How to check a lender’s NCR registration
This is the single most useful minute you can spend before applying anywhere. Every credit provider operating lawfully in South Africa must be registered with the National Credit Regulator, and the register is public. The trap is that brands and legal entities differ — you have to check the right name.
What you need to know
Find the NCRCP number first. A registered provider must display it, usually in the website footer or on its terms page. A site with no number at all has answered your question already.
Then find the legal entity. The brand on the homepage is frequently not the registered credit provider — a website’s terms and conditions will name the actual company, and that is the name that must hold the registration.
Search the National Credit Regulator’s register for the number and confirm three things: that it exists, that it is held by the entity named in the terms, and that the registration is active rather than lapsed or cancelled.
If any of the three fails, do not proceed. An unregistered lender is not bound by the interest caps, the affordability requirement, or the complaints process — and an agreement with one gives you almost none of the protections the Act provides.
Check these three things before you sign — here or anywhere
- The lender’s NCRCP number is published on its own site, and it checks out in the National Credit Regulator’s register.
- The pre-agreement quote breaks out the total cost of credit: interest, initiation fee, service fee and VAT — as one figure you can compare.
- Nobody asks you for an upfront “release fee”. A registered credit provider never charges you before it pays out.
Related
Sources and last checked
- National Credit Regulator — register of credit providers — Regulator, as at 10 August 2026.
- National Credit Act 34 of 2005 and its regulations — Government, as at 10 August 2026.
Page last checked 10 August 2026. Statutory caps and lender terms change — confirm anything you intend to rely on with the provider or the National Credit Regulator. Found something wrong? Tell us and we will correct it.