Incidental credit in terms of the National Credit Act is, loosely described, an agreement in terms of which an account is tendered for goods or services that have been or will be provided to the consumer over a period of time and a fee, charge or interest becomes payable if the account is not paid on time, or a higher price applies in such a case. The nature of an incidental credit agreement would not historically have been considered to be the granting of interest-bearing credit. The ordinary meaning of incidental is "happening in connection with something else, but not as important as it or not intended" or "something happening as a natural result of something". The incidental credit agreement can therefore be described as a credit agreement which comes into being, although not intended by the parties to be a credit agreement. It is a natural result (albeit a legislative creation) of something else, in this case, an agreement of some kind.
Keywords: National Credit Act, credit agreements, incidental credit agreements
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Aucamp, R-L, The Incidental Credit Agreement: A Theoretical and Practical Perspective (1) (August 1, 2013). Journal of Contemporary Roman-Dutch Law, Vol. 76, p. 377-399, 2013, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2389226 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2389226
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