New digital bank with no monthly fees launched in South Africa
Spot Money has officially launched in South Africa, offering locals a mobile open banking platform that integrates with various bank and payment services.
The platform was born out of Virgin Money SA, from which it rebranded in December 2020 following Absa’s discontinuation of the Virgin Money SA credit card.
Spot Money allows customers to instantly create no-monthly-fee bank accounts and virtual cards from the comfort of their home.
The platform offers a number of useful features, including:
- Loans and insurance – Offered by a selection of financial service providers through Spot Money’s open banking marketplace.
- Money transfer – Send cash to other Spot users at no charge.
- Tap to pay – Supported by the Spot debit card and NFC-enabled Android devices (launching soon).
- QR code – Support for QR code payments from all major platforms, including Snapscan and Zapper.
- Cashback rewards – Earn cash back on purchases when shopping at Spot cashback partners.
Users can also get car insurance or life and funeral cover quotes through the Spot Money application.
Spot the super-app
Speaking at a media briefing on the launch of the Spot Money platform, CEO Andre Hugo said the Spot application was designed to be a super-app, combining payment features, digital banking functionality, and a financial services marketplace.
He said Spot Money is a powerful digital banking app with support for modern features such as virtual cards, while also offering a marketplace for various financial services such as insurance, loans, and more.
Registering for a Spot Money account can be done entirely on the application, with users scanning their ID as well as taking selfies which are processed through Home Affairs before the application is processed.
“Once users sign up for an account, two accounts are automatically created – a primary account and a reward wallet,” Hugo said.
“Each time you pay at one of our reward partners, you automatically earn cash back into your reward wallet.”
Users can also create multiple wallets that have their own virtual cards for online shopping and other once-off payments, as well as subscription services.
Spot Money will also release a shared wallet feature soon, which will allow users to share funds across multiple Spot accounts.
The Spot Money app is available to download from the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and Huawei AppGallery.
Fees and debit card
Spot Money offers a digital bank account with no monthly fees or card fees.
Users can order a Spot debit card delivered for free upon opening their account, and payments with this card incur no additional charges.
Spot does include transaction limits on its account, as follows:
- Daily – 15 transactions with a total of R30,000
- Monthly – 90 transactions with a lotal of R50,000
- Yearly – 1,080 transactions with a total of R600,000
Below is the fee structure for the Spot Money account:
| Spot Money Fees | |
|---|---|
| Top-up | |
| EFT | Free |
| In-store | Free |
| Salary deposit | Free |
| Linked bank card | 1 top-up to a max. of R1000 is free once per month. Thereafter, a 3% fee of the amount topped-up applies. |
| Cash-out | |
| EFT | R5 |
| In-store (non-wiCode) – Local | R6 + 0.5% of cash-out value |
| In-store (non-wiCode) – International | R65 |
| In-store (wiCode) – Local | R8 + 0.5% of cash-out value |
| Cash-out with purchase – Local | R6 + 0.5% of cash-out value |
| Cash-out with purchase – International | R65 |
| ATM | |
| Cash withdrawal – Local | R6 + 1.4% of cash withdrawal value |
| Cash withdrawal – International | R65 |
| Balance enquiry – Local | R5 |
| Balance enquiry – International | R8 |
| Declined transaction – Local | R1.50 |
| Declined transaction – International | R18 |
| Transactions | |
| Buy airtime / data | Free |
| Buy prepaid electricity | Free |
| Pay municipal bill | Free |
| Pay school fees | Free |
| Pay Dstv | Free |
| Peer to Peer | |
| Send cash (Spot to Spot) | Free |
| Request Cash (Spot to Spot) | Free |
| Purchases | |
| Purchases with app – Local | Free |
| Purchases with app – International | Free |
| Purchases with card – Local | Free |
| Purchases with card – International | Free |
| Disputes | |
| Disputed Transaction | Minimum – R55 (additional fees may apply) |
| Physical debit card | |
| First Spot debit card | Free |
| Replacement card | R125 |
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