Final demand to make deal before legal action.

When you’re battling to pay your bills, it’s tempting to leave your mail unopened. This is as irrational as sticking your head in the sand, pretending your debts don’t exist. But when you resurface, they are right where you left them, except things just got a lot worse if the mail you have ignored was a section 129 notice.

If there’s a notice you should never ignore, it’s this one. Named after a section of the National Credit Act, a section 129 notice is a letter issued by a credit provider when you are at least 20 days behind on your payments. It’s a notice of “impending” legal action, which means that legal action will be taken against you if you don’t act on the notice. The purpose of the letter is to draw to your attention to the fact that you are in default and to offer you specific remedies.

You have only 10 days, from the date of delivery, to act on the notice. If you fail to do so, your creditor may hand over your account to a debt collector, which will result in you paying debt collection fees on top of everything else that you owe. Or your creditor may apply to the courts for a default judgment against you, which will be noted on your credit report for five years and have a negative impact on your chances of obtaining more credit or getting credit at a good rate.So, don’t try to escape your legal responsibility if you’ve received the notice. Act on it. If you’ve received a section 129 notice, it’s not too late to ask your creditors to consider a restructuring of your debt – in other words, a reduced instalment over a longer term.