Consumer hacks: Phones, cars, scams and teen contracts

1. Disable SMSes appearing on the screen of your locked phone

A kitesurfer was defrauded of R118 000 after leaving his possessions - wallet containing his bank cards and his driver’s licence, as well as his phone - hidden in his locked car at a beach parking lot before going for a surf.

Criminals who’d broken into his and taken those items – essentially a fraudster’s starter kit – were later able to access the one-time pins sent by the surfer’s bank via SMS to his phone, despite his phone being locked.

That’s because his phone settings allowed for SMSes to scroll across the screen, even when the phone was locked.

“I want to urge people that messages showing up as notifications on your phone are a huge risk,” he said. It’s a good idea to disable that functionality.

2. If you have a Code 10 licence but you drive a so-called light motor vehicle, that could be costing you.

Lindelwa chose to rent a small hatchback from Europcar when she visited Cape Town last month, because as a Discovery Vitality member, she qualified for a 25% discount.

She rented a small hatchback for eight days, incident-free. But she was charged R800 extra - R100 per day, as a “C1 (Code 10) licence surcharge”.

In South Africa, truck licence (Code 10/C1) holders are legally entitled to drive regular cars.

The car rental company justifies the surcharge by saying that Code 10 licence holders have more accidents in its cars: they make up 20% of their clientele but are involved in 40% of accidents.

When insuring regular cars, Code 10 licence holders are considered higher risk, and that is built into their premiums, although most would be unaware of this.

3. Scammers pretending to help victims of debt review

You couldn’t make it up. Scammers have launched a fake website - NCRSwift.org.za and variations of it - posing as the official National Credit Regulator (NCR).

It promises to remove unlawful debt review flags, but it’s actually a trap to steal your personal information. 

For some time, rogue debt review companies have been exploiting vulnerable consumers by enrolling them into debt review without proper assessment, leaving them stuck, stressed, and unable to access credit, without paying the rogues thousands to get “unflagged” for debt review.

The real NCR warns that this site is not authorised or affiliated to the regulator. 

4. Your insurance broker can be made to pay if they failure to advise you properly leads to a rejected claim

Insurance brokers are legally bound by the General Code of Conduct for Financial Services Providers. 

A recent FAIS Ombud ruling went against a broker who failed to prove they warned their client about critical policy exclusions around tracking devices—leading to a rejected stolen car claim. 

Brokers must clearly explain any special terms, conditions, or waiting periods that could affect a claim. Just telling the client isn’t enough—they must be able to prove it, by keeping records of emails and calls. 

If you had a claim rejected because your broker failed to share information that could have prevented that, lodge a complaint with the FAIS Ombud.

5. Educate your teens about signing contracts before they get caught

The mother of a 19-year-old posted on a Facebook group about him signing a gym contract, thinking it was just for a month. Months later, he's deep in arrears—with no job to pay it off. 

From age 18, you're legally bound by contracts, so teach your kids this:

• Never sign anything without first reading every word of it.
• Sign the shortest possible contract - no matter what the salesperson says about the longer ones being cheaper.
• Always check the early cancellation penalty - you should not be made to pay more than 40% of subscriptions for the remaining term.

And finally, contracts don’t “expire” at the end of the contract period - they roll over, to a month-to-month basis – until and unless you cancel in writing with a month’s notice. 

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