If you have ever finished paying your accounts and wondered where your salary went, this article puts a number on the feeling. Among South Africans applying to us for debt review, the typical person hands over 57.8% of what lands in their bank account to unsecured debt repayments. Not the bond. Not the car. Just personal loans, credit cards and store accounts.
The headline number
57.8% is the median share of net monthly income going to unsecured debt repayments among people applying for debt review. It is a rolling three-month figure to August 2026, calculated from 616 applications. More than half of applicants, 54.9%, spend over half their pay on unsecured debt alone.
That figure is the baseline reading of the South African Financial Pressure Index (SAFPI), a new monthly index we are publishing from our own application and credit-check data. This first release sets the starting line. From September 2026 we will publish an updated reading on the first Tuesday of every month.
Where the Numbers Come From
Most debt statistics in South Africa are quarterly, and most rely on what people say about themselves. SAFPI is built differently on both counts. The repayment side of the ratio comes from account-level credit bureau data covering 7,393 individual credit accounts. The income side is declared by the applicant. We say that plainly because it matters: one half of the ratio is verified, the other is stated, and anyone quoting the figure should know which is which.
The data behind this baseline covers four separate groups of people, and we keep them separate rather than blending them into one flattering number. There were 11,552 people who contacted us, 1,913 who completed a full debt review application, 1,577 applications with complete income and debt figures, and 524 who ran a check against the National Credit Regulator's debt review register. Every percentage in this article states the group it came from.
One more caveat worth stating up front. Everyone in this dataset approached a debt counsellor, which means they were already worried about money. SAFPI measures the depth of difficulty among people in difficulty. It does not measure how common that difficulty is across all South Africans, and we will never present it as if it does.
What People Owe, by What They Earn
The median applicant earns under R10,000 a month and owes R13,439 in unsecured debt, against R4,392 a month in repayments. Read down the table and the same pattern repeats at every level. Each step up in income brings a bigger step up in debt.
| Net monthly income | Applications (n) | Median unsecured debt | Median repayment | Median disposable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R0 – R5,000 | 291 | R6,392 | R2,015 | R775 |
| R5,000 – R10,000 | 715 | R10,295 | R3,607 | R2,900 |
| R10,000 – R15,000 | 240 | R23,002 | R6,954 | R5,800 |
| R15,000 – R20,000 | 131 | R55,847 | R10,832 | R8,020 |
| R20,000 – R30,000 | 120 | R121,134 | R12,227 | R10,616 |
| R30,000 – R50,000 | 63 | R120,907 | R15,903 | R14,400 |
| R50,000+ | 17 | R329,692 | R26,940 | R35,600 |
| All applicants | 1,577 | R13,439 | R4,392 | R3,179 |
Someone earning between R5,000 and R10,000 typically owes around R10,295 and has R2,900 left after debt and essentials. Someone earning R50,000 or more owes a median R329,692. The debt scales with the income, which is exactly why a good salary is no protection. Credit providers lend against what you earn, so earning more simply means qualifying for more.
The R50,000-plus band rests on only 17 applications, so treat that row as an indication rather than a firm figure. We publish it with the sample size showing rather than leaving it out. Anything smaller than ten records gets reported as a count and never turned into a percentage, because you deserve to see how thin a number is before you quote it.
Medians do the same job. The average unsecured debt across all applicants is R63,189, nearly five times the median of R13,439, because a handful of enormous debts drag the average upward. The median describes an actual person.
If you want to see what your own numbers would look like restructured, our debt review calculator runs the same arithmetic on your figures.
Personal Loans Are Doing the Damage
Split 7,393 unsecured accounts by type and one category dominates everything else. Personal loans account for 59.2% of all accounts and R61.4 million of the R99.6 million owed. That is more than double the next category.
| Type of credit | Accounts | Share of accounts | Total balance | Share of balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal loans | 4,376 | 59.2% | R61,444,363 | 61.7% |
| Credit cards | 1,071 | 14.5% | R24,531,077 | 24.6% |
| Store cards | 953 | 12.9% | R5,592,750 | 5.6% |
| Other credit | 439 | 5.9% | R4,406,804 | 4.4% |
| Cellphone contracts | 315 | 4.3% | R862,546 | 0.9% |
| Furniture accounts | 177 | 2.4% | R2,131,351 | 2.1% |
| Clothing accounts | 44 | 0.6% | R360,460 | 0.4% |
| Student loans | 18 | 0.2% | R320,343 | 0.3% |
Reading the two share columns together tells you more than either alone. Store cards are the third most common account type at 12.9% but carry only 5.6% of the balance, so they are numerous and small. Credit cards invert that: 14.5% of accounts holding 24.6% of the money. Cellphone contracts appear on 315 accounts and contribute under one percent of the balance, though a defaulted contract still damages a credit record as badly as a defaulted loan.
The personal loan concentration fits what we see in consultations. A store account or a cellphone contract is rarely what breaks a household budget. A personal loan taken to cover other debt is. That is the pattern behind consolidation loans from the major banks, which replace several debts with one larger one and leave the underlying affordability problem untouched.
Nearly Half Are Already Under Debt Review
This is the finding we did not expect. Of 524 people who ran a check against the NCR debt review register, 44.1% were already actively listed. They were approaching a debt counsellor for help while a debt review was already running in their name.
Why this matters to you
You can only be under debt review with one debt counsellor at a time. If you are already listed, the correct route is a transfer to a new counsellor, a clearance certificate if your restructured debts are settled, or a court application if your circumstances have changed. It is not a new application. Anyone who signs you up for a fresh debt review without checking the register first is not doing their job.
A separate group appeared on the register with a resolved status rather than an active one, including people whose restructured debts were fully settled. Being finished with debt review and being removed from the register are two different events, which is the situation we cover in our guide to being paid up but still listed as under debt review. If that is you, the fix is a clearance certificate, not another application.
Before we started querying the register directly, the honest answer to "how many of our applicants are already under debt review" was a guess. The lead forms said 60.5%, the register said 44.1%. Those are different groups over different periods, so neither is wrong exactly, but only one of them is checkable against an official source. That is why SAFPI reports the register figure and leaves the self-reported one as context. You can check your own debt review status the same way, free, without applying for anything.
What We Left Out, and Why
An index is only worth reading if you trust what it excludes. Two measures were in the original SAFPI specification and are not in this release.
The first was a credit bureau flag indicating whether someone is under debt review. It read "yes" on every single record, which is impossible. The cause turned out to be a technical fault in how the field is populated rather than anything about the consumers. Publishing it would have produced a dramatic and entirely false statistic. We removed it and used the NCR register instead, which is the authoritative source and returns a genuine mix of results.
The second was a repeat-applicant measure counting people who come back after 90 days or more. Our data starts in December 2025, so there is not yet enough history for the measure to mean anything. Reporting it now would say "almost nobody returns" when the truth is that we cannot see far enough back to know. It waits until roughly twelve months of data exist.
There is also one thing we have started measuring and cannot report yet. From 4 August 2026, before we run a register check, we ask people what they believe their debt review status is. Then we compare belief against the register. That gap, how many South Africans are simply wrong about their own status, is the number this index was really built for. It cannot be backdated, because an answer given after seeing the result is not a belief. The first meaningful reading comes in the September issue.
How SAFPI Works From Here
SAFPI is published on the first Tuesday of each month, starting September 2026. It sits alongside our South African Debt Pressure Index, which reads the national picture from public market data. SAFPI does the opposite. It reports only what we can see in our own applications and register checks, which is narrower and closer to the ground.
Four rules govern every issue. Definitions are fixed and will not be quietly restated to make a trend look better. Every figure carries the sample size it came from. Any group under ten is a count, never a percentage. Where monthly volumes are thin we publish a rolling three-month figure and label it as one.
Journalists, researchers and other debt counsellors are welcome to use these figures. Please cite them as: South African Financial Pressure Index, Debt Solutions 4U, August 2026 baseline. If you need a cut of the data we have not published, ask us.
If 57.8% Sounds Like Your Month
Statistics are cold comfort when you are the one living inside them. So here is the practical part. If most of your salary disappears into repayments before you have bought food, debt review is the legal process designed for exactly that situation. A counsellor registered with the National Credit Regulator assesses what you genuinely have left after essentials, renegotiates your repayments and interest with each credit provider, and gives you one affordable monthly payment with legal protection for your home and car while you pay it.
It is not right for everyone. If you can clear your debts inside a year by cutting back, do that instead. If your problem is one account rather than eight, negotiate that account. Debt review is for people whose arithmetic genuinely does not work, which, looking at these numbers, is a great many South Africans. Compare your options honestly, including which debt review companies are worth your time, before you commit to anything.
And if you take one thing from this baseline, make it the 44.1%. Check your status on the register before you apply for anything. It is free, it takes minutes, and a surprising number of people discover they are not where they thought they were.
Reviewed by a registered debt counsellor, NCRDC2423. Figures from the SAFPI baseline report, 4 August 2026. Aggregate data only: no names, contact details or identity numbers were used in this analysis.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the South African Financial Pressure Index (SAFPI)?
SAFPI is a monthly index published by Debt Solutions 4U measuring the median share of net monthly income that South Africans in debt review spend on unsecured debt repayments. The August 2026 baseline reading is 57.8%, calculated from 616 debt review applications over a rolling three-month window. Income is declared by the consumer and repayment figures come from account-level credit bureau data, so the ratio is not a single self-reported number used twice.
How much of their income do South Africans spend on debt?
Among people applying for debt review, the median is 57.8% of net monthly income going to unsecured debt repayments alone, before any home loan or vehicle finance. More than half of applicants, 54.9%, spend over half of what they earn servicing unsecured debt. This figure describes people already in financial difficulty, not the general population, and it excludes secured debt.
How many people applying for help are already under debt review?
In our data, 44.1% of the 524 people who ran a status check against the National Credit Regulator register were already actively under debt review. A further group appeared on the register with a resolved status. This matters because a person can only be under debt review with one debt counsellor at a time, so many people seeking help do not know where they stand.
What kind of debt puts South Africans into debt review?
Personal loans, by a wide margin. Across 7,393 unsecured accounts in our application data, personal loans made up 59.2% of accounts and R61.4 million of the R99.6 million total balance, which is 61.7% of everything owed. Credit cards were second at 24.6% of balance from only 14.5% of accounts. Store cards were common but small, at 12.9% of accounts and 5.6% of balance.
Should I check my debt review status before applying for help?
Yes, and it takes minutes. Because 44.1% of people running a check turn out to be actively listed, checking first tells you whether you need a fresh debt review application, a transfer to a new counsellor, or a clearance certificate because your restructured debts are already settled. You can check your status free with an NCR-registered debt counsellor before committing to anything.
