DURBAN - THE RCS Group, which acquired the majority of the Edcon store card book (Edgars and Jet accounts) before and after the business rescue process, said it has completed the migration of about 2.3 million account holders from the Edcon system to its own.
“We completed the migration from the Edcon system to the RCS system in mid-August. Any unintended customer impacts that resulted from the process were still being addressed as a matter of urgency,” RCS Group chief executive Regan Adams said last week.
Business Report understands that some customers were frustrated during the process, because some in-store purchases on their accounts would not appear on the Edgars system. Some customers had to contact RCS directly to be inserted into the system. Others found that their accounts had not been purchased by RCS but by debt collectors, because their accounts were in arrears.
“We have completed the migration process for the RCS owned accounts. There were other Edcon accounts, which were purchased by a debt collector and RCS has no control over those accounts,” said Adams.
The group is a financial services company operating in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. It is 100 percent owned by the BNP Paribas following an acquisition in 2014. RCS offers retail credit card programmes and personal loans to about 1 million active clients.
Although RCS acquired the majority of the Edcon store card book before the business rescue process, Edcon still owns a portion of their own book. As a result of the business rescue process, RCS acquired some additional Edgars and Jet store card accounts and all the customers.
In September, after Edcon was placed in business rescue, a small portion of customers – which Edcon put at about 2 percent – who remained with the Edcon credit business, were told they had to switch their insurance payment method from their Edgars account to a monthly debit order.Those who would not switch were told their insurance would lapse and they would lose their benefits.
Edcon said it would give these customers a grace period, which ended last month. Edcon’s business rescue practitioners said that there was no further funding for these accounts at Edcon for credit sales, hence they would be required to change their payment mechanism to either the debit order, electronic funds transfer, direct deposit, Pay@ or EasyPay.
Accounts acquired by RCS would continue to have their insurance billed to their accounts.
BUSINESS REPORT