Grand Debt Solutions Contact Details

Grand Debt Solutions is a debt counselling firm operating from Chatsworth, south of Durban. The contact details below are the ones it publishes on its own site.

Official contact details

• Telephone: 031 140 0163
• Second line: 031 140 0009
• Email: debtcounselling@granddebtsolutions.co.za
• Address: 6 Joyhurst Street, Westcliff, Chatsworth 4092

The site labels the second number as a mobile, but 031 is the Durban landline code, so both are landlines. There is also a call-back form on the site for a free, no-obligation debt assessment.

Ask for the counsellor’s NCRDC number first

Debt counselling is a regulated activity. A debt counsellor must be registered with the National Credit Regulator and holds a personal registration number in the form NCRDC followed by digits. Grand Debt Solutions does not print an NCR registration number anywhere on its site, which is not proof of anything on its own — but it does mean you cannot check it from the website, and you should check it before you sign.

• The NCR’s public debt counsellor register searches on the individual counsellor’s surname, not the firm’s trading name. Searching a company name there returns nothing even for firms that are properly registered, so a blank result tells you nothing.
• Ask the firm for the name and the NCRDC number of the debt counsellor who will handle your matter, then search that surname on the register at ncr.org.za.
• A firm that will not give you both is the warning sign. A registered counsellor supplies them without hesitation.

What the process actually involves

The firm describes a three-step process: a free assessment in which it obtains balances from your credit providers and tests whether you are over-indebted; negotiation of lower interest rates and instalments; and a court order confirming the restructured plan, which it says is obtained within 60 days. Once you are under debt review your credit providers cannot take legal action on the listed debts, but you are also flagged at the credit bureaus for the duration and cannot take new credit until you have a clearance certificate.

If something goes wrong

• Complaints about a registered debt counsellor go to the National Credit Regulator on 0860 627 627 or complaints@ncr.org.za.
• Disputes with the credit provider itself now go to the National Financial Ombud Scheme on 0860 800 900, which absorbed the Credit Ombud.
• Never pay a debt counselling fee into a personal bank account. Fees are prescribed by the NCR and are paid through a registered payment distribution agency, not to an individual.