Prescribed Debt: When Old Debt Legally Expires

Somewhere in South Africa right now, someone is being pressured to pay a debt they no longer legally owe. Prescription - the legal expiry of old debt - is one of the most powerful and least understood consumer protections in the country, and knowing how it works can save you from paying for the collector's bluff.

The Three-Year Rule

Most ordinary consumer debt - store accounts, personal loans, credit cards, cellphone accounts - prescribes after three years, provided three conditions all hold: you made no payment on the debt, you never acknowledged owing it (in writing or verbally), and the creditor took no legal action such as issuing summons. Once prescribed, the debt is extinguished in law: it cannot be enforced, and collectors are prohibited from pursuing it.

What Restarts the Clock

This is the trap. A single payment - even a "goodwill" R50 - or a recorded admission that the debt is yours interrupts prescription and starts the three years running afresh. Collectors know this, which is why calls about ancient debts so often push for a token payment or a simple "yes, that was my account." Before acknowledging anything about an old debt, establish its age and status first.

Some Debts Never Prescribe Quickly

Not everything follows the three-year rule: mortgage bonds, court judgement debts and certain taxes run on a thirty-year prescription period. This is one more reason dealing with judgements properly matters - once a debt becomes a judgement, prescription stops being your friend.

Prescribed Debt and Your Credit Record

Listings tied to prescribed debt should not remain on your profile, yet they frequently do. Identifying prescribed entries and having them struck is part of our ITC Clearance service - alongside the removal of defaults and stale listings covered in our ITC removal work. If old debts are haunting your report, apply online and let us establish what you actually still owe - it may be less than you think.