Essential consumer warnings you cannot afford to ignore
From phone security and insurance traps to legal admin gaps, these Consumer Hacks show you what to watch out for and how to shut down the risks before they hit your wallet.
1. Disable locked screen phone notifications
You don’t want a fraudster with your freshly stolen phone in their hands to be able to access your one-time pins as they scroll across your locked screen.
That’s how fraudsters managed to extract R118 000 from the bank accounts of a man who’d left his bank cards, driver’s licence and cellphone in his locked car while kitesurfing in Cape Town last year.
The bank offered him just 10% of his loss, telling him: “The responsibility for managing device-level security settings ultimately rests with the customer."
So, disable locked screen phone notifications on your banking apps. Immediately.
2. You may have a final order of divorce from the High Court, but does Home Affairs know that?
I recently found out that Home Affairs does not automatically change your marital status after you are widowed or divorced.
A friend’s mother died shortly before Christmas, two years after her dad. But she has discovered that her mom’s marital status was still captured as married by Home Affairs. That means she is now saddled with a whole lot of Home Affairs red tape before her mom’s estate can be wound up.
That’s not all. The High Court does not communicate with Home Affairs, so if you were divorced recently, don’t assume that Home Affairs changed your marital status from married to divorced. You have to go to a Home Affairs department with your divorce order and ID and apply for the change.
3. Listen up if you own a large or aggressive breed of dog
You may have public liability cover as part of your short-term insurance policy, but don’t assume you’d be automatically covered if your dog causes someone outside of your family harm.
Not too long ago, the owner of two pit bulls failed to convince a High Court judge that she was not responsible for the injuries inflicted on a young girl who was attacked by the dogs while on a playdate with her children.
The court found that the dog attack was foreseeable because the dogs were raising a litter at the time. Despite that, she failed to take any action to prevent an attack.
She had to compensate the girl’s parents for their medical expenses and general damages.
4. I didn’t cause the accident, so why should I claim on my insurance?
That’s a natural response from someone who’s just had their car bashed by another motorist, especially when the other party readily admits that the collision was their fault.
Why should you pay the excess and possibly get hit with a higher premium and lose your no-claim bonus as a result?
But that’s a misguided approach, as many people who go that route find out. It’s usually a long, drawn-out process, and you inevitably get blamed for partly contributing to the accident.
That reduces your settlement dramatically because you are said to be up to 40% to blame, so they pay you just 60% of the cost of your repairs and make you pay 40% of their client’s repair bill.
5. “One of the most significant consumer protection judgments in recent years”
That’s what Consumer Goods and Services Ombud Lee Soobrathi has called the settlement agreement signed last month between the National Consumer Commission and WeBuyCars.
It essentially makes financing banks legally both the provider of finance AND the supplier of the car. So if you are sold a car with a major defect that the dealership can’t or won’t fix, within six months of purchase, you can ask your bank to cancel the deal.
That, no doubt, means the banks are going to demand from dealerships proof of a car’s verified mileage, service history and a full mechanical report from an independent inspection company before approving finance.
And it's about time, too.
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