South Africa’s new payment system is now on TymeBank – and it’s free

TymeBank has become the latest bank to offer PayShap, South Africa’s new payment system.

PayShap is a real-time payment service created by BankservAfrica, the Payments Association of South Africa (Pasa) and South African Reserve Bank. It aims to reduce South Africa’s dependence on cash and make payments safer, faster and more cost-effective.

The system initially launched with Absa, FNB, Nedbank, and Standard Bank in March 2023, and it launched on Discovery Bank and Capitec in August.

TymeBank is the first South African bank to offer the service for free for all payments up to the R3,000 limit made to a cellphone number (ShapID).

PayShap is also automatically enabled for all TymeBank customers, and there is no need to register a ‘ShapID’ using a cellphone number.

Payments sent to ‘cellphonenumber@TYME’ are also automatically routed to the customer associated with that specific number, and the details of the receiving customer are shown before the payment is completed.

Funds are not stored on a customer’s cell phone and are immediately transferred to the beneficiary’s bank account, ensuring that even if a customer’s phone is stolen, the funds are inaccessible to thieves.

“By making PayShap to mobile numbers free, we are giving all our individual and business customers the opportunity to fully enjoy the benefits of real-time digital payments across banks without having to worry about transaction fees,” says TymeBank Chief Commercial Officer Cheslyn Jacobs.

PayShap on TymeBank will offer the following features.

• No need to exchange banking details for payments: PayShap enables payments using an identifier other than a bank account number, i.e. a cellphone number (ShapID) registered with a participating bank.

• Secure payments within seconds: Send and receive money instantly, guaranteeing that money will reflect immediately in the recipient’s account.   

• Moving funds to/from any participating bank made easy: Send or receive money from any bank offering PayShap. This means that PayShap transactions can now take place between Absa, Capitec, Discovery Bank, FNB, Nedbank, Standard Bank or TymeBank with more banks to join soon.

• Payment for any amount up to R3,000: With PayShap, any low-value payment of up to R3000 for any day-to-day activity is possible.

“We are extremely excited to welcome TymeBank to this exciting space that offers a wide range of benefits for individuals and small merchant account holders,” said Mpho Sadiki, Chief Product Officer at BankservAfrica.

PayShap is being launched in two phases, the second leg will introduce an additional request-to-pay feature, making it possible for a person to request payment and receive money into their bank account.

“PayShap is an excellent initiative for our customers and for South Africa. We are passionate about financial inclusion and making banking affordable for everyone, which is why we decided to make PayShap free for our customers, having seen similar digital payment systems introduced in Brazil, India and Singapore successfully for free,” said TymeBank CEO Coen Jonker.

Costs compared

TymeBank now offers the cheapest or tied cheapest transaction fees across PayShap’s four price bands: Up to R100, R100-R200, R200-R1000 and R1000-R3000

Standard Bank has the highest fees in the up to R100 and R100-R200 price bands – charging R7.50 per transaction.

In the R200-R1,000 price band, Absa and Standard Bank are tied for the most expensive with R7.50 per transaction.

Absa initially launched with the highest pricing of R45 per transaction over R1,000; however, since 1 July, it lowered this to R7.50. Discovery Bank clients could pay the most in this price band at R12.00 per transaction.

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