"Be very wary of payment 'holidays' on loans or cars," Wendy Knowler shares
Updated | By Wendy Knowler
When Covid saw people’s income reduced or destroyed, the offer of a payment holiday seemed like a lifeline, but it came at a cost, as Consumerwatch’s WENDY KNOWLER reveals…
Short payment holiday, long pay-back
In this case, the consumer, who I’ll call Indira, says Sanlam Personal Loans didn’t tell her that her six-month payment holiday was going to add not 20 months to her loan term.
Indira took out a R120 000 loan from Sanlam in 2019, via Direct Axis, over a
60-month term, paying a monthly repayment instalment of R4400. So all going
well, she’d have repaid R264 000 over five years in settlement of that
R120 000 loan.
But all didn’t go well; Covid happened, and it affected Indira’s income, so
when she got an SMS from Sanlam with an offer of a payment holiday, she said
yes.
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A phone call happened after that, a phone call in which, Sanlam insists, all
the financial implications of that choice were fully explained. But either she didn’t listen properly or they nitty gritties weren’t properly
spelt out, because Indira was recently appalled to find out that her loan term
was extended by 20 MONTHS from 60 months to 80.
So she’ll end up paying R325 600 for that R120 000 loan, or R61 600 more than
she would have, had she not taken that payment holiday.
That’s one very expensive holiday!
Almost 4500 people with personal accepted a payment holiday, with the average
“holiday” being four months.
So be very wary of payment “holidays” on loans or cars or whatever. That
brief respite comes at a very hefty price.
READ MORE: Edgars account holders frustrated by unfair extra monthly charges, Wendy Knowler explains
The tide turns on plastic straws
Plastic waste management is a growing concern across the globe, with plastic
drinking straws identified as a major contributor to this problem.
A major challenge with plastic straws is that they are too lightweight to make
it through the mechanical recycling sorter and therefore difficult to recycle.
The only way to tackle this problem is to move away from plastic straws
altogether.
To this end, a few weeks ago Ceres Fruit Juices - part of the PepsiCo group and
the largest fruit juice packaging operation in Africa announced the
introduction of eco-friendly straws - ie paper ones - on some of its juice
packs.
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In time all Ceres 200ml packs will migrate from plastic straws to paper
straws.
The straw - called CelluStraw - is paper with just a 2.5% to 3% glue. Ceres
says the glued straw was put through the recyclability test
by an external test lab called CTP in France and was found to have a high
fibre yield.
The Beach Co-op Organisation, an NGO which grew out of a group of avid
surfers and ocean lovers which began cleaning the rocky shore at Surfers Corner
in Muizenberg in 2015 every new moon has identified what they call the
Dirty Dozen based on what they pick up on the beach every month.
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So these are the worst pollution culprits, in this order:
Sweet wrappers
Cooldrink lids
Straws
Sucker sticks
Chip packets
Earbuds
carrier bags
Cooldrinkk bottles
Fishing line
Water Bottles
Cigarette lighters
Lightsticks
And there’s a new one on that list - face masks.
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A major driver of design change are the Extended Producer Responsibility
Regulations which from November 5 will make businesses more accountable for the
impact their products have on the environment. So we’re going to see a lot
of changes, such as this paper straw on fruit juice cartons, hitting the
market.
They are going to have to work with recycling organisations which focus on the various forms of packaging waste to ensure that what they put out gets recycled rather than ending in landfills or polluting our public spaces, especially our beaches and oceans.
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About those bottle tops - number two on the Dirty Dozen list - moves are afoot
to introduce a tethered cap, one that stays attached to the bottle, in the same
way as the tabs on cans stay on the can when it’s opened, which is why we
don’t see those little silver tab as litter all over the place.
In the meantime, if you want to help the recycling process, put the cap back on
the bottle when you are finished with it.
Contact Wendy
Get in touch with Wendy via her website or her Facebook page. Please note that Wendy is not able to personally respond to every email she receives. If she is able to take up your case, she will contact you directly. Here are other avenues for you to consider.
Listen to more podcasts from Wendy Knowler in the Consumerwatch channel below:
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