It’s not a bargain; it’s a mistake

Balloon payments are appealing in that you get the car for a smaller “affordable” monthly payment, BUT a big lump sum awaits you after six or seven years. On a R350 000 car over five years, a 20% balloon knocks around R870 off your instalment. But here's the catch. You…

Spotted a slick online shop with a South African-sounding name and great prices? Look twice. A lot of them aren’t local at all. They are fronts for sellers shipping from China. And those appealing pics are all AI. So, your “three-day delivery” becomes three weeks, the quality often disappoints, and…

Why? Not because the Ombud is in bed with the insurers as many assume. Because many consumers didn’t fully grasp what they were and weren’t covered for, or hadn’t met their side of the policy in terms of the security or maintenance conditions. So don’t wait for a claim to…

An awful form of bank fraud is on the rise – it’s called Business Email Compromise. Here how it works - a fraudster hacks into an email exchange, waits for an invoice, then swaps in their own banking details before it reaches you. You pay, in good faith, and your…

Here is a fast-growing scam - fraudsters copy your social media account, your name, your photo, even your videos, and set up a near-identical fake. Then they slide into your followers’ comments and messages, posing as you, to sell them something dodgy or fish for their money. It happened to…