Under debt review, and you still need to get to work
Debt review does what it is designed to do: it restructures what you owe into one affordable payment and protects you from your creditors while you work through it. What it also does, as a side effect, is shut off access to new credit until you are issued a clearance certificate. For most people that is fine — until the car dies.
Clear the first hurdle: speak to your debt counsellor
Before anything else, raise this with your debt counsellor. Your restructured budget was built around a specific set of monthly commitments, and adding a vehicle rental changes that arithmetic. Your counsellor needs to sign off that the amount fits, and in some cases will want the payment reflected in your revised budget.
We would rather you have that conversation first than approve you into an arrangement that puts your debt review at risk. If your counsellor says the figure does not work, it does not work — and a cheaper vehicle in our range may be the answer rather than no vehicle at all.
Why a rental sits differently to a vehicle loan
A traditional vehicle finance deal is a loan: the bank advances money, you own the car and owe the balance. Under debt review that route is closed to you.
MadRent does not lend. MadRent owns the vehicle outright, insures it, maintains it, and rents it to you month to month. Our approval decision is an affordability decision, made by a person looking at your actual income and what is left after your debt review payment — not a credit score run through a system.
What we will ask for
- Three months of bank statements, so we can see real income rather than a projected figure.
- Proof of your debt review arrangement and monthly payment.
- A valid South African driver’s licence and ID.
Being under debt review is not a decline in itself. Being under debt review with nothing left over at month-end is — and that protects you as much as it protects us.
The flexibility matters more here than anywhere
People under debt review are usually there because a fixed long-term commitment went wrong. So the important detail is this: there is no 24-month lock-in. You can hand the vehicle back or cancel at any point, and you are not carrying a settlement balance or a negative-equity problem afterwards. Amounts already paid are not refundable, but you do not owe anything further.
That is a materially different risk profile to signing a five-year instalment sale while your finances are still being repaired.
What it costs
Rentals start at R6 395 a month, with a once-off start-up fee — not a deposit — of roughly 10% of the vehicle value, from about R20 000 depending on the car.
Insurance through Hollard, servicing, maintenance, tyres, tracking, 24/7 roadside assistance, a courtesy car during services and 3 000 km a month are all inside the monthly figure. There is no separate insurance premium or service plan to budget for.
Speak to us on 010 500 8621 or send us your details and we will work out honestly whether the numbers fit before you commit to anything. See also our page on renting while blacklisted.
