WITH more than half of employed South Africans now estimated to have impaired credit records due to late or nonpayment of debt, debt counselling company Consumer Assist said recently SA needed a further 2500 debt counsellors to cope with a looming consumer crisis.
That prompted a response from one notoriously gloomy (and so far correct) blogger on the Cape residential property market.
Writing under the pseudonym of CT Bubble, he suggested that there would soon be plenty of unemployed estate agents out there.
These newly jobless agents could not only find new careers as counsellors but also help fix some of the trouble they caused in the first place when they encouraged people to buy what they couldn’t afford.
Ouch.
Here's original blog post they're talking about: Demand For Credit Counsellors Skyrockets.
1 comment:
More than half of employed South Africans are missing loan payments?
I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was that bad.
I know it's a sarcastic comment regarding the now unemployed real estate agents becoming debt counselors. But it's also a ludicrous suggestion.
People who are in financial difficulties themselves are generally not good financial advisors (or debt counselors in this case), because they have skewed motives. They're more likely to give the advice that's in their own best interest, instead of the best interest of their clients.
Secondly, many of these people previously were selling real estate with no regard for the financial wellbeing of their clients. It wasn't their responsibility, sure. But will they make good debt counselors?
Debt counseling should be a last resort.
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