TymeBank makes PayShap available to customers for free

In an industry first, TymeBank customers to pay zero fees to use PayShap instant payment service

Industry-first digital banking innovation

Johannesburg, 29 August 2023

TymeBank, South Africa’s fastest growing digital bank, has become the latest bank to offer PayShap. It is also the first South African bank to offer the new real-time interbank digital payments service to its 7.6-million customers for free for all payments up to the R3,000 limit made to a cellphone number (ShapID). This reinforces the bank’s commitment to making banking affordable for South Africans across the economic spectrum.

PayShap, which aims to reduce South Africans’ dependence on cash and build trust in digital payment methods, makes payments safer, faster, and more cost-effective.

Commitment to affordable and secure digital payments

“With the aim of digitising cash payments, TymeBank has already been offering customers different low-cost instant payment options for some time now. However, we have been eagerly awaiting our turn to join the PayShap revolution. 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.

With PayShap, TymeBank customers can now enjoy the following benefits:

• 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 with the guarantee 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.
• Expanding Digital Payment Options

“Built as a South African Payments industry initiative, PayShap has been changing the way South Africans pay since its market launch in March. 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,” says Mpho Sadiki, Chief Product Officer at BankservAfrica.

PayShap is being released to the market in two stages. The second leg will introduce an additional request-to-pay function which makes it possible for a person to request payment and receive money securely and immediately in 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,” says TymeBank CEO Coen Jonker.

“Over the years TymeBank has become known for its high-value, low-cost fee structure and by being the only bank in South Africa to offer PayShap for free, regardless of the transaction value, we are reaffirming our reputation for simple, fast affordable banking,” Jonker adds.

In addition to PayShap, TymeBank customers still have access to other low-cost instant payment options, namely:

• SendMoney: With a R5,000 daily limit, enables free payments between TymeBank customers, while payments to other banks cost R7.
• Instant EFTs: With a daily maximum limit of R20,000 and its fees (the lowest in the market) depends on how much a customer sends.
• Effortless and Secure Transactions
• PayShap is automatically enabled for all TymeBank customers. There is no need to register a ‘ShapID’ using a cellphone number. Payments sent to ‘cellphonenumber@TYME’ will automatically be routed to the customer associated with that specific cellphone number, and the details of the receiving customer are displayed prior to the payment being finalised.

It’s important to note that funds are not stored on a customer’s mobile device and are always paid directly into the beneficiary’s bank account, within seconds. This means if a customer’s phone is stolen, the thief has no access to the funds.

For more information about Instant Payments visit https://gotyme.co.za/personal/move-money/gotyme-instant-payments.