‘The feeling of being robbed’: Ithala clients flag lack of transparency over bond repayments

Although Ithala’s ability to collect loan instalments was temporarily halted after the freezing of all its accounts, the institution says it continues to service existing clients. SomeIthalabond finance customers say they are in the dark despite honouring their monthly payments. In January last year, the RA imposed a freeze on Ithala bank accounts, and as a result, Ithala clients could not make loan repayments between January and March 2025.

All these accounts fell into arrears during the period when instalments could not be collected.Ithala has 7 891 bond loan accounts, with each one being at various stages of the credit life cycle. All these accounts fell into arrears during the period when instalments could not be collected. Ithala has 7 891 bond loan accounts, with each one being at various stages of the credit life cycle.

Speaking to “Independent Media Property” anonymously, a customer who has had a bond with the finance institution for over a decade says they used to receive their statements monthly. However, they say that they last got one almost two years ago. “I have never at any point received a notification of a change of the repayment method.

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“We only got an sms telling us to deposit the money into an Absa Bank account. Ithala had not been deducting their monies from our account as per the agreement.”

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