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R17 000 for a debt of under R3 000

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A Fin24 user will end up paying almost R17 000 for a debt that was less than R3 000 to start with, thanks to a garnishee order. He writes:

In 2006 we defaulted on a debt through a financial services company after my husband lost his job. We informed them of the situation as we still had an outstanding balance of just over R2 000. We did not hear anything again.

In the meantime we moved from the Free State to KZN.

My husband found work and the next thing we know, there is a garnishee order on his salary of R 1 000 a month.

When I contacted the attorney they said a summons had been sent and signed for.

It was sent to the company my husband previously worked for and signed for by security at the gate.

The attorney informed us that if we wanted to fight the order, we would have to take the matter to court. By this time, four payments had already gone off.

The garnishee order allowed them to take R1 000 over 12 months, so we paid R12 000 for an original debt of just over R2 000.

Once the garnishee order was paid, the attorney contacted us again, saying there was still an outstanding amount of over R4 800 in legal fees that we still had to pay, and threatened us with another garnishee order if we did not pay.

Due to our financial situation, we are still paying off this amount.

When we finally manage to pay off the debt, we will have paid almost R17 000 for a debt that was less than R3 000 to start with.

 - Fin24

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