My Pocket Debt Counsellor Terms & Conditions

My Pocket Debt Counsellor ™ provides consumers with free access to their debt counselling profile. These Terms and Conditions, including our Privacy Policy (together the “Terms & Privacy Policy”) provide a description of the services which we offer through our website and set out our obligations to you as a service provider.

The Terms also place various obligations on you as a user so that we can provide and protect our website, our services and our brand. In addition, they provide important information on how we use cookies and collect and use your personal information, including your debt counselling profile, documents and payment history.

As our services are provided at no financial cost to our users, the Terms also describe how we limit our liability to you with respect to our services and your use of our website. Please take the time to read and understand the Terms before you make use of our services and website.

If you do not want to be legally bound by these Terms in their entirety you must not accept these Terms, in which case you cannot use our website or our services.

For the avoidance of doubt, please note that the Terms do not affect your statutory (legal) rights, including any rights that you may have under applicable consumer laws that cannot be changed by agreement between you and us.

Introduction

These Terms set out our agreement with you about the use of our services and our website and are legally binding. We recommend that you print or email yourself a copy of these Terms for your future reference.

Details of our services are set out in the Services section below. Save as set out in these Terms, your use of our website and the content and Services which may be accessed through our website is at your own risk.

Whilst we take reasonable steps to ensure that the content of our website is accurate, current and complete, you acknowledge and agree, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, that our website and the content and services available through it are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.

In particular, you acknowledge and understand that neither we nor any of our service providers have any control over the content of the information provided by credit bureau or credit providers. We do not accept liability for the accuracy or completeness of any website content or content provided as part of our services. We do not accept liability for any errors or omissions or for the content becoming out of date.

Certain features of our website will rely on data provided by you in order to generate output. We recommend that you confirm the accuracy and completeness of any content before relying on it. References in these Terms and on our website to “we”, “our” or “us” are references to My Pocket Debt Counsellor ™ and/or (where the context permits), The National Debt Review Center our third party service providers together with their subcontractors. References to “you” and “your” mean each natural or juristic person who uses our website or the associated services.

Information about us

My Pocket Debt Counsellor ™ is an application created by a registered and authorized debt counsellor in terms of the National Credit Act, 2005 (“NCA”) and regulated by the National Credit Regulator (“NCR”). Our website is operated by The National Debt Review Center ™, which is a company owned by FinCap Investments.
Changes to these terms
We may change these Terms at any time. We will notify you of any such changes by sending you an email alert, by posting a notice on our website or through the Services, or in any other manner we deem appropriate. You acknowledge and understand that your continued use of our website or our services will confirm your acceptance of the revised terms.

We may update our website and associated services from time to time, and may change the content at any time. Please note that any of the content on our website may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update it. Please check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we have made, as they are binding on you.

My Pocket Debt Counsellor ™ Services

We are dedicated to helping our users gain more control over their financial wellbeing by obtaining their debt counselling information and documents from registered credit bureau, registered debt counsellors and registered payment distribution agencies and providing free access to them.

We also use this information to provide our users with matched offers of third party insurance products which are tailored to their profile and could help them save and protect their hard earned income. On your acceptance of these Terms and our acceptance of your registration application, you engage us as a service provider to provide you with the following services:

We are dedicated to helping our users gain more control over their financial well-being by obtaining their debt counselling information and documents from registered credit bureaus, registered debt counsellors, and registered payment distribution agencies, and providing free access to them.

We also use this information to provide our users with matched offers of third-party insurance products tailored to their profile, which could help them save and protect their hard-earned income. On your acceptance of these Terms and our acceptance of your registration application, you engage us as a service provider to offer a range of valuable services.

Our services include granting you access to your debt counselling information, documents, and progress reports, which will assist you in managing your debt more effectively. We provide you with personalized insurance offers based on your financial profile, designed to help you save money and protect your financial well-being. Additionally, we offer financial education resources to enhance your understanding of debt management and financial planning.

We facilitate communication between you and registered debt counsellors and financial experts to address your specific financial concerns and questions. Our ‘Refer and Earn’ program allows you to refer others to our debt counselling services and earn rewards when they successfully enroll.

You can also conveniently access your financial documents and records through our Document Hub.

We understand the importance of safeguarding your personal and financial information. Your privacy and data security are of utmost concern to us, and we have implemented stringent measures to protect your information. By using our services, you agree to adhere to our Privacy Policy, which outlines our commitment to data protection and the handling of your personal and financial data.

It’s important to note that our services are designed to provide valuable insights, support, and resources to help you take control of your financial well-being. While we strive to offer accurate and up-to-date information, we cannot guarantee the suitability or effectiveness of third-party insurance offers, and we encourage users to conduct their own due diligence before making any financial decisions.

We value your participation in our ‘Refer and Earn’ program as it encourages a sense of community and mutual benefit among our users. However, we reserve the right to modify or discontinue the program at our discretion, and any such changes will be communicated to our users in advance.

By using our services, you agree to these Terms and Conditions, our Privacy Policy, and any other guidelines and policies set forth by My Pocket Debt Counsellor ™. We are committed to assisting you on your journey to financial empowerment, and we look forward to providing you with valuable resources and services.

Registering to use our website and our services

Before you can use our services you must register through our website. During this process you have the opportunity to access, review and receive a copy of these Terms, including our Privacy Policy, and by registering for an account you confirm your acceptance of them.

Presenting a full profile is subject to you passing appropriate identity authentication for security purposes. Not all users will successfully pass the identity authentication process. If you fail the process, you agree that we do not have to notify you of the reasons why you failed.

When you register for our services by accepting these Terms, we may request personal details to verify your identity. We will use these details for the purposes of verifying your identity (and to prevent, detect and prosecute fraud and crime and comply with legal or regulatory requirements).

Accessing our website and our services

Our website and our services are made available free of charge. These Terms govern your access to and use of our website and the information available on it, including information you provide and that we collect on your behalf and facilities and services offered through our website.

You must be at least 18 years of age and a resident in South Africa to use our website and any services provided through it. You warrant to us (ie promise in a way that you can be held legally bound by that promise) that you have the required legal and contractual capacity to enter into and be bound by contractual terms.

You may access and use our website and our services only for your personal use on your own behalf and not on behalf of anyone else. You must not engage another person, company, partnership or other entity to access our website or our services on your behalf. You must not order, or attempt to order, credit information about anyone else through our website.

When using our website or our services you must comply with the provisions of our Acceptable Use Policy below. You understand and acknowledge that your right to access our website or use our services will terminate automatically if you breach any of the provisions of our Acceptable Use Policy.

You understand and acknowledge that our website is intended for use by South African residents only. IF YOU CHOOSE TO ACCESS OUR WEBSITE FROM A LOCATION OUTSIDE OF SOUTH AFRICA, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR COMPLIANCE WITH LOCAL LAWS RELATING TO SUCH ACCESS, INCLUDING VIEWING OR USING THE CONTENT OF OUR WEBSITE, IF AND TO THE EXTENT LOCAL LAWS ARE APPLICABLE.

We do not guarantee that our website, or any content on it or provided as part of our services, will always be available, uninterrupted or error free.

Access to our website and our services is permitted on a temporary basis. We reserve the right to suspend, withdraw or restrict access to our website or our services, or any part of it or them, at any time for any purpose we deem reasonable, without notice.

This includes where we believe that you have materially breached these Terms, or if we consider there is or is likely to be a breach of security. Whilst we try to keep any disruption to our website and services to a minimum, our website and services may become unavailable from time to time in order for us to carry out planned and unplanned maintenance and security updates.

In the case of planned maintenance, we will use our reasonable best efforts, where possible, to provide you with some notice of our intention to suspend the website or the services before we do so.

We will not be obliged to restore any of your data which may be deleted in the course of suspending, withdrawing or restricting your access to our website or our services.

You understand and acknowledge that it is your responsibility to print out and/or save any materials or data which you may require in the future.

You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our website including providing and maintaining any equipment used to access our website. You are solely responsible for any telecommunications costs that you incur whilst using our website.

Security

Your right to access our website and our services is personal to you. You must not allow any other person to have access to your account or our services using your username or password.

You must keep confidential any username, password or other information you choose, or are provided with, as part of our security procedures. You must not disclose them to any other person nor keep them in any form or format that would allow them to be accessed by or on behalf of another person.

You are responsible for all use of our website and our services when access is obtained through the use of your username and password, whether or not authorised.

For your security, we recommend that you close all open browsers relating to our website on completion of your visit. Should you have any reason to believe that any of your personal or account information has been compromised or exposed to any other person, either by your own actions or the actions of others, you must immediately notify us and reset your password.

Acceptable use policy

You may only use our website and our services for lawful purposes. You must comply with the acceptable use policy set out in this section (the “Acceptable Use Policy”).

You must not engage, authorise or permit any other person to directly access your account in order to obtain information provided or made available to you as part of our services (whether as agent or representative on behalf of, or as a service provider to, you or otherwise).

You must not, and you must not allow another person to, use our website (including any content or materials on it) or our services: (a) in any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation;
(b) in any way that is fraudulent, or has any fraudulent purpose or effect (including by misrepresenting your identity or account information);
(c) to access or interfere with another person’s records, impersonate another person or create or use a false identity or email address;
(d) for your own or another person’s commercial purposes; (e) to harm or attempt to harm minors in any way;
(f) to transmit any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (“spam”);
(g) to obtain or attempt to obtain unauthorised access to or interfere with, damage or disrupt any part of our website, any computer systems, equipment, software or networks on or through which our website is stored or operated;
(h) to modify, adapt, decipher, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any of the software comprised in or in any way making up a part of our website or services provided by our website;
(i) to scrape, reproduce, duplicate, copy, modify, distribute, publish, resell or transmit any element comprised in our website, including any software comprised in it, the content or the services provided through it;
(j) to use any technology or processes of any kind to access, acquire, copy, monitor, navigate or search our website or any portion of it (including the use of data mining, robots or similar data gathering and extraction tools); or
(k) in any way that is not authorised by us or that is detrimental to us or our third party service providers.

You must not, and you must not allow another person to:

(a) knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that is corrupt or contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, logic-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware or perform any act that would cause our website to become unavailable for use by others (including via any form of denial-of-service attack);
(b) access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt any part of our website, any software, the server or other equipment or network used in the provision of our website (including where owned or used by any third party).
(c) you undertake to fully co-operate with us where any law enforcement authorities, regulators or court order requests or directs us to disclose the identity or locate anyone posting any material or using our website or our services in breach of this Acceptable Use Policy.
Interactive Services
We may from time to time provide interactive services on our website, including, for example, for you to review and comment on the services and products that we or product providers or issuers provide.

Where we do provide any interactive service, we will provide clear information to you about the kind of service offered, if it is moderated and what form of moderation is used (including whether it is human or technical).

We are under no obligation to oversee, monitor or moderate any interactive service we provide on our website, and we expressly exclude our liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any interactive service by a user in contravention of our content standards, whether the service is moderated or not.

Where we do moderate an interactive service, we will normally provide you with a means of contacting the moderator, should a concern or difficulty arise.

Content Standards

These content standards apply to any and all material which you contribute to our website and to any interactive services associated with it.You must comply with the following standards. The standards apply to each part of any contribution as well as to its whole.

Contributions must:

(a) be accurate (where they state facts);
(b) be genuinely held (where they state opinions); and
(c) comply with applicable law in South Africa and in any country from which they are posted.

Contributions must not:

(a) contain any material which is defamatory of any person;
(b) contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory;
(c) promote sexually explicit material, violence or any illegal activity; (d) promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
(e) infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person;
(f) be likely to deceive any person;
(g) be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence;
(h) be threatening, abuse or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;
(i) be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person;
(j) be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person;
(k) give the impression that they emanate from us, if this is not the case; or (l) advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act including copyright infringement or computer misuse.
Consequences of breach of the Acceptable Use Policy
You understand and accept that we may monitor and log user activity, and any material contributed by users, for security purposes and in order to identify any actual or potential misuse of our website or our services.

You further understand and accept that failure to comply with our Acceptable Use Policy constitutes a material breach of these Terms.

If we have reason to believe that you have, or you are likely to, use (or allow another person to use) our website or our services in breach of our Acceptable Use Policy, we may take such action as we reasonably deem appropriate including: immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our website or services; immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any material contributed by you to our website; legal proceedings against you; and/or disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities or regulators, where applicable, as we reasonably consider is appropriate.
Intellectual property rights
All intellectual property rights in our website, in the material published on it and in its component systems are owned by, licensed or sub-licensed to us.

All content on our website is subject to copyright with all rights reserved. Images, trade marks and brands are also protected by intellectual property laws and may not be reproduced or appropriated in any manner without permission of their respective owners.

You must not remove any acknowledgement that we or any of our contributors is the author of any website content or any content we provide to you as part of the services.

You may download or print content or individual sections or pages of our website for your personal use and information only, provided that any such copy has attached to it the relevant proprietary notices and/or disclaimers.

Any material downloaded or otherwise obtained through our website is done at your own discretion and risk and you are solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of any such material.

You must not modify, adapt, copy, download or post material from our website nor store any part of our website in any other website or include it in any public or private electronic retrieval system.

You must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text or explanation.

If you print off, copy, download or post to social media any part of our website in breach of these Terms you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.
Licence
You license us to use any information, data, materials or other content (collectively “ Content”) you provide to us through our website or that we obtain on your behalf as part of the services we provide (such as your credit information) and you agree that we can use, modify, display, distribute and create new material using the Content so that we may provide our services to you and for any other purposes set out in these Terms, including our Privacy Policy.

By submitting Content you confirm and agree that the owner of that Content has expressly agreed that, without any particular time limit, and without the payment of any fees, we may use the Content for the purposes set out in these Terms.
License
You license us to use any information, data, materials or other content (collectively “ Content”) you provide to us through our website or that we obtain on your behalf as part of the services we provide (such as your credit information) and you agree that we can use, modify, display, distribute and create new material using the Content so that we may provide our services to you and for any other purposes set out in these Terms, including our Privacy Policy.

By submitting Content you confirm and agree that the owner of that Content has expressly agreed that, without any particular time limit, and without the payment of any fees, we may use the Content for the purposes set out in these Terms.