The Credit Stress Report for the fourth quarter of 2025 revealed that South Africans are borrowing less, but many are still struggling to repay their loans, particularly car loans.
The report by Eighty20, in collaboration with Xpert Decision Systems (XDS). examines consumer credit behaviour and the key economic events that had an impact on the country over the period.
Eighty20 noted that credit take-up traditionally increases seasonally in the fourth quarter, and this was no different in 2025.
The report released last week showed that more than 1 million loans were taken out during the quarter, while outstanding loan balances also increased.
“The number of open loans grew by roughly 1 million in the quarter to 55.1 million,” reads the report.
“The number of loans in arrears (at least one month past due) grew by 400 972 to 18.3 million. This means that 33.2% of loans were in arrears in Q4 – up from 33.1% in Q3.”
Eighty20 said this marked the first increase in this proportion since the first quarter of 2023. The report revealed that the number of loans in good standing, which have grown consistently for the past eight quarters, grew by 626 000, a 1.7% increase.
Loan balance increases
Eighty20 said the total loan balance increased by 1.7% during the quarter, reaching R2.7 trillion.
Overdue balances increased by R12.7 billion, representing a 6% increase to R224 billion, bringing the proportion of overdue debt up to 8.4% of total loan balances, up from 8.1% in Q3.
“This increase in overdue balances was driven by an R3.7 billion increase in vehicle asset finance overdue balances, a R3 billion increase in overdue personal loans and a R1.2 billion increase in overdue home loan balances,” read the report.
The Credit Stress Report is based mainly on national credit bureau data. The report uses information from the XDS credit database, which contains data on credit users in South Africa, including details on loan balances, arrears, and credit products such as home loans, vehicle finance, credit cards and personal loans.
This data comes from credit providers that report to the bureau and is analysed through the Eighty20-XDS Online Credit Portal to track consumer credit behaviour and trends.
Eighty20 found that senior citizens took out 840 000 new loans during the quarter, up by 15%. These are the fairly affluent comfortable retirees who have managed to save for retirement and the humble elders who are retiring with Sassa pensions, or reliant on family.
Concerns over seniors
The report noted a few metrics paint a worrying picture of senior’s credit health, highlighting two concerns: a sustained rise in the number of defaulters and a steady accumulation of overdue balances, both of which appear to be accelerating rather than stabilising.
“While the total number of defaulters across the general population has declined nearly every quarter since mid-2023, seniors have moved sharply in the opposite direction,” said Eighty20.
“Over the past six quarters, defaults among seniors have grown significantly, with comfortable retirees seeing a particularly sharp spike in the most recent quarter.
“For all credit active South Africans overdue balances have been rising consistently, with the trend most pronounced this quarter in VAF and home loans.
“Comfortable retirees have seen overdue balances grow at a pace that outstrips the broader population, and humble elders have recently begun tracking a similar trajectory.”
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