complainant should be identified as a vulnerable complainant when a complaint is lodged, and publishes a vulnerable-consumers page setting out what that changes. Say so at the outset if illness, age, disability or a language barrier affects how you can deal with the process.
If the NFO itself is the problem
There is a separate route for that: the NFO publishes a Service Complaints Against the NFO page, which is the correct channel if you are unhappy with how your complaint was handled rather than with the outcome. Rulings and case studies are published on the same site, and reading a case similar to yours before lodging is the cheapest way to work out whether your complaint falls inside the scheme’s rules.