When you finish paying off a debt under debt review, each of your credit providers should supply an official paid-up letter. This letter is proof that the account is fully settled and no money is still owed. In most cases, credit providers will send these letters to your debt counsellor, who keeps them on record as part of your journey through the process. Depending on how your debt counsellor operates, they may also give you a copy for your own records. This is always good to have and can help you see the progress you are making in settling your debts.

For Those Who Never Finished Debt Review

If you were once under debt review but did not successfully complete the process, you may now be wanting to use credit again. When you begin to figure out how to re-enter the credit market, you will quickly realise you need two things:

1. Proof that your debts have been settled
2. A clearance certificate from an NCR-registered debt counsellor. This could be the debt counsellor you originally worked with, or a new one.

To show that your old debts are paid up, you will need to get copies of paid-up letters from all your past credit providers. You will have to contact the credit providers yourself to request these letters. Having these letters makes it much easier to prove your accounts are settled, even if many years have passed since you left debt review. Once obtained, these letters are passed on to the credit bureaus, and your debt counsellor will instruct the bureaus to remove any old or incorrect data about you. They will also issue the clearance certificate, which confirms that your debt review is complete. At that stage, the temporary debt review listing at all credit bureaus will be removed entirely.

It is important to remember that every debt under review (except a home loan) needs to be shown as paid up before an official clearance certificate, known as a Form 19, can be issued. Keeping this in mind will help you avoid falling for false promises from anyone offering a shortcut out of debt review. Paying off all your debt and collecting these important paid-up letters is vital to successfully completing the debt review process.