The Credit Stress Report has revealed that defaults in loan payments have increased significantly among senior citizens.
The Q4 2025 Credit Stress Report showed that South Africans are borrowing less, but many are still struggling to repay their loans, especially car loans.
AT20 reports, in collaboration with Expert Decision Systems (XDS). Examines consumer credit behavior and major economic events that impacted the country during that period.
AT20 noted that credit take-up traditionally increases seasonally in the fourth quarter, and this was no different in 2025.
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more loans opened
report Data 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 increased by nearly 1 million in the quarter to 55.1 million,” the report said.
“The number of loans outstanding (at least one month past due) increased by 400972 to 18.3 million. This means 33.2% of loans were delinquent in Q4 – up from 33.1% in Q3.”
AT20 said this is the first increase in this ratio since the first quarter of 2023. The report showed that the number of loans in good standing, which has increased continuously for the past eight quarters, increased by 626 000, an increase of 1.7%.
loan balance increases
AT20 said total loan balances increased by 1.7% during the quarter to R2.7 trillion.
Overdue balances increased by R12.7 billion, representing a 6% increase to R224 billion, bringing the proportion of overdue loans to total loan balances to 8.4%, up from 8.1% in the third quarter.
“This increase in overdue balances was driven by a 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,” the report said.
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credit conduct
The Credit Stress Report is based primarily on national credit bureau data. The report uses information from the XDS Credit database, which contains data on credit users in South Africa, including loan balances, outstanding and details of credit products such as home loans, vehicle finance, credit cards and personal loans.
This data comes from credit providers who report to the bureau and is analyzed through the AT20-XDS online credit portal to track consumer credit behavior and trends.
AT20 found that seniors took out 840,000 new loans during the quarter, an increase of 15%. These are fairly affluent comfortable retirees who have managed to save for retirement and humble elders who are retiring with a SASSA pension, or have family to rely on.
concern about seniors
The report said some metrics paint a worrying picture of seniors' credit health, highlighting two concerns: a continued increase in the number of defaulters and a steady accumulation of overdue balances, both of which are growing rapidly rather than stabilizing.
“While the total number of defaulters in the general population has declined almost every quarter since mid-2023, senior citizens have sharply moved in the opposite direction,” AT20 said.
“Over the past six quarters, defaults among senior citizens have increased significantly, with the most recent quarter seeing a particularly sharp increase among comfortable retirees.
“Overdue balances for all credit active South Africans continue to increase, with VAF and home loans seeing the highest trend this quarter.
“Comfortable retirees have seen overdue balances grow at a pace that exceeds the broader population, and modest seniors have recently begun tracking a similar trajectory.”
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