Your debt payments may be covered if you lose your income because of COVID-19, even temporarily.
Updated: Sep 1, 2020
Credit Life
Most lenders in South Africa include a credit life policy when giving out loans to their customers. Credit life is a policy which pays out under certain circumstances if you are no longer able to meet your monthly payments, typically through loss of income of death. If you have any debt and do not have credit life then please read our article "What happens to my debt if I die?"
If I have credit life will I be covered?
Not all of these policies will cover the current circumstances but many of them will. Certainly 58-eight have checked African Bank and FNB and both offer cover for up to twelve months if, through no fault of your own, you are on unpaid leave or you have lost your job. Typically this cover does not repay the loan but does pay the installments while you are unable to earn an income.
What should I do?
If you are paying credit life (sometimes called debt insurance) on any of your debt; personal loans, credit cards, revolving credit, overdraft etc. and you are not earning during the shutdown then you should check urgently with your lender to find out if you have cover and how to institute a claim. This is not a handout but the benefit for which you have paid premiums every month.
