A Pep account card is administered by Tenacity Financial Services rather than by Pep, and Tenacity publishes a different number for each retailer whose card programme it runs. Five of those numbers differ from one another by a single digit, which is where most misdirected calls come from.
Official provider route
- Pep account card, South Africa: 0860 900 500
- Pep account card, from outside South Africa: +27 21 493 7440
- Account and card service email: [email protected]
- New account applications: [email protected]
- Tenacity switchboard: 021 928 1000
Look closely at that number before you dial. Tenacity runs seven retailer card programmes and publishes them together, and the family reads 0860 900 100 for Ackermans, 0860 900 300 for Legit, 0860 900 400 for Refinery, 0860 900 500 for Pep and 0860 900 700 for Ayana. Only the hundreds digit changes. Dunns and Tekkie Town sit outside that pattern on 0860 357 951 and 0860 558 555. If you reach an agent who cannot find your account, check that digit before assuming the account is the problem.
Product or service support
Store staff cannot help with the account, and this is the single most useful thing to understand. Tenacity holds the account, so a Pep shop assistant cannot see your balance, cannot change a debit order, cannot reverse a fee and cannot settle a dispute about interest. Going into the store to argue about a statement wastes a trip. The card is used in the store; the account is run somewhere else.
Suspected fraud on the account has its own route and should not go through ordinary customer service, because the fraud hotline can freeze a facility while customer service generally cannot. It is 021 928 1095 or [email protected]. The three 021 numbers published alongside these lines, ending 1065, 1007 and 1100, are labelled as fax numbers and will not ring.
Eligibility, account or policy requirements
This is a credit facility, not a loyalty card, and the National Credit Act applies to it in full. That means a credit provider must carry out an affordability assessment before granting or increasing the facility, you are entitled to a statement, and the cost of credit has to be disclosed. Ask for the pre agreement statement and quotation, keep it, and check the initiation fee, the monthly service fee and the interest rate rather than only the monthly instalment.
If you want the facility reduced or closed, put it in writing to the customer service address and keep proof, because a facility left open can be increased later and an unused card still carries a monthly service fee in many programmes.
Escalation route
Arrears are handled by Tenacity itself rather than by an outside agency, on 0860 992 222 or +27 21 928 1080 from abroad. That distinction matters more than it sounds. Because the collections team is the credit provider and not an appointed external debt collector, the conduct rules that apply are the National Credit Act and the credit provider own obligations, and the National Credit Regulator on 0860 627 627 is the body that acts on reckless lending or improper account administration. It is only when a book is handed to an outside collection agency that the Council for Debt Collectors becomes the relevant regulator, so establish who is actually calling you before you decide where to complain.
For a dispute about the account itself, a fee, an interest charge or a listing on your credit record, raise it with Tenacity first and get a reference. If it is not resolved, the National Financial Ombud handles credit complaints on 0860 800 900. A credit bureau listing you believe is wrong is challenged with the bureau directly and free of charge, and the bureau must investigate within a set period.
Sources
- Tenacity contact page: tenacityinc.co.za/contact-us
- Tenacity Financial Services: tenacityinc.co.za