Frequently Asked Questions

Your credit score is crucial because it directly affects your ability to access credit, such as loans, credit cards, and home financing.

Lenders use your credit score to assess your creditworthiness and risk.  This influences the approval of credit and the terms of credit, like your interest rates and repayment periods.

A higher credit score can lead to better financial opportunities, lower interest rates, and favourable terms

A poor credit score can result in loan denials or higher costs of borrowing. It also plays a role in renting property and in some cases, employment background checks.

There are 5 major credit bureaus in South Africa. They are:

• Experian
• Transunion
• XDS
• VeriCred
• CPB

On a daily and monthly basis all credit providers update payment profile data and account statuses to the credit bureaus through the South African Credit Risk Reporting Association (SACRRA).

There are a number of Applications (“apps”) for your phone and on the internet that you can use to see your credit score.  Some of these are:

• ClearScore
• TransUnion
• Experian My Credit Check
• FinCheck
• SmartCredit

All these apps get their information from the 5 main bureaus which means that there could be information update delays between the bureaus and the apps.

No. There is no uniformed credit score in South Africa. Credit providers, credit bureaus and service providers develop scoring models for their clients depending on the client’s risk profiling criteria. Your score at credit providers and the credit bureaus will therefore be different. Your score at any particular credit bureau will be therefore not necessarily be the same as your score at another credit bureau or credit provider. You should therefore get a credit score report from each of the different bureaus.

Archfin Capital (Pty) Ltd purchases delinquent debt from The Foschini Group “TFG”.  Delinquent debt is accounts that have been long outstanding and which TFG write off and sell to recoup financial loss.

When Archfin purchases your account, TFG updates their payment profile data for your old TFG account at the credit bureaus with a “Sold” status. A “Sold” status lowers your credit score. 

You receive a notification via email or sms from us that informs you that Archfin has purchased your old TFG account, and which encourages you to contact us to make repayment arrangements on your account.

If you have contacted Archfin to make a repayment arrangement, the details of your arrangement are updated to the credit bureaus as part of your payment profile with us.  This will keep your credit score stable.  If you maintain regular monthly repayment in terms of this arrangement, over time your credit score will start improving.

If you do not contact Archfin to make a repayment arrangement, your account will be handed over to External Debt Collectors and at end of the next month after your account was purchased, the status of your account will be updated with an Adverse Listing, “Handed Over”.  This listing will further lower your credit score.

Archfin updates the bureaus with your payment profile at the end of the month that your account was purchased.  This is why it is important to contact us as soon as you get our first email or sms.

There are several ways to pay your Archfin TFG Account: –

• Debicheck – If you want to repay your account through monthly instalments, this is the best way to ensure that your payments are received on time, which will improve your payment profile and positively impact your Credit Score.
• Bank Deposit – You can make payments directly into our Trust Account. This is secure and can be done through your banking app.  You can also set up recurring bank deposits (“stop order”). 
• TFG Stores – You can pay at any TFG store nationwide, if you have your TFG Account number which we will provide to your in our first email or sms to you.
• Card Payments – You can use any Visa or Master card to pay using a secure link which we will send to you via sms upon request.

We want to help you improve your credit score and start working your way to better financial health. This is why we will give you a 40% discount on the outstanding amount if you want to settle your Archfin TFG account with a once-off payment.

The email or sms we send to you when we purchase your account will have this discounted amount on it.

Once you have settled your Archfin TFG account, you will receive a Paid-Up Letter and a Statement of Account showing that the balance on your account is R0.00.

Within 48 hours of settling your account, we will update our account on your credit profile with a “Settled and Closed” status.  This means that any prospective credit provider will ignore this account when assessing your affordability.

If you maintained regular monthly payments and your account is then settled and closed, this will positively impact your credit score.

Use any of these convenient ways to contact Archfin Capital. Phone: (010) 612 6022 WhatsApp +27 78 962 1364 Email: queries@archfin.co.za