Serasa Name Clean Fair closes more deals than last year

The deals closed by Serasa’s Clean Name Fair over the course of November this year already exceed by more than 1 million the total deals made in all of November last year.

The face-to-face edition of the fair, which began this Tuesday (29) in the cities of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte, will run until this Saturday (3), but negotiations for the online version of the event have already taken place since the beginning of the month.

In São Paulo, the tent installed in Largo da Batata, in the west zone of São Paulo, is open from 8 am to 7 pm, with different hours on Friday (2) due to the Brazil game. Caixa Econômica Federal, which is participating in the event for the first time, opens until 3 pm on Friday. Another novelty this year is the participation of Enel, to renegotiate electricity bill debts.

There are already 4.2 million agreements brokered by Serasa, compared to 3 million at the 2021 fair, according to data compiled until the end of the afternoon of this Tuesday (29). In total, 3.8 million consumers negotiated their debts and R$ 10.96 billion in discounts were granted. In last year’s edition, the total discount was R$ 6 billion, informed Serasa.

The face-to-face editions in Salvador and Porto Alegre are over.

The event, which attracts companies willing to offer discounts when part of the workers have the first installment of the 13th salary in their pocket, is held annually in November and early December. It is possible to pay with Pix and the negative name is immediately written off.

Virtually, it is possible to renegotiate debts on more generous terms until next Monday (5). Caixa and Enel do not participate in the online fair negotiations.

The average discount offered by companies, according to Serasa, is 70%. C6 Bank and Safra, for example, offer up to 50% and 70% discounts, respectively. Itaú and Avon mitigate debt by up to 99%.

There are large companies in the retail segment, as well as banks and companies that offer internet and water services.

According to company data, the number of defaulters grew again for the ninth straight month in September and reached 68.39 million people. The average debt amount is R$ 4,324.42. The largest share of debts is in the segment of banks and cards, which concentrates 29.45%.

Despite the rain in São Paulo, the Largo da Batata was full. Among those trying to negotiate their debts was Silvane Jesus da Silva, 46, who has had the power in his house cut off for a month due to a debt with Enel. According to the caregiver, there are two bills of R$800 to be paid, a much higher amount than usual for her house, where four adults and four children live.

Silvane, who lives in Embu das Artes, discovered these outstanding amounts when he tried to pay off previous debts with the company, in an attempt to have the energy supply restored.

“In this pandemic, everyone was unemployed, and we couldn’t pay the bills”, he says. Two of the adults in her household went back to work less than a month ago.

The tightening reflected in other parts of the budget. Purchases of the month, for example, ceased to exist. “I only buy what’s missing,” he says. This account almost never includes meat, for example, which is often replaced by egg and sausage.

Merchant José Leonardo do Carmo, 58, was unsuccessful in his attempt to leave the Batata square with a clean name.

Shortly before the coronavirus crisis reached Brazil, he negotiated a debt with Enel. “I did and soon after the pandemic came in. I couldn’t pay, I closed the doors”, he says. His restaurant never had the same recipe as before the global health crisis.

Having a previous agreement paid off is necessary to make a new negotiation, according to him.

“It’s been almost two years since I’ve had my name dirty,” he says. “I’m in debt, I live in the hand of a loan shark trying to get money and try to get up.”

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Here are three tips for getting out of debt

1. Do the math to understand your debts

• Make a list of all overdue bills and installments, with their respective amounts. Put at the top of the list those that you need to pay off first, because they are essential, such as water and electricity bills, for example, or because they cost more, such as a credit card and overdraft
• Then, you need to know how much you will have available each month to pay the arrears, considering the other expenses you already have

2. Negotiate with creditors

• Look for the companies you owe to and try to negotiate. Do not accept the first proposal, but understand how the negotiation is going: What is the percentage of discount on the total debt? If I pay in cash, is there a bigger discount? If you pay in installments, how much interest will you have to pay?
• Define a goal, the amount you can afford and make counterpoints
• If there are still doubts, ask that the negotiation proposal be made in writing. Go home, talk to the family and come back later to hit the gavel and sign the renegotiation contract

3. Get organized so you don’t continue to owe

• When closing the deal, know that you have to stick to it until the end, so negotiate only amounts you can pay with the income you already have
• To ensure that you no longer have negative debts in your name, bet on financial planning, balance your monthly earnings and expenses. Make a spreadsheet and involve the whole family in this control and in the effort to save

_{Source: Serasa Educa}