Peer-to-peer payment apps like Venmo are popular abroad - and South Africa is finally catching up with its own equivalents.
Several local apps created by banks and fintech companies now allow you to transfer money to friends quickly, easily, and relatively cheaply.But they all come with comprehensive terms and conditions and some hidden fees.Until recently, if you didn't have cash to hand, paying a friend for a coffee, or a casual employee for a day's work, was tricky or very pricey - especially if you're unbanked, or use a different bank to the person you're paying.
The issue with bank-developed payment solutions is that they require users to be within the same ecosystem - and payments across channels, if possible, take longer and cost more. PayShap offers one key difference: by looping in competitors, it's attempting to cross-pollinate payments across all platforms rather than silo them within specific banks or apps.
Each makes money in its own way - some charge flat or percentage-based fees, or both, to withdraw cash. Others do the same for loading cash into a virtual wallet. Some also have hoops to jump through - like having to do an electronic funds transfer to the mobile wallet - that have the potential to frustrate what should be a seamless tap-and-go service.
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