South Africans are truly struggling financially and are prioritising their monthly debt repayments as they battle to make ends meet.

This is according to Debt Rescue CEO, Neil Roets, who said that consumers typically prioritise debt repayments for their homes and cars as these are assets that they do not want to lose to repossession.

However, these repayments also usually have the highest instalment amounts, so keeping them up to date just adds to the financial burdens embattled consumers are already facing, he said.

Roets added that consumers are cutting down on a number of purchases to keep up on their expenses.

“We have seen a lot of belt-tightening happening over the past year, so consumers have started cutting down on many expenses,” he said.

“Most luxury expenses have been foregone, and purchases such as dining out and takeouts are no longer part of budgets, to keep up with debt repayments and put food on the table.

South Africans are truly struggling financially and are prioritising their monthly debt repayments as they battle to make ends meet.

This is according to Debt Rescue CEO, Neil Roets, who said that consumers typically prioritise debt repayments for their homes and cars as these are assets that they do not want to lose to repossession.

However, these repayments also usually have the highest instalment amounts, so keeping them up to date just adds to the financial burdens embattled consumers are already facing, he said.

Roets added that consumers are cutting down on a number of purchases to keep up on their expenses.

“We have seen a lot of belt-tightening happening over the past year, so consumers have started cutting down on many expenses,” he said.

“Most luxury expenses have been foregone, and purchases such as dining out and takeouts are no longer part of budgets, to keep up with debt repayments and put food on the table.

“Many consumers are resorting to credit in the form of store cards, credit cards or payday loans to put food on the table.”

Roets said this was of great concern as it shows that South Africans are taking on debt to cover day-to-day expenses.

“Day-to-day expenses that consumers are taking debt for includes food, clothing, electricity and fuel for transport,” he said.

“But there are cases where people are taking up debt to repay other debt, or a new payday loan shortly after the previous one was repaid, placing them in an even larger debt spiral.”